How to Write Corporate Meeting Minutes (+ Free Template)

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Writing accurate meeting minutes ensures your team captures key decisions, action items, and responsibilities in one place. Clear documentation keeps everyone accountable, prevents misunderstandings, and provides a reliable record that leaders and employees can revisit when questions arise.

If you’re struggling to capture effective corporate meeting minutes, you’re not alone.

It’s a delicate process that, if not handled with precision and care, could leave executive leadership floundering. From corporate resolutions and action items to proposals and approvals, there is a lot of vital information that gets captured inside of the meeting minutes.

What Are Corporate Meeting Minutes?

So, what are corporate meeting minutes? Corporate meeting minutes are the official record of actions taken and decisions made by a corporation’s board of directors during a meeting. The board secretary typically prepares the meeting minutes and then the board must approve the minutes at its next scheduled meeting.

Effective corporate meeting minutes provide a record of what transpires during the meeting. Once documented, the record helps to hold leadership accountable. In addition, corporate meeting minutes can be used to resolve disputes between shareholders or prevent fraud and mismanagement, ensuring the organization is run in conjunction with applicable laws.

Free Tool

Minutes Template

Efficiently track and document board decisions with our Meeting Minutes Template

How to Write Corporate Meeting Minutes

As a board administrator, you need to ensure your closed board meetings are properly recorded and detailed. You must also present your minutes in the correct format and verify that every detail is accurate. You may even explore using artificial intelligence for meeting minutes to streamline the process.

The right approach to writing minutes includes capturing essential information after each meeting and arranging it in a clear, structured way. Doing so makes it easier to revisit past discussions, support decisions, and inform the public.

Reference Table for Corporate Meeting Minutes

Section	What to Capture
Header	Company name, type of meeting, date, time and location
Attendance	List of attendees, absentees, and quorum confirmation
Approval of Minutes	Approval or amendment of previous meeting minutes
Agenda Items	Summary of discussion for each item
Motions and Votes	Exact wording of motions, who moved/seconded, and voting results
Decisions Made	Clear record of resolution or approvals
Action Items	Tasks assigned, responsible person, and deadlines
Other Business	Any additional matters discussed
Adjournment	Time of meeting close and date/time of next planned meeting

1. Before the Meeting

Before you have a board meeting, you need to determine key points to cover in the meeting. What are you going to talk about? What decisions need to be made? You can ensure that nothing important gets missed by building a meeting agenda.

This agenda covers all the essential topics that need to be discussed and also creates an order so that a general meeting can flow seamlessly from one topic to the next.

You want each board meeting to follow a uniform format. If you create a template for your agenda, you can save time and reuse it for future meetings.

2. During the Meeting

Once the meeting starts, you need to record key information, including:

Time
Date
Attendees
Agenda items

These details distinguish one meeting from the next. Record every decision, but keep your focus on motions, votes, and outcomes. In your minutes, note each final decision along with who voted for and against it.

During the meeting, document every action item, including who received the assignment, what the task involves, and the due date. This ensures accountability and clarity moving forward.

3. After the Meeting

Once the meeting ends and details remain fresh, the secretary drafts the minutes. The first draft circulates among board members, who can suggest corrections. At the start of the next meeting, the board approves the final minutes, and the secretary or chair signs off.

The approved minutes are then stored with the corporate records, and in some cases, the law requires adding them to the official record.

Corporate Meeting Minutes Template

A board portal helps boards hold more and productive meetings. For example, OnBoard’s platform sends alerts to meeting attendees about pending meeting invites, gives coaching tips, and helps them prepare more effectively. And with a streamlined minutes workflow, board secretaries can effortlessly make notes, create tasks, track attendance, and mark motions as the meeting progresses.

Download our free Meeting Minutes Template to streamline the note-taking process for your next meeting.

Streamline Board Management and Decision-Making

Board meeting minutes are an essential part of any corporate record. They establish a clear record of the actions taken during a board meeting, the people who attended, and any decisions made. Meeting minutes are critical for keeping an accurate record.

You need a reliable way to capture meeting minutes. Board management software features use AI to transcribe minutes automatically. You can set the platform to record every board meeting and generate minutes as soon as it ends. This automation improves accuracy and gives your board the clarity it needs to make faster, better decisions.

Additional OnBoard features include:

Agenda & Board Book Builder: Create, organize, and distribute agendas and board books in one place, with automatic table of contents and page numbering.
Document Management & Permissions: Store all relevant documents securely, with role-based access controls so only authorized users see sensitive content.
Voting, Approvals & eSignatures: Conduct votes or approvals directly in the platform, and collect signatures electronically, making decision workflows smooth and auditable.
Integrated Meeting Tools: Use built-in Zoom integration for virtual meetings, and collaborate in real time with secure messaging, annotations, and chat features.

Ready to transform board governance? Start a free trial of OnBoard today. now.

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About The Author

Adam Wire: Adam Wire is a Content Marketing Manager at OnBoard who joined the company in 2021. A Ball State University graduate, Adam worked in various content marketing roles at Angi, USA Football, and Adult & Child Health following a 12-year career in newspapers. His favorite part of the job is problem-solving and helping teammates achieve their goals. He lives in Indianapolis with his wife and two dogs. He’s an avid sports fan and foodie who also enjoys lawn and yard work and running.