Client recap: what your client gets after a meeting with you

A client recap is the short note a client gets after a meeting with you: what was agreed, what happens next and who does it, in words the client will recognise. Dalm, a Mac app, records the meeting without joining the call. It recognises the speech on your Mac and sends no audio anywhere; the transcript is synced to our servers automatically, and a language model writes the summary and, when you ask, a letter for the client. You check it against what was said and send it yourself. A client with the app on a Mac can also be invited to read the meeting, and only to read it. There is a Free plan.

What a client should have on the same day

For anyone who sells their time, the meeting is the work, and the recap is how the client knows it happened. It fixes what was agreed before memories drift, it is the first thing either side opens when they disagree about scope, and it has to arrive the same day. So every line in it should be something that was actually said, in terms the client would use, with a name and a day on each next step. How to word the email itself is on the meeting recap template; this page is about getting from the meeting to that email without writing it from memory. What a consultant gets from the rest of their sessions is on the note taker for consultants page. What a financial advisor gets after a client meeting is on the page for financial advisors. What an accountant or an auditor gets after client meetings and audit interviews is on the page for accountants. What an MSP gets after a quarterly review, an onboarding call or an escalation is on the page for MSPs. What an insurance agent can get after a renewal review or a call about a claim is on the page for insurance agents.

Client meetings and what you can send after each

Dalm works out from the conversation what kind of meeting it was and shows it at the top of the meeting. For meetings with a client, this is what you get, and what of it is meant to leave your hands:

The meeting	What you get after it	What can go to the client
A discovery call	A one-screen summary, and a list of who does what by when	Their part of the list; the summary too, if it holds nothing internal
A client briefing	A one-screen summary, a formal record with each decision, and a list of who does what by when	The formal record, when the client wants the brief on record, and their part of the list
Presenting results to the client	A one-screen summary, a follow-up letter for the client, and a list of who does what by when	The follow-up letter: what was agreed and the next step, without your internal notes
Negotiating terms	A one-screen summary, a formal record with each decision, and a follow-up letter for the client	The follow-up letter, and the formal record when the terms need to be on record
A client check-in or QBR	A one-screen summary, a follow-up letter for the client, and a list of who does what by when	The follow-up letter: what was agreed and the next step, without your internal notes
An escalation call or a complaint	A one-screen summary, a follow-up letter for the client, and a list of who does what by when	The follow-up letter: what was agreed and the next step, without your internal notes

Whatever the meeting, there is the transcript and a summary in which each point keeps the words it came from; the summary is written automatically, and the documents are one click away. You cannot pick or change the kind of meeting. If every client meeting should end with an email, add the ready-made “Follow-up email” template — a short email to the participants with what was agreed and the next steps — or describe your own, and tick the box to build it for each new meeting. Give the client’s voice the role “client”, so the transcript shows who said what.

Checking every promise before it goes out

Before the letter goes, open the meeting summary. Every quote shows you where it was said — open it and the transcript opens at that place. So a date, a price or a piece of scope you are about to confirm can be checked against the conversation before the client reads it. A point left open with another client can turn up in this summary too: your meetings of the same kind count as one series, so look at any point marked “Open since …” or “Possibly a continuation” before you write the letter or invite the client. Where something was not said, the summary leaves the place empty instead of guessing a date or an owner. The follow-up letter is written from the meeting’s summary, with your corrections, rather than from the whole transcript. It is meant for someone outside and leaves internal matters out; whatever you send, you edit it as plain text — add, cut, reword — before it goes.

Sending it from your own email

You send the recap yourself, from your own address, and the client replies to you. Copy the letter into your email, pass it to Mail or Messages through Share, or save it as Word, PDF or Markdown and attach it. The same goes for a list of tasks or anything else you decide the client should have.

Letting a client read the meeting itself, read-only

If your client has the Dalm app on a Mac, you can invite them by email to that one meeting. A guest reads the summary, the transcript with your corrections and the reports — including ones you make after inviting them. The rest of your workspace stays closed to them. Voices appear under the names you gave them; a voice you have not named shows as a numbered speaker. A guest cannot ask the assistant anything, cannot add tags or edit, and cannot invite anyone else. The invitation email carries the meeting’s name and date — the time is given in UTC — with a calendar file attached. Until the client answers, the meeting lists them as waiting, with no access yet. You can remove a guest from the meeting at any time, and their access ends at once. Inviting a guest works on the Free plan too. Reading happens in the app, signed in to a Dalm account under the same email address the invitation went to; an account under another address is turned away. The meeting then sits in their list of meetings they were invited to and is not stored on their Mac. There is no web version, so a client without a Mac gets your letter instead. Before you invite anyone, read the transcript the way they will read it.

What happens to the client’s words

The client’s voice is recognised on your Mac and never sent anywhere as audio. The audio is deleted once the text exists. The words travel: the transcript is synced to our servers automatically, and a language model run by a third party reads it to write the summary and any letter you ask for. Dalm does not join the call and tells no one it is recording, so telling the client is up to you; the rules on recording consent differ by place.

When a recap from Dalm is not the right fit

• When the client expects recaps in a portal, or a page that opens in any browser. The client reads either your email or, with a Mac and the app, the meeting itself.
• When your contract says the conversation may not be stored outside your company, even as text. The transcript is synced to our servers and read by a language model.
• When the recording itself is what you deliver. The audio is deleted once the text exists; keep your own recording.
• When the call is very short: under 100 words, a recording is not counted as a meeting.

Free for your own client work

Recording client meetings, the transcripts and the summaries come with the Free plan, and Free is a plan rather than a trial. Dalm needs a Mac with Apple Silicon · macOS 15.0 or later and an account; while it is not public, the way in is the waitlist. What the paid plans add is on the pricing page.