Montana Notary Journal Requirements — Bound Register or Approved Electronic
Yes. Montana requires every notary to keep a journal of all notarial acts. A journal kept on paper must be "a permanent, bound register designed to deter fraud"; an electronic journal must be in a tamper-evident format complying with the Secretary of State's rules. Printed loose pages do not satisfy Montana law.
The rule: Montana's notarial acts law (Montana Code Annotated title 1, chapter 5) carries the journal requirement, and the Secretary of State's notary rules and handbook set out the format and entry details for both paper and electronic journals.
Last updated: August 2026.
What each Montana entry must include
The date and time of the act, a description of the record and the type of act, the full name and address of each individual for whom the act is performed, the signature of each principal, how the signer was identified, and the fee charged. Transcripts of depositions and certified copies do not need the signature, and a remote act records the storage location of the audiovisual recording in its place.
The statute also bars four things from the journal: "a social security number, passport number, driver's license number, birth date, or any other information prohibited by the secretary of state" (MCA 1-5-618). The signature requirement means the journal is at the table for every in-person signing.
What Montana notaries should buy
A permanent, bound register designed to deter fraud, which is exactly what commercial notary journals with numbered pages are built to be, or an electronic journal that meets the Secretary of State's rules. Nothing else satisfies the requirement for the journal itself. Montana's statute says one or more journals, so keeping separate journals is allowed, and each journal is retained for ten years after the last act chronicled in it.
Questions Montana notaries ask
Can I keep my Montana journal electronically? Yes, in a tamper-evident electronic format complying with the Secretary of State's rules. Loose printed pages qualify as neither a bound register nor a compliant electronic journal.
Do remote notarizations go in the same journal? Yes. The journal chronicles all notarial acts, remote ones included. For a remote act, the entry references the storage location of the audiovisual recording in place of the signer's signature, and the recording itself is retained for ten years from the date of the recording, in the notary's sole possession unless transmitted to a repository approved by the Secretary of State (MCA 1-5-618).
Where do I check the current Montana rules? The Montana Secretary of State publishes the notary handbook and rules, and that office is the authority on the details.
The honest note from us
Prep & Print Notary Journal sells a $19 app that prints filled-in journal pages, and printed pages do not comply with Montana's bound-register rule. If you are commissioned in a state that leaves the journal format to you, the app is at prepandprintnotary.com. Montana notaries: buy the bound book or a compliant electronic journal.
Update, September 2026: we make a bound edition now. The Prep & Print bound journal is on Amazon — permanently bound, one signing per two-page spread, preprinted page and entry numbers, signature and thumbprint boxes, in five cover colors.
Every state's rule is on one page: Notary Journal Requirements by State.
Sources: Mont. Code Ann. § 1-5-618 (journal); Montana Secretary of State notary handbook. General information, not legal advice.
