Editorial standards and how we research

Every guide in the Learn hub is written and maintained by the My Check Pros editorial team — the same team that builds the document tools the guides support. We publish under the team, not under invented personal bylines. We will not attach a fabricated author or fake credentials to a page; if a guide is ever reviewed or written by a named individual with a real, relevant qualification, we will say so plainly and accurately.

You can read more about the team on the about page.

We prefer primary sources over secondary commentary. When a guide makes a factual claim about a rule, a process, or a number, we trace it back to the body that actually sets it. In order of preference, we cite:

• Government agencies and regulators — for example the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, the IRS, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
• Industry rule-setters who govern the systems we describe — for example Nacha, which writes the ACH network rules behind direct deposit and ACH debits.
• Statutes and official program documentation, quoted in plain English rather than paraphrased loosely.

Where a guide relies on outside facts, those sources are listed in a “Sources” section at the foot of the article with the date we last checked them. We avoid building factual claims on top of unsourced blog posts or AI-generated summaries.

Before a guide is published, we check that:

• Every factual claim is supported by a source we can name, not by memory or assumption.
• Any figures, dollar amounts, timelines, and form names are current at the date shown on the page.
• The steps we describe match how the real document or process actually works, including the document tools on this site.
• The language is specific. Where rules vary by bank, employer, state, or situation, we say so rather than overstating a single answer.

Each guide carries an “Updated” date showing when it was last reviewed. We revisit guides when the underlying rules, forms, or processes change.

We do not invent statistics, quotes, sources, reviews, credentials, or authors. If we can't source a claim, we don't make it — we either find a citable source or remove the claim. We do not present AI-generated text as the work of a named human expert, and we do not manufacture testimonials or star ratings to imply trust we haven't earned.

We get things wrong sometimes, and we'd rather fix an error than hide it. If you spot something inaccurate, email [email protected] with the page and what looks wrong. When we confirm an error that changes the meaning of a guide, we correct the page and update its “Updated” date. Minor typo and formatting fixes are made without a separate notice.

My Check Pros provides document templates and plain-English education. Our guides explain how common money documents work so you can fill them out with confidence.