Transparent and referenced: how We Got You 1776 works with rules that keep changing

We Got You 1776, LLC is a Veteran-founded education-technology company and independent publisher in Melbourne, Florida. It puts one plain-language guide to military families’ education benefits in the forms people learn from: a book, reference charts, an app called College Tool and a website, each pointing to the official sources. We Got You 1776, LLC is a Florida Certified Veteran Business Enterprise.

Referenced

The Order Matters, College Tool and the reference charts start from the source documents behind a defined set of benefit combinations: the law, VA’s regulations, and the published guidance of VA and the Department of Defense. Those sources are held in one register, where every change is tracked, reviewed against its official text, and carried into the book, the app and the charts.

The rates, rules, and figures in College Tool link to their official VA sources, so a family can check the math themselves rather than take a number on faith. Every official source the book, the app and the charts use is listed in one place, Sources and Official References.

Transparent

The date at the bottom of each page opens its Edition record: the current edition of each publication, and when it last changed. The record uses four words, each with one meaning.

• Updated: the date the content of the page last changed.
• Revised: the date the current edition of a file was issued.
• Published: the date the current version of College Tool was released on the App Store and Google Play.
• Checked: the date each official source was last reviewed against its official text.

The book, College Tool and the reference charts are brought current at least once a year against VA’s rules and rates, with changes between as needed. Corrections, and each new edition of the book and the charts, are emailed to everyone who signs up, so a chart on a wall or a saved copy is replaced when it should be. How the work is kept current, and what is watched, is on one page, How we keep this current.

Every page of the site, the book, the reference charts and College Tool’s suggestions page invite input on anything that no longer matches its official source, and each one is checked against that source. The October 2026 edition carries input from a state education official.

What it is built into

• The Order Matters, a plain-language guide to GI Bill® and VA education benefits for military families, free to read, download and print, and in print and ebook through bookstores and for libraries.
• The reference charts, how GI Bill and other VA education benefits add up in months, with the official sources on each one.
• College Tool, the companion app, which lays out a family’s plan phase by phase and prints it with its official references to take to the School Certifying Official. It is on the App Store and Google Play, free to start, and a one-time purchase unlocks the full phase approach.
• Questions from the Field, one page per question, asked the way the people using them ask it, each answered first with where the other factors are written.

Where it is listed

Public libraries have cataloged The Order Matters under both Veterans benefits law and personal finance, so a Veteran or a parent can look it up, request it and check it out. It is also in MERLOT, the California State University system’s library of free teaching materials.

Vets for Vets Resource Commissary, an association of Veterans helping Veterans find resources and community, featured The Order Matters at the top of its Resource Links page in November 2026, and Veterans Directory marks the book and College Tool Popular in 2026.

What they wrote back

The Order Matters has been read by people who know these benefits from every side. Retired service members who earned them and now advise students on them. Spouses and children who used them, some now guiding other military families through the same process. And the people who apply the rules for a living: School Certifying Officials, university Veterans offices, college advisers and registrars, and a state education official.

In their words: “I believe The Order Matters will be an excellent additional resource that I can recommend moving forward as they begin their educational journey.” (School Certifying Official) “The information you have is very valuable and the way you have it [packaged] is awesome.” (University registrar for Veteran services) “It’s a wonderful resource that I look forward to sharing with the families we serve.” (Military family nonprofit)

VA decides

None of it replaces official guidance or the briefings and classes people already have. VA is always the authority. This adds to it, so you can come to VA and your school with a better understanding and the right questions.

I am the founder of We Got You 1776, LLC and the author of The Order Matters.

Meet the founder

How we keep this current