Pennsylvania Notary Journal Requirements — Bound Register, Numbered Pages (2026)
Yes. Pennsylvania requires every notary to chronicle all notarial acts in a journal, and a journal kept on paper must be a bound register with numbered pages. Printed loose pages do not satisfy Pennsylvania's law.
The statute: Pennsylvania's Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts, at 57 Pa.C.S. § 319, requires a notary to maintain a journal chronicling all notarial acts. For format, the statute follows the uniform rule: a journal maintained on a tangible medium must be a permanent, bound register with numbered pages; a journal maintained electronically must be in a permanent, tamper-evident format. A notary maintains only one journal at a time for tangible records.
Last updated: August 2026.
What each Pennsylvania entry must include
The date and time of the act, a description of the record and the type of act, the name and address of each individual for whom the act is performed, how the signer was identified, and the fee charged. The Department of State's regulations, effective March 28, 2026, add a privacy rule: the journal may not contain personally identifiable information about a person appearing before the notary, including any part of a Social Security number, a full driver's license or ID card number, date and place of birth, mother's maiden name, or biometric records (4 Pa. Code § 167.32). Terminal digits, such as the last four of a license number, and the signer's signature may be recorded.
What happens to the journal when a commission ends
Pennsylvania has no ten-year retention rule. It has a delivery rule instead: within 30 days of a commission expiring without renewal, or of resignation or revocation, the notary delivers the journal to the office of the recorder of deeds in the county where the notary last maintained an office (57 Pa.C.S. § 319(e)). On a notary's death or adjudicated incompetency, whoever holds the journal has the same 30-day duty. While commissioned, the journal stays in the notary's hands: the statute says it may not be used by anyone else or surrendered to an employer when a job ends.
What Pennsylvania notaries should buy
A bound journal with numbered pages, from any notary supplier, or a compliant electronic journal. Nothing else satisfies § 319 for the journal itself.
One journal at a time chronicles every act until the register fills. Start the next book then, and keep completed journals safe for the life of your commission; they go to the recorder of deeds when the commission ends.
Questions Pennsylvania notaries ask
Can I keep my Pennsylvania journal electronically? Yes, in a permanent, tamper-evident electronic format that meets the statute. Loose printed pages are neither a bound register nor a compliant electronic journal.
Can signers thumbprint my Pennsylvania journal? No. Pennsylvania prohibits biometric identifiers in the journal, which sets it apart from states like California that require thumbprints for some documents.
What do I do with my journal when my commission ends? Deliver it to the recorder of deeds in the county where you last maintained an office, within 30 days of expiration without renewal, resignation, or revocation. Journals stay with you for the life of your commission, not for a fixed number of years.
Can anyone see my Pennsylvania journal? Yes. The regulations require a notary to permit inspection of the journal on request, in the notary's presence, and to provide a certified copy of an entry within 15 days of a request (4 Pa. Code § 167.36).
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 Pennsylvania's bound-register rule. If you are commissioned in a state that leaves the journal format to you, the app is at prepandprintnotary.com. Pennsylvania 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: 57 Pa.C.S. § 319 (journal); 4 Pa. Code ch. 167 (journal regulations, effective March 28, 2026). General information, not legal advice.
