In relationships, two areas that often cause friction are money and poor communication. So when a divorced couple needs to communicate with each other over child support payments, arguments can easily ensue.
Support Pay, from Santa Clara-based Ittavi, is an online service that allows divorced parents to organize, track and pay bills associated with bringing up their children. It was born from the personal experience of Sheri Atwood, CEO of Ittavi, who went through her own divorce several years ago.
A parent can upload a bill -- or snap a picture of it with a mobile device -- and have it appear immediately in the Support Pay interface. The other parent can see the bill and then pay it or dispute it. It also makes it easy to split bills, so each parent pays their respective slice.
"The biggest complaints we hear from divorced parents are 'My ex-partner has no idea how much it costs to bring up a child' or 'I just want to know my payments are going to my child,'" said Atwood.
She hopes Support Pay will make the process transparent, so when divorced parents meet they won't be arguing over money.
There's a free version with limited features and a full version for US$19.99 per month. Google is on the cusp of approving an Android app, according to Atwood, and she expects the iOS app to be available in November.
Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.com
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