Spreadsheet checks before running Alimony Child Support in Brazil

What the checker catches

Run this scenario in DocketMath using the Alimony Child Support calculator.

Running an alimony/child-support calculation in Brazil is less about “math only” and more about making sure the data you feed into DocketMath matches the scenario the calculator expects. The Spreadsheet Checker (for Alimony Child Support in Brazil) helps prevent silent spreadsheet issues—wrong units, missing fields, or mismatched assumptions that can materially change outcomes.

Here are the most common issues it catches before you hit Calculate:

• Inconsistent dates

  • Child’s birth date entered after the calculation start date
  • Support start date earlier than the filing/relationship event you’re modeling
• Currency/unit mismatches

  • Amount entered as “BRL cents” instead of BRL
  • Payment frequency entered in months while the calculator expects monthly values (or vice versa)
• Wrong household or age-driver inputs

  • Child age bracket logic triggered incorrectly due to day/month confusion or rounding
  • Multiple children entered with one missing birth date (this can distort downstream per-child allocation)
• Status flags that conflict

  • Marking “includes health expenses” while leaving the health expense fields blank
  • Entering an “estimated income” flag but not providing the underlying income numbers
• Numeric integrity problems

  • Negative income or expenses where the inputs should be non-negative
  • Totals that don’t reconcile (for example, per-child sums that don’t match an “overall total” column)
• Spreadsheet structure issues

  • Columns shifted (e.g., “net income” accidentally placed under “gross income”)
  • Hidden formatting leading to text instead of numbers (common when copying from PDFs)

To make the checker practical, think of it as validating three buckets of quality:

When to run it

Use the checker before every run where you changed any input—not only when you edit the most visible numbers.

A practical Brazilian support spreadsheet workflow:

• Before the first calculation

  • Confirm your spreadsheet schema matches what the DocketMath calculator expects
• After you paste new figures

  • Especially when copying from bank statements, payroll exports, or PDFs
• After you change dates

  • Child birth date, support start date, or any timeline inputs
• After you toggle assumptions

  • Examples: including health expenses, switching payment frequency, or updating whether income is estimated
• After you add or remove a child

  • The checker should re-validate per-child fields and totals

A quick decision rule:

• If you touched dates or frequency → run the checker.
• If you touched income or expense categories → run the checker.
• If you touched any child-specific row (birth date, expenses, allocation drivers) → run the checker.

If you maintain multiple scenarios in one workbook (for example, “income updated as of 2024-10-01” in different tabs), run it per scenario tab too. Small differences across tabs can create big differences in outputs.

Try the checker

You can use the DocketMath tool workflow below to run the alimony-child-support calculator with Brazil (BR) and apply the Spreadsheet Checker first.

Upload the spreadsheet, review the warnings, and then run the calculation once the inputs are clean: Try the checker.

Step-by-step workflow (spreadsheet-first)

1. Open the tool

   • Go to: /tools/alimony-child-support
2. Set jurisdiction context

   • Confirm Brazil (BR) is selected in the calculator environment.
3. Enter or import your inputs

   • Use BRL amounts consistently.
   • Enter dates in a single consistent format (the checker will flag date order issues).
4. Run the Spreadsheet Checker first

   • Review “hard stop” errors first (missing required values, invalid date sequence).
   • Then review “soft warnings” (reconciling totals, numeric formatting, structure issues).
5. Fix flagged items and re-run

   • Address the highest-severity flags first; they often cascade into multiple downstream alerts.
6. Only then run the calculation

   • Use the checker results to ensure the output reflects your scenario—not a formatting or data-entry mismatch.

What to check when you see checker feedback

Use this mini checklist while iterating:

How outputs change when fixes are applied

When you correct input integrity issues, you should expect shifts in these areas:

• Timing-driven amounts

  • Fixing date order can change the effective coverage window used in the calculation.
• Per-child allocation

  • Missing birth dates or incorrect age logic can alter how expenses are distributed across children.
• Income-based scaling

  • Frequency mismatch or swapping gross/net fields can change the baseline used to compute support figures.

If you’re comparing scenarios, run the checker on each scenario tab so your comparisons remain apples-to-apples.

Related reading

• Alimony & Child Support Estimator Guide for Alabama
• Alimony & Child Support Estimator Guide for Arizona
• Alimony & Child Support Estimator Guide for Colorado