Business meal record + signed minutes
Dinner with your spouse is a board meeting — when you conduct business.
Two things turn a dinner into a meeting: the right people at the table, and business actually conducted there. If your spouse is a member or advisor of your LLC and the two of you spend part of dinner working through the business — as most couples running one already do — that's a members' meeting. Dinner Minutes turns each one into the two records that make it count: the IRS meal substantiation and the signed corporate minutes, delivered to your inbox before you're home.
Works the same for co-founders, partners, and anyone else who meets over a meal.
First dinner free. Sign-up required, no card. After that: 2.5% of the pre-tip meal — about $5 on a $200 dinner.
Business Meal Record
- Date
- Fri Sep 4, 6:40 PM
- Place
- Harbor & Vine, Orlando FL
- Amount (pre-tip)
- $146.20
- Total charged
- $175.20
Purpose: Quarterly members' meeting, Oakline Property Co., LLC — Q3 review, insurance renewal, reserves & distributions.
Attendees: Jordan Morgan (member), Casey Morgan (member).
Deductible portion: $87.60 (50%). Both receipts attached.
Oakline Property Co., LLC
- Date
- Fri Sep 4, 2026
- Body
- Members
- Present
- 2 of 2 — quorum
Resolved: obtain two quotes for a $1,000,000 umbrella liability policy before the Oct 15 renewal.
Resolved: make no Q3 member distribution; hold cash until the operating reserve reaches 6 months.
One dinner. Two cross-referencing records, signed the same night. Open the PDFs the app produces: substantiation record · minutes — filled in for a fictional company and watermarked SAMPLE.
How it works
No app during dinner.
Two photos when the check comes, and a two-minute recap before the night ends. The phone stays down for the conversation.
Convene.
Open the app before you sit down. Pick which of your entities are meeting tonight and approve the short agenda it built from your roster. One tap, then put the phone away.
Dinner.
Work the agenda you approved. Somewhere over dinner you actually talk those items through — that conversation is the meeting, and it's the one part no app can do for you. The phone stays down until the check arrives: two photos, the itemized receipt and the signed check with the tip.
Recap.
Before the night ends, talk through what you decided, entity by entity, for about two minutes. Review the drafted minutes, approve them, and both PDFs are in your inbox. Every entity you discussed gets its own minutes.
Then send it to your CPA — before you pay us anything.
Your first meeting is free for exactly this reason. Forward both PDFs to your own accountant and ask them to sign off on the format against your return.
This is the recommended course of action, not a formality. They know your entity and your filings; we don't. If your CPA has feedback, we'd love to hear it — send their rationale and we'll take it under advisement for future versions. If they approve, you have a record with a professional's blessing behind it — which is worth considerably more than a second free dinner.
Who it's for
You don't have to own it together.
Two things make a meal a meeting: the people at the table have a governance relationship to the entity, and you spend part of it conducting that entity's business. Marriage and co-ownership aren't on the list.
Spouses who co-own the LLCMost common
Both of you are members. Every dinner where you talk about the business is a members' meeting, and it has been all along — you just weren't writing it down.
You own it, your spouse advises
Single-member LLC, spouse on the board of advisors. Adding your spouse to an advisory board takes one amendment, and it's the most common way this works. The advisory seat is one half of it; the business you work through at the table is the other.
Partners, co-founders, anyone who meets over a meal
Two co-founders with a standing Thursday lunch. An owner and their advisors. Siblings running a family business. If real decisions get made across the table, the minutes should exist.
Pricing
Priced off the deduction, not a subscription.
We take 5% of the write-off we help you keep — 2.5% of the pre-tip meal. No monthly fee, and the first meeting is free.
Business meals are generally 50% deductible under IRC §274. Whether a given meal qualifies is a question for your CPA.
A $200 dinner produces a $100 deduction. We take $5.00 — you keep $95.00.
Privacy
Your records live on your device.
Receipts, transcripts, minutes, PDFs — stored on your phone and delivered to your email. The moment your device confirms delivery, our copy is deleted. We can't leak what we don't have.
There is no customer database of tax records — nothing to breach, nothing to subpoena. Your inbox is the archive; your phone is the working set. The only thing we keep is the signup attestation that you prepared these records as an officer of your own entity.
The gap
Nobody makes both records.
Expense apps capture receipts. Board software drafts minutes. Advisor firms bill by the meeting. One meal, both records, is the gap.
| Product | Meal record | Minutes | Per meeting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dinner Minutes | Yes | Yes, per LLC | $5.00 on a $200 dinner |
| Anderson Corporate Concierge | No | Human-drafted | $50.00 |
| Expensify / Ramp / Brex | Receipt line | No | Card bundle |
| LegalZoom templates | No | Fill-in form | $40–200 |
Founder
Built on our own Friday dinners.
My wife and I run three LLCs and the trust above them. Every Friday since July 2026 we've gone to dinner and run it as a members' meeting: an agenda before, both receipts at the check, a dictated recap after, and the two records compiled the same night. Our CPA signed off on the position before we started. Dinner Minutes is that routine, handed to you.
It doesn't replace your CPA or your attorney. It makes sure the paperwork actually exists — the same night, not next April.
— Jeremy Joslin, founder
FAQ
Questions we get.
Do I have to be on my phone at dinner?
No. You convene before you sit down, and record the recap later, before the night ends. The only time the phone appears at the table is when the check comes: two photos, itemized receipt and signed check, then it goes back in your pocket.
Is this legal or tax advice?
No. Dinner Minutes is a records tool, not a law firm or accounting firm. It structures the facts you provide into the records your entity keeps. Your attorney and CPA remain the right people to judge how those records apply to you, and the terms you accept at signup say exactly that — no attorney-client relationship, no privilege. It is why we tell you to send your first compiled meeting to your own accountant for sign-off before you pay for a second one.
What if I lose my phone?
Every meeting's PDFs were emailed to you the night they were compiled — your inbox is the archive. A new device imports from those emails and rebuilds your history. Nothing is stranded on our servers, because nothing is on our servers.
Does the other person need their own account?
No. One account runs the meeting. Everyone who signs draws their signature once at setup, on the same phone, and each meeting's minutes carry every present signer's signature when you approve them. There is no second login and nothing waits on someone else's device.
What does the IRS actually require?
For a dinner in your own town: the meal has to be an ordinary and necessary business expense (§162), not lavish, with you at the table (§274(k)) — and you keep books and records to back it (§6001). Only 50% is deductible (§274(n)). §6001 publishes no checklist, so we record the five elements the Code does spell out — amount, date, place, business purpose, and the attendees' business relationship — plus both receipt photos. That is deliberately more than a local dinner strictly requires; unsupported estimates are what lose. Travel to a business dinner away from home and §274(d) governs directly, and the same record already satisfies it.
Your first dinner is on the house.
Create an account, add your LLC in about ninety seconds, and convene your first meeting. One complete meeting, both records, no card. Show them to your CPA before you decide.
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