Use the Meeting step whenever two or more people come together, whether in person or virtually. The Meeting step is distinct from a Manual Task because it involves multiple participants simultaneously, and WorkflowMaps uses this to calculate the true cost of the meeting automatically.
WHEN TO USE IT
Use Meeting for:
- Client kickoff calls
- Team standups
- Review or feedback sessions
- Strategy sessions
- Onboarding calls with new hires or clients
- Any collaborative session where multiple people are present at the same time
If only one person is involved, use a Manual Task instead.
FIELDS
Title
Name it clearly. "Client Kickoff Call", "Weekly Team Standup", "Campaign Review Session".
Summary
A brief description of what the meeting covers and its purpose.
Facilitator
The person who leads or chairs the meeting.
Location Type
Choose Physical (in person) or Virtual (video call, phone). This is useful context for the map and for any SOPs linked from this step.
Participants
Add all attendees from the People system. Each person you add contributes their hourly rate to the cost calculation. This is what makes meeting costs visible in a way that often surprises clients.
Agenda
The items to be covered. Adding an agenda here makes the step genuinely useful as operational documentation. A team member looking at the map knows exactly what a meeting involves without asking anyone.
Duration
How long the meeting runs. Enter in minutes.
Meeting Link
A link to the recurring video call, calendar invite, or booking page.
HOW COST IS CALCULATED
Meeting cost is calculated automatically as: duration in hours multiplied by each participant's hourly rate, added together.
A 60-minute meeting with five people each costing £50 per hour equals £250 per meeting. If this meeting runs weekly, that is £13,000 per year from a single recurring meeting. Surfaces this kind of number during a discovery session is often a significant moment for clients who have never thought of meetings as a cost centre.
You do not need to enter a cost manually for a Meeting step. Set the duration and add the participants, and the calculation happens automatically.
A NOTE ON MEETING VS MANUAL TASK
Sometimes what looks like a meeting is really a series of manual tasks that happen to occur at the same time. If the meeting is primarily one person doing something (presenting, reviewing, explaining) while others passively receive, consider whether the meeting step is the right fit or whether the core action should be a Manual Task with a note about the meeting context. The goal is always clarity about what is actually happening and who is doing what.