Notary fees: how to organise billing and collection

The fee for a deed has an institutional framework — proportional rates, fixed fees, minimums. What has no framework is your own organisation around it: when you discuss it, how you record disbursements and how quickly you get paid. That’s where the money is lost, not in the calculation.

The fee is discussed before the file is opened

A party who learns the cost on signing day is an unhappy party — even if the amount is entirely reasonable. A written estimate at the first meeting, separating the fee, disbursements and taxes, takes five minutes and spares you the most unpleasant conversation in the profession.

Fee, disbursements, duties: three columns, not one amount

• Fee: whatever corresponds to your own work — proportional or fixed.
• Disbursements you advance: certificates, stamp duties, copies, registration fees. They’re recorded at the moment they’re paid, in the file for the deed.
• The client’s taxes and duties: they don’t pass through your own till if you can avoid it — and when they do, they appear separately in the final statement.

Mixing the three into “one round figure” is why the client thinks your fee is twice what it really is — and why you don’t know whether the file turned a profit.

Asking for a deposit isn’t rude

For deeds with significant upfront disbursements or a lot of preparation, a deposit is standard professional practice: it covers the costs you pay out of your own pocket and commits the client who will “think it over and get back to you”. A reasonable arrangement: disbursements on instruction, balance on signing.

Unpaid deeds are a record-keeping problem

People rarely refuse to pay a notary. Usually nobody asked them again: the deed was signed, the file was archived, the balance was forgotten. A view of outstanding amounts per client — who, how much, since when — is all you need to stop it happening.

In NotaryPro, fees and disbursements are recorded on the deed from your own price list, deposits are deducted automatically and each client’s outstanding balance is visible on one screen — not in a spreadsheet updated “whenever you get round to it”.

Conclusion

A written estimate before the file opens, three columns instead of one amount, a deposit where it makes sense and a weekly look at what’s outstanding. None of this needs accounting knowledge — it only needs every transaction to be recorded on the day it happens.