When to use Beam Notes

Beam Notes can be used for any meeting where someone might need to take minutes or where you might need to make notes to refer to later and keep track of actions. This could be a visit, meeting, or assessment with a resident, a meeting with multi-agency professionals, or an internal meeting such as supervision, a team meeting, or a case discussion.

Common questions:

• Can I use Beam Notes if there are lots of people present at the meeting? 

Absolutely. It is very common for multiple people to be at a meeting. Try to remember to ask everyone to introduce themselves at the start so that Beam Notes can pick up all voices. If it’s a really big meeting in a large room, it will only be able to hear as well as someone tuning in online. So, if there are people quite far away, microphones may need to be used. However, for a typical meeting in someone’s living room or around a table in a meeting room, it will work just fine!

• Can I use Beam Notes for meetings online eg via Teams or Zoom?

Yes, it is perfectly set up so that when you press record, it will ask you to choose whether the meeting is online/hybrid or in person. You will need to record and edit from your laptop, so your phone won’t be used. If you are going to use headphones, please make sure they are already plugged in before you start and do not remove them before you finish.

You can refer to this article for instructions on how to record online.

• Can I use it just for my own thoughts/reflections/analysis?

Many people find this a really helpful additional way to use Beam Notes. After a meeting, visit, or assessment, you might have your own reflections on how it went. For instance, you may note any change in the resident since you last saw them, any observations about their presentation, or the condition of the property. All of these thoughts can be recorded simply by speaking to Beam Notes, and they will be written up immediately, just like any other meeting.

• Can I paste my pre-written bullet points directly into Beam Notes to generate a case note/summary without using the recording function?

No, you’ll need to record audio to generate a summary, regardless of the desired template. Keep in mind that if your organisation has access to the reports feature, you’ll be able to create high quality reports in minutes by combining various source materials. Contact your organisation management team internally about reports access.