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A notary block is on the last page. You have not called anyone. The pay app you submitted three weeks prior sits half-propped under a stack of material receipts, the edge crinkled where you stuffed it in your truck door after dropping off the first copy at the general contractor’s office. You already double-checked that every line item matches the work you completed, every photo of completed concrete pours is attached, every lien waiver is filled out except for that one final spot at the end. You reach for the last page now, flipping past the signed scope addenda to find the notary block tucked in the lower right corner, just below the final signature line for your authorized rep.
This pay application page in your hand
You already cross-referenced every line item against the work logs you keep on your phone, from the date you poured the footings to the day you stripped the forms for the second-floor slabs. Every change order is attached, signed by the project superintendent, so there are no gaps between the work you performed and the amount you are requesting. This specific page is the only one in the entire packet that requires a third-party verification, which is why you skipped over it earlier when you were filling out the rest of the fields last night at your kitchen table. You had rushed through the administrative work after a 10-hour day on site, stopping only to make sure the numbers matched the schedule of values you negotiated six months prior, and you did not have your notary’s contact information handy to schedule a time to meet. Illustrative example: You are claiming $148,200 for 60% completion of the structural concrete scope on the 12-unit multifamily site, which aligns exactly with the schedule of values you agreed to before work started. You already accounted for the 10% retainage the general contractor holds per your contract, so the total amount listed on the pay app is the exact amount you expect to be processed once the packet is fully approved. No part of this document is inflated, no line item includes work you have not yet completed, so you have no reason to hesitate when you fill out the notary block.
The single verification line that matters
Most pay app notary blocks have a handful of pre-filled lines, including spaces for the notary’s commission number, the date of notarization, and the county where the process takes place, but the only one that impacts the validity of your submission is the line that confirms you are the authorized representative of your company and that the information listed in the pay app is true and correct to the best of your knowledge. You do not need to add extra details about work delays, pending change orders, or material cost fluctuations on this line; those notes belong in the addendum section you already filled out earlier, and adding them here will only confuse the accounting team processing your submission. If you skip this line, the notary cannot validate your signature, which means the general contractor’s accounting team will send the entire packet back to you, adding at least three days to your review timeline and pushing your payment out by a full pay cycle in the worst case. You do not need to adjust any of the pre-printed language on this line, and you do not need to cross out any sections unless the notary explicitly tells you to do so to align with state notarization rules. All you need to do is read the line, confirm it is accurate, and move on to the signature step.
Where you place your signature and notary seal
Follow these steps when you fill out this section to avoid delays or rejected submissions:
- You sign your full legal name on the line marked “Authorized Signer” directly above the notary block, using the same signature you use on all official company documents and the one you provided to the notary when you first had them on file for your business. Do not use a nickname or shortened version of your name, as this can lead to the notary rejecting the signature or the accounting flagging the document as invalid.
- You print your full name, your job title, and your company’s legal business name directly below your signature, making sure every character is legible so the accounting team does not have to follow up to confirm your identity. If your company operates under a DBA, you can list that next to the legal business name if you want, but it is not required for the notarization to be valid.
- You hand the entire packet to the notary, who confirms your identity with your state-issued ID, fills in their commission number, the date of notarization, and the county where the notarization takes place on the pre-marked lines in the block. You do not need to fill in any of these lines for the notary, even if you know their commission number, as this is their legal responsibility to complete.
- You wait for the notary to apply their official seal to the open space in the lower left corner of the block, making sure the seal does not overlap with any of your written information or the notary’s typed details. If the seal smudges, ask the notary to add a second seal next to the first one, and initial next to the smudged seal to confirm it was a mistake during the application process.
- You flip back through the entire packet one time to confirm no pages are stuck together and the notary seal is fully visible before you make two copies of the full document for your own records. You can store one digital copy of the fully notarized pay app in Draw Jacket for easy access later if the project manager asks for a duplicate.
Next time you open this same pay application page
You will open this page again when you receive the stamped, approved copy back from the general contractor’s accounting team, to cross-reference the notary details with the copy you kept for your records. You will check to make sure no one has altered the information in the notary block after you submitted it, and that the approval signature from the general contractor’s authorized rep is dated after the date of your notarization. You will file this copy in your project folder alongside all of your work logs, material receipts, and signed change orders for the duration of the project, and keep it accessible for at least three years after the project reaches substantial completion. If you ever need to reference the amount you requested for this pay period, this is the page you will turn to first, because it is the only page in the entire packet that carries the third-party verification of your submitted information. You may also open this page when you are preparing pay apps for future projects with the same general contractor, to use as a reference for how to fill out the notary block correctly so you can avoid common mistakes that lead to delayed reviews. You will not need to add any new information to this page when you reopen it, and you should never alter any of the existing details, even if you notice a small typo after submission. If you do spot an error when you reopen the page, you can reach out to the general contractor’s accounting team to send a corrected, newly notarized page to replace the old one, as long as you catch the mistake before the pay period closes. You can also pull this page out if a new member of your administrative team asks how to properly fill out pay app notary blocks for other active projects, to show them a real example of a correctly completed section that was accepted without delays.
