When the notary closes an act in the office's intake form, the act type, date, serial number, signer ID details and fee are written to the notarial register in Google Sheets, with no gaps in numbering and missing fields flagged at once.
Typical results
0
Gaps or duplicates in serial numbering
Same day
Register complete after each act
½ day
Annual inspection prep, down from most of a week
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
A notary office must keep a complete register of every act with consecutive serial numbers, signer details and fees. Entries are copied from paper notes and receipts at the end of the week, serial numbers get skipped or doubled, and before each annual inspection the staff spend most of a week reconciling the register against the receipts.
Before and after
Hours a month on register upkeep
−80%Days of catch-up before the annual inspection
−88%Numbering gaps or duplicates per year
−100%The automation
When the notary marks an act as closed in the office's intake form, Make writes a new row to the notarial register in Google Sheets with the act type, date, next serial number, signer name and ID number, and the fee. The automation assigns serial numbers in order, so none are skipped. A row with any missing field is highlighted and the notary gets an alert. At month end, the register exports in the column format the regulator expects.
How it works
- 01
Act closed in the intake form
The notary marks the act as closed, with the act type, signer details and fee already in the form.
- 02
Serial number assigned
The automation takes the next number in sequence, so no serial is skipped or used twice.
- 03
Register row written
A new row lands in the notarial register in Google Sheets with every required field.
- 04
Missing fields flagged
Any empty field is highlighted and the notary gets an alert to complete it the same day.
- 05
Monthly regulator export
At month end the register exports in the column format the regulator expects, ready for inspection.
Starts from
- Notary intake form
Delivers
- Notarial register row
- Missing-field alert
- Monthly regulator export
The impact
The office saves about 4 hours a month of copying and checking, and the register is complete on the day each act is signed. Annual inspection preparation shrinks from most of a week to a half-day review, because numbering gaps and missing fields are fixed as they happen.
Questions about this automation
Where does the act information come from?
From the intake form the notary already fills during the act: act type, signer name and ID number, number of signers and the fee. When the act is marked closed, the answers are copied into the register, so nothing is typed twice and the form stays the single source.
How are serial numbers kept consecutive?
The automation reads the last serial number in the register and assigns the next one at the moment the act is closed. Two notaries closing acts at the same moment are handled one after the other, so each act gets a unique number and the sequence never skips.
Can the register format change if the regulator updates it?
Yes. The export is a mapping from register columns to the regulator's required layout, so a change in the required columns or their order is a configuration update. Simple automations like this are usually live within days, and earlier entries can be imported from the office's existing register.