North Carolina Notary Journal Requirements — Optional for Paper, Required for eNotaries
Optional for traditional work, required for electronic notaries. North Carolina's Notary Public Act (General Statutes Chapter 10B) does not require a journal for ordinary paper notarizations. Since July 1, 2024, though, the Secretary of State's journal rules (18 NCAC 07I) define what a conforming journal looks like for any notary who keeps one, and electronic notaries must keep an electronic journal under those rules.
Last updated: August 2026.
How Chapter 10B treats records
For a standard commission, G.S. 10B-38 says a notary "may maintain a journal of all notarial acts performed" in accordance with rules adopted by the Secretary. The journal stays optional for paper acts, and a journal kept in conformity with the Secretary's rules is deemed to comply with the statute (18 NCAC 07I .0101).
For electronic notaries, the rules require an electronic journal with specified contents. A journal, once kept, is retained for at least ten years after the last act entered in it (18 NCAC 07I .0212).
The practical read for NC notaries
If you only stamp paper, the journal is your choice. If you hold or plan to seek an electronic commission, journal keeping becomes a requirement, and the habit built on paper work transfers directly.
North Carolina is also a state where notaries regularly handle deeds and estate documents, the acts most likely to be questioned years later. A record with the signer's ID details and signature is the strongest answer a notary can give.
What a conforming journal looks like
The 2024 rules set the form: entries in permanent ink, in chronological order, in a bound journal into which pages cannot be inserted and from which a removed page would show (18 NCAC 07I .0204). Entries include the date and time, the act and its mode, the document, each signer's name and how identity was determined, the fee, and the signature of each signer in a paper journal (.0302). Loose printed pages do not conform; records kept some other way are ordinary business records rather than a journal under the statute.
Questions North Carolina notaries ask
Is a journal required for NC loan signings? Not by statute for in-person paper signings. The journal is the notary's own record. For a voluntary record, North Carolina sets no inspection rules; in a dispute it can be subpoenaed like any business record.
I'm becoming an eNotary. What changes? Electronic acts must be journaled under the state's electronic notary rules. Check the current 18 NCAC 07I requirements when you register.
Should signers sign my journal? If you keep a journal under the state's rules, yes: a conforming paper journal includes the signature of each signer (18 NCAC 07I .0302). In any record, a signature strengthens the evidence of personal appearance.
The honest note from us
Prep & Print Notary Journal sells a $19 app that prints filled-in journal pages. Loose printed pages do not meet North Carolina's bound-journal rules, so a record kept that way is a business record, not a conforming journal. If you are commissioned in a state that leaves the journal format to you, the app is at prepandprintnotary.com. North Carolina notaries who want a journal under the rules: buy the bound book.
Every state's rule is on one page: Notary Journal Requirements by State.
Sources: N.C. Gen. Stat. § 10B-38; 18 NCAC 07I (journal rules, effective July 1, 2024). General information, not legal advice.
