Meeting minutes template and writing tips

Transcript vs. meeting minutes

A transcript records what was said word for word, with a timestamp and speaker on every line. It is the evidence you go back to when you need the exact wording

Meeting minutes summarize the meeting. They focus on what was decided and who will do what by when, and they are what you share and act on

What meeting minutes include

Most minutes cover these items:

• Basic details: date, participants, agenda
• One-line summary: the core of the meeting in one or two sentences
• Key points: grouped by topic, naming the speaker only when who said it matters
• Decisions: only what was actually decided
• Open issues: what was put off or left to revisit later
• Action items: owner / task / due date

Meeting minutes template

Copy the template below. It is plain Markdown, so it pastes as is into note apps and document tools

---
date: 2026-10-31
participants: [Alex Kim, Sam Lee]
keywords: [launch, schedule]
---
# Meeting title

## One-line summary
The core of the meeting in one or two sentences

## Key points
### Topic 1
- Point
- **Speaker**: their view (only when who said it matters)

## Decisions
- Decision

## Open issues
- What was put off or left to revisit later

## Action items
- Owner / task / due date

Tips for writing minutes

Keep discussion and decisions apart, and list only settled items under Decisions. Give every action item an owner, a task and a due date

Write the minutes right after the meeting, before details fade, and check unclear points against the recording or transcript. For phone calls, a one-line summary, key points and action items are usually enough

Meeting minutes from a recording

Hearlog is a free Android app. Record a meeting or call, or import an audio file, and it creates a summary and a transcript with a timestamp and speaker on every line for each recording

Meeting summaries use the same sections as the template above (one-line summary, key points, decisions, open issues, action items); call summaries use a one-line summary, key points and action items, and sections with no content are left out

Both are saved as Markdown files with date, participants and keywords to a device folder, Google Drive and other storage. Processing uses your own Gemini API key or an on-device local model (beta). Because the summary is written by AI, check important decisions against the transcript