As a tax professional, you should be signing your name to any return you prepare, whether youre paid or not.

I just opened a dummy return and put in the XNP code for non paid preparer, and then opened an NJ return, I dont see any errors related to the preparer information, is the program that's telling you its required?

If it makes you feel better, charge them $1 and write it off… it’s not worth fighting with the software….