Notary Assist, Notary Gadget, Notary Earth, and Alternative Accounting Tools
MY TOP PICK - NOTARY ASSIST
Notary Assist was it for me. I have to admit, it was mainly because of the discount I got for the first year as a Notary2Pro grad. But I didn't see anything in Notary Gadget that I couldn't replicate in Notary Assist, except for adding additional fields. And I did like the Notary Gadget interface a little better, though. Below are my favorite Notary Assist features:
-
The address field is powerd by Google so it autocompletes as you type in the address
-
The tracking number is a direct link to the FedEx, UPS, or other delivery site.
-
The calendar has month, week and day displays.
-
Customizable to add additional signing types.
A VERY CLOSE SECOND - NOTARY GADGET
I really liked Notary Gadget's interface and how intuitive it is. As I stated above, I like the interface more than Notary Assist, but they don't use all of the screen real estate. If you're using a Mac, that's not a big issue, you can just pinch it in and out.
I also like that your trial doesn't end until you have entered 15 signings. With Notary Assist you are allowed up to 20 entries, but it ends after 30 days whether you've used your 20 signings are not.
Notary Gadget is also very customizable for adding additional steams of income. But it doesn't autocomplete your entered addresses. The tracking numbers link to the deliver site, but it's a two step process to get to it. You have to select which deliver server to navigate to.
Notary Gadget does have a nice calendar, although it does not have the week only view. I like that Notary Gadget only tracks notarial acts, but with Notary Assist you enter the total number of documents as well as the notarial acts. I'm not exactly sure why you would need the total number of documents. **UPDATE** I asked Notary Assist about the total number of documents and she stated that it's not tracked in any of the reports and that a lot of users use it to track the total number of pages, which is how I'm using it now.
So here are the good and not as good features:
-
You have to manually enter in each address, no autocompletion. But update, I just found out that paying customers can email automation@notarygadget.com their confirmation to auto populate most of the information.
-
The tracking number is a link, but have to select FedEx, UPS, or other delivery site options.
-
The calendar has month and day displays, but no week only view.
-
Customizable to add up to 5 custom fields.
I HAD HIGH HOPES - NOTARY EARTH
I had high hopes for this application. I think it has potential once some of the glitches are resolved. Also, if he incorporates some of the features of the other notary applications into his solution that would be a big improvement. I was looking forward to checking out some of the features that aren't available with the other two applications, like the Scheduling and online payments. However, those are just added bonuses, what's most important is how the accounting works.
I entered few appointments and right away decided it was not for me. Below are a few of the reasons why:
-
I did not see a way to add additional fields.
-
The columns on the table that displays the appointments can not be sorted.
-
Another gripe about the Appointments table is that even though there are only 3 columns the first one with the signer(s) name is cut off if there are more than 25 or so characters.
-
The Dashboard was inconsistent. I had a couple of completed appointments, but it was still showing one and because it's not very intuitive I couldn't figure out why. Everything was checked, the payment was entered and it displayed complete in the appointments table, but it wasn't counted on the dashboard. Therefore, the Profit section was also wrong.
OTHER OPTIONS
I have only tried Streak Pipelines, but here are some other options:
VenBooks promises to save you the hassel of having to manually enter in all of your appointments.
Quickbooks can be used for small or larger businesses and integrates with Intuit TurboTax.
Excel Spreadsheet can be a good option if you already are familiar with using Excel and no additional cost if you already have MS Office. There are bookkeeping templates out there that you can use as well.
Streak Pipelines - if you use gmail, this is a great free options that you can used to track your appointments , emails and customers. It's a basic CRM tool that's customizable and can be filtered or grouped. You can track your payments, however, I'd suggest for tax purposes to use one of the accounting applications in addition to this option. There are paid versions of Streak as well.