The SealBook Handbook

1 · Getting started

1. Create your account at /app/ (or accept your firm's invite link). You'll enter your commission number, state, and expiration — SealBook uses these to apply your state's recording rules automatically.
2. Choose your document setting. In Settings, decide whether new cases keep encrypted copies of the documents you notarize ("evidence mode") or record journal entries only. You can override this on any individual case. Evidence mode requires the Pro plan.
3. Install the mobile app for capture in the field. Your journal, cases, and settings are the same everywhere — phone, tablet, and web.

2 · Recording a notarial act — the 60-second flow

Tap the big New Notarial Act button. Five steps:

1. Snap the document. Photograph the first page (or every page — keep tapping Capture page). The moment of capture becomes the entry's timestamp, with GPS time recorded alongside when available. If you skip the photo, everything else still works.
2. Scan the ID. Point the camera at the barcode on the back of the driver's license. The signer's name, address, ID state, expiration, and last 4 fill themselves — perfectly spelled. The ID photo and full ID number are never stored. Passports: use manual entry with the ID type set to passport. No ID handy or personal knowledge? Tap Enter ID manually.
3. Confirm the details. The act type and document category are pre-selected — adjust with one tap. Set pages, fee, and attach the act to a case if it belongs to one. If you want proof images or PDFs saved with this act, attach an evidence-mode case, check Save proof/images for this act, then take one or more document photos or upload files before sealing. Note any unusual circumstances.
4. Hand the signer your device. They sign with a finger. (For stronger evidence, use a remote signature so they sign on their own phone.)
5. Seal. Review the summary and tap Seal entry into journal. The entry is locked into your tamper-evident chain instantly — even with no signal.

3 · Your journal: verify, search, export, amend

Verify the chain

Every entry carries a cryptographic seal linking it to the entry before it. Tap Verify chain anytime — SealBook re-checks every link from your journal's genesis to its head. If any record had been altered, every entry after it would break, and you'd see exactly where.

Search & filter

Search by signer name or document title; filter by act type. Tap any entry for the full record, including the seal hashes.

Export

Export CSV downloads your complete journal — including every hash — at any time. It's your record; it travels with you.

Amendments

Open the entry that needs correcting and tap Record correcting amendment. Enter the corrected information; the new entry references the original, and the original is marked "amended." Nothing is ever erased.

Lawful inspection

If your records are requested by a court or your commissioning office, export the relevant range. Each entry's hashes let anyone confirm the records haven't changed since the day they were sealed.

4 · Cases & document evidence

A case is one transaction: a client, a fee, one or more journal entries, and (optionally) a document file. A loan signing with 40 notarized pages is one case, many entries, one invoice.

Creating a case

Cases tab → + New case. Name it, add the client, set the fee. Choose whether this case keeps documents (evidence mode) or stays journal-only — your account default applies unless you override.

Adding evidence

• From the act form: check Save proof/images for this act, take document photos from your phone camera, or upload multiple PDFs/images. SealBook uploads the files first, records each SHA-256 hash, and binds those hashes into the journal entry when you seal.
• Upload: open the case and drag files in (PDF, JPG, PNG, HEIC) or tap to choose.
• Email-in: every case has its own address (shown on the case, like [email protected]) — title companies can email the package straight into the file.
• Assemble: captured multiple pages? Assemble pages into PDF builds one document from them.

Every file is hashed the moment it arrives, encrypted, and its fingerprint is sealed into the journal entry. If a notarization is ever challenged, open the case and tap Evidence package — SealBook re-verifies every file against its recorded hash and reports the result. That's "prove exactly what you notarized."

5 · Getting paid

• Payment link: open the case → Payment link → send it or show the QR. The client pays by card; the case marks itself paid and the revenue flows into your analytics.
• Cash, check, Zelle: tap Mark paid… and choose the method — first-class, not an afterthought.
• Outstanding: your Dashboard shows everything unpaid at a glance.

6 · Expenses, analytics & taxes

Expenses tab: log mileage (enter miles; SealBook computes the deduction at the standard rate), supplies, E&O insurance, fees, software. Attach expenses to cases to see true per-case profit.

Dashboard: revenue by act type, document category, month, client, and payment method; expenses by category; profit and margin; miles logged.

Tax summary: one tap produces a Schedule-C-shaped year summary — gross receipts, categorized expenses, vehicle miles, net profit. Hand it to your preparer in January instead of reconstructing a year from receipts.

7 · Remote signatures (QR)

Instead of handing the signer your device, let them sign on their own phone: open the case → Remote signature → enter their name → show them the QR (or send the link). They sign; the signature lands in your case with their device's fingerprint recorded, and attaches to your next entry for that case. Links work once and expire in 24 hours.

8 · Thumbprints & consent

Where your state permits it, SealBook can capture a thumbprint image as part of the record — California requires one for deeds and real-property powers of attorney, and the app prompts you automatically on those documents.

1. After the signature step, the consent screen appears. Read it to the signer (or let them read it); capture proceeds only after consent.
2. The signer presses a thumb on the SealBook ink card (or any dark, matte surface) and you photograph the print.
3. The image is stored encrypted in the sealed record — as evidence only. It is never used for matching or identification.

9 · State rules & multiple commissions

SealBook carries a rules profile for all 50 states + DC: whether a journal is mandated, retention period, statutory fee caps, ID-number restrictions, and thumbprint policy. Your commission's rules apply automatically — see them under Settings → Your state's rule, with a flag when a rule is pending our verification.

Hold commissions in more than one state? Settings → + Add a commission. Each commission keeps its own legally separate journal, and each act is recorded under the right one with the right rules.

10 · Firms, storefronts & the Admin tab

SealBook's organization layer is built the way notary law is: the journal belongs to the notary; the record of acts performed at the business belongs to the business.

For administrators

• Invite your notaries from the Admin tab — each person sets their own password and keeps their own journal. Existing SealBook users link their account; new staff are onboarded through the invite.
• The dashboard shows acts and fees per notary, activity by month and act type, and — critically — commission expirations, with warnings at 90 days. A lapsed commission notarizing at your counter is the lawsuit you'll never see coming; SealBook sees it.
• Receipts, not journals. You see who notarized, when, what kind of act, and the fee — the oversight the business needs — without holding the notary's statutory record. That separation is what protects the firm in an ownership dispute.
• Offboarding: remove a departing notary with one click. Their access ends immediately, your record of every act performed at your business remains permanently, and their journal goes with them (as the law requires) via automatic export.

For notaries at a firm

When recording an act, attach it to a firm case (or perform it on the firm's device) and it appears in the firm's receipts. Your personal weekend notarizations stay yours alone — the firm never sees them.

11 · Digital sealing & e-notarization sessions

Digital seal (the electronic stamp): once your commission is verified and your signing certificate is enrolled (Settings → E-notary), any PDF in a case gets a digital seal button. SealBook appends your statutory certificate wording and e-seal, then signs the whole PDF with your X.509 certificate — open it in Adobe and the signature panel proves who sealed it and that not one byte has changed. Bind the returned hash into the journal entry and the document and your journal cross-verify forever.

Sessions: from a case, tap E-notarize session. The signer opens their link, consents, and completes the identity stage; you run the ceremony, seal the PDF, record the journal entry, and complete the session. In-person electronic sessions are fully live. Remote video sessions run in clearly labeled pilot mode until statutory identity proofing is configured — and always require the session recording before they can complete.

11a · Appointments & your booking page

Open the Schedule tab and set up booking once: pick a link handle, your hours, and your services (in-person and remote, each with its own price). You get a public page — sealbook.app/book/your-name — where signers choose a service and a time from your real availability.

• Both sides get calendar files (.ics — opens in Google, Outlook, and Apple Calendar) and the signer gets a manage link to cancel.
• A case opens automatically for every booking, pre-filled with the signer, document, and fee — appointment to sealed act with nothing retyped.
• Remote appointments: at the appointment time, open the case and start the e-notarize session; the signer link goes out then.
• Double-booking is impossible — a taken slot disappears for everyone instantly.

Location checks on remote sessions

The law requires the notary to be physically inside their commission state during a remote act. Before a remote ceremony can start, SealBook runs a location check on your device: GPS, network region, and timezone, cross-checked against your commission state and logged as evidence. A failed check blocks the ceremony. The signer's location is also recorded (signers may lawfully be anywhere — it's evidence, not a gate). Using a VPN or location spoofing to fake presence in your state is a crime — SealBook's checks exist to protect honest notaries' records, and every check, pass or fail, is in the log.

12 · Working offline

Signings happen in basements, hospital rooms, and rural driveways. SealBook doesn't care:

• Entries seal on your device with the real cryptographic chain — no signal required.
• A banner shows anything waiting to sync; it pushes automatically when you're back online (or tap it to retry).
• If another of your devices wrote to the journal first, SealBook re-links your pending entries onto the current chain automatically — nothing is lost, nothing duplicates.

13 · How SealBook protects your records

• Tamper-evident chain: each entry's seal is computed from its contents plus the previous entry's seal. Change anything, and every subsequent entry breaks visibly.
• Append-only: no edit, no delete — corrections are linked amendments.
• Encryption: evidence files are encrypted at rest under keys unique to you (or your firm).
• ID minimization: ID type, issuing state, expiration, and last 4 only. Full ID numbers and ID images are never stored — we can't leak what we don't keep.
• Three time sources: device time, GPS satellite time, and server-receipt time — recorded together, so a backdated clock can't fake a record.
• Access logging: every view and download of evidence is itself recorded in a tamper-evident audit log.
• Your data is portable: full export at any time, no lock-in.

14 · Quick answers

Can I fix a mistake in an entry? Not by editing — record a correcting amendment from the entry's detail view. Both records remain, linked.

What happens if I lose my phone? Your synced journal is safe in encrypted backup; sign in on any device. Report a lost device from Settings, and SealBook gives state-aware guidance for any required lost/stolen journal notice.

Does the person I'm notarizing for need the app? No. They only touch your screen to sign — or their own phone for a remote signature.

I do loan signings — do I make an entry per document? Yes, one entry per notarized document, all attached to one case with one fee and one invoice. Capture the package once; the pages serve the whole case.

Can I reset my password by email? Yes. On the sign-in screen, tap Forgot password?. SealBook emails a 30-minute reset link using the configured SMTP account. In pilot mode without SMTP, operators can see the generated reset link in the API response for testing.

Can my employer see my journal? They see receipts of acts performed for the business — never your journal's contents, and never your personal acts.

Is SealBook legal advice? No. SealBook is recordkeeping software built to statutory requirements; compliance remains each notary's responsibility. When in doubt, your commissioning office is the authority.