Have your own favorite tool or app? Join the conversation in our Facebook community.
Notary work can be tedious and time-consuming. Between keeping detailed records, preparing for assignments, and delivering and filing essential documents, time spent on the job each day sometimes seems to disappear without any tangible results.
Knowing that time is our most valuable resource, Notaries across the country have found useful and innovative ways to save time, be more efficient, and increase productivity.
We recently asked the NNA Community in our recent Question of the Week: What’s one tool or app you can’t run your Notary business without? There have been more than 90 responses so far, and here are a few of the ideas that have improved Notaries’ daily lives:
- San Diego Notary Christina Hough, who happens to be the NNA’s 2023 Notary of the Year, posted her strong suggestion for WaveApps.com, an all-in-one accounting, invoicing, and money management platform geared toward small businesses. If the Notary of the Year is using it, it might be worth checking out.
- Signing Agent Justin Jones of Tennessee uses a variety of tools that make his job easier and more efficient: “I use a lot of technology. Notary Assist for scheduling, Waze to get me there, Jurat Inc. for my journal, Adobe Scans (app) for small files and to drop off receipts.”
- Dozens of respondents in the question of the week thread strongly suggested Notary Gadget, which is a small business and accounting platform developed specifically for Notaries Public. The platform is touted as powerful enough to run your entire Notary business and make everything you do faster, easier and more efficient.
- Notary Lina Jiminez of California took a more real-world approach to her answer, and it's legit: “My Notary briefcase on wheels is a tool I can’t live without! It houses everything and is my little office with everything a Notary needs to go!”
- Pam Witwer, a busy Notary in Pennsylvania, also took a practical approach to her answer: “As a senior-focused traveling Notary, one of my favorite tools is my ‘branded clipboard.’ It may seem simple, but it makes all the difference when I’m working in hospitals, senior living facilities, or rehab centers where not every room has a table or desk. Sometimes my clients can’t sit upright in bed to sign. With my clipboard, I always have a sturdy surface to complete my journal entries and to make signing easier for my clients.”
There’s much more discussion happening in our social community, so find out more in the NNA’s Question of the Week thread. And while you’re there, drop in your own ideas and experiences about Notary tools and apps you can’t live without.
Editor’s note: Some responses have been lightly edited for grammar and clarity.
Phillip Browne is the Vice President of Communications at the National Notary Association.