How to Record Fees in Your California Notary Journal (With Examples)

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Key Takeaways

• California law requires you to record the fee charged for every notarial act in your journal (Government Code § 8206(a)(2)(F))
• The maximum fee is $15 per signature for acknowledgments and jurats, $30 for depositions (Government Code § 8211)
• “Per signature” means per person who signs, not per document or per stamp
• Travel fees are separate from notarial fees and are not regulated by the state
• You must record $0 or “no fee” when you notarize without charging

This might be the single most confused topic among California notaries. The course gets more questions about journal fee entries than almost anything else. How do you record a fee when you charged $15 for two signatures? What about flat-rate mobile jobs? Do you write $0 when you notarize for free? What if your employer sets the price?

Here is the short version: California law says you write down whatever you actually charged. The state does not tell you how to format it. But the law does set the maximum you can charge, and it does require the journal entry. Below is the breakdown.

What California Law Actually Requires

Government Code § 8206(a)(2)(F) says your journal must include:

“The fee charged for the notarial service.”

That is the entire statute on fee recording. One line. The law does not specify a format, a column header, or whether to write “$15.00” versus “15” versus “fifteen dollars.” What matters is that the fee is recorded for every single entry.

The fee field is not optional. Every journal entry must have it filled in, even if you did not charge anything.

The Maximum Fees You Can Charge

Government Code § 8211 sets the ceiling. You can charge less, or nothing at all, but never more.

Acknowledgments: $15 per signature

For taking an acknowledgment or proof of a deed (or any other instrument), including the seal and writing the certificate, the maximum is $15 for each signature taken.

Jurats: $15 per signature

Administering an oath or affirmation to one person and executing the jurat, including the seal, costs a maximum of $15.

Depositions: $30 plus $7 and $7

$30 for all services connected with taking a deposition, plus an additional $7 for administering the oath to the witness, plus another $7 for the certificate to the deposition.

Certifying a copy of a power of attorney: $15

Under Probate Code § 4307, you can charge up to $15 to certify a copy of a power of attorney. This is the only copy certification a California notary can perform.

When you cannot charge anything

• Vote-by-mail ballot identification envelopes or any voting materials (Government Code § 8211(d))
• Applications or claims for veteran benefits from US military veterans (Government Code § 6107)
• Nomination documents or circulator affidavits (Elections Code § 8080)
• Pension-related affidavits when you work for a public entity (Government Code § 6106)

“Per Signature” Is Not “Per Document”

This is where most confusion starts. The law says $15 per signature, not per document, not per stamp, not per notarial certificate.

What counts as a signature: each person whose signature you are notarizing in a single notarial act.

Example: Two signers on one document

A husband and wife are signing a deed of trust. Both need their signatures acknowledged. You perform two notarial acts (one for each signer). You can charge $15 × 2 = $30 total.

In your journal, you create two separate line items. Each signer gets their own row. Each row shows a fee of $15.

Example: One signer, multiple documents

One person brings in three separate documents and needs all three acknowledged. You perform three notarial acts. You can charge $15 × 3 = $45 total. Each document gets its own journal line, each with $15.

Example: One signer, one document with one acknowledgment

This is the most common situation. One person, one signature, one notarial certificate. $15.

How to Record the Fee in Your Journal

Most California notary journals have a column labeled “Fee” or “Fee Charged.” Here is how to fill it in for different situations.

You charged the maximum ($15)

Write “$15.00” in the fee column. This is the simplest case.

You charged less than the maximum

Write whatever you actually charged. “$10.00” or “$5.00” or “$0.00.” The notary decides the fee, and the employer sometimes decides it. Either way, you record what was charged, not the maximum.

You did not charge (free notarization)

Write “$0.00” or “No Fee” or “N/C.” The field cannot be left blank. A blank fee column looks like you forgot to record it, which is a compliance issue.

Your employer set the fee

If you work for a bank or title company that sets your fees, you still record what was charged to the signer. If your employer tells you not to charge customers, write “$0.00.” If your employer charges $10 per notarization, write “$10.00.”

Under Government Code § 8202.5, public employee notaries must charge for all services and remit fees to the agency. In that case, the fee goes in the journal and the agency collects it.

Travel Fees and Your Journal

California does not regulate travel fees. You can charge whatever you want for traveling to a signer’s location, and that fee is separate from the notarial fee.

But there is a critical practice: travel fees should be disclosed to the signer before the notarization takes place. The signer needs to know the total cost upfront.

What goes in the journal fee column

Only the notarial fee goes in the journal. If you charged $15 for the acknowledgment and $50 for travel, the journal fee column shows $15. The travel fee is a separate business transaction.

Some notaries keep a separate receipt or invoice for travel fees. That is a good practice, but the journal itself only records the notarial fee.

Flat-Rate Mobile Notary Jobs

Many mobile notaries and signing agents quote a flat rate for a loan signing: something like “$150 for a full refinance package.” The signer pays one number. How do you record that?

Break it out. If the package required you to notarize six signatures, the notarial portion is 6 × $15 = $90. The remaining $60 covers travel, printing, and other services. In your journal, each of the six line items shows $15 in the fee column.

If you charged less than the maximum per signature (say $10 per signature on a flat-rate job), each journal entry shows $10. The per-signature amount is the notarial fee, regardless of how the total was quoted.

If you quoted a flat $100 for a signing with eight notarized signatures and did not break out per-signature pricing, you can calculate: $100 ÷ 8 = $12.50 per notarial act. Each journal line shows $12.50.

Common Mistakes With Fee Recording

• Leaving the fee column blank. Every entry needs a fee. Write $0.00 if you did not charge.
• Recording the total charge instead of the per-act fee. Each journal line is one notarial act for one person. The fee on that line is what you charged for that specific act.
• Including travel fees in the journal fee column. Travel fees are not notarial fees. Keep them separate.
• Charging more than $15 per signature. The maximum is the maximum. If your flat-rate deal works out to more than $15 per signature, you need to adjust the breakdown so no individual notarial act exceeds $15.
• Not recording a fee when your employer prohibits charging. If your employer says notaries cannot charge customers, you still write “$0.00” in the fee column. The entry must exist.

Quick Reference: Fee Table

What the Secretary of State Looks For

If the Secretary of State audits your journal, the fee column is one of the first things they check. A pattern of blank fee entries is grounds for administrative action against your commission. So is a pattern of fees exceeding the statutory maximum.

The SOS does not care whether you wrote “$15” or “$15.00” or “fifteen.” They care that the field is filled in and the amount does not exceed what the law allows.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to record $0 if I notarized for free?

Yes. The law says “the fee charged,” and if you charged nothing, that is $0.00. Write it in. A blank fee column is a compliance problem.

Can I charge a flat rate instead of per signature?

You can quote a flat rate to your client, but underneath that, each notarial act is still subject to the $15 per-signature maximum. In your journal, each line item should reflect the notarial fee for that specific act. If the flat rate works out to more than $15 per signature, you need to adjust the breakdown.

Where do I record travel fees?

Travel fees do not go in the notary journal. They are a separate business charge. Keep a separate receipt, invoice, or log for travel fees. The journal fee column is only for the notarial fee.

My employer says I cannot charge fees. What do I write?

Write “$0.00” in the fee column for every entry. Your employer’s policy on fees does not change your obligation to record what was (or was not) charged.

Is $15 per signature or per document?

Per signature. If two people sign one document and both need acknowledgments, that is two notarial acts at $15 each, so $30 total. Each person gets a separate journal line.

Can I charge $15 for a jurat and another $15 for an acknowledgment on the same document?

If the same person needs both a jurat and an acknowledgment on the same document, those are two separate notarial acts. You can charge $15 for each. Record them on separate journal lines.

What if I only charge for some notarizations and not others?

Record the actual fee for each entry. Some lines will show $15, some $10, some $0.00. That is fine. The journal is a record of what happened, not a pricing template.

Do signing agents record fees differently?

No. The same rules apply. A signing agent quoting $150 for a loan signing still breaks out the notarial portion ($15 per signature notarized) in the journal. The rest covers printing, travel, and other non-notarial services.