California Notary Journal Requirements

Government Code section 8214.1 lists the grounds on which the Secretary of State may refuse to appoint a notary public, or revoke or suspend a commission. Three of them are about a book: failure to secure the sequential journal, willful failure to report its theft or loss, and willful failure to provide access to it when a peace officer asks.

None of those three is about getting a notarization wrong. They are about what you did with the record afterwards.

The journal is also the part of the job that keeps generating obligations after the signer has gone. Any member of the public can write to you and require a copy of one line. A subpoena can require you to produce the book itself. And when a commission ends without a reappointment, the journal stops being something you keep at all.

This guide sets out what Government Code section 8206 requires an entry to contain, when a thumbprint is required and when it is not, who can compel access and on what terms, and what happens to the book when a commission ends. Everything below is drawn from the California Notary Public Handbook, January 2026 edition, published by the Secretary of State, and from the code sections that handbook reproduces or cites. In more than one place the handbook's own summary of a journal rule is shorter than the statute it is summarising; where that happens below, this guide quotes both texts and says which is which.

If you have not been appointed yet, the process is set out separately in How to Become a Notary in California.

One active journal, locked, and yours

Government Code section 8206(a)(1) opens with three obligations in two sentences:

A notary public shall keep one active sequential journal at a time, of all official acts performed as a notary public. The journal shall be kept in a locked and secured area, under the direct and exclusive control of the notary.

Then it names the consequence in the same subdivision: "Failure to secure the journal shall be cause for the Secretary of State to take administrative action against the commission held by the notary public pursuant to Section 8214.1." The handbook adds an illustration of what "locked and secured" means in practice — "such as a lock box or locked desk drawer" — and repeats that the area must be under the notary's direct and exclusive control.

Three details in that short passage decide a lot of practical questions:

One at a time, and sequential. The requirement is "one active sequential journal at a time" — a single active book, kept in order.
Every official act. It is a record of "all official acts performed as a notary public" — not only acknowledgments, not only documents affecting real property.
Separate from your files. Section 8206(a)(2) requires that the journal "be in addition to, and apart from, any copies of notarized documents that may be in the possession of the notary public" — so keeping copies of what you notarized is not keeping a journal.

The journal is also yours, not your employer's. Section 8206(d) states it as property: the journal "is the exclusive property of that notary public, and shall not be surrendered to an employer upon termination of employment, whether or not the employer paid for the journal, or at any other time." Who paid for the book does not change who owns it.

The penalty section is worded more broadly than the handbook's summary of it. The handbook's General Information paragraph says a notary "is guilty of a misdemeanor if the notary public willfully fails to properly maintain the notary public's journal." Government Code section 8228.1(a), reproduced later in the same handbook, reaches further than the word maintain suggests: it applies to any notary public "who willfully fails to perform any duty required of a notary public under Section 8206," or who mishandles the seal. Section 8206 imposes duties well beyond keeping the book tidy — reporting it lost, taking a thumbprint, supplying a copy on request. Section 8228.1(b) adds that prosecution "shall be commenced within four years after discovery of the commission of the offense, or within four years after the completion of the offense, whichever is later."

This guide is free information. It is not the course. Reading it does not count toward California's notary education requirement — six hours for a first commission, three for a refresher — and cannot. That requirement is satisfied only by completing a course of study the Secretary of State has approved and receiving that vendor's Proof of Completion certificate. This page is general information about California notary law, not legal advice.

What every entry has to contain

Section 8206(a)(2) says the journal "shall include all of the following" and then runs from (A) to (G):

§ 8206(a)(2)	What the statute requires in the entry
(A)	"Date, time, and type of each official act."
(B)	"Character of every instrument sworn to, affirmed, acknowledged, or proved before the notary."
(C)	"The signature of each person whose signature is being notarized."
(D)	"A statement as to whether the identity of a person making an acknowledgment or taking an oath or affirmation was based on satisfactory evidence." Where identity was established under Civil Code section 1185, the journal must also contain either the credible witness's signature or "the type of identifying document, the governmental agency issuing the document, the serial or identifying number of the document, and the date of issue or expiration of the document."
(E)	Where identity rested on two credible witnesses, "the type of documents identifying the witnesses, the identifying numbers on the documents identifying the witnesses, and the dates of issuance or expiration of the documents identifying the witnesses."
(F)	"The fee charged for the notarial service."
(G)	The signer's right thumbprint, for the documents named in the thumbprint section below.

That is the whole of subdivision (a)(2). It is not the whole of what goes into a journal — other provisions of the notary law add entries, and they are in the sections that follow.

Four things the handbook says about those items that the bare list does not:

An entry is required even when you charge nothing. In its discussion of fees, the handbook states that a notary "is required to make an entry in the notary public journal even if no fee was charged, such as 'no fee' or '0.'" A blank is not an answer to (F).
Travel fees get their own note, and it is worded as advice rather than as a command. The handbook says: "Note: Travel fees, if any, should be identified, separately." It says should, where the surrounding requirements say shall.
If you cannot tell what the document is, say so in the entry. On notarizing a document in a language you do not read, the handbook says the notary "should be able to identify the type of document being notarized for entry in the notary public's journal," and that "[i]f unable to identify the type of document, the notary public must make an entry to that effect in the journal (e.g., 'a document in a foreign language')." Item (B) still gets filled in; it gets filled in honestly.
Some notaries enter the fee and then hand it over. The handbook summarizes Government Code section 6100 as requiring a notary appointed to act for certain public agencies under Government Code section 8202.5 to charge for all services and remit the fees received to the employing agency, and adds that "[e]ach fee charged must be entered in the journal". Both of those sections state the duty conditionally rather than by job title: section 8202.5 attaches remittance to fees collected by a notary "whose documents have been filed without charge and for whom bond premiums have been paid by the employer of the notary public", and section 6100 permits notarial services without a fee except by a notary "whose fees are required by law to be remitted to the state or any other public agency". Whether it reaches you is worked through in the fees guide. Item (F) gets filled in whichever way that comes out.

One small wording difference is worth knowing if you ever compare the two texts. The statute's item (D) requires "[a] statement as to whether" identity was based on satisfactory evidence; the handbook's General Information bullet renders it as "[a] statement that the identity of a person making an acknowledgment or taking an oath or affirmation was based on 'satisfactory evidence' pursuant to Civil Code section 1185." The handbook's own Q&A does not address that wording difference, and the handbook nowhere flags it. What the Q&A does do is foreclose the case the statute's "as to whether" looks like it leaves open. Asked whether twenty years of knowing a neighbour is enough, it answers: "An acknowledgment may not be taken or a jurat executed on the basis of personal knowledge alone. Satisfactory evidence of the signer's identity must be provided and noted in the journal."

For what counts as satisfactory evidence in the first place, and the two certificate forms these entries sit behind, see what the job actually involves in the first-appointment guide.

Signatures other people put in your journal

The journal is not only a place you write. In several situations the notary law requires someone else's signature or mark in the book, and in one of them the requirement turns on a condition that is easy to read past.

Credible witnesses. Where identity is established by the oath of a single credible witness whom you personally know, the handbook states the requirement in the alternative: "The single credible witness must sign the notary public's journal, or the notary public must indicate in their journal the type of identifying document, the governmental agency issuing the document, the identifying number of the document, and the date of issuance or expiration of the document presented by the witness to establish the identity of the witness." Section 8206(a)(2)(D) is worded the same way — signature or document details.

Where identity rests on the oaths of two credible witnesses whom you do not personally know, the two texts do not line up. The handbook states it conjunctively — in its note on the oaths of two credible witnesses, and again in its discussion of the certificate of acknowledgment: "The credible witnesses must sign the notary public's journal, and the notary public must indicate in their journal the type of identifying documents, the identifying numbers of the documents, and the dates of issuance or expiration of the documents presented by the witnesses to establish their identities." Section 8206(a)(2)(E), as reproduced in the same handbook, requires that the notary "record in the journal the type of documents identifying the witnesses, the identifying numbers on the documents identifying the witnesses, and the dates of issuance or expiration of the documents identifying the witnesses" — and does not name a signature there. Taking both signatures and recording both documents is the only course that satisfies either reading of the two-witness case, and it costs a line.

A subscribing witness. In a proof of execution, the handbook is explicit that "[t]he subscribing witness must sign the notary public's official journal," and that the credible witness who identifies the subscribing witness "must sign the notary public's official journal, or the notary public must record in the notary public's official journal the type of identification document presented, the governmental agency issuing the document, the serial number of the document, and the date of issue or expiration of the document."

A signature by mark. This is the conditional one. When a signer cannot write their name and signs by mark, two people must witness the mark on the document and subscribe their own names as witnesses there. As to the journal, the handbook says: "A notary public is not required to identify the two persons who witnessed the signing by mark or to have the two witnesses sign the notary public's journal." Read the next sentence, because it is an exception in the handbook's own words: "Exception: If the witnesses were acting in the capacity of credible witnesses in establishing the identity of the person signing by mark, then the witnesses' signatures must be entered in the notary public's journal."

The mark itself, though, always goes in the book, and it needs a witness of its own: "The signer by mark must include their mark in the notary public journal. To qualify as a signature, the making of the mark in the notary public journal, must be witnessed by an individual who must write the person's name next to the mark and then sign their own name as a witness."

The thumbprint, and the exception the summary leaves out

This is the item where the handbook's General Information summary and the statute it reproduces do not say the same thing, and the difference is a class of documents.

The General Information version reads, in full:

If the document to be notarized is a deed, quitclaim deed, deed of trust, or other document affecting real property or a power of attorney document, the notary public shall require the party signing the document to place their right thumbprint in the journal. If the right thumbprint is not available, then the notary public shall have the party use their left thumb, or any available finger and shall so indicate in the journal. If the party signing the document is physically unable to provide a thumb or fingerprint, the notary public shall so indicate in the journal and shall provide an explanation of that physical condition.

The paragraph ends there, and the handbook moves on to what to do about a lost journal.

Government Code section 8206(a)(2)(G), reproduced later in the same handbook, has one more sentence:

This paragraph shall not apply to a trustee's deed resulting from a decree of foreclosure or a nonjudicial foreclosure pursuant to Section 2924 of the Civil Code, nor to a deed of reconveyance.

The exception is there because those two documents would otherwise fall inside the sentence before it — the statute says the paragraph "shall not apply" to them. Follow the summary alone and you would take a thumbprint on a document the statute exempts. The handbook does not repeat the exception where it states the rule, and it does not flag the omission, so read the statute.

Notice also the part both texts state the same way, because it is a sequence rather than a choice. The right thumb is the default. If the right thumbprint "is not available," you have the party use the left thumb, or any available finger, and so indicate in the journal. If the signer is physically unable to provide one at all — the statute's wording is "a thumbprint or fingerprint," the summary's is "a thumb or fingerprint" — you indicate that in the journal and provide an explanation of that physical condition. There is no version of this rule where the space is simply left empty.

Three things follow from a required thumbprint, and only one of them is a penalty:

A civil penalty. Government Code section 8214.23(a): a notary who fails to obtain a thumbprint as required by section 8206 "shall be subject to a civil penalty not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500)," recoverable by the Secretary of State in an administrative proceeding or by a public prosecutor in superior court. Subdivision (b) sets the window — prosecution "shall be commenced within four years after discovery of the commission of the offense, or within four years after the completion of the offense, whichever is later."
Proof of execution is off the table. Civil Code section 1195(b)(2) provides that proof of the execution "for any instrument requiring a notary public to obtain a thumbprint from the party signing the document in the notary public's journal is not permitted." A subscribing witness cannot stand in for a signer whose thumbprint the journal needs.
It carries over to electronic notarizations. The handbook's answer on notarizing electronically says California notaries may do so "provided all the requirements of a paper-based notarial act are met, including the personal appearance of the signer, use of the seal, and obtaining a thumb print if required." On what California does and does not currently allow online, see can you notarize online in California.

The thumbprint is one of several rules that attach to deeds, deeds of trust, powers of attorney and other documents affecting real property. The rest of that cluster — the ban on proof of execution by a subscribing witness, the recording requirement in Government Code section 27287, the seal exception for electronic real estate documents, and the criminal statutes California wrote for this class of document — is set out in notarizing real estate documents and powers of attorney.

Who can see your journal, and what each of them gets

Start from section 8206(d), because it draws a line most notaries do not know is there. The journal "shall not be surrendered to an employer upon termination of employment, whether or not the employer paid for the journal, or at any other time," and beyond that: "The notary public shall not surrender the journal to any other person, except the county clerk, pursuant to Section 8209, or immediately, or if the journal is not present then as soon as possible, upon request to a peace officer investigating a criminal offense who has reasonable suspicion to believe the journal contains evidence of a criminal offense, as defined in Sections 830.1, 830.2, and 830.3 of the Penal Code, acting in his or her official capacity and within his or her authority."

Handing the book over and giving access to it are different acts. The statute closes the surrender list itself — "any other person, except" — at the county clerk and a qualifying peace officer. Every other row in the table below is access, inspection or copies, and none of those means parting with the journal.

Who is asking	What the notary law requires
An employer, on termination	Nothing. The journal "is the exclusive property of that notary public" and is not surrendered to an employer "at any other time" either (§ 8206(d)).
An employer's duly designated auditor or agent, during employment	Inspection and copying of journal transactions "in the presence of the notary public", where the transactions "are directly associated with the business purposes of the employer." On the employer's request you "shall regularly provide copies of all transactions that are directly associated with the business purposes of the employer, but shall not be required to provide copies of any transaction that is unrelated to the employer's business." Confidentiality and safekeeping of those copies "shall be the responsibility of that employer" (§ 8206(d)).
Any member of the public, in writing	"[A] photostatic copy of the line item representing the requested transaction" — one line, not the book — "at a cost of not more than thirty cents ($0.30) per page." The request "shall include the name of the parties, the type of document, and the month and year in which notarized" (§ 8206(c)). You have 15 business days after receipt to supply the copy "or acknowledge that no such line item exists" (§ 8206.5).
A subpoena duces tecum or a court order	The journal itself, "for examination and copying in the presence of the notary public," and certified copies "if requested" (§ 8206(e)). Produced, examined, copied — not surrendered.
A peace officer investigating a criminal offense	The journal, "immediately, or if the journal is not present then as soon as possible," where the officer has reasonable suspicion it contains evidence of a criminal offense and is "acting in his or her official capacity and within his or her authority." To seize it, "he or she must have probable cause as required by the laws of this state and the United States" (§ 8206(d)).
The Secretary of State, in writing	Certified copies of the journal, and a response "within 30 days of receiving written requests sent by certified mail or any other means of physical delivery that provides a receipt from the Secretary of State's office for information relating to official acts performed by the notary" (§ 8205(b)).
The county clerk, when the commission ends	Delivery of the journals — see below.

Those are the requests sections 8205, 8206 and 8209 describe. They are not a catalogue of every legal process that can reach a notarial record. Government Code section 8228 separately provides that the Secretary of State, or a peace officer possessing reasonable suspicion and acting in an official capacity and within authority, may enforce the notary law "through the examination of a notary public's books, records, letters, contracts, and other pertinent documents relating to the official acts of the notary public."

Two things to notice about the public line-item request, because it can arrive from anyone with no court behind it. First, "no such line item exists" is a complete and lawful response, and the statute names it. Second, section 8206.5 gives you a defence you would not otherwise have: in a disciplinary proceeding for noncompliance, "a notary may defend his or her delayed action on the basis of unavoidable, exigent business or personal circumstances." That is a defence to lateness, not to ignoring the request.

Refusing a peace officer is separately expensive. Government Code section 8214.21: a notary "who willfully fails to provide access to the sequential journal of notarial acts when requested by a peace officer shall be subject to a civil penalty not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500)." It is also a ground for discipline in its own right under section 8214.1(r) — and so, independently, is "[f]ailure to discharge fully and faithfully any of the duties or responsibilities required of a notary public" under section 8214.1(d), which section 8214.15 prices at up to $1,500 for a willful violation and up to $750 for a negligent one.

If the journal is lost, stolen, damaged, or seized

Section 8206(b) is not only about theft. It applies where the journal is "stolen, lost, misplaced, destroyed, damaged, or otherwise rendered unusable as a record of notarial acts and information" — so a journal that survives a flood and can no longer be read is inside that sentence.

What the statute then requires is one act, done immediately: notify the Secretary of State "by certified or registered mail or any other means of physical delivery that provides a receipt." The notification "shall include the period of the journal entries, the notary public commission number, and the expiration date of the commission, and when applicable, a photocopy of any police report that specifies the theft of the sequential journal of official acts."

Note the words "when applicable" in that list. Neither the statute nor the handbook's answer to "I lost my stamp or journal" requires a police report in every case — the handbook's phrasing is "if applicable, a photocopy of a police report." The handbook recommends the Report Lost or Stolen Seal and/or Journal form on the Secretary of State's website, notes that the same form "will allow you to request a duplicate Certificate of Authorization so you can have a new stamp made," and adds that the notification "also may be submitted via a free form letter."

A lost seal is a different notification under a different section. The handbook's answer handles the stamp and the journal together, but they are governed separately. The journal notification is section 8206(b). Section 8207.3(e) covers a seal that is "lost, misplaced, destroyed, broken, damaged, or is rendered otherwise unworkable" and provides that the Secretary of State, "within five working days after receipt of the notice, if requested by a notary, shall issue a certificate of authorization which a notary may use to obtain a replacement seal." The handbook adds that there is no fee for a Certificate of Authorization, but that a Duplicate Seal Authorization Request form must be mailed. The seal's own rules are set out in the seal in the first-appointment guide.

Willful failure to report a theft or loss is a ground for discipline — section 8214.1(o) names it alongside failure to secure the sequential journal or the official seal. Other notices a notary may owe during a commission, with their deadlines, are set out in Keeping Your Notary Commission in Good Standing.

If a peace officer seizes the journal, section 8206(d) sets out a chain of steps, and they do not all belong to you. The seizing officer or agency "shall notify the Secretary of State by facsimile within 24 hours, or as soon as possible thereafter, of the name of the notary public whose journal has been seized." You "shall obtain a receipt for the journal," and you must notify the Secretary of State by certified mail or other receipted physical delivery within 10 days that the journal was relinquished — a notification that "shall include the period of the journal entries, the commission number of the notary public, the expiration date of the commission, and a photocopy of the receipt." You then "shall obtain a new sequential journal." And if the seized journal comes back after you have obtained the new one, the rule is absolute: "the notary public shall make no new entries in the returned journal."

There is no such thing as correcting a notarial act

The handbook states this without qualification, and it is the reason journal discipline matters more than tidiness: "There are no provisions in the law that allow for the correction of a completed notarial act."

What it directs instead is a second, complete notarization: "If a notary public discovers an error in a notarial act after completing the act, then the notary public should notarize the signature on the document again. All requirements for notarization are required for the new notarial act, including completing and attaching a new certificate containing the date of the new notarial act and completing a new journal entry."

So the original entry stays in the record and a second one sits after it. The handbook describes no procedure for amending, striking or annotating an entry already made — see what the handbook does not say below.

What happens to the journal when a commission ends

Here the handbook's summary and the statute it summarises differ again, and the difference decides whether a notary who is being reappointed hands over the book at all.

The General Information paragraph attaches the duty to the commission simply ceasing to be valid:

Within 30 days from the date the notary public commission is no longer valid, the notary public must deliver all notarial journals, records and papers to the county clerk's office where the oath was filed. If the notary public willfully fails or refuses to do so, the notary public is guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be personally liable for damages to any person injured by that action or inaction.

Government Code section 8209(a), reproduced in the same handbook, conditions it:

If any notary public resigns, is disqualified, removed from office, or allows his or her appointment to expire without obtaining reappointment within 30 days, all notarial records and papers shall be delivered within 30 days to the clerk of the county in which the notary public's current official oath of office is on file.

The handbook's own question and answer on what to do with the journal and stamp carries the qualifier the summary drops — the duty is stated for a notary who "allows their appointment to expire without obtaining reappointment within 30 days" — so the clause the General Information paragraph omits appears both in the statute and in the handbook's own answer. That difference matters most to a notary applying for reappointment, and the renewal guide sets out both texts and what turns on them in your journal and seal when a commission ends.

Four further points the handbook and section 8209 do settle:

Resigning is a two-part act. The handbook: notify the Secretary of State — it recommends the Notary Resignation form and says a free form letter also works — and then "deliver all of your notarial journals to the county in which your current oath of office was filed within 30 days and destroy your seal."
Do not send the journal to Sacramento. The handbook is flat about it: "Any notarial journals, records and papers delivered to the Secretary of State will be returned to the sender." The journals go to a county clerk.
Death. Section 8209(b): "In the case of the death of a notary public, the personal representative of the deceased shall promptly notify the Secretary of State of the death of the notary public and shall deliver all notarial records and papers of the deceased to the clerk of the county in which the notary public's official oath of office is on file."
The records outlive the deposit by a decade. Section 8209(c): "After 10 years from the date of deposit with the county clerk, if no request for, or reference to such records has been made, they may be destroyed upon order of court." Ten years, and then only on a court order.

The three texts also describe the object of the duty slightly differently. Section 8209(a) says "all notarial records and papers"; the General Information paragraph says "all notarial journals, records and papers"; the question and answer says "all notarial journals" must be delivered. The widest of the three is the one to plan around.

One thing ending a commission does not do is end an inquiry into how you kept the journal. Government Code section 8214.4 is headed "Resignation or expiration of commission not a bar to investigation or disciplinary proceedings," and the renewal guide covers what that means for a notary thinking about simply letting a term run out.

What the handbook does not say

The January 2026 handbook is a legal reference, not a product manual. These are questions a working notary will reasonably have about the journal that it does not answer, listed so you do not read this article's silence as an answer:

What a journal has to look like. The handbook and the sections it reproduces require the journal to be sequential and to contain the items above. They describe no binding, no page numbering, no prescribed layout, and no approved supplier.
Whether a journal can be electronic. What the handbook describes is a book people sign, place a thumbprint in, and keep in a locked and secured area. It sets out no rules for an electronic journal, and the Online Notarization Act provisions it reproduces say nothing about a journal at all — provisions that are, in any event, not yet fully operative.
How long you keep a filled journal while you are still commissioned. Section 8209(c) puts a ten-year clock on records already deposited with a county clerk. Nothing in the handbook puts a clock on completed journals still on your own shelf.
Whether you may keep more than one journal for more than one employer. Section 8206(a)(1) requires "one active sequential journal at a time" and says nothing further. The handbook does not address what a notary who notarizes for two employers does with that.
How to fix a journal entry. The handbook addresses correcting a notarial act and directs a fresh notarization. It sets out no procedure for amending, lining through or annotating an entry that is already written.
What a journal costs. No figure appears anywhere in the handbook. The cost section of the first-appointment guide lists every cost item the handbook names and which of them it actually prices.
What happens at the county clerk's end. The handbook says where the journals go. It does not say what the clerk does with them, whether anything is issued back to you, or how a former notary answers a line-item request about a book they no longer hold.

Where the handbook is silent, the answer is the Secretary of State's Notary Public Section, not an article.

Official sources

Do not take an article's word for a rule that carries a misdemeanor.

California Notary Public Handbook, plus a checklist of the required steps to become a notary public — www.sos.ca.gov/notary
Approved education vendors — notaryeducation.sos.ca.gov
Secretary of State, Notary Public Section — Business Programs Division, P.O. Box 942877, Sacramento, California 94277-0001; (916) 653-3595
First-time applicants — How to Become a Notary in California
Renewing a commission — How to Renew Your California Notary Commission