There is no legal requirement for a North Carolina notary public to use a journal to record notarial acts. It is, however, recommended by most to keep one.

Numerous notary journals are available on the market today, and they all have similar features. We recommend that your journal be bound (not loose-leaf) and have consecutively numbered pages, so that a page could not be removed without being detected. Important information should be recorded in the journal including:

• Date of the notarial act;
• Type of notarial act: oath, acknowledgment, attested photocopy;
• Name or brief description of the document;
• Party’s printed name, exactly as he or she signed the document;
• Party’s address;
• Party’s signature;
• Type of identification relied upon in identifying the party, including the serial number, expiration date, date of birth, etc;
• Fee charged for the notary service; and