Recordkeeping, Journals, and Documentation
Journal Requirements
Journal rules vary by state: some mandate a bound journal, others permit electronic journals with tamper-evident features, and a few have no statutory requirement but treat a journal as best practice. Typical required entries include the date and time, act type, document title and date, signer name and address, identification method, fee charged, and the signature of the signer (and witnesses where applicable). Traps include loose-leaf or unbound pages, gaps, erasures, and entries made days later from memory.
Retention and Access
Know retention periods, which range from a few years to indefinite depending on the state, and the rule that the journal remains the notary's property but may be subject to inspection or surrender to the commissioning authority. On resignation or death, the journal typically goes to the commissioning officer or a designated repository, not automatically to an employer.
Worked example
A notary realizes an entry omitted the signer's address. The correct fix is a dated, signed correction note in the margin or a supplemental entry referencing the original page-never obliterating or rewriting the original line.
Rule of thumb
Write every entry as though an auditor will read it years later with no memory of the event: complete, contemporaneous, legible, and permanent. If it is not in the journal, it did not happen.