Your committee

Yours is what a member needs on a phone: the next meeting - when and where, its agenda, its papers and Add to a calendar - the actions that are yours (each opens on Actions, where you can say how it is going), and the latest approved minutes as a PDF. Nothing on it changes anything. Members and read-only users land on it when they sign in; everyone else lands on Meetings and can open it from the Yours tab. An action shows as yours when your sign-in is linked to your person in People - if it is not, the page says so.

Meetings

One engine covers every rhythm — stand-up, weekly, monthly, quarterly — because the cadence is a column on the series, not a different product. Opening the next meeting in a series carries over the agenda template, the standing attendees and any work that is due.

Start a new series, in the fold under the meetings (owners and administrators): a name, how often it meets - every day, every weekday, every week or two weeks (on a weekday you choose), every month, quarter, half-year or year (on a day of the month up to the 28th) - and how long it usually runs. Its first meeting then opens like any other.

While a meeting is being minuted its page is on one agenda item at a time — the one being discussed, or the next still to cover — with Previous item and Next item; the rest of the agenda is a one-line list underneath, and matters arising are listed in one line at the top. + Add an agenda item, Record a decision and Raise an action each open their own short form, and a decision is filed under the item on screen. What was said on … keeps the item's discussion in the minutes' own words, and what it concluded; it is saved over what was there, shown on the item, put into the minutes PDF and found by Search. Or read a photo or a PDF of the paper minutes into it reads a photographed page in your browser by text recognition and adds its words to the box, for you to check against the paper before you save. A PDF’s own words are read as they are; a scanned PDF (a picture of the page) is read by text recognition page by page, up to ten pages. Nothing is sent anywhere. Only the minute-takers write it, and only while the minutes are open. A meeting that is not being minuted shows its whole agenda as the record. Under the agenda it says how much time is allotted against the meeting's length, and Share … equally between the items gives every item the same whole number of minutes - an hour is shared when no length is set.

Actions

Actions opens on what is Still to do — open, in progress, blocked or carried (once an action is carried into the next meeting, the copy there is the one listed) — overdue first, then by the date due, 15 to a page with Previous and Next. Done lists the completed ones and Everything the lot; Mine narrows any of them to yours. An action opened from its meeting is found wherever it is, and marked.

An action belongs to a person, not to a login. If your login is not linked to a person, "Mine" will be empty and the screen says so rather than showing you everybody's.

Decisions and votes

Record a decision with what was decided, the outcome (carried, rejected, deferred or noted), who proposed and who seconded it — chosen from the people at the meeting — and the vote: for, against and abstained. Leave the counts empty when no vote was taken and the minutes say "no vote counted" rather than recording a vote nobody backed.

Name the votes, inside the same form, records each person's vote - for, against or abstained - and the counts are then taken from the names (typed counts that disagree with them are refused). Give a decision its Resolution number - the year and a number, like 2026/14, used once in your organisation - and, on a tie, record the Chair's casting vote with it (the chair is whoever the meeting says chaired). Record a declaration of interest notes who declared what, on which item or the whole meeting, and what happened next: left the room, did not vote, took part with the meeting's agreement, or noted only. A series' Quorum is set under Archive or restore a series, and its quorum at the foot of Meetings; each meeting of the series then says how many were present against it and whether it was quorate. All of these go into the minutes PDF.

Minutes and approval

Once a meeting is minuted, Draft minutes (PDF) on the meeting gives the minutes as a document, made from the record: attendance, agenda, decisions with their votes, and actions. Every page says DRAFT until they are approved. Mark circulated, then Mark approved, makes that document the record: it is attached to the meeting, it says who approved it and when, and the meeting can no longer be changed — an amendment belongs at the next meeting.

Who may approve the minutes is the owner's to set, on Your organisation: the owner, administrators and the secretary (as every organisation starts), the owner and administrators, or the owner only. It applies from the next page anyone opens, to approving the minutes and to putting them on the public page; everyone sees the rule there, and only the owner can change it.

The usual way: at the next meeting, Approve the minutes of the previous meeting records a decision at that meeting - proposed, seconded, the votes by name if a vote was taken - that the previous minutes are a true record; the previous meeting is approved by it and says so, linked to the meeting that approved it. Either way, approved minutes are sealed: their SHA-256 fingerprint is kept, and the meeting shows whether the minutes as generated today still match it (they will differ if a person in them has since been erased; a change of letterhead does not, as each approved set keeps the letterhead it was sealed with). An amendment agreed later is added with Add an amendment agreed at a later meeting: it is printed after the approved minutes as an addendum, naming the decision that agreed it, and the approved minutes themselves stay as they were. An approved PDF records each action as it was raised; how it went since is on Actions.

Sealed minutes are then signed by the chair - the chair of that meeting, or of the meeting that approved them: on the meeting, they type their full name as it is on the record and press Sign the minutes. The signature is of the seal's fingerprint, made once and never changed; the meeting and the PDF say who signed, in which capacity and when. A read-only login does not sign.

Minute Book: (series), at the foot of Meetings, gives every approved set of minutes in that series as one PDF, oldest first: a cover saying what it holds and how long to keep it (where the organisation is a company, the Companies Act 2006 asks for ten years from each meeting - sections 248 and 355), a contents page with the page each meeting starts on, then each meeting, every sheet numbered and on your letterhead. Minutes not yet approved are not in it.

Papers on a meeting are links to where each paper is kept - a board pack in your own drive, a report, a plan: Add a paper with its title, its https:// address and whether it is for the whole meeting or one agenda item, while the minutes are open. Documents lists every meeting's papers, found by a title, a meeting or an item. Nothing is uploaded or stored by PBS Minutes, and papers are not printed in the minutes. Under Agreements and letters, the owner, an administrator or the secretary adds the standard templates once (a mutual non-disclosure agreement with its ten clauses, and letters of intent, introduction and business - the wording is your organisation's to check), then Make an agreement or letter for one of your people: it is kept exactly as made - an agreement keeps its own copy of every clause, so changing a clause later changes no agreement already made - with a fingerprint that shows it is unchanged, and anything not recorded (your letterhead, the person's address) shown as [not recorded] so you see it before you print. Each document says the template and the version of it that made it, and Your templates and their versions lists every version your organisation holds - in use or replaced - with how many documents each made. The person it is for finds it on Yours, ticks each clause they agree to and signs by typing their full name - every clause must be agreed first, and only they can sign it; the document then says who signed and when, and is still exactly as made. Or print it and sign it on paper. Nothing is emailed from PBS Minutes. A mistake is voided with a reason; nothing is deleted.

Add to a calendar (.ics) on a meeting gives it as a calendar invite that Outlook, Google or Apple calendars open - at its start time for its length, or as an all-day event on its date when no time is set, with the agenda and a link back. PBS Minutes sends nothing: download it and pass it on.

Attendance on a meeting lists who was invited; Record attendance or apologies marks one of your people, or a guest by name, as attended, sent apologies or absent, while the minutes are open. Beside each name one tap - Here, Apologies or Absent - marks them. Marking someone again changes their mark rather than listing them twice. The minutes print who was present, who sent apologies and who was absent.

Registers, beside Search on Meetings, lists every decision across every meeting - its resolution number, outcome, proposer and seconder, the vote (by name where it was named), the chair's casting vote, and the meeting with whether its minutes are approved - and every declaration of interest, with the item and what happened next. Find narrows both by words, a resolution number, a person or a meeting, and Series to one series; each entry opens its meeting. Entries are made at the meeting, not here.

Written resolutions, beside Search on Meetings, are resolutions agreed in writing between meetings. Circulate a written resolution: its words, a number if it has one, the series whose members are counted (or everyone), the day it is circulated and the day it closes - which starts as the 28th day counting the day it is circulated, the Companies Act 2006 period (section 297) where your articles set none. Record each person's response - agrees or disagrees - as it comes in: once recorded it stands, and after the closing day no response is taken (the Act makes a later agreement ineffective). The list counts who agreed and who disagreed, of how many. Mark passed when the agreements make the majority required - by voting rights under the Act (sections 282 and 283) or your articles, which is yours to judge; Mark lapsed once it has closed without passing; or Withdraw it.

Meetings lists the latest 60, the latest first, and says how many there are; Older meetings at the foot of the list shows the next 60 back, and Newer meetings comes back.

Search, at the top of Meetings, looks through every meeting, agenda item (its discussion and conclusion too), decision, action and person, and each result opens where it lives - a decision says which meeting it was and whether those minutes are approved. People lists everyone in the record: their role, job and company, the series they sit on and their standing role, how many meetings they attended and how many of their actions are still open; Find narrows it by name, company or job. Contact details show to the owner, administrators and the secretary. Term of office is the day a person's current term ends - a councillor's, a trustee's or a director's, as your own rules set it: the owner, administrators and the secretary set it on People (Set a term of office, or Change and Clear), and People names, above the list, every term that has ended or ends within 90 days, so it is seen before the meeting that re-elects, re-appoints or replaces them. Adding people and changing their other details are not on that screen.

Your organisation, beside Registers on Meetings, holds what kind of body this is and when its financial year ends; the owner and administrators set them. From them Meetings says the statutory dates: for a registered charity or a CIO, the annual return to the Charity Commission for the year just ended - due within 10 months from the year end (Charities Act 2011, sections 163 and 169; for a registered charity only if its income for the year was over £10,000, for a CIO whatever its income); for a parish or town council, that its annual meeting is held in May, or in a year of ordinary elections within 14 days after the councillors elected take office (Local Government Act 1972, Schedule 12, paragraph 7). They are reminders: nothing is refused, and your trustees or clerk confirm the dates.

The letterhead is set there too, by the owner and administrators: the legal name, the address, a registration line printed as you type it (your registered charity or company number, with its words - PBS Minutes never looks one up), and who the minutes are signed by. It heads every sheet of the minutes and the Minute Book. Approved minutes keep the letterhead they were sealed with, so changing it changes the minutes made from then on, and every approved set still matches its seal.

A meeting is held, minuted and approved on or after its date. Before its day it can have its agenda issued or be cancelled, and nothing else - the meeting says so, with the date. One moved on ahead of its date can be cancelled with the reason. Minutes approved are never changed: if a meeting's approval is dated before the meeting itself, Meetings and the meeting say so, and an amendment (addendum) records what happened.

While a meeting is a draft, its page says the last day the agenda can go out with three clear days' notice - the day it goes out and the meeting day do not count - and, once that day has passed, how many clear days are left. A parish council must give three clear days' notice (Local Government Act 1972, Schedule 12, paragraph 10(2)); whether a Sunday or a bank holiday counts is for your clerk to confirm. It is a reminder: nothing is refused.

Nothing is deleted in everyday use. Cancel the meeting asks why and keeps the meeting on record with the reason. Archive or restore a series, at the foot of Meetings, takes a series off "Open the next meeting" and keeps every meeting and its Minute Book. For a formal request to erase someone's personal data, the owner or an administrator uses Erase personal details beside them on People and types the confirm phrase: their name becomes "Erased person", their contact and address details are emptied and the record keeps its shape. A person who still signs in must have their login removed first.

Public page

A parish or town council publishes its agendas and approved minutes. On Your organisation the owner or an administrator presses Turn the public page on; the page is then at /public/ and the organisation's short name, and anyone can read it without signing in. Nothing is on it until somebody puts it there: on a meeting, those who approve minutes press Publish the agenda once the agenda is issued and Publish the approved minutes once they are approved - never a draft, and nothing of a meeting marked confidential. The page lists each published meeting, newest first, with its date, time and place, its agenda's items, and its approved minutes as the sealed PDF with any amendments agreed since. Take the agenda off and Take the minutes off remove one; Turn the public page off removes them all at once (each meeting keeps its mark for when the page is on again). An address that is not on the page answers as an unknown page.

From start to end: a meeting

The screens above, in the order a secretary uses them for one meeting. Each step's own paragraph says everything it does.

1. On Meetings, under Open the next meeting, press the series' own button: the meeting carries over the agenda template, the standing attendees and any work that is due. It is dated by the series - or give the day beside the button (on), for an extra meeting or one that moved; it then follows the meeting held before that day. Add a paper for each paper, and pass the meeting on with Add to a calendar (.ics).
2. At the meeting, mark each person under Attendance with one tap - Here, Apologies or Absent.
3. Go through the agenda an item at a time with Next item: keep the discussion in What was said on …, Record a decision with its proposer, seconder and vote, and Raise an action for each thing someone will do.
4. After the meeting, read the Draft minutes (PDF) and Mark circulated.
5. At the next meeting, Approve the minutes of the previous meeting: the previous minutes are approved and sealed, linked to the meeting that approved them.
6. Between meetings, each person opens their actions from Yours or Actions and says how each is going.

Done when: the minutes are approved and sealed, and every action is done or carried into the next meeting.

Creating an account

Create an account on the sign-in page leads to the sign-up page. Until PBS Minutes takes new accounts it says Accounts open soon and saves nothing. Once it does, you give your organisation's name, your name, your email and a password; you get your own empty organisation, and the screen says it is waiting for approval. You can sign in once it has been approved.

Demo links

For the demonstration organisation's owner. Demo links in the tabs makes a link to send a prospect: it opens the demonstration organisation with no password, and nothing they do is saved - every save says Demo: not saved, and a strip under the notice says it is a read-only demo, with End demo. A link works for 14 days on up to 5 devices (you can set fewer or more); Make a public link has no end date, for a website. Each link lists the devices that opened it - phone, tablet or computer, the system and browser, and the rough place - with the pages opened, kept 90 days. Switch off ends the demo for everyone using that link at their next page, where they are told the link is not open. The first open of a named link emails you.

What this does NOT do

Work registry lists what the PBS products your organisation uses have published - today, each action these minutes finish - with its state, who has it, when it is due and how long open work has not moved; it is read only, and the other products do not publish to it. Transcription, remote meetings and sending minutes by email are in the database and tested there, and are not exposed in this product. Nothing here will tell you a message was sent: the default mail transport records and does not send.