Free guide

A meeting minutes template ready to copy.

A complete meeting minutes template, with every field a good set of minutes needs, a filled example and the most common mistakes people make writing them by hand. At the end, see how Ata writes these same minutes for you, by reading the captions from Google Meet, Zoom or Microsoft Teams, with no bot joining the call.

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Plain text template Filled example No sign up to copy

Before the template

What meeting minutes need to include

Without these, minutes turn into a loose recap that is hard to hold anyone to later.

Meeting identification: title, date, time, duration and the platform used.

Attendees: who was present and who was absent, so there is no confusion later.

Agenda: the points that were planned for discussion.

Decisions: what was actually decided on each point, not just what was said.

Action items with an owner and a due date: a task with no owner never gets done.

Next steps: what happens before the next meeting, or when it will be.

Ready to use

Copy and paste into your document

Plain text, with no odd formatting, ready to paste into Google Docs, Word, Notion or wherever you write your minutes.

Meeting minutes template

Title and meeting type

[Meeting name, e.g. Weekly sync for team X]

Date, time and duration

[Date] · [Start time] to [end time]

Platform

[Google Meet / Zoom / Microsoft Teams / in person]

Attendees

Present: [names]
Absent: [names]

Agenda

[Item 1]
[Item 2]
[Item 3]

Discussion and decisions

[Item 1]: [what was discussed] → Decision: [what was decided]
[Item 2]: [what was discussed] → Decision: [what was decided]

Action items

Task	Owner	Due date
[Task 1]	[Name]	[Date]
[Task 2]	[Name]	[Date]

Next steps and next meeting

[What needs to happen before the next meeting, and when it will be]

Notes

[Anything extra that did not become a task or a decision]

In practice

A filled example

The same template, now filled with data from a real (fictional) meeting.

Weekly marketing team sync

Date and duration: October 12, 2026 · 10:00 to 10:35 am
Platform: Google Meet
Present: Marina (lead), Diego, Paula, Rafael
Absent: Bruno (on vacation)
Agenda: 1. September campaign results. 2. November content calendar. 3. Budget request for paid ads.
Decisions: September campaign beat its goal by 12%: same creative direction kept for October. November calendar approved, focused on short videos. Budget request goes to leadership for approval by the 20th.
Action items: Diego: build the November calendar in the board by Oct 15. Paula: prepare the budget request by Oct 16. Rafael: review October's creatives by Oct 14.
Next meeting: October 19, 2026, same time, to review leadership's answer on the budget.

Watch out

Common mistakes when writing minutes

Writing down what was said, not what was decided

If nobody knows what was actually decided, the next meeting starts from scratch.

An action item with no owner and no due date

"Look into this later" is not a task: with no name and no date, nobody feels ownership of it.

Sending the minutes days later

The more time passes, the less people remember the details, and the less they read.

Mixing up opinions and decisions

Recording that "someone suggested" is different from recording that "the team decided." Make it clear which is which.

Not recording who attended

Without a list of who was present and absent, it is hard to hold anyone to what they agreed to.

No typing needed

How Ata writes these minutes for you

Ata is a Chrome extension (it also works on Edge and Brave) that reads the native captions from Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams in real time. No bot joins the call, nobody gets an invite, and other participants never see Ata running. It does not record audio or video: it only processes the caption text.

During the meeting, a floating panel shows the live transcript, with each line tagged by speaker name and time.

When the call ends, one click produces formal minutes, an executive summary, action items with an owner and due date, and a follow-up email.

There are ready made templates by meeting type (sales, 1:1, daily, interview) and saved prompts, so you are not starting from a blank page.

The finished minutes can be exported as PDF, Word or TXT, or sent by Gmail, Outlook, WhatsApp or Slack with a public link.

The Free plan already generates the minutes, with unlimited transcription; the Pro plan ($1.99 a month) unlocks unlimited AI and Word export.

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Questions

Questions about the meeting minutes template

Yes. The fields (attendees, agenda, decisions, action items and next steps) work for sync meetings, sales calls, 1:1s, dailies or interviews. Just adjust how much detail you add: a daily can have much shorter minutes than a decision meeting.

Minutes record what happened in a more formal, structured way, with decisions and action items written down. A summary is a shorter version, for people who just need the essentials quickly. Ata generates both with one click: the formal minutes and an executive summary.

Click "Copy template" on this page, open Google Docs, Word or Notion, and paste the text (Ctrl+V or Cmd+V). The template comes as plain text, with no formatting to undo later.

Yes, for meetings on Google Meet, Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Ata reads the platform's captions in real time and generates the minutes, summary and action items automatically once the call ends, with no need to fill in the template by hand.

No. Ata only reads the text of the platform's native captions, with no audio or video recording, and no bot joining the call.

Never write minutes by hand again.

Install Ata and have the transcript and the minutes ready as soon as the meeting ends.

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