This guide is for Virginia law firm partners and administrators evaluating NotaryCentral for multi-notary journal operations and compliance tracking. It focuses on notarization recordkeeping obligations that begin July 1, 2026, and maps those requirements to how teams can operate in NotaryCentral.
Important scope clarification
This article addresses electronic journal and compliance tracking workflows. It is not a sales page for remote online notarization (RON) or end-to-end electronic notarial execution.
If your firm needs a centralized journal of in-person, client-facing notarizations (e.g., wills, powers of attorney, trust documents), this workflow is designed to support that recordkeeping objective.
1) Multi-user firm subscription model (team workspace)
A law firm can use a team workspace in NotaryCentral:
- Open Menu → My Team: https://app.notarycentral.org/search/settings/team
- Invite additional members and/or additional admins.
- Support a multi-notary operating model through team membership and subscription-seat assignment.
What each notary gets
- Their own login.
- Their own journal workflow and entry creation responsibility.
- Admins cannot create journal entries on behalf of other members.
What firm admins can do
- View journal entries across team members/admins.
- Export entries across team members/admins.
- Manage staffing transitions by adjusting subscription-seat assignment.
Staffing flexibility and active/inactive status
- To set a notary inactive while retaining the account, remove the journal subscription seat from that user.
- To remove a notary from the team workspace entirely, remove the member from the workspace.
Operational note: If you remove a member from the team workspace, the workspace loses access to that member’s journal entries. Plan offboarding/export procedures before removal.
For team setup details, see also:
2) Virginia statutory recordkeeping requirements (effective July 1, 2026)
The compliance anchor for Virginia firms is the record requirement for notarial acts occurring on or after July 1, 2026.
Primary Virginia source links:
- Virginia General Assembly bill text (HB163): https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB163/text/HB163
- Code of Virginia, Title 47.1 (Notaries): https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodefull/title47.1/
Statutory excerpts (primary source text)
From Virginia’s enacted 2026 notary updates (as reflected in Title 47.1 updates and HB163):
“The record of any non-electronic notarial act performed on or after July 1, 2026...”
“...shall be maintained for a period of at least five years...”
Virginia Title 47.1 also specifies required journal content for notarial records, including:
- date/time of notarial act,
- type of notarial act,
- document description,
- printed principal name/address,
- evidence of identity,
- and fee charged (if any).
3) Compliance mapping: Virginia requirement → NotaryCentral field/workflow
Below is an implementation map designed for internal compliance review.
| Virginia record requirement (Title 47.1 concepts) | NotaryCentral field/workflow |
|---|---|
| Date and time of notarial act | Journal entry date/time fields in the journal creation/edit flow |
| Type of notarial act | Act-type selection in journal entry |
| Type/title/description of document | Document metadata in journal entry |
| Printed name of signer/principal | Signer profile and principal fields in entry |
| Address | Signer/principal address fields |
| Evidence of identity used | Identification section (personally known / ID document / credible witness logging) |
| ID type / ID number | Identification details captured in entry (including document identifiers) |
| Credible witness details | Identification witness details in entry |
| Translator/interpreter context | Internal notes/comments and related participant notes |
| Internal notes/comments | Journal notes/comment fields |
| Fee charged (if any) | Journal payment/fee fields |
| Retention period (minimum legal baseline) | Platform retention supports long-term storage; implement firm policy to satisfy legal minimums and internal retention controls |
For field-level usage walkthroughs, link out to:
- Capturing ID Numbers in Your E-Journal
- Electronic Journal Management and Drafting
- Paper Journal Logging and Offline Entries
4) Administrative oversight and auditability
For law firms with multiple staff notaries, centralized oversight is typically a deciding factor.
Completed vs. in-progress work
- Admins can review team journal records and export them.
- Draft/in-progress journal states are managed within each notary’s workflow; firms should define internal review controls and completion SOPs.
Cross-notary oversight
- Team admins can monitor notarial activity across staff members through team-based access and exports.
Turnover and continuity
- Journal entries are retained indefinitely on platform infrastructure.
- However, removing a member from the team workspace ends that workspace’s access to the removed member’s entries.
Recommended control: export and archive records before offboarding, then document offboarding in your compliance checklist.
5) Export and data ownership
Current export options:
- JSON
This supports dual-control outcomes often required in firm operations:
- Individual notaries can obtain their own records (subject to account/workspace governance).
- Firms can retain administrative copies through centralized export workflows.
For export process details, see:
6) Fit for trust-and-estate and other law-firm workflows
This model is generally suitable for firms handling:
- powers of attorney,
- wills and trust documents,
- recurring client notarizations,
- multiple in-house notaries under administrative oversight.
Why this structure fits law firms
- Individual accountability (each notary has separate login and entry responsibility).
- Administrative oversight (cross-team view/export capability).
- Practical staffing controls (seat-based active/inactive adjustments).
- Exportability for audits, litigation readiness, or internal records management.
7) Best-practice implementation checklist (for partners/admins)
- Establish team workspace and define admin roles.
- Assign each notary a separate user account and seat.
- Adopt a Virginia field-completion checklist aligned to Title 47.1 requirements.
- Define draft-review and completion SOPs.
- Create offboarding procedure: export records first, then remove member.
- Set written retention policy that is at least as strict as Virginia’s minimum legal period.
- Schedule quarterly internal audit sampling for journal completeness.
8) Legal note
This article provides implementation guidance for product usage and statutory mapping. It is not legal advice. Law firms should have counsel validate their final compliance program against the current Code of Virginia and any Secretary of the Commonwealth guidance.