What goes in the journal, and what does not

Texas law requires a notary to keep a record of each act. Government Code § 406.014 is that requirement. The record is not a copy of your identification card, and it is not a copy of the whole document. It is the entry that shows the act was performed.

The entry has a number. The numbers run in order. A voided entry stays in the book, and that number is not used again. The next act takes the next number. That is how the book stays in sequence if someone asks for it years later.

For a traditional act, I record the date and time, the type of act, a description of the document, the signer, and the fee. For a remote online act, I also record the platform, the session, and where the audio-visual recording is stored. The recording itself is not in the journal. Government Code § 406.108 requires that recording. The journal is the written record. They are two different things.

I do not write down an identification number. I do not take a fingerprint. Government Code § 406.014 and 1 Texas Administrative Code § 87.50 prohibit both. The book I use will not accept either one. I record the type of identification that was presented. The number on the card stays on the card.

Each entry is kept until the tenth anniversary of the notarization. That period is Government Code § 406.014(g). I cannot delete an entry because someone later wishes it were gone. The record exists so the act can be shown. A certified copy is the way that record is produced. Section 406.014 makes the entry public information, and a copy is furnished to a person who asks and pays the fee. I print the entries that were asked for. I print the whole book only if the whole book was asked for.

The working copy of my book is locked with a passphrase. If that passphrase is lost, the certified record can still be opened and printed. The journal is a public-officer record. It is not legal advice, and it is not a statement that the document was the right one to sign.

If you are a Texas notary looking for a book that already asks for these fields, the Texas Notary Record Book is on the For Fellow Notaries page. The names in those screens are demonstration entries, not official acts.