What a signing really pays
A signing order shows you one number: the fee. It does not show the 150 pages you are about to print, the 40-mile round trip, or the two and a half hours it takes from printing to scan-back and drop-off. Two signings that pay the same fee can leave you with very different money, and very different hourly rates.
This loan signing agent spreadsheet counts all of it. It is built for loan signing agents and mobile notaries who run their own business. On the Setup tab you work out a cost per printed page from what you pay for paper and toner, enter your own vehicle cost per mile, and set the least you will work for per hour. Then every signing on the Signing Log (room for 300) shows its print cost, travel cost, true net, net dollars per hour, and a verdict: Worth it, Marginal (below your floor but at least 75% of it by default; you set the share on Setup) or Below floor. For the reasoning behind pricing your time and travel, see how to price a service call.
Try it free first: the Loan-Signing Profit Calculator runs this math on one signing (fee, pages, miles, minutes and any platform cut in; true net, net dollars per hour and the verdict out), free and ungated.
Know your minimum fee before you say yes
The Offer Check puts up to three offers side by side: the fee, the notarial acts, the pages, the round-trip miles and the minutes. For each it shows the true net, the net dollars per hour, the minimum fee to accept at your floor, and a line to act on, either “Accept — clears your floor” or the figure to counter at. Below that, it reminds you how each source has paid you before: your average net per hour with them, their average days to pay, what they owe you now and how many invoices are overdue.
Notarial fees, split out on every signing
Every fee is split in two: the notarial portion (your notarial acts times your per-act fee) and the rest, which is your signing-agent, travel and print fee. That split matters at tax time, because fees for notarial acts are excluded from self-employment tax (Internal Revenue Code section 1402(c); see the IRS Schedule SE instructions (opens in new tab)), while signing-agent fees are not.
Enter your own state’s maximum fee per notarial act on Setup. The National Notary Association publishes a notary fee chart by state (opens in new tab); this workbook ships no state table. If a signing charges more per act than your cap, the log flags it OVER CAP, and only the capped amount is counted as notarial. No cap in your state? Leave it blank, and the log reads “No cap set”.
Who’s actually worth driving for
The Sources tab lists up to 25 title companies, escrow offices, signing services and direct clients. From your log it works out each one’s signings, average fee, average true net, net dollars per hour, average days to pay, whether they pay on time against their terms, the unpaid balance and overdue invoices, then ranks them by net dollars per hour with a verdict: prioritize, chase invoices, ask for higher fees, or drop or renegotiate.
Every unpaid invoice, aged
Add the date you invoiced and the date you were paid, and each signing gets its days to pay. Anything unpaid is aged as of the date you set, and the Receivables tab totals it in 4 buckets (0–30, 31–60, 61–90 and 90+ days), by source, with the overdue total and anything done but not yet invoiced.
Taxes, mileage and the year
- Mileage — signing miles roll in from the log, you add other business trips, and the standard mileage deduction uses the IRS rate you enter for your tax year.
- Expenses — 19 expense categories (commission, bond, E&O insurance, screening, certification, supplies and more), each mapped to its Schedule C line and tax treatment, with the startup and annual costs marked as fixed.
- Tax Summary — gross receipts split into notarial and non-notarial income, expenses on 10 Schedule C lines, net profit, and a self-employment-tax estimate. The headline estimate is the conservative one, with expenses allocated pro rata; the more favorable reading is shown beside it for comparison. It finishes with a set-aside to move from every payment. For marketplace income reporting, see how to report a 1099-K on Schedule C.
- Dashboard — the year so far, net dollars per hour, the signings it takes to cover the year’s fixed costs, your best and worst source, and every month side by side.
What’s in the download
- The workbook — 10 tabs: Read Me, Setup, Signing Log, Offer Check, Sources, Receivables, Mileage, Expenses, Tax Summary and Dashboard.
- A 13-page Start Here guide — what a signing really nets, your fee floor and the Offer Check, notarial and signing-agent fees, getting paid, tax time and your first week.
- 8 printable pages — a signing-day checklist (before you leave, at the table, scan-back, drop-off and billing), a notarial acts record, a minimum-fee quick table, a signing-day log, a business-mileage log and an invoice follow-up tracker. The notarial acts record is a business record. It does not replace the journal your state requires.
- Open in Google Sheets.pdf and READ-ME-FIRST.txt.
Pre-filled, so nothing is blank on the first open
The workbook opens on a worked example: 64 invented signings from invented title companies and signing services, with sample offers, trips and expenses, so every tab calculates straight away. None of it is a real business, and the default costs and rates are illustrative placeholders.
To make it yours:
- Fill in the Setup tab: your paper and toner costs (the cost per page calculates), cost per mile, per-act fee, state cap and hourly floor.
- Clear the sample input cells on Signing Log, Sources and Expenses (under YOU TYPE) and on Mileage (Date through Miles), and type over the three sample offers on the Offer Check tab. Don’t delete whole rows: the calculated (teal) columns in them must stay. Then add your own sources.
- Log each signing the day you do it, then add the invoiced date, and the paid date and amount paid when the money arrives.
- Run the next order you’re offered through the Offer Check before you accept.
Prefer Google Sheets? No import needed
The download includes a one-click link that makes your own native Google Sheets copy, formulas already working. The .xlsx itself opens in Excel and LibreOffice.
Own it, don’t rent it
Many notary business apps are a monthly subscription. This is a file you buy once and keep. Your fees, sources and signings stay in your own workbook.
When the business outgrows a spreadsheet, Ardent Seller (opens in new tab) is our living operations app for small-business sellers, with a free plan to start, on the same own-it ethic.
A note on the numbers
This workbook calculates from the numbers you give it. The tax figures are planning estimates, not a return, and not tax or legal advice; a tax professional makes your filing real. Not affiliated with the National Notary Association, the IRS, or any title company or signing service.
