How to turn a Microsoft Teams transcript into a file note

What you need before Teams will transcribe

Transcription is a standard Teams feature. It is not a Copilot or Teams Premium feature. It is available on the common business plans, including Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium, and the E3 and E5 enterprise plans. You do not need a Copilot licence to start a transcript or download it.

Three things have to line up before the option appears:

• The meeting policy allows it. In the Teams admin center this is Meetings > Meeting policies > Transcription. Microsoft says this is On by default for new policies. In PowerShell it is the `-AllowTranscription` parameter on `Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy`.
• Both the organiser and the person starting it are allowed. Microsoft describes transcription as a per-organiser and per-user setting. The organiser must have it on, and so must the person who clicks Start.
• You are using the desktop app. Microsoft states that live transcription is only available on Teams for desktop. The mobile app can show a transcript after the meeting ends.

If the option is greyed out, Microsoft lists the usual reasons: you are a guest, you are from a different organisation to the organiser, you joined anonymously, the organiser has limited transcription to organisers and co-organisers, or Copilot has been turned off for the meeting. That last one catches people out. Microsoft notes that when an organiser turns Copilot off for a meeting, recording and transcription are turned off with it.

How to start transcription in a Teams meeting

1. Join the meeting in the Teams desktop app.
2. Tell the client you are about to switch on transcription and why. Get their agreement before you click anything.
3. Select More actions in the meeting controls.
4. Select Record and transcribe, then Start transcription.
5. Confirm the spoken language if Teams asks. Choose English (Australia) where it is offered.
6. To finish, go back to More actions > Record and transcribe > Stop transcription. Transcription also stops when the meeting ends.

You can transcribe without recording. For file notes that is usually the better choice. You end up with text only, and there is no video or audio file sitting in OneDrive that you then have to manage, retain and secure.

Organisers can also set a meeting to transcribe automatically. In Meeting options there is a Record and transcribe automatically setting. Microsoft says it is Off by default for meetings, and the organiser has to switch it on for each meeting unless the firm enforces it with a Teams Premium template.

How to download the .vtt or .docx

1. In Teams, select Chat and open the chat for the past meeting. You can also open the meeting from your calendar.
2. Select the Recap tab.
3. Select Transcript.
4. Select the dropdown arrow next to Download and choose .vtt or .docx.

By default the organiser and co-organisers can download the transcript. Your admin can widen or restrict that. The transcript file itself is stored in the organiser's OneDrive for Business alongside any recording. The organiser and co-organisers can also delete it, and admins can set transcripts to expire, so download what you need for the client file rather than relying on Teams as the record.

Teams Phone calls are a separate setting

A lot of client contact is a phone call, and this is where firms get stuck. Meetings and group calls are controlled by the meeting policy. One-to-one calls, including calls to and from ordinary phone numbers (PSTN) through Teams Phone, are controlled by the calling policy, and the default is different.

Once your admin has switched on Transcription in the calling policy, the steps in a call are the same as a meeting: More actions > Record and transcribe > Start transcription, then confirm the language. After the call, open the chat for that call and download the transcript as .docx or .vtt. Microsoft recommends keeping the meeting and calling policies aligned so staff do not get one behaviour in meetings and another on the phone.

If most of your client calls run through a dedicated phone system instead of Teams, the transcript can arrive without any downloading. We have setup guides for Dialpad and Aircall.

Consent and what the other person sees

When transcription starts, Microsoft says all participants see a notification that the meeting is being transcribed. In a call, everyone in Teams sees a banner. A client on an ordinary phone line has no screen to see a banner on, so do not treat the Teams notice as your consent step. Say it out loud.

Admins can go further and turn on explicit recording consent. With that policy on, other participants are muted with cameras off when recording or transcription starts, and have to answer Yes before they can unmute. Microsoft logs each person's choice in the Purview audit log. Microsoft notes explicit consent is not supported for call queue calls.

On the law, we treat a transcript the same way as a recording. Recording a private conversation generally needs the consent of everyone on it in NSW, WA, SA, Tasmania and the ACT, while Victoria, Queensland and the NT allow a party to the conversation to record. The federal Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 sits alongside the state Acts and deals with interception of communications passing over a telecommunications system. The safe practice everywhere is the same: tell the client at the start, get a clear yes, and make sure that yes is in the transcript. This is general information, not legal advice. Our state-by-state guide to recording calls has the detail.

What Copilot recap gives you, and what it does not

Intelligent recap is the AI summary Teams produces after a transcribed meeting or call. Microsoft says it needs a Teams Premium or Microsoft 365 Copilot licence on top of your normal plan, and transcription has to be on. For meetings it produces AI notes, recommended tasks, speaker markers, chapters and topics. For PSTN calls it produces AI-generated notes and recommended tasks, reached from the Recap button in the Calls app.

It is a good meeting summary. If the goal is to remember what was agreed in an internal meeting, it does the job. For a regulated client file, it leaves gaps:

• It writes in its own structure. You get general notes and tasks. You do not get your firm's headings, such as client objectives, options discussed, advice given, instructions received and next steps.
• It summarises. It does not check. A broker's note needs to show the inquiries made into requirements, objectives and financial situation. An adviser's note needs to support the best interests duty in Corporations Act 2001 s 961B. A recap will not tell you that one of those is missing from the conversation.
• It is not sealed. The recap lives in Teams. It is not locked at a point in time with a checksum and an audit trail, and the underlying transcript can be deleted or expire.
• It stays in Teams. It is not on the client file in your CRM or practice system until someone copies it there.
• It is AI-generated, so it can be wrong. Someone still has to read it against what was said, the same as any draft.

If recap is all you need, use it. It is already in your licence if you have Copilot. If the note has to stand up in an audit or a complaint, you want your own format, a human review, and a locked record.

The transcript-to-note workflow

This is the part CallNote does. It never joins the meeting and never touches audio. It takes the transcript Teams already made. How CallNote works has the full picture. The short version:

1. Download the .vtt from the Recap tab or the call chat, using the steps above.
2. Get it into CallNote one of two ways. On New note, upload the .vtt file (it also takes .txt and .srt, or you can paste the text). Or forward an email with the .vtt attached to your Email-in address, which suits people who would rather stay in Outlook. CallNote reads .vtt, .srt and .txt attachments. It does not read the .docx, so choose .vtt when you download.
3. Pick the template. Use a system template (general call, NCCP, financial advice, legal attendance note) or your own. To build your own, paste one of your past notes and CallNote builds a template that matches your headings and shorthand.
4. Review the draft. It takes about two minutes to generate. Anything the conversation did not cover is marked as not covered, so you can see the gap and decide whether to follow up with the client.
5. Publish. The published note is sealed with a SHA-256 checksum, becomes immutable, and any later change is an append-only amendment in the audit log.
6. File it. Export the PDF, or push the note to HubSpot, Notion or Slack. For other systems, Zapier can carry the published note across.

Worked example

A fictional example. A mortgage broker has a 25 minute Teams meeting with a first home buyer couple. The .vtt runs to several hundred lines of timestamps and half-sentences. After the NCCP template, the reviewed note looks like this:

The "not covered" lines are the useful part. The broker can see before lodging that living expenses were never discussed, and deal with it in the next conversation instead of finding out at audit. Our NCCP file note checklist lists what a complete note should show.

Checklist: before you rely on a Teams transcript

• Transcription is On in the meeting policy, and in the calling policy if you use Teams Phone.
• Your firm sends the invite, so you own the transcript.
• The client is told and agrees, out loud, at the start.
• You transcribe without recording unless you have a reason to keep audio.
• You download the .vtt the same day, before any expiry policy applies.
• Names and figures are read against your own memory of the call. Speech-to-text gets surnames, lender names and dollar amounts wrong.
• The final note, not the raw transcript, goes on the client file in your format, and it is locked.

Common questions