Why CoParent is the solution for organising shared custody in Switzerland

The real problem is not disagreement, it is scattered information

When people talk about shared custody, they picture tension between adults. In practice, much of the day-to-day friction has nothing to do with a deep conflict: it comes from the same piece of information existing in several versions, in several places, with nobody knowing which one counts.

The monthly schedule lives in a message thread. The agreement about swapping a weekend is in a voice note nobody replayed. The orthodontist's invoice is a photo buried in a conversation. The school certificate is at the other parent's home. The result: every ordinary question - "who picks the children up on Wednesday?", "didn't you say you'd pay half?" - reopens a discussion that a quick look-up should have settled.

Why Google Calendar, WhatsApp and Excel are not enough

These tools are excellent - at what they do. The problem is that none of them was designed for a family split across two households, with decisions to approve and evidence to keep over time.

• A regular calendar holds dates, but it does not say whether a change was proposed, accepted, declined or disputed. It knows nothing about custody cycles, cantonal school holidays, or the idea of a "month approved by both parents".
• A messaging app mixes everything together: logistics, emotion, attachments and decisions. Six months later, finding a specific agreement becomes archaeology - and a single screenshot never tells the whole story.
• A spreadsheet sends no reminders, asks for no approval from the other parent, holds no receipts, and always ends up existing in two diverging versions.
• None of the three produces a document you can hand to a school, a lawyer or a mediator.

What CoParent does differently, in concrete terms

1. A calendar that actually understands alternating custody

You set your rhythm once - alternating weeks, 2-2-3, 7-7, 5-2, 4-3, 3-4-4-3, 2-2-5-5 or a custom cycle - and the whole year is generated, Swiss public holidays and cantonal school holidays included. Holidays such as Easter, Ascension, Christmas or New Year can follow a different rule in even and odd years, with an adjustable window of days around each date. One colour and one icon per parent: "whose place is it tonight?" is answered at a glance, and the schedule syncs read-only with your iPhone, Google Calendar or Outlook.

2. An approval workflow, not just a display

This is the biggest difference from an ordinary shared calendar. Every month follows a clear path: draft, submission, then approval or a declined response with a reason from the other parent - and the month is locked. In between, either parent can propose a custody swap straight from the calendar; the other accepts or declines in one click, and both schedules update together. Every step triggers an email or SMS notification and stays time-stamped. No more "I never agreed to that": the answer is in the history.

3. Expenses with evidence, filled in by AI

Photograph a receipt: our artificial intelligence, hosted in Switzerland, reads the document and pre-fills the amount, date, child, category and description. On an insurance statement it extracts your out-of-pocket share - not the gross total, not the reimbursed part. A receipt in euros is converted into francs. A 0 to 100% slider splits the expense between both parents, and your co-parent approves or declines with a reason before it counts. The balance between the two households is always up to date, and exports to CSV or PDF for your tax return.

4. A document vault both parents can reach

Vaccination record, school reports, certificates, the custody agreement, official letters: everything goes into folders you organise yourself, permanently available from both parents' phones. A badge flags unread documents, every upload or move is recorded in an audit log, and archiving replaces deletion - nothing disappears quietly.

5. Official PDF reports in one click

This is usually what is missing the day you have to talk to a third party. CoParent generates time-stamped A4 documents, ready to send:

• Monthly schedule and custody summary (days and nights per parent over a period);
• Custody certificate, ready for a school, a daycare or an authority;
• Swap history and activity log, with reasons and dates;
• Expense summary, balance statement and a line-by-line expense journal;
• Document inventory and audit log.

6. A trusted third party in read-only mode

A mediator can be invited with read-only access. They consult the schedule, the history and the relevant documents without changing anything - which spares everyone from rebuilding months of exchanges out of contradictory memories at the start of each session.

Built for Switzerland, not adapted afterwards

Many co-parenting apps come from elsewhere and ignore what matters here. CoParent is built for the Swiss context:

• Cantonal school holidays and public holidays loaded automatically into the calendar.
• Hosting and data in Switzerland, compliant with the Swiss FADP and the GDPR, TLS encryption and two-factor authentication by email or SMS.
• No advertising, no data resale, no third-party tracking - and you can export your data or delete your account at any time.
• Card or TWINT payment through Stripe, with no VAT (Swiss VAT Act art. 10 para. 2 let. a), and support in French within 24 hours.

One subscription for two households

One thing that matters after a separation: nobody pays twice. CoParent is paid for once for both parents. The base plan is CHF 8.-/month and covers the shared calendar, change requests, PDF reports and email and SMS notifications, for an unlimited number of children. The Expenses and Documents modules are add-ons at CHF 2.-/month each, which you can switch on and off whenever you want. On the yearly plan, two months are free (around CHF 6.70 per month).

What this changes in real life

• "Who has Lea on Wednesday evening?" - the week is displayed, with the parent in charge and the notes for that day. No message to send.
• "How much do I owe you for the orthodontist?" - the invoice is scanned, split and approved; the balance is already calculated.
• "Can you send me the vaccination record?" - it is in the vault, opened from a phone in ten seconds.
• A mediation session or a meeting with a lawyer - a PDF summarises custody periods, approved exchanges and shared expenses, instead of three months of screenshots.

What CoParent is not

To be clear: CoParent replaces neither a lawyer, nor a mediator, nor legal advice, and it does not arbitrate between parents. It does not make substantive disagreements disappear either. What it does is stop a disagreement from being made worse by vagueness, forgetfulness or lost information - and provide, on the day it is needed, a readable history rather than conflicting memories.

How to get started

Setting up takes about ten minutes: create your account, add your children's profiles, then invite the other parent to join your shared space. If you have a separation agreement or a court decision, upload it: the AI analysis extracts your custody rhythm and pre-configures the calendar, with no retyping. You can also start on your own, prepare your schedule or centralise your documents first, and share the space later.

The logistics of shared custody will not vanish. But they can stop being a permanent topic of discussion - which is exactly what CoParent is built to achieve.