Guide
How to write meeting minutes: a guide and a template to copy
Good minutes don't transcribe the meeting. They make clear what was decided, who does what and by when. Here's the method and a template.
The problem: meetings that leave no trace
You leave the meeting feeling you agreed things, but nobody writes them down. A week later everyone remembers a different version, and whatever “someone was going to check” hasn't been checked.
Minutes are the cheapest way to make a meeting count. The trouble is they're tedious to write, and if the same person always writes them, that person never really takes part. The fix isn't writing more, it's writing less but in a fixed structure that anyone can fill in within ten minutes of the call ending.
How it works with Tessa
- 1
Invite Tessa to the meeting
It joins Meet, Zoom or Teams as “Tessa (notetaker)”, visible to everyone in the call.
- 2
Minutes when the call ends
Summary, decisions and tasks with owner, due date and priority, built from the call's captions.
- 3
Tasks handed out
Each owner gets their items; attendees get the summary by Slack and email.
- 4
Outside the company, with your approval
The summary for external attendees waits for your approval before it goes out.
What you get
- Everyone takes partNobody has to take notes while talking.
- Tasks with ownersEvery agreement becomes a task with an owner and a date.
- Company memoryDecisions are stored and can be found with search.
- PrivacyMinutes are visible to their participants; emails and phone numbers are masked before reaching the model.
What minutes should include (and what they shouldn't)
Working minutes aren't board or shareholder minutes, which have their own legal requirements. For day-to-day meetings, think of someone who wasn't there: what do they need to know in two minutes?
- Yes: date, attendees, goal, decisions, tasks with owner and date, open questions.
- Yes: the reason behind a decision when it isn't obvious (one line).
- No: who said each sentence or the full debate.
- No: personal opinions or comments about people.
A meeting minutes template to copy
Paste this outline into your doc or email and fill it in when the meeting ends:
- Meeting: [name] · Date: [dd/mm/yyyy] · Length: [min]
- Attendees: [names] · Absent: [names]
- Goal: [the outcome you were after, in one sentence]
- Summary: [3–5 lines with the essentials]
- Decisions: [decision 1] · [decision 2] · [decision 3]
- Action items: [what] — [owner] — [due date] — [priority]
- Open questions: [what still needs deciding and who owns it]
- Next meeting: [date] · [topic]
How to word a decision
A well-written decision makes sense out of context. Compare “Pricing was discussed” with “The annual plan will be 20% cheaper than monthly from the launch onwards”. The second needs no explanation, and six months from now anyone searching for “annual discount” will find it and understand it straight away.
- Lead with the verb or the outcome.
- Include specific figures, dates and names.
- If it's provisional, say so: “provisional until finance signs off”.
How to word an action item
The rule is what + who + when. Missing one of the three, it's a wish, not a task.
- Weak: “Review the proposal”.
- Strong: “Send the revised proposal to Acme — Marta — Thursday 16th”.
- One owner per task, even if several people help.
- No date yet? Set a provisional one and review it at the next meeting.
When and how to send them
Send the minutes the same day, ideally within an hour, while everyone still remembers. If external people attended, check what you share with them first: there may be internal points that shouldn't go out.
Always store them in the same place (a shared folder, a channel, one doc per project) with a name that's easy to search for: “2026-10-08 · v2 launch”. Minutes nobody can find are almost as bad as no minutes.
- Common mistake: sending the minutes days later, when nobody bothers to correct them.
- Common mistake: tasks with no owner (“to be reviewed”) that nobody feels are theirs.
- Common mistake: very long minutes; if they can't be read in two minutes, they won't be read.
- Good habit: open the next meeting by going through the previous minutes' action items.
How Tessa automates it
Tessa joins the call as “Tessa (notetaker)”, uses the meeting's own captions to know who said what and, when it ends, writes minutes with this template's structure: summary, decisions, tasks with owner, date and priority, and open questions.
Tasks go to each owner and the summary to company attendees. External attendees get it only once you approve. Decisions go into company memory, so months later you can ask “what did we agree with Kirai?” and find it with its source.
What Tessa reads for each person stays private, your data is stored in the EU and nothing goes out without your approval.
Frequently asked questions
What are meeting minutes?
A written record of a meeting with attendees, decisions made and agreed tasks with owners and dates. They make sure everyone has the same version of what was agreed.
Who should take the minutes?
Someone who isn't running the meeting, or a notetaking tool. Rotating the role stops the same person from always taking part less.
Are meeting minutes legally binding?
Internal working minutes have no legal formalities. Board or shareholder meeting minutes do have specific requirements; check with your adviser for those.
Do I need to tell attendees an AI is taking notes?
Yes, it's good practice and part of GDPR transparency. Tessa joins visibly under its own name, and it's worth mentioning at the start.
Does Tessa record the meeting?
Tessa works from the meeting's captions to write the minutes. Meeting recordings are available on the Business plan.
How long should meeting minutes be?
For a one-hour meeting, half a page to a page is usually enough. If they run longer, you're probably transcribing the discussion instead of capturing decisions and action items. Any detail that's genuinely needed belongs in a separate document linked from the minutes.
Keep reading
- FeaturesTessa takes the notes, assigns the work and sends the recapTessa takes notes in your meetings, writes the minutes, assigns each action item to its owner and sends the recap to attendees. Try 14 days free.
- FeaturesIf they go quiet, Tessa remembers for youTell Tessa “follow up if they don't reply in 3 days” and she'll have the reminder drafted in the same thread, ready to send. Start for free.
- GuidesHow to reduce meetings (and make the ones you keep worthwhile)How to cut your team’s meetings: a calendar audit, what to move to async and minutes with tasks so the meetings you keep are actually worth having.
- GuidesHow to prepare for a meeting in five minutesPrepare for any meeting in five minutes: what to review, how to write a three-point agenda and a checklist so you arrive knowing what you want.
What does your team look like?
Same AI for both. Where you start is what changes.
Startups
5 to 30 people
Grow without losing the thread
Tasks from email and Slack, follow-ups, sales and investors, without everything landing on the founders.
Companies
30 to 250 people
What gets decided gets done
Minutes and tasks from every meeting, commitments that get followed up and a pulse per team, without watching anyone.
Let Tessa write the minutes of your next meeting. Start free.
Start freeFree plan for teams of up to 3 people. Anything that leaves the company waits for your approval.