The DeadBeat Spreadsheet is a perfect example of Cloud computing.

According to Wikipedia

“Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a metered service over a network (typically the Internet). Cloud computing provides computation, software, data access, and storage resources without requiring cloud users to know the location and other details of the computing infrastructure. End users access cloud based applications through a web browser or a light weight desktop or mobile app while the business software and data are stored on servers at a remote location. Cloud application providers strive to give the same or better service and performance as if the software programs were installed locally on end-user computers.”

The DeadBeatSpreadsheet provides free accounting tools to help visitors determine past due child support, alimony, and other delinquent court ordered payables.   As a server-side application, all the user has to do is log into the system and enter their own specific information, press the “Calculate” button and a tabulated report is created which then can be downloaded, printed, or emailed in a printable document format.

This is not difficult. You can do it.

To get started you will have to most likely do a little, or a lot of preparation. This is not going to be a great big giant hard thing to do. I will be a lot of very easy things to do. Don’t loose site of that, a lot of little easy things, no big hard things. I promise. Before you click on that compile button you will need to get prepared. You will need to feed the beast some information. You need to make a list of all the information you need. I will start this list for you point by point, item by item and by the end of this process I will have Xplained to you why you need each item. Item Number,…..
1.  Your Divorce Decree. A lot of the information you need to create your own personalized spreadsheet, can be taken right off the decree.

2. Date of Divorce Decree. You need the date because it’s a matter of record. A few things like this will really make your spreadsheet look legitimate. Which it will be.

3.  Name of Judge

4.  County and State. Different states have rules about how much interest can be charged on unpaid alimony or child support. Twelve per cent is the max in most states, but you need to know for sure what the law says in your state. It can be looked up easily.In the decree, it will state Xactly when the alimony and or child support, or both are ordered to start, and when they are ordered to stop. (They have stop and start dates.) Pretty easy with alimony as it is usually ordered for a finite number of months or years. Child support, on the other hand, may be more difficult to compute, especially if there are a number of children involved and thusly they will have differing birthdays and turn 19 on different months and years. But don’t worry, you can do it. 

 I’m not a lawyer or a Judge and I don’t/can’t give legal advice.   I’m not an accountant  so I don’t/can’t give anybody any financial advice either.  All I can do is tell you about this website/blog, The DeadBeat  SpreadSheet.     I know a little about spreadsheets.

I recognized right from the first days of creating this thing that I would run into people who were kind of on the edge of anger, sanity, hopelessness, despair, and in some cases, starvation, addiction, eviction, tragic illness, and just plain old exhaustion.  I know because I’ve been there.  I’m DeadBeat1.

People assume that this web-blog is a place where angry Ex-wives can start the process of conveying to their Ex-husbands, a more detailed understanding about their financial responsibility to pay court ordered child support or alimony payments.   That assumption would be accurate.   But a calculator is, by nature, a double edged sword.  I mean by that, financial information, derived from a toy like this, can cut both ways.   Almost all disputes contain built-in bias. Calculators can only be as accurate as the information loaded into them.  One Ex might forget something that the other Ex remembers with crystalline clarity, and even be able to produce a canceled check to back up the memory.

Imagine, it is very likely, certainly possible, that both Ex’s could be using this calculator at the exact same time, and because of their different memories and understanding of their payments or their receivables, come up with differing amount totals which could even add further dispute in a more formal arena sometime in the future.  It could happen that way.

I can picture all this.  If you are using this calculator with a sense of anticipation that you might be sharing this information with a second or third party some time in the future, you need to be able to picture all this yourself.  People tend to get together in front of Judges and opposing attorneys, as only a last resort, or as the formal last step of an agreement.   Both sides usually bring with them their own set of informational work products and research. The DeadBeat Spreadsheet may be part of those packages, illuminated from both sides of the table, or at least it might be an initial step toward the end process to where a couple of minds ultimately meet and agree.

This blog entry is to the people who find themselves where they have just gained knowledge about this thing called The DeadBeat Spreadsheet, but who haven’t yet figured out that the thing can be used by everybody, including them.  I have attempted to design the thing, figuring that if you were old enough to get married and divorced too, you might have enough sense to use this calculator.  Oh well, perhaps a bridge too far.

Let me know.

DeadBeat1