Getting started with CustodyProof

Welcome. CustodyProof helps you keep an organized, court-ready record of your custody time, evidence, and child-related expenses. This article walks you through your first day — from signing up to seeing your first records on the calendar.

CustodyProof is a documentation tool, not a law firm. Nothing in the app or this help center is legal advice. For questions about your specific case, please talk to a family law attorney.

1. Create your account

1. Go to custodyproof.com and choose Get Started Now.
2. Enter your full name, email, and a password, and accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. (Your acceptance is recorded with a timestamp — that record protects you, too.)
3. Choose Continue to Checkout.

2. Subscribe

After creating your account you'll land on the checkout page:

• Pick a plan: Documentation ($14.75/month or $144/year) or Case Builder ($29/month or $278/year), which adds Vero, the AI assistant. Documentation is pre-selected, and you can move up to Case Builder later in one click.
• Pick Monthly or Yearly (yearly is about 20% less — $144/year works out to about $12/month).
• Choose Get Started. You'll be taken to a secure Stripe checkout page to enter a payment method.
• Your card is charged today and your access starts immediately. You can cancel anytime in one click from Settings and keep access through the period you paid for — and if anything about a charge doesn't look right, email support@custodyproof.com.
• After you pay, a brief "Processing Your Subscription" screen activates your account. This finishes on its own — usually within a minute or two. If it needs longer, you'll see "Your payment went through" with a Try again button; your access unlocks automatically once activation completes, and you're never charged twice.

For full details on plans and the optional Case Builder upgrade (which adds Vero, the AI assistant), see Plans and billing.

3. Answer one question

Right after checkout, the "You're in!" screen asks one thing: "How do you want to start?"

• Upload your custody order or agreement. You go straight to the schedule wizard with the upload box open. We read the schedule from your order, pick up your children's names and the date it was signed, and put every custody day on your calendar — past and future. No file handy? The wizard's first step also lets you type the schedule in your own words. See Set up your custody schedule.
• Start with tonight. A small "Who are your kids?" box appears right there — type their first names (birthdays can wait for Settings) and choose Log tonight. You land on the Calendar with today's quick-log sheet already open, so one tap logs tonight. Choose "Skip for now — I'll add my child later" if you'd rather add them another time (you're taken to the Dashboard — custody logging needs a child).

"I'll explore on my own" takes you to the Dashboard.

Your answer is saved when you choose an option — if you refresh the page mid-way, the question simply appears again and nothing is lost.

4. Your children

Every custody entry in CustodyProof is linked to a child. If you uploaded or described an order, the schedule wizard handles this: it finds the children named in your order and offers to add them with one tap, or asks you for their first names. If you started without an order, you added them on the "You're in!" screen. Either way, you can add, rename, or remove children anytime in Settings → Family, and the Dashboard's "Finish setting up" checklist keeps the reminder if it's still to do.

5. The two-minute tour

The Dashboard's Quick start card offers a short "Take the two-minute tour" — five slides covering the Calendar, Evidence, Expenses, Reports, and Vero. It's optional and never stands between you and your first record; you can also replay it any time from Settings → Profile.

6. Your first Dashboard visit, and the setup checklist

Until you've logged your first custody entry, the Dashboard keeps things simple: one "get started" card with a single recommended next step (set up your schedule, or log tonight). Once that first entry exists, a "Finish setting up" checklist tracks what's left:

• Add your children
• Set up your repeating schedule (hidden if you told us your schedule varies)
• Log your first custody time
• Save your first evidence entry
• Log your first expense

Items check themselves off as you go. The card disappears once you're fully set up, and you can dismiss it any time with the ✕.

If you haven't logged anything yet, we'll also send up to three short emails in your first week — one action each, nothing more. They stop as soon as you've logged a record, and the Reminder emails switch in Settings → Profile turns them off.

Finding your way around

The main navigation (sidebar on desktop, bottom bar on mobile):

The sidebar is grouped so your daily pages (Home, Calendar, Schedules, Evidence, Expenses) come first, review pages (Statistics, Reports, Deadlines, Vero) next, and account pages last. On mobile, the center button in the bottom bar is your fastest way to record something: Vero on the Case Builder plan, or Log (quick capture) on the standard plan — and the top-right menu holds everything else, including Bring my history (importing from another app) and What's New.

Stuck? Ask the assistant

The question-mark (?) button at the top of the app opens Ask Custody Proof — a built-in assistant included with every plan. Ask it anything about using the app ("how do I log a night?", "what should I set up first?") and it answers with a link straight to the right screen. It never creates records for you (that's Vero, on the Case Builder plan) and never gives legal advice.

Is there a phone app?

CustodyProof is a web app that works in any modern browser on your phone, tablet, or computer. There's nothing to install — and you can add it to your home screen from your browser for an app-like experience.

What to read next

• Adding custody time on the calendar
• How custody time is counted
• Set up your custody schedule
• The evidence vault