How to turn a Zoom transcript into a file note

The three kinds of Zoom transcript

If you remember one thing: captions you watch on screen are gone when the meeting ends unless someone saves the transcript. The cloud recording audio transcript is the one that turns up by itself afterwards.

Option 1: the audio transcript from a cloud recording

Turn it on (once)

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal (not the desktop app).
2. Go to Settings, then the Recording tab.
3. Check that Cloud recording is enabled.
4. Under Advanced cloud recording settings, tick Create audio transcript.
5. Select Save.

Admins can set the same option for everyone under Account Management > Account Settings, on the recording tab. Zoom lists the prerequisite as a Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise account with cloud recording enabled. If you meet that and still cannot see the option, Zoom says to contact Zoom Support to have it enabled.

Record the meeting to the cloud

In the meeting, select Record and choose Record to the Cloud. Recording to your computer will not produce a transcript. Only the host, or someone the host has given permission to, can start a cloud recording, so host the client meeting from your own account.

Download the VTT

1. Wait for the emails. Zoom sends one when the cloud recording is available and a second one when the audio transcript is ready. The transcript takes longer than the recording, and long meetings take longer again.
2. In the web portal, open Recordings (shown as Recordings & Transcripts on newer accounts).
3. Select the meeting topic to see the files for that recording.
4. Find the Audio transcript file and download it. It saves as a .vtt file.

A VTT is plain text. Each block has a timestamp range, a speaker name and what was said. You can open it in any text editor. In the portal you can also correct the transcript before you download it: hover over a phrase, select the pencil icon, fix the text and save. Fixing a misheard surname or product name there takes seconds and carries through to everything downstream.

Option 2: save the in-meeting transcript, no recording

Zoom can show a running transcript during the meeting without recording anything. Zoom describes meeting transcripts as intended for retaining and saving speech-to-text data in the meeting. Your admin has to enable the meeting transcript (or automated captions) setting first.

1. As host, select More in the meeting toolbar, then Transcript, and start it. A participant can request it from the same menu, and the host gets a prompt to decline or start transcription.
2. Keep the Transcript panel available during the meeting.
3. Before you end the meeting, select Save transcript at the bottom of the Transcript panel.
4. Zoom saves a .txt file to the Zoom folder inside your Documents folder.

The catch is step 3. If you end the meeting without saving, there is nothing to download later. Make saving the transcript part of how you close every client meeting. The host also controls whether participants can save it.

Zoom Phone calls

Zoom Phone is separate from Zoom Meetings and has its own settings. Zoom lists the prerequisite as a Zoom Workplace licence that includes Phone, or a standalone Zoom Phone calling plan. In the automatic call recording policy, admins can enable Allow call recording transcription so recorded calls are transcribed. There is also an option to redact personal and sensitive data from those transcripts, which Zoom says is English only. You would normally leave redaction off for file note purposes, because the figures and names are the point of the note.

The same policy controls what the caller hears. Admins can play a prompt before the call connects saying it will be recorded, offer a "press 1 to consent" option, play a disclaimer when recording starts, and add a recurring beep tone.

Users reach their own recordings through their call history, and the transcript is shown with the recording. We could not find a Zoom Support article that documents a transcript file download for Zoom Phone in the way the VTT is documented for meetings, so we will not promise one. If your account only shows the transcript on screen, copy the text and paste it into your note tool. That works fine, you just lose the tidy timestamps.

If the phone is where most of your client contact happens, a phone system that sends transcripts out automatically saves the copying. We have guides for Dialpad and Aircall, where each call transcript arrives in CallNote without anyone downloading anything.

Consent and notifications

When a Zoom meeting is recorded, participants get a recording notice and can choose to stay or leave. Admins can also switch on a voice prompt so people who dialled in by phone hear it. That helps, but a pop-up the client clicked through is weak evidence next to a clear spoken yes.

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. Victoria, Queensland and the NT allow a party to the conversation to record. The federal Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 applies separately to interception of communications over a telecommunications system. The practice that works in every state is to tell the client at the start, ask if they agree, and have that exchange captured in the transcript. This is general information, not legal advice. See our guide to recording calls in Australia for each state Act.

AI Companion summaries and their limits for compliance records

AI Companion's meeting summary is included with paid Zoom Workplace plans. The host starts it from the AI Companion icon, or sets it to start automatically. It does not need a recording. After the meeting the summary goes out by email, to the host only or to invitees depending on the sharing setting, and Zoom says only the host can edit it. If your admin enables the setting that lets hosts view and manage transcripts after the meeting, the transcript behind the summary is kept under Recordings and Transcripts > Transcripts, where the host can download it.

For internal meetings it is handy. For a regulated client record, check it against what your file actually needs:

• Format. You get Zoom's summary and next steps. An advice file needs your headings: client objectives and circumstances, what was discussed, advice or recommendations, client decisions, next steps. See what to record in a financial advice file note.
• Completeness. A summary compresses. It will not tell you the meeting never touched risk tolerance, or that the client's instructions were ambiguous. The best interests duty in Corporations Act 2001 s 961B, and the inquiries a broker must make under the NCCP Act 2009, are shown by what is on the file, so gaps matter.
• Who receives it. Check the sharing setting before a client meeting. A summary that emails itself to all invitees is an unreviewed record going to the client.
• Integrity. The host can edit or delete the summary at any time, and Zoom notes deletion cannot be undone. There is no seal showing what the record said on the day.
• Location. It lives in Zoom and in an email. It is not on the client file until someone puts it there.

The practical approach is to use the summary as a memory aid if you like it, and build the file note from the transcript.

The transcript-to-note workflow

CallNote does this step. It never joins the Zoom meeting as a bot, never records and never stores audio. It starts from the transcript Zoom already made. How CallNote works covers the detail, and meeting bots vs transcript-only tools explains why we built it that way.

1. Get the file. The .vtt from the cloud recording, or the .txt saved from the Transcript panel.
2. Send it to CallNote. Upload it on New note (.vtt, .txt and .srt are accepted, or paste the text). Or forward the .vtt as an email attachment to your Email-in address.
3. Choose the template. System templates cover general calls, NCCP and mortgage, financial advice and legal attendance notes. Or paste one of your own past notes and CallNote builds a template that matches your headings and shorthand. The file note template library has starting points.
4. Review. The draft is ready in about two minutes. Sections the conversation did not cover are marked, so gaps are visible before the note is final.
5. Publish. The note is sealed with a SHA-256 checksum and becomes immutable. Later corrections are append-only amendments, recorded in the audit log.
6. File it. Export the PDF to your client file, push to HubSpot, Notion or Slack, or use Zapier for other systems. CallNote has no native integration with Xplan or AdviserLogic, so for those it is PDF or copy and paste.

Worked example

A fictional example. A financial adviser holds a 40 minute annual review on Zoom. The VTT is around 600 lines. After the financial advice template and a two minute review, the note reads:

An AI summary of the same meeting would likely say "discussed super contributions and investment options, adviser to follow up". True, and not much use on a file. The structured version records scope, the change in circumstances, what the client decided and what was left out. Our best interests duty file note checklist is a good test of whether a note like this is complete.

Checklist for every client Zoom

• You host the meeting from your own licensed account.
• Create audio transcript is ticked, or you plan to save the in-meeting transcript before ending.
• The client is told about the recording or transcript, and agrees out loud.
• AI Companion summary sharing is set to host only for client meetings.
• You download the VTT once the transcript email arrives, and fix obvious name errors.
• You check figures, names and product names in the draft note against your own recollection.
• The reviewed note is locked and saved to the client file. The cloud recording is kept or deleted according to your retention policy.

Common questions