Practice system or AI notetaker: which does your firm need?

An AI notetaker records and transcribes client meetings, then drafts the file note and action items, often sending them to the CRM you already use. A practice system runs the whole client journey in one record, from first meeting to implemented advice and reviews, with fee consent, SoA requests, implementation and evidence along the way.

One speeds up a task. The other organises the work around the client. Neither is better in general. The right choice depends on where your clients actually wait.

This guide compares the two categories, not named products. Products within each category differ, so use the questions near the end to test any vendor you are considering.

An AI meeting notetaker joins or records a client meeting, usually a video call, a phone call or an in-person conversation captured on a device. Most then:

• Transcribe the conversation, with speaker labels.
• Summarise it into a draft file note, often in a template the firm chooses.
• Propose action items, such as documents to request or a follow-up email.
• Push the result into an existing CRM or document store, where it sits against the client.

The appeal is clear. Writing up notes after back-to-back meetings is tedious, and notes written days later from memory are thinner. A good notetaker starts the record while the meeting is fresh, and the adviser edits a draft instead of a blank page.

What a notetaker does not usually do is run the work that follows. The SoA request, the implementation tasks, the review date and the fee consent still live wherever they lived before: the CRM, a spreadsheet, an inbox or someone’s memory. For more on the record itself, see our guide to file notes for financial advisers.

A practice system holds one client record and the workflow around it. Firms also call it practice management software or advice software. It is where the team sees who each client is, where their advice is up to and who owns the next step.

Across the advice process, that usually means:

• Onboarding and discovery. The first meeting, the fact find and documents received, kept with the household.
• SoA requests. The strategy discussion, fact find and modelling notes assembled into one request for paraplanning.
• Implementation. Each recommendation turned into tasks with an owner and a due date.
• Reviews and fee consent. Review cycles started from the client’s real dates, with consent tracked against each one.
• Evidence. File notes, approvals and actions recorded, so the firm can show what was done and who decided.

Some practice systems now include AI that drafts file notes too. The difference is that the note lands inside the same record that drives the rest of the work. For the stages in more detail, see the financial advice process, stage by stage.

These are typical patterns, not rules. Individual products in each category vary, so check each row with the vendor.

Choose an AI notetaker if

• You are happy with your CRM, and the team uses it well.
• SoAs move to paraplanning complete and on time, and implementation does not stall.
• Reviews and fee consent are already tracked reliably.
• The main pain is writing up meetings, and you want faster, more consistent file notes.
• You want something running in weeks, with little change to how the team works.

In that firm, a practice system would be a large project to solve a problem it does not have. A notetaker that drafts notes in your format and files them to the right client may be the sensible, lower-cost step.

Choose a practice system if

• Clients wait between the strategy meeting and implemented advice, and nobody can say exactly where.
• SoA requests go back and forth because pieces are missing.
• Implementation tasks live in inboxes, and reviews start when someone notices they are due.
• Fee consent is tracked in a spreadsheet, apart from the review it belongs to.
• You want approvals and evidence kept with the client, not spread across several tools.

A worked example (fictional). Firm A has two advisers and a CRM that works. Its reviews run on time and paraplanning comes back promptly. Its problem is notes written up late on Friday. A notetaker fits. Firm B has five advisers and decent notes, but strategy-meeting clients wait for SoA requests that are missing documents, and renewals sit in a spreadsheet. A faster file note will not move those clients. Firm B needs the work between the meetings organised, which is what a practice system is for.

Yes. Many firms will run a notetaker for meetings and a practice system for the work around the client. That can work well if you settle a few points first:

• One approved record. Decide which system holds the approved file note. Two editable copies drift apart.
• Client matching. Test how a note finds the right client, and what happens when the match is uncertain.
• Where the drafts go. Keep drafts separate from approved notes, and record who reviewed each one.
• Retention. Recordings and transcripts may sit in both systems. Agree whose retention and deletion settings apply.
• Actions. Check whether approved actions become real tasks with owners, or need typing in again.

Some practice systems offer meeting capture as part of the same record. Others connect to a separate tool. Either way, the test is the same: does the conversation end up as a checked note and assigned work, against the right client?

The same questions work for both kinds of vendor. Ask for the answers in writing, and check they match the contract.

• Data location. Where are recordings, transcripts, notes and client records stored and processed? In which country, and by which third-party services?
• Training on your data. Is your data used to train or improve AI models, by the vendor or anyone else? Can that be switched off, and is it in the contract?
• Human review. Can a draft stay separate from the approved record? Is the reviewer and the time of review recorded?
• Recording and consent. How are clients told about recording, and what happens when a client says no?
• Access. Who at the vendor can see your client data, and when?
• Retention and deletion. Who sets retention periods? Can a recording be deleted on request?
• Exit. What do you get back if you leave, in what format and how quickly? What happens to copies the vendor holds?
• Total cost. What drives ongoing cost: users, minutes, AI usage, storage, licensing or third-party charges?

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s guidance on privacy and commercially available AI products covers transcription and note-taking tools. It flags product terms that let a vendor use customer inputs for further training, and it recommends against entering personal information, especially sensitive information, into publicly available generative AI tools. Check the recording laws that apply in your state or territory too.

ASIC’s REP 798, Beware the gap (October 2024) found that some licensees were adopting AI faster than they were updating their governance. Whichever tool you choose, agree the review and approval steps before rollout.

A note on fee consent

Fee consent is a common reason firms look past a notetaker. Under the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes changes, the annual fee disclosure statement (FDS) has gone. For ongoing fee arrangements entered into from 10 January 2025, or for existing ones from their first anniversary after that date, the client gives signed, dated written consent to renew each year, within a window around the anniversary or an agreed reference day. Records must be kept for at least five years. See ASIC’s INFO 286. Older guidance, INFO 256, still describes the FDS and generally applies only to arrangements before the new rules took effect.

This guide is general information, not legal or compliance advice. Confirm how these rules apply to your firm with your licensee or compliance adviser.

Bunya AI builds Bunya Command Centre, the practice operating system for Australian financial advice firms. It is a practice system, in the sense used on this page, and it is built inside your firm’s own Microsoft 365, owned by your firm. Bunya prepares the work for each stage, and a person on your team checks and approves every step.

Bunya Voice is an optional add-on. It covers supported calls and Teams meetings inside Command Centre, with meeting notes, file notes, actions and a follow-up email drafted for your team to check. Command Centre works without it, and your team can keep recording meetings its usual way.

If your CRM works and file notes are your only problem, a notetaker may suit you better, and we would rather say so.

• Command Centre: the client record and advice work in one place.
• Bunya Voice: calls, meetings and file notes, as an add-on.
• AI workflows and integrations: what AI prepares, who checks it and what connects.