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You now have the FedNow® Send & Receive Audit, 2026 Edition. Everything you need to run a defensible internal audit of your FedNow program is in your account.
Getting started
STEP 1
Find your files
Your files are in your Payments Professor library. Sign in and open FedNow® Send & Receive Audit, 2026 Edition. You also received a confirmation email with an access link.
Download all four files before you begin. You will want the workbook and the guide open side by side during fieldwork.
STEP 2
Confirm this is your edition
This edition assumes you do not use Request for Payment. Audit item 2.3 asks you to verify that against your Participant Profile rather than by asking around.
If you find the capability enabled, contact us and we will move you to the Request for Payment edition.
STEP 3
Scope before you test
Complete the Institution Info tab before fieldwork. Whether you permit consumer or commercial originators decides how Section 6 is tested, and whether you use a Correspondent decides part of Section 9.
Chapter 5 of the guide explains how to scope a shorter engagement defensibly.
Working with the files
Two things worth knowing before you open anything, so nothing surprises you.
The workbook will not ask you for a password
The Excel workbook is protected, but you do not need a password to use it. Everything you are meant to complete is already unlocked.
Blue cells are yours. Result, Auditor Comments and Evidence, Status, Follow-Up, Finding, Exception Severity and the Finding Narrative are all fully editable, along with every field on the Institution Info tab.
You can also adjust column widths and row heights, change formatting, insert rows, sort and filter, and select and copy any cell so you can lift content into your own workpapers.
What is locked is the Payments Professor reference content: the requirement text, the citations, the risk levels and the audit procedures. That keeps the methodology intact and the citations trustworthy.
What is in the download
Audit Workpapers (Excel)
110 audit items across 14 sections, 50 rated High risk. Instructions, Institution Info and Summary tabs, then one tab per section.
User Guide (PDF)
Item-by-item commentary on all 110 items. Opens normally with no password. Printing is enabled; copying and editing are not.
Sample Audit Report (PDF)
A finished specimen report showing what good looks like.
Audit Report Template (Word)
The same report as an editable file, so you can complete it for your own institution.
If your IT department filters downloads, allow www.paymentsprofessor.com.
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Train the people who run the controls you are about to test
Some of what an audit turns up is not a system problem. It is a knowledge problem: staff who cannot explain cycle day rollover to a customer, operations who did not know an Active connection profile still has to sign on, an origination team unclear on what Article 4A requires of a commercial customer agreement.
The FedNow® Certificate Series is eight one-hour classes covering the service end to end, with quizzes and a certificate of completion. Standard price $499. As an audit customer, $249.50.
Add the Certificate Series — $249.50 (50% Off)Questions as you work through it?
Write to kevin@paymentsprofessor.com. If something in the program is unclear, or you hit a requirement your institution handles in a way the audit procedure does not anticipate, say so. That feedback shapes the next edition.
Also available: the FedNow Risk Assessment line, which pairs with this audit. Your audit findings should feed your next risk assessment cycle.
Email the Professor