A personal recap is a way to organise information you already have. Choose a format according to the question you need to keep track of: a meeting decision, a household money overview, a policy record or a dated planning scenario. A neat summary does not make the underlying information correct or turn it into advice.

What to record

For meeting notes, record topics, decisions and actions. For a money overview, record the period, currency and broad categories. For a policy record, keep the document date and questions to verify. Use a separate page when combining unrelated records would make the purpose unclear.

A practical example

Someone preparing for a review might make one page of questions and one page recording the discussion afterward. The first page is a preparation aid; the second is a user-entered record. Neither should be labelled an approved recommendation.

Build and check your own record

  1. Gather the relevant original records and note their dates. Decide what this summary is for and who, if anyone, needs to receive it.
  2. Open the tool and use minimal, non-sensitive descriptions. Enter only figures you can explain, mark estimates clearly and leave missing information as unknown.
  3. Compare the preview with the sources. Check units, dates and totals, and correct any misleading label before exporting. A generated layout does not verify the inputs.

Keep the original documents

Store the summary securely and review it when its source information changes. Keep important decisions, official notices and professional recommendations in their original records. Ask a qualified professional about suitability, tax treatment or legal effect where needed.