7.6 Record Keeping & Quality Assurance

Record Keeping

The final wrap-up discipline is the one that compounds over a career: keeping good records and reviewing your own work. Records protect the NSA in disputes, satisfy tax and state-law requirements, and turn each assignment into a data point for improving the business. Lesson 5 closes the assignment by ensuring the NSA can reconstruct — months or years later — what was signed, when, for whom, for what fee, and how it was returned.

The Notary Journal

A notary journal is the chronological record of every notarial act. It is required in many states and a best practice everywhere. For each signing, the journal typically records:

• Date of the notarial act
• Document type and type of notarization (acknowledgment, jurat, etc.)
• Signer name and signature
• Identification method and details (driver's license number and state, or other acceptable ID)
• Fee charged
• Address / location of the signing

Some states prescribe the exact journal format and retention period; where the state is silent, the NNA recommends retaining the journal for the length of the notary commission at minimum, and many practitioners retain journals for several years beyond commission to cover the statute of limitations on loan disputes. A lost or stolen journal is a serious privacy incident and must be reported per state law.

Assignment, Invoice, and Shipping Records

Beyond the journal, the NSA maintains business records that make the operation auditable:

These records are the NSA's defense if a lender claims a package was never returned, if a signing service disputes an invoice, or if the IRS asks for income verification. They are also the raw material for improving the business: which companies pay on time, which loan types take longest, which zip codes are most efficient to serve.

Quality Assurance: Post-Signing Self-Review

SPW Principles 9 and 10 call the NSA to professional conduct and to support higher standards in the industry. A practical expression of this is the post-signing self-review — a few minutes after each assignment (or weekly in batch) asking:

1. Did every document get signed, notarized, and dated correctly?
2. Did I report status accurately and on time?
3. Was the package shipped per instructions, and do I have the tracking number?
4. Did I protect borrower privacy at every step?
5. What would I do differently next time?

Continuous Improvement

NSAs who treat each signing as a chance to refine — faster package assembly, cleaner scan-backs, better borrower communication — build a reputation that signing services reward with more and better assignments. Quality assurance is not a separate task; it is the habit that turns a notary into a signing professional.

Journal Security & Mileage/Expense Discipline

The notary journal is both a legal record and a privacy target. Losing it is not an inconvenience — it is a privacy incident affecting every signer in it. Quality assurance means protecting the journal with the same care as the signed package, and treating mileage and expense records as part of the same auditable business.

Journal Security Practices

• Store the journal locked — a locked drawer, safe, or locked bag when traveling.
• Never leave the journal in a vehicle unattended, even for a short stop.
• Use a tamper-evident journal where allowed, so any unauthorized access is visible.
• Keep a backup of journal entries only if state law permits electronic copies, and only on an encrypted device — some states prohibit electronic copies of the journal, so check before you scan.
• On commission expiration, retain or surrender the journal per state law — some states require the journal be deposited with the county or the state; others allow the notary to keep it.

Mileage and Expense Discipline

Mileage is the NSA's largest deductible expense and one of the most under-tracked. The IRS requires a contemporaneous mileage log — date, miles, and business purpose — not a year-end reconstruction. A simple app or a notebook in the car, filled in at each signing, turns mileage into a defensible deduction.

The Self-Review Closes the Loop

The post-signing self-review is what turns record keeping from a chore into improvement. When you review the signing, you also review whether the journal entry is complete, whether the mileage was logged, and whether the invoice is out. A notary who reviews consistently is a notary whose records are always audit-ready.