Your journal needs to be as detailed as required.

The California Secretary of State’s all-important Notary Public Handbook spells out all the information that is required for each and every journal entry. The six required items don’t seem like much, but they can become quite lengthy when you consider the “character of every instrument” (or the document) that is being notarized.

Our amazing notary educators are quick to remind us that simple titles for documents, such as “loan docs” or “deed,” do not meet the Secretary of State’s standard when a journal inspection is necessary. Using a bit of shorthand can help when signing appointments that involve more than a couple of documents being notarized. Using a journal that has clear & concise entry lines is a notary’s best time-saving tool.

Look for boxes to check for the document type and identification type, and pre-printed spaces to fill in for document dates, fee amounts, and additional information such as witnesses’ signatures. The use of a date stamp can also speed up the process of completing a journal entry when there may be a large number of documents and/or signers to be entered in the journal.

New notaries should let their clients know that journal entries take time to complete, to ensure their compliance with state requirements. But as a notary gains experience, the process will become much easier and more time-efficient. Once you find the best journal that works for your notarial service, I suggest you stock up. California notaries public may use only 1 active journal at a time, but having a few on standby is well worth the investment. 

The real answer after a drop in at my County Clerk

Over the course of my 20+ years as a California notary public, I am currently storing dozens of completed journals – all locked up under my exclusive control. However, I noticed that when I locked up my most recently completed journal, my safe was about to run out of room. I had read online a lot of conflicting information about when to surrender old journals, and started to worry that I should have done a journal haul to the county after each and every commission.

So, after a signing appointment just blocks away from a County Clerk’s office, I decided to drop in and get an explanation from a human representative. The clerk’s answer was not what I expected. They advised me that, because I am currently a commissioned notary, even though I have numerous expired commissions, I should continue to keep all of my journals under my control rather than surrender those associated with expired commissions.

Those journals that are delivered and retained by the county clerk because a notary public has retired completely are only kept for 10 years by the county. The clerk advised that it would be much more beneficial for a public client to come to me with a request for a journal entry copy, because I am responsible for retaining the journal for a much longer period. Great; I’ll need to buy another safe very soon.

Keeping detailed logs for appointments and journals.

So the longer you stay a commissioned notary public, the longer you will keep your journals. If you are a notary signing agent, you may face the same challenge I am with stacks and stacks of completed journals. My suggestion is to develop a journal log so that you can keep track of the details as journals fill up.

The information that would be best to include would be the journal’s start and completion dates, what commission numbers it covers, who your employer was during that time, and the journal’s physical description. Having a journal log is a great cross-reference in case a member of the public or the Secretary of State requests a copy of a particular entry.

It’s also very handy for updates on payments for notarial work, if your journal includes a space for that information. Lastly, be sure that your partner, spouse, or other representative knows that you have a journal log, where your journals are stored, and how to access them if needed.