Social Security Pro is a multi-screen app. The first screen when you start a new case lets you select your client's marital status so that the following screens display information specific to their specific status.

Once marital status is selected on the opening screen, you're automatically taken to the household information screen. If you made a mistake selecting the marital status, you may change it from here.

1. Once you've entered any information the "Save" link is activated. When you save, a case is created and you may get back to it from the Dashboard.
2. Notice the faint "Print" link. It's not active until there is enough information to create a report.
3. If you select "Yes" for either spouse, to indicate one or both have a pension based on earnings not covered by Social Security, the next screen will contain questions and instructions for making adjustments that will be applied to their benefits.
4. Once you have entered the household information, click "Next" to continue. Notice the "Previous" link is a faint grey. That indicates there is not a previous screen to return to. That may seem strange, since you obviously got here from a page before this one when you first started. That's because the first screen is just an introduction; it didn't have any selections that can't be modified from here.

Once you save a case, the next time you open it from the Dashboard you will not see the introduction screen; you'll come straight to this screen.

When you click "Save" the first time after creating a new case, the save dialog will open asking for a Case Name. It will default to the first names and last name. You may change the default to anything you want, but we recommend that you leave the client names as part of the case name to make it easy to find them in the future. One technique is to append information to the client names. For example, "William and Mary Jones - initial presentation".

This screen only appears after the Household Information screen if one or both clients have "Yes" selected for pensions for earnings not covered by Social Security.

1. Enter the information requested.

2. Click the WEP Calculator link to use the Social Security Adminstration's calculator to calculate the estimated adjusted benefit.

3. Enter the result from the ssa.gov calculator. Click "Next" to continue.

After the Household Information (and the WEP/GPO screen if applicable) the interactive grid screen is displayed. It's the last screen in the Social Security Pro application. You know it's the last screen because the "Next" link is inactive.

When you first get to this screen, the grid is greyed out. That's because we don't have any benefit information yet. Once you enter enough benefit information to calculate, the grid will display information.

The interactive grid screen has been extensively researched to provide a lot of information in a compact easy to consume display. Please take a moment to look over everything it has to offer.

1. Every time an input is changed, or a slider is moved, Social Security Pro runs through hundreds of calculations applying the thousands of Social Security rules to determine what ages and filing method would provide the most cumulative benefits for the assumed lifetimes (set by the sliders). The result of that calculation is indicated by the star Social Security Pro automatically places in the grid.
2. You can click (or touch if you're on a tablet or phone) any other grid to set an alternative filing age combination to compare to the optimal that Social Security Pro automatically calculated. The earliest possible start ages are initially selected by Social Security Pro as the alternative. The alternative start ages are indicated by the 'target' symbol. When you click /touch a square in the grid, the target symbol moves to that square and that becomes the new alternative age combination.
3. This area shows the detailed information that is calculated for filing to obtain the maximum benefits over assumed lifetime. You can click the graph symbol to get a complete look at monthly benefits and when the benefits would change due to steps in the filing method.
4. This area shows the detailed information that is calculated for the alternative start ages. You can click the graph symbol to get a complete look at monthly benefits and when the benefits would change due to steps in the filing method.
5. Click to see the steps involved with the filing method for this selection.
6. Click to see the steps involved with the filing method for this selection.
7. Initially Social Security Pro defaults to a discount rate of 0% and shows all lifetime benefits as cumulative benefits. If you move the slider to set a discount rate greater than zero, we say future value instead of cumulative value. If you click the crossed arrow symbol we toggle to present value. Clicking the crossed arrow again will toggle back. Whatever this is set to when you click "Print" will determine whether the printed report shows future values or present values.
8. If you click the crossed arrow symbol in the grid legend, the grid will change to a grid that displays the relative amount of future value of benefits (or NPV). Click again to toggle back to the regular grid display.
9. Click the "Print" link to produce a printed report. A dialog will be displayed that lets you select options for printing.

When you click the graph symbol for either the "Ages for Maximum Benefits" or the "Alternative Ages" you'll get this display. While the graph is displayed you can move your mouse over a bar (or touch it if using a table or phone) to see the monthly benefit details for that year.

1. Click to see a ledger display of benefits by year.
2. The comparison ledger shows annual benefits and cumulative benefits for the optimal ages, alternative ages, and starting as early as possible and at age 70.
3. The Income Taxation ledger has inputs for an effective income tax rate and an assumption for modified adjusted gross income. It displays benefit totals before assumed tax, the amount of tax, and total after tax.

Social Security Pro always prints an analysis of the starred start ages and the alternative start ages. If you don't want to print an alternative, just click on the star to set the alternative start ages to be the same as the star ages.

You can also click the check boxes to include an analysis of filing as soon as possible (Earliest) and waiting until age 70 (Latest).

Under the Supplemental Pages you may choose to print an action plan (recommended) and the comparison ledger and the assumed taxation ledger.

1. The dropdown let's you choose which start age you want to use as the "Selected Strategy" in your printed report. The Action Plan (if included) will give the action dates and details for that selection.
2. If you click "Download Monthly Values" a comma delimited value (CSV) file will be created and downloaded to your computer. That file contains detailed values for every month for the input as it was when you selected the download. That file can be opened in Excel or nearly any other spreadsheet. Once downloaded we recommend that you rename the file so you'll remember what it is.