Dinner Minutes

Dinner with your spouse is a board meeting.

If your spouse is a member or advisor of your LLC, the two of you at dinner is 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 when we open. No card. After that: 1.5% of the pre-tip meal — about $3 on a $200 dinner.

IRC §274(d) SubstantiationFiled

Business Meal Record

Date
Fri Aug 22, 7:18 PM
Place
Luke's Kitchen & Bar
Amount (pre-tip)
$194.10
Total charged
$226.10

Purpose: Quarterly members' meeting, Oakline Property Co., LLC — Q3 review, insurance renewal, distribution plan.

Attendees: J. Morgan (member), A. Morgan (member).


Deductible portion: $97.05 (50%). Both receipts attached.

Meeting Minutes

Oakline Property Co., LLC

Date
Fri Aug 22, 2026
Body
Members
Present
2 of 2 — quorum

Resolved: renew liability policy at current limits for the Sep 2026–Aug 2027 term.

Resolved: distribute Q3 surplus of $12,400 pro rata on Sep 30.

J. MorganChair
A. MorganSecretary

One dinner. Two cross-referencing records, signed the same night. (Sample data.)

No app during dinner.

Two photos when the check comes, and a two-minute recap in the car. The phone stays down for the conversation.

Before — 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.

During — dinner. Nothing. Have dinner with your spouse. When the check arrives, two photos: the itemized receipt and the signed check with the tip.

After — recap. In the car, 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 wants something changed, tell us and we'll change it. If they approve, you have a record with a professional's blessing behind it — which is worth considerably more than a second free dinner.

You don't have to own it together.

What makes a meal a meeting is that the people at the table have a governance relationship to the entity — not that they're married, and not that they're co-owners.

1

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.

2

You own it, your spouse advises

Single-member LLC, spouse on the board of advisors. No co-ownership required. Adding your spouse to an advisory board takes one amendment, and it's the most common way this works.

3

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.

Priced off the deduction, not a subscription.

We take 3% of the write-off we help you keep — 1.5% of the pre-tip meal. No monthly fee, and the first meeting is free.

Pre-tip meal amount
$200.00
$40$500$1,000$1,500
Your write-off
$100.00
Our fee
$3.00

A $200 dinner produces a $100 deduction. We take $3.00 — you keep $97.00.

Business meals are generally 50% deductible under IRC §274. Whether a given meal qualifies is a question for your CPA.

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.

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.

ProductMeal recordMinutesPer meeting
Dinner MinutesYesYes, per LLC$3.00 on a $200 dinner
Anderson Corporate ConciergeNoHuman-drafted$50.00
Expensify / Ramp / BrexReceipt lineNoCard bundle
LegalZoom templatesNoFill-in form$40–200

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

Questions we get.

Do I have to be on my phone at dinner?

No. You convene before you sit down and recap in the car afterward. 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?

Yes — whether that's your spouse, your co-founder, or an advisor. Minutes carry weight when the people who signed them actually assented, so everyone at the table who signs gets their own login and signs for themselves. Setup is one email invitation and one tap.

What does the IRS actually require?

Five things per meal: amount, date, place, business purpose, and the business relationship of the attendees — plus a receipt at $75 or more. Dinner Minutes captures all five, both receipt photos, and applies the 50% deductibility cap in the record itself.

Your first dinner will be on the house.

We're opening to the waitlist first. Leave your email and you'll get the invitation — one complete meeting, both records, no card. Show them to your CPA before you decide.

By joining you agree to the terms and privacy policy.