Posted by NotaryGail on 3/18/06 12:00pm
Msg #106546

Billing Invoice?

I have one more question for you all out there. When I am doing my invoice to the borrower, who is paying me directly today, do I itemize the fees or can I just list the total due? For instance, I am charging them $160.00. I am charging $120.00 for the loan signing and $40.00 for the trip fee. How do I list this on the invoice? That you all for your help!!
BTW, I am in CA.

Reply by PAW on 3/18/06 12:05pm
Msg #106548

Not sure if the CA SOS addresses this or if there is a "business practices" the state subscribes to, but here in FL, you need to itemize the bill for the consumer. Not only does our SOS recommend that practice, it is also stated in our manual and is a standard business practice for many companies.

Reply by Teddog_CO on 3/18/06 12:06pm
Msg #106549

Agree with PAW 100% even if we didn't need to do it n/m

Reply by PAW on 3/18/06 12:10pm
Msg #106551

Also ...

The fees must be accepted by the consumer (signer) prior to the fulfillments of the request. Many people think that notarizations are free because they went to their friend, who is a notary, or they were a notary and didn't charge for their services. I also find that out of state signers are amazed at the FL fee of $10 per act. I just can't imagine the shock if we were allowed to charge like in CA, at $10 per signature.

I actually had a man on his way over to see me and balked at the $10 fee ... to the point he turned around (was less than 100 yards away) and drove away saying he will go to his bank on Monday have a teller do it. I wished him luck and a happy weekend.

Reply by NotaryGailCA on 3/18/06 12:15pm
Msg #106554

Re: Also ...

I did let him know about the fee charged. I did the first step right. I hope I am on a roll for today. Thank you for all you advice. I really appreciate it!

Reply by NotaryGailCA on 3/18/06 12:12pm
Msg #106552

O.K. that is what I thought. Say there is only 3 documents to be notorized and you have 2 signers. Do you list the notorization fee as $60.00? Travel fee $40.00? Then how would you list the additional fee?

Reply by PAW on 3/18/06 12:21pm
Msg #106560

A "Notary Witness Signing" is a line item unto itself. You are not being paid per notarized signature in this case. (More on that in a moment.) So, the breakout for the consumer is :

$120.00 Notary Signing Agent fee
$ 40.00 Travel fee
-------------------------------------------
$160.00 Total Fee

For YOUR records, you need to keep track of how many notarized signatures there are for tax purposes. You can exempt $10/signature (in CA) up to and including the total amount of the $160 for SE taxes. So if there were 10 signatures notarized, your exemption on this assignment would be $100 when calculating your SE Tax. The entire $160 is taxable as gross income.

Had this been strictly a notarial job (not a signing agent job), then I would break out each notarization as a line item. (Or at least itemize the documents under a line item called notarizations.)

Reply by Teddog_CO on 3/18/06 12:24pm
Msg #106561

Gee PAW! You're hired! Where do I send my bookkeeping ?lol n n/m

Reply by PAW on 3/18/06 12:28pm
Msg #106565

Contact my bookkeeper at ...

[e-mail address]

Reply by Teddog_CO on 3/18/06 12:30pm
Msg #106567

LOL You have a Good One PAW! Bye Bye n/m

Reply by NotaryGailCA on 3/18/06 12:27pm
Msg #106563

Thank you so much for your quick response and all your help! I truely appreciate it!!!!