Don't backdate - no matter what
Lenders and signing companies will ask you to backdate sometime in your signing career. They will need you to backdate to keep a lock on a rate in a loan. They will twist your arm. Be willing to lose a customer by refusing to break the law. You could lose your commission and your career and even face jail time if you get caught for backdating. Lose a client instead of losing your career.
Backdating definition
Backdating means to put a false date on a document that precedes the actual signing of a document. Lenders will sometimes try to coerce a notary to backdate so that the borrower can keep a low interest rate promised to them that they would not be able to keep if they put the real date on their signatures or notarization. Don't backdate. Its illegal and you can get caught and lose your notary commission as a result.
Notarization date
The date the notarization took place ( which is when the signer signs the notary journal and when the notary completes a notary certificate and affixes their seal to the certificate ) could be after a document is signed in the case of an acknolwedged signature. It is often also different than the document date. Just make sure you don't notarize a document before its signed, otherwise you can get in trouble. Many notaries like to save time at a loan signing by notarizing the documents in a loan package before they arrive at the signing. What if a signer forgets to sign a document, or what if the signing gets cancelled. Then, you have many documents to destroy, and you broke the law as well.
Signature date
The signature date is the date a signer signed a document. The signature date on the Right to Cancel is especially critical as the borrower has three days to cancel the loan after they sign that document. Sometimes two signers will sign the same document on a different date, and perhaps different county or state as well. Husbands and wives are not always at the same place at the same time. Signature dates can be before the notarization of an acknolwedged signature. However, signature dates for Jurats must be when the notarization took place and must be signed before the notary and signatures must be accompanied by a verbal oath in the case of a Jurat.