Want more efficient note-taking? Use our meeting minutes templates

Detailed meeting minutes can keep your team organized, accountable, and legally compliant. When meticulous note-taking gets tedious, a good template can help.

With a comprehensive minutes template customized to your team’s unique needs, you can come prepared for your most important meetings, knowing exactly what to record and how to format it. Let’s go over the basics of taking effective minutes, and then we’ll give you a free template to help you get started.

Why are meeting minutes important?

Meeting minutes formally document the discussions and decisions that take place in a meeting. They serve as organized records for future reference so team members and other stakeholders can easily track project progress, action items, and responsibilities.

Well-organized meeting minutes facilitate follow-up conversations about decisions and action items. They also help participants prepare for subsequent meetings. Minutes should capture a meeting’s major takeaways, which minimizes the need for clarifications, reduces duplicate work, and ultimately saves time.

Plus, meeting minutes enhance transparency and information sharing, and they help stakeholders ensure accountability and clarity.

Compared to meeting notes, minutes are more official. In some cases, they’re even required and regulated by state law. The law may stipulate that corporate meeting minutes include particular details or formatting.

Key elements of a meeting minutes template

While formatting for meeting minutes varies based on the type of meeting, minutes generally include these essential components:

• Date, time, and location of the meeting
• List of attendees and their roles
• List of absentees and their roles
• Agenda items and discussion points
• Summary of discussions and decisions made
• Action items with task descriptions, responsible parties, and deadlines
• Date, time, and preliminary agenda for the next meeting, if known
• Signature of the preparer and approver

Benefits of using a meeting minutes template

A report from scheduling platform Doodle found that professionals lose 13 days total per year to unnecessary meetings—nearly three workweeks. Detailed agendas and minutes can help keep meetings organized, efficient, and on topic, preventing your business from wasting time and money.

Here are a few key benefits of using a predesigned template for your team’s meeting minutes.

Improved organization

Using a meeting minutes template provides a consistent structure for logical, systematic organization. This makes it easier to find information, record decisions, and track action items for more effective meeting follow-ups. Templates also help keep everyone focused on the meeting’s most critical elements so important discussion points don’t fall through the cracks.

Enhanced productivity

Meeting minutes templates reduce preparation time before meetings. Participants will know what to expect from the meeting’s layout so they can focus their prep time on the planned discussion topics. Team members can review minutes from the previous meeting for a refresher on questions, decisions, and action items. They can then bring relevant information and progress updates to the upcoming meeting, avoiding redundant discussions.

Consistent documentation

A minutes template helps set expectations for a meeting’s format and communication style through its consistent terminology. A template also makes it easier for new participants to get up to speed before joining a project or initiative so they can become productive as soon as possible.

How to format meeting minutes

This straightforward template works for general team meetings, departmental check-ins, and staff meetings. It captures key discussion points, decisions, and action items, including concise summaries. You can use this template as a starting point for various types of meeting minutes:

Basic meeting minutes template

[Company Name] Meeting Minutes
Date: [DD/MM/YYYY] Time: [Start time] – [end time] Location: [Location] Meeting purpose: [Brief summary] Recorded by: [Name]

Attendees:

• [Name], [title]
• [Name], [title]
• [Name], [title]

Absentees:

• [Name], [title]

Announcements:

• [Summary of announcement]

Follow-up items:

• [Review of pending items from the previous meeting]
• [Summary of discussions and decisions]

Agenda items:

• [Introduction of new agenda items]
• [Summary of discussions and decisions]

Other discussion items:

• [Summary of additional topics]
• [Summaries of discussions and decisions]

Action items

• [List of actions, responsible parties, and deadlines]
• [Detail action items]

Next meeting:

• Date: [Next meeting date]
• Time: [Next meeting time]
• Location: [Next meeting location]

Formatting minutes for special meetings

The exact information you should include in your meeting minutes varies depending on the meeting’s purpose and invite list. To customize a minutes template, start with the basic format provided above, and add or remove elements depending on the type of meeting you’re having.

Consider these critical details to include in the minutes for various common meeting types.

Formal meeting minutes

This detailed and structured template adheres to strict documentation standards and is best for official or high-stakes meetings such as legal proceedings, corporate board meetings, and formal business discussions. It provides a detailed, precise record of conversations and decisions to ensure accountability and transparency. Key components include:

• A detailed agenda
• A list of participants with roles and titles
• Comprehensive discussion summaries
• The exact wording of motions, proposals, and resolutions
• Record of votes and decisions
• Signatures of the note-taker and chairperson

Informal meeting minutes

This template is less structured and more flexible to accommodate casual or ad-hoc meetings, such as informal Slack huddles for impromptu brainstorming or real-time troubleshooting. Minutes should capture the essence of the conversation without being bogged down by too many details, summarizing decisions and action items for quick documentation and easy review. This template records:

• Date, time, and location
• List of attendees
• Brief notes on key discussion points
• Summary of decisions and next steps
• Action items with responsible parties and deadlines

Board meeting minutes

Use this highly structured template to record corporate or nonprofit board meetings and executive committee meetings. The format helps you adhere to corporate regulatory requirements, also thoroughly documenting strategic decisions and oversight. Board meeting minutes should include these elements:

• Call to order and approval of previous minutes
• Attendance and quorum confirmation
• Detailed agenda with time allocations
• Reports from committees and executives
• Detailed discussion and resolutions
• Voting records
• Adjournment and next meeting date

Project-specific meeting minutes

Minutes for these meetings should focus on progress tracking and task management. This template works best for project kickoffs, reviews, and status updates. You may document issues, risks, mitigation strategies, task assignments, and to-do items. Project-specific meeting minutes should include:

• Project name and meeting date
• Attendees and roles
• Project status updates
• Discussion of project milestones and deliverables
• Issues and risk assessment
• Action items and responsibilities
• Next steps and meeting schedule

Virtual meeting minutes

This template accommodates the unique aspects and dynamics of digital meetings, including team syncs, online webinars, and virtual conferences. Virtual meeting minutes should record discussions and decisions, list follow-up action items, and facilitate communication across remote teams with these components:

• Date, time, and virtual meeting platform used
• List of attendees and their locations
• Summary of agenda items and discussions
• Technical issues and resolutions (if any)
• Decisions and action items
• Next meeting date and online platform information

How to use meeting minutes templates

Here’s how to create the most effective template for your team’s meeting minutes.

Choose the right template for your needs

Select a template that suits your team’s unique meeting routines and expectations. Start by identifying the nature and type of the meeting. Is it formal or informal? Will it take place virtually or in person? Is it a board meeting or focused on a specific project? Board meetings require detailed documentation for compliance purposes, while informal team meetings need concise summaries for easy information retrieval.

Think about the meeting’s overall objective and audience, including who will read the minutes. Use all of this information to narrow down the most appropriate template type.

Follow meeting minutes layout tips

Keep professional, organized meeting minutes by implementing a consistent template layout. Format the document into clearly defined sections, and use bullet points to enhance readability. Use tables to organize action items and streamline progress tracking. Choose a simple, readable typeface with sparing, intentional use of font-styling elements such as italics.

Organize and store your meeting minutes

Store meeting minutes in a centralized, easily accessible location, using consistent formatting for the file names (such as Board_Meeting_Minutes_05-30-2024). Implement version control methods to track revisions and ensure all minutes are reviewed and approved promptly after each meeting. Systematically archive old meeting minutes so the newest information stays at the forefront.

If your meeting takes place in a Slack huddle, you can bring a dedicated Slack canvas into the call for simple, collaborative note-taking that’s automatically stored in the cloud.

Use Slack to manage meeting minutes

Sharing meeting minutes with team members and other stakeholders keeps everyone up to date and on the same page. Slack makes it easy to share files and documents right in the secure, AI-powered platform where your work already happens.

Dedicating a Slack channel to meeting minutes creates an accessible, searchable minutes archive. You can even use Workflow Builder to automate templated documents for your meeting minutes. And for less formal meetings, huddles automatically save all links, documents and messages shared during a discussion. To learn more about how Slack can level-up your team’s meetings, contact our sales team.