Session Oversight

Required permission: sessions.read (Support group)

The All Sessions page gives admins a read-only view of every notarisation session on the platform, across all notaries and clients.

Searching Sessions

Filter by:

• Date range
• Status: scheduled, in_progress, completed, cancelled
• Notary name or SCN
• Client name or email
• Session ID

Session Detail

Clicking a session opens the full session record:

Field	Notes
Participants	Client, notary, witnesses (if any)
Documents	Uploaded documents with signing status
Video	Composite session recording (camera feeds + notary signing surface with session ID, notary name, and WAT timestamp burned in). Download link valid for 15 minutes.
Signing events	Field signatures, seal application, certificate generation
COI declaration	Whether the notary declared a conflict of interest
ENR check	Whether the notary's NPN status was verified at session start
No-show client choice	If the notary did not join: what the client chose when prompted — wait (stayed in the room), reassign_now (requested another notary immediately), or reschedule (requested a new time). Blank if the notary joined normally.
Reassignment history	Every time this booking changed hands: who it came from, who it went to, when, the reason, and the cause — temporal (a timing failure), conflict (a Reg 9 declaration or a matter outside the notary's practice), or standing (a suspended or withdrawn account). The cause decides whether the client may ask for their original notary back, so a support query about a client who "cannot rebook with their own notary" is answered here. Outcomes include reassigned, no_replacement_full_refund, returned_to_original (the client waited for their own notary) and client_declined_full_refund.
Reassignment client choice	What the client did about the most recent reassignment — accept, rebook_original, or cancel_refund. Blank where the booking was never reassigned, or where the client has not answered.
Reassignment pricing	An audit record of the money at the moment of a reassignment: the previous notary and their commission rate, the replacement and theirs, and what the booking charged. Fees do not change on a reassignment; only the commission is re-snapshotted, because the platform's commission agreement is with the notary conducting the act. This record is never used to compute a payout — it exists so a payout queried months later can be explained.
Chat transcript	In-session messages
Evidence pack	Compiled session evidence (available to Pro+ clients)

Accessing Session Recordings

Session recordings are stored securely and are not accessible to notaries or clients directly. Access is restricted to users in the Compliance or Support groups.

To retrieve a recording:

1. Open the session detail.
2. In the Video row of the session record, click Download Recording.
3. A time-limited download link is generated (valid for 15 minutes). Download the file promptly — the link expires after this window.

Every recording access is written to the audit log automatically, recording which admin account retrieved the file, the timestamp, and the session ID. This log is available under Compliance → Audit Log.

Recordings are for authorised use only

Session recordings contain legally sensitive content including participant identity verification and signed documents. Access them only in connection with a specific compliance inquiry, legal hold, or support escalation. Do not download or share recordings outside of documented case workflows.

Evidence Packs

Evidence packs are compiled records of a session for legal use. Admins can access them directly:

1. Open the session detail
2. Click Evidence Pack
3. Download the compiled PDF

Evidence packs include: session metadata, video link, signed document copies, audit trail, certificate.

Intervening in a Live Session

Admins cannot join an in-progress session as a participant — the session room is restricted to the booked notary, client, and any declared witnesses.

If a live session requires immediate intervention (e.g. a safeguarding concern, reported misconduct, or platform abuse), the escalation path is:

1. Pull up the session detail and note the notary's registered phone number and the client's email.
2. Contact the notary directly by phone to instruct them to terminate the session.
3. If the notary is unresponsive, use Cancel Session (see below) — this terminates the session from the backend and disconnects all participants within the current reconnect grace period.
4. Document the reason in the session's internal notes field and open a compliance case if a regulatory breach is suspected.

Disputed Sessions

If a client or notary disputes a session outcome:

1. Note the session ID from the complaint or support ticket
2. Pull up the session detail and evidence pack
3. Review signing events and COI declaration for irregularities
4. Escalate to compliance if a regulatory breach is suspected

Cancellation (Admin-Initiated)

Admins with sessions.write permission can cancel a session at any status: scheduled, in_progress, or pending_payment.

To cancel a session:

1. Open the session detail from Sessions → All Sessions.
2. Click Cancel Session in the top-right action menu.
3. Enter a cancellation reason — this is required and is sent to both the notary and client by email.
4. Confirm. The session status changes to cancelled immediately.

What happens after an admin cancellation:

Participant	Effect
Client	Receives cancellation email with the reason. Refund is processed automatically via Paystack — full notarisation fee refunded regardless of timing (admin cancellations are not subject to the normal 6-hour penalty). Service charge and VAT are non-refundable.
Notary	Receives cancellation email. The session is removed from their calendar. No penalty is applied unless the cancellation is disciplinary — note this separately in the compliance log if so.

Admin cancellations are logged and audited

Every admin-initiated cancellation is recorded in the audit log with the cancelling admin's name, timestamp, and reason entered. Use this power only when operationally or regulatorily necessary — it is visible to compliance reviewers.

Acts conducted over several sittings

Where a document has more than one signatory, several sessions belong to a single notarial act. Each session record carries the act's reference — something like NI-2026-XXXXXXXX — and that reference is what ties them together.

Three things follow for support work:

One act, one certificate, one filing. Do not expect a certificate or a Chief Registrar submission per session. There is one of each, produced when the act completes, and the certificate names every sitting inside it.

A completed session on an unfinished act is normal. Somebody appearing and signing at the first sitting leaves that session completed while the document is still weeks from being sealed. It is not a stuck record.

Retention runs with the act, not the sitting. Documents and identity evidence attached to a live act are held even where their own session finished long ago. That is deliberate: the evidence has to survive as long as the act it belongs to.

Producing every recording for one act

A legal request asks for the recordings of a notarisation, not of one session. Search by the act's reference rather than by session, and check the certificate for the full list of sittings — it names each one, so it tells you how many recordings the set should contain.

When an act is abandoned or expires

Expired means the thirty days ran out with signatures still missing. Remaining appearances are cancelled automatically and their slots released. The sittings that were held are not refunded — they were conducted.

Abandoned for notary unavailability is the opposite case, and the refund behaviour is the opposite too: everything the parties paid comes back, including the attendance fees for sittings that were actually held. Expect refunds against sessions that show as completed; that is correct, not a double refund.

In both cases the part-signed working copy is retained as evidence, watermarked, and reachable by an administrator. It is never released to the client.