How to Bill for Notary Services
Notary work looks simple to bill until you send your first mobile invoice and realize the stamp is the cheap part. Notary invoicing has a rule that catches new notaries off guard: the fee for the notarial act itself is capped by your state, so the base fee is not where your money comes from. The travel fee is.
This guide covers how to set your fees, itemize a mobile visit, and bill both signing companies and walk-in clients. It is practical, not legal advice. Check your own state's notary handbook for the exact rules that apply to you.
The two fees on every notary invoice
A notary invoice has two very different parts, and it helps to keep them separate in your head.
The first part is the notarial fee. This is the price for the official act: the acknowledgment, the jurat, the oath. Every state sets a maximum you can charge per act, and that cap is usually a small dollar amount per signature or per stamp. You cannot charge more than the cap, so this part of the invoice is fixed for you.
The second part is the travel or convenience fee. This is what you charge to show up. For a mobile notary, this is the fee you actually set yourself, and it is where most of your revenue lives. The law caps the stamp. It does not cap what you charge to drive to a hospital room at 9pm on a Sunday.
Keep these two apart on the invoice. When a client sees "notarial act" and "travel fee" as separate lines, they know the state sets one and you set the other. That single habit prevents most fee disputes.
General notary work vs loan signing
Most notaries bill in one of two modes, and they price very differently.
General notary work is one-off acts: a power of attorney, a school form, a title transfer, an affidavit. You charge the capped notarial fee per act, plus a travel fee if you go to them. A walk-in at a shipping store might be two stamps and nothing else. A bedside signing at a care home is two stamps plus a real travel fee.
Loan signing is different. A loan signing agent walks a borrower through a full loan package, a refinance, a purchase, or a HELOC, and handles dozens of pages with a handful of notarized signatures inside. Signing agents usually quote a flat fee per signing package to the hiring company. That flat fee bundles the notarial acts, the trip, the printing, and the time. You are not billing per stamp here. You are billing for the whole job.
You can do both. Just price the two as separate lines of business.
How to itemize a mobile visit
When you drive to a client, break the invoice into clear lines. A clean mobile notary invoice has three kinds of lines:
- Notarial acts - each stamp at your state's per-act rate. List the number of acts so the math is obvious.
- Travel fee - a flat trip charge, or a rate based on distance. This is the mobile notary fee you set. Many notaries use tiers by zone or by mileage.
- Printing or waiting time - documents you printed, extra copies, or time spent waiting on a late signer. Charge these only if they apply.
Here is a short example. You drive to a client to notarize two documents. Your state caps the act at $10, so that is $20 for the stamps. Your travel fee for that zone is $30. You printed one document set, which you bill at $10. The invoice total is $60, and every line shows exactly where the number came from.
A worked example: mobile loan signing
Loan signings are where the numbers get bigger, so it helps to see one broken out. Say a title company hires you for a refinance signing at the borrower's home. You quote a flat $125 for the package. Here is what that $125 covers when you break it down:
- Notarial acts: 4 stamps at your state's $10 per-act rate = $40
- Travel fee: trip to the borrower's home = $35
- Printing and time: two full document sets, the sit-down, and the drop-off = $50
- Flat package fee: $125
The company sees one number, $125, on the invoice. You keep the breakdown for yourself so you know the job was worth taking. If the drive is long, you raise the travel portion and quote a higher fee next time. The stamps stay fixed at the state rate. The rest is yours to price.
Track the stamp count on every signing. It tells you whether a package was light or heavy, and it is the one number a company or an auditor might ask you to confirm later.
Billing companies vs collecting from walk-ins
Who you bill changes how you get paid.
Walk-in and mobile clients pay on the spot. Collect when the work is done, before you leave the driveway. For these jobs your invoice is really a receipt. Hand them a clean copy or email a PDF so they have a record.
Title companies, escrow offices, and signing services pay on terms. They will not hand you cash at the door. They expect an invoice with your name, the signing date, the borrower or file name, and your fee, and they pay it on their own schedule, often Net 30. You are floating the work for a month, so you have to track what is outstanding.
This is where busy signing agents slip. You do ten signings in a month for four companies, each on Net 30, and you lose track of who has paid. Record every invoice you send and mark it paid when the money lands. With SettleDue you record partial and full payments against each invoice, so at any moment you can see which companies still owe you and how much. If a title company is 40 days out, you know to call.
Keep a clean record of every job
Notaries keep two kinds of records, and it is easy to confuse them.
One is your notarial journal, the log of acts your state may require you to keep. That is a legal record, separate from billing.
The other is your business record: what you charged, who paid, and when. This is the one that matters at tax time. Every travel fee, every flat signing fee, and every printing charge is income you report. Every mile you drive and every ream of paper is a possible deduction. If your records are a shoebox of receipts, you will overpay or scramble in April.
Log each job as you finish it: date, client or company, the acts, the travel fee, and the total. At the end of the quarter you pull a report instead of rebuilding the year from memory. An invoice generator that saves every invoice and payment gives you that history without a spreadsheet.
Stay within your state's fee rules
One rule sits above all of this: you cannot charge more than your state allows for the notarial act itself. The cap is per act, and it varies widely from state to state, so do not copy another notary's numbers or assume a figure you saw online applies to you. Read your own state's fee schedule and price the stamp at or below the cap.
The travel fee is different. Most states let you charge a separate, reasonable travel fee as long as you disclose it and the client agrees to it before you start. Some states ask you to itemize travel apart from the notarial fee, another reason to keep the two on their own lines. When in doubt, quote the travel fee up front and get a yes before you drive.
Set your fees and start billing
Notary billing comes down to a simple split: the state prices the stamp, and you price the trip. Set a travel fee that makes the drive worth your time, itemize your mobile visits, and bill companies on terms while you collect from walk-ins on the spot.
SettleDue handles the whole cycle for a mobile notary: build the invoice, email a PDF, record payments, and see who still owes you. It has been helping small businesses bill their clients since 2011.
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