The best custody app for tracking child expenses (2026)

Full disclosure: we make Custody Proof, one of the options below. So yes, we are biased. This guide says plainly when a different kind of tool is the better choice. It compares kinds of tools; for head-to-heads with specific apps, see our comparisons.

Short version: the hard part of child expenses is not paying them. It is proving, a year later, what you paid, when, for which child, and whether the order says the other parent owes a share. Most parents keep that proof in a shoebox, a glovebox and a camera roll, and find out how incomplete it is the week someone asks for it.

This guide is for parents who cover costs beyond regular support: medical and dental copays, prescriptions, school fees and supplies, sports and lessons, childcare. It is about keeping your own record. It is not about paying the other parent, sending them requests, or calculating support. If that is what you need, skip to the second pick.

TL;DR

The deciding question is whether you need a record or a transaction. If you and the other parent actually split and settle costs together, a shared tool where both of you see the same request is the right fit. If you pay, keep receipts, and expect to show the total later, you need a private ledger that ties each receipt to a date, a child and a reimbursable-or-not flag, with a running balance.

Best private expense record next to your custody record: Custody Proof (ours).
Best when both parents split and settle together: a shared co-parenting app with expense requests.
Best if you only need receipts and nothing else: a spreadsheet plus one folder of scanned receipts.
Best stopgap: an envelope per year, with the receipt and a date written on it.

Option	Best for	Price	Who can see it
Custody Proof (ours)	a private expense ledger with receipts and a running reimbursement balance, kept next to your custody and evidence record	$14.75/month or $144/year (Case Builder with the AI assistant: $29/month or $278/year). 30-day money-back guarantee on your first charge	Only you. The other parent is never invited and never notified.
A shared co-parenting app with expense requests	parents who actively split and settle costs together and both use the same tool	Varies by product, often per parent and by feature tier	Both parents, and often invited professionals
A spreadsheet plus a receipts folder	parents who only need receipts and a total, and are disciplined about entering them	Free	Only you, if you keep the files private
An envelope per year	a zero-effort start while you decide on something better	A few dollars	Whoever has the envelope
Your bank and card statements	proving that a payment happened, after the fact	Free	Only you

Why child expenses are easy to lose

Expenses arrive one at a time and feel too small to bother with. A $30 copay. A $45 field trip. A $120 registration fee. Nobody writes a note for $30. Add up a school year and it is often real money, and the parent who paid has no tidy list of it. Our longer explainer on this is how to track unreimbursed child expenses.

The second problem is that not every expense is shared. Many orders split some categories (often uninsured medical costs, sometimes childcare or agreed activities) and say nothing about others. Some require notice or agreement before an expense is incurred. Some set a deadline for asking. Read your own order, and ask your attorney what it means for a specific cost. A pile of receipts is only useful if you can sort it into “the order covers this” and “it does not.”

The third problem is the balance. “He owes me about two thousand” is a feeling. “Fourteen reimbursable expenses since March, totaling this much, with receipts” is a record. The difference is whether you kept the running total as you went or tried to rebuild it later.

What a useful expense record captures

The receipt itself. A photo of the paper receipt, the pharmacy printout, or the email confirmation, taken the day you pay.
The basics. Date paid, amount, which child, and what it was for in plain words (“orthodontist consult”, not “appt”).
Reimbursable or not. Your own best reading of the order, flagged per expense, so the total that matters is separate from the total you spent.
A running balance. What you have marked reimbursable, kept current, so you never have to add a year of receipts in one evening.

1. Custody Proofours

Best for: a private expense ledger with receipts and a running reimbursement balance, kept next to your custody and evidence record
Price: $14.75/month or $144/year (Case Builder with the AI assistant: $29/month or $278/year). 30-day money-back guarantee on your first charge
Who can see it: Only you. The other parent is never invited and never notified.

This is ours. The expense ledger is one part of a broader custody record, which is the point: the copay sits in the same account as the night your child was sick and the message about the doctor visit. You add an expense with the amount, the date, the child and a receipt photo, and mark it reimbursable or not. The ledger keeps a running reimbursement balance as you go.

If you already have a list somewhere, the ledger takes a CSV import, so a year of rows from a spreadsheet does not have to be retyped. When you need the totals, you export a PDF or CSV. The receipts themselves live in the same encrypted account, timestamped, and you can ask the built-in help assistant how any of it works.

What it does not do matters just as much here. It does not send anything to the other parent, request reimbursement, move money, or calculate child support. It is your record of what you paid. What the order says the other parent owes, and how to ask for it, is between you, the order and your attorney.

Where it falls short: No payments, no reimbursement requests to the other parent, no support calculator. If you need the other parent to see and approve each expense, a shared tool does that job and this does not.

2. A shared co-parenting app with expense requests

Best for: parents who actively split and settle costs together and both use the same tool
Price: Varies by product, often per parent and by feature tier
Who can see it: Both parents, and often invited professionals

If you and the other parent genuinely split expenses, a shared app is usually the better tool, and we would rather say so. One parent posts the cost with the receipt, the other sees it, approves or disputes it, and the history of who asked for what and when is in one place both of you can read. Some of these tools also handle the payment itself.

That only works when the other parent participates. If requests sit unanswered, the shared app shows the silence, which has some value, but the expense record still depends on you keeping it complete.

Where it falls short: Everything you post, the other parent sees. Expenses you have not decided to ask for, or notes on why a cost matters, do not belong there.

3. A spreadsheet plus a receipts folder

Best for: parents who only need receipts and a total, and are disciplined about entering them
Price: Free
Who can see it: Only you, if you keep the files private

If expenses are the only thing you need to track, this works well and costs nothing. One row per expense: date, amount, child, category, reimbursable yes or no, and the file name of the receipt scan. One folder per year for the scans, named by date. A sum at the bottom of the reimbursable column is your balance.

It holds up as long as you enter things the same week. The usual failure is a backlog: receipts photographed but never entered, or entered with no receipt saved.

Where it falls short: Two places to keep in sync, no link between an expense and the custody record around it, and nothing reminds you.

4. An envelope per year

Best for: a zero-effort start while you decide on something better
Price: A few dollars
Who can see it: Whoever has the envelope

Every paper receipt goes in the envelope the day you get it, with the child’s name and a word about what it was written on the back. It is crude, but it beats the glovebox, and it is much easier to type up later than a scattered pile.

Where it falls short: Thermal receipts fade, nothing is totaled, and digital receipts never make it in.

5. Your bank and card statements

Best for: proving that a payment happened, after the fact
Price: Free
Who can see it: Only you

Statements are good backup. They show the date and the amount, and the bank keeps them whether or not you did. They are not a record on their own: a line that says “PHARMACY 0423” does not say which child, what it was for, or whether the order makes it shared.

Where it falls short: No receipts, no child, no purpose. Use them to fill gaps, not as the record.

Our pick

If you pay most of the extras and expect to show the total someday: keep a private ledger now, with a receipt photo and a reimbursable flag on every entry. A spreadsheet and a folder will do it. If you also keep a custody calendar and evidence, keeping expenses in the same place is the reason to use Custody Proof.

If you and the other parent already split costs cooperatively: use a shared tool with expense requests. That is what it is for. You can still keep your own notes privately, but you may not need to.

What we’d do today

Find the expense language in your order and write down, in your own words, which categories are split, in what proportion, and any notice or deadline it mentions. Mark anything unclear as a question for your attorney.
Empty the glovebox, the wallet and the junk drawer. Photograph every child-related receipt you still have and note the child and purpose for each.
Search your email for pharmacy, school and activity confirmations from this year and save them with the photos.
Enter everything into one list with a reimbursable yes or no, then total the reimbursable column. That number is your starting balance.
From now on, photograph each receipt before you leave the counter. Ten seconds then saves an evening later.

Questions

Which child expenses are reimbursable?

It depends entirely on your order. Many orders split uninsured medical costs and some split childcare or agreed activities, but the categories, percentages, notice rules and deadlines vary. Read your own order and ask your attorney about any specific expense.

Can Custody Proof send a reimbursement request to the other parent?

No. Custody Proof never contacts the other parent and has no payment or request feature. It keeps your private record of what you paid, with receipts and a running balance you can export as a PDF or CSV.

Does Custody Proof calculate child support?

No. It tracks expenses you paid and whether you marked them reimbursable. Support calculations follow your state’s rules and your order, which is a question for your attorney.

I already track expenses in a spreadsheet. Do I have to start over?

No. The expense ledger accepts a CSV import, so existing rows can come in without retyping. You would add receipt photos to the entries you have them for.

Are bank statements enough on their own?

They prove a payment happened, but they rarely show which child it was for, what it was, or whether it is a shared cost under your order. Keep the receipt and a short note with each expense, and use statements to fill gaps.

Try Custody Proof

A private record for one parent. The other parent is never invited and never notified. Documentation is $14.75/month or $144/year. If it isn't right for you, refund yourself from Settings within 30 days of your first charge.

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Custody Proof’s prices and features on this page were checked in October 2026. The other options are described as categories, not products, so check any specific app’s current terms before you rely on it.