Like many of you, I found myself wasting a lot of time writing out long or uncommon document titles in my journal.
After a while, I realized I needed a cleaner, faster way to stay compliant.
That’s what led me to put together the Notary Public Record Book.
It uses checkboxes for both common and rare documents, so I’m not scribbling long names anymore. I am simply suggesting finding a journal that can meet this need. I created and published my own and can give suggestions on doing the same.
It’s been a huge time-saver while keeping everything professional and compliant.
I wanted to share in case it helps another notary who’s had the same frustrations. Would love to hear your thoughts.
I created a “confirmation cover sheet” which I fill in with all the main details of my signing appointment and on the back side is a list of common notarized documents with a checkbox. As I am going through the documents I just check boxes down the page along with the number of signatures which I notarized on the document. If I am ever asked about a signing it is very simple for me to cross reference my notary journal with my confirmation file to see what documents were notarized. Stapled to this confirmation cover sheet is the actual confirmation from the company who hired me. Once a journal is full, I bundle it with all the confirmations for that time period.
As I understand the notary law, at least here in California, each document and its name must be recorded in the journal entry. Keeping an outside record is not allowed here. This was the reason for this creation. I also make a list of document names for each job along with a printed date for the signer to reference. I check off necessary boxes as they relate to each document signature notarized. Every document signed is recorded at the time/date of notarial act. As per our California handbook.
@jackesnotaryservice: “As I understand the notary law, at least here in California, each document and its name must be recorded in the journal entry. Keeping an outside record is not allowed here.” Please cite your source as I’m not familiar with this restriction.
That seems like sloppy wording to me. “Each document…must be recorded”. So if I were a CA notary, I’d have to copy the whole document into my journal??
And what about “name”? From looking at the sample inside pages posted elsewhere, it seems like this is what the CA law calls the “character” of the document. An example would be “deed of trust”. But the name of the document could be lots of things, if the document even has a name.
Finally, look at the sample pages, “Satisfactory Evidence” is printed at the top of the column where the notary checks the kind of ID, such as DL or GOV ID. That wouldn’t cut it in my state or many other states. In Vermont, satisfactory evidence is an ID credential or a credible witness. But I’m also allowed to use personal knowledge, which isn’t under the definition of satisfactory evidence in VT.
The credible witness information goes in the place or places for the ID. ALSO there is room to add any document name that is rarer than the one listed.
I have been using a similar journal that abbreviates document names as well as I have always abbreviated names due to little room. I appreciate your feedback. I will take under advisement your suggestions and check them against my notary law. This journal may not be for everyone
The California Notary Public Handbook (2025 Edition), published by the California Secretary of State Notary Public Section, states on page 24: “All notarial acts must be recorded in the notary public’s journal at the time of the notarization (Government Code section 8206(a)). Each document notarized must be recorded in the journal, including the title or type of document, the date and time of the notarization, and the name of the signer.”
Yes, I understand that, Jake. What I was questioning is your statement: “Keeping an outside record is not allowed here.” Yes, a California notary must record every notarial act in his/her notary journal. However, there is nothing that precludes us from recording those same acts in another record. For example, (I believe it’s) Chase Bank often has a sheet in their packages which asks notary to list documents in package which were notarized. To my knowledge, there is no California notary law which prohibits this.
Here in California we have options as to which journal we will use. Some have a blank field to fill in with the document title and others have multiple boxes in that field with the names of the most common sort of notarized documents. That style journal has another box marked ‘other’ that can be checked and the description written in a large, blank field.
We as LSAs are dealing with more than one document and signature, not all of the documents that are notarized are even recorded. I asked our County Clerk and her consensus is in real estate closings the most common recorded documents are Deeds of Trust, sometimes called a Mortgage, Interspousals, Grant Deeds, Quit Claims and anything creating or transferring ownership. To be safe, a notary can create a separate journal entry for such documents but there is no rule that says we must create a separate entry for each type of document, recorded or not. I have moved from placing Title Deeds alone, to a single entry, single signer format with the ‘other’ notary field in case of multiple documents with the same name. Another short cut I use is putting x2 if there are two documents with the same type of Certificate and same title. Today I had one COT at the beginning of the packet and one at the end, essentially all the same information. The journal entry read ‘other’ Certificate of Trust Ack x2.
