This is a roundup, not a sales pitch. The goal is to help you pick a tool that produces a file note you could hand to a credit licensee, an external dispute resolution scheme, or an auditor without flinching.
What a broker actually needs from a file note tool
Most note-taking apps are built for sales teams or general meetings. Brokers have a narrower problem. Under the NCCP Act you have to make reasonable inquiries, assess that a loan is not unsuitable, and keep a record you can produce later. A tool that just spits out a tidy meeting summary is not enough.
Here is the checklist I would run any tool against before trusting it with client calls:
- Produces an NCCP-ready file note, not just a generic summary. It should capture the inquiry, the client's objectives, and the not-unsuitable reasoning. See our guide to writing a compliant NCCP file note for what that looks like.
- Handles consent properly. Recording a phone call without consent is a problem in several states. The tool should help you get consent on the record, or avoid handling audio entirely. Our guide to recording phone calls in Australia breaks down the state-by-state rules.
- Keeps data in Australia. A lot of these tools store recordings and transcripts on US servers. For a regulated client record, offshore audio is a real consideration.
- Gives you an audit trail. A note you can quietly edit six months later is weak evidence. You want a timestamp, a seal, and a record of any changes.
- Works for phone calls, not just video meetings. Most broker work happens on the phone, and a lot of these tools are built bot-first for Zoom and Teams.
That last point splits the market more than anything. The way a tool gets your conversation into text decides almost everything else about it.
The three kinds of tool on the market
Strip away the branding and there are three architectures. Each is a genuine fit for a different job.
1. Meeting recorders (bot or device)
Tools like Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, tl;dv and Avoma record the meeting, transcribe it, and summarise it. Some send a visible bot into the Zoom or Teams call. Some, like Fathom, capture device-side without a bot by default. They are mature, accurate, and integrate with everything.
The trade-off for a broker: they record and store audio, usually on US servers, and they are built around video meetings rather than phone calls. The summary is a meeting summary, not a compliance file note.
2. Bot-free, no-audio-stored tools
Granola, Jamie and Zocks took a different path. Granola captures your device's system audio, transcribes in real time, then deletes the audio and keeps only the transcript. Jamie processes locally, according to its site. Zocks says it captures data without recording audio. This is genuinely better data minimisation, and Granola in particular is well regarded for it.
For an Australian broker the gaps are location and fit. Granola is macOS, with no Windows app documented as of mid-2026, and US-hosted, and it is built for personal and team meetings rather than the compliant client record. Jamie is a European personal note taker priced in euros. Zocks is built around US adviser CRMs and US compliance.
3. Australian-built compliance tools
This is the category that actually understands the regulated client record. There are two players worth knowing: Claras and CallNote. They take different routes to the same outcome.
Claras: the established Australian adviser tool
Claras (claras.ai), built by Knkt Digital, is the most established Australian option and the one your peers are most likely to mention. It is built specifically for Australian financial advisers, hosts data in Australia, is SOC 2 certified, follows the Australian Privacy Principles, and redacts PII before AI processing. It integrates with XPlan, Salesforce and Microsoft 365. Their site cites 500+ practices and 45,000+ notes.
Claras records or uploads your meeting and transcribes it, then produces a file note in under five minutes. If you are a financial adviser living in XPlan, it is a strong, serious tool and you should look at it properly.
The honest separation for brokers: Claras leads with financial advisers and XPlan. It handles the audio itself. CallNote leads with mortgage brokers, NCCP and per-state consent scripts, never touches audio, and connects to phone systems. Different tools built for slightly different jobs. We wrote a full, fair CallNote vs Claras comparison if you want the detail.
CallNote: transcript-only, built for the broker file note
Full disclosure, this is our tool, so read the rest with that in mind. CallNote takes the transcript your phone or meeting system already made and turns it into a clean, structured, compliance-ready file note in about two minutes. You review it, then lodge and lock it: timestamped, SHA-256 sealed, and recorded in an append-only audit log. It saves roughly ten minutes of write-up per call.
The thing that makes it different from every tool above is what it does not do. CallNote never records audio, never sends a bot into your call, and never transcribes. It receives a transcript that already exists. That comes from one of four live paths today:
- Paste a transcript from anything.
- Upload a voice memo, which is transcribed for you via Deepgram or Whisper. Good for mobile and in-person calls.
- Email-in: forward a transcript to your own unique address.
- Dialpad connector: paste your Dialpad API key and every call transcript becomes a note. Dialpad transcription is on all plans; the API access needs Dialpad Pro.
Data sits in AWS Sydney, AES-256 encrypted, and is never used to train AI models. The compliance side is the point: per-state recording-consent scripts for all eight states and territories, and an NCCP loan-suitability template that uses the s130 not-unsuitable standard plus a broker declaration. You write your own prompt and house style rather than fitting yourself into a rigid template, and it works on any device including phone calls.
Side by side
A fair summary of the main options for a broker. Pricing is as of mid-2026 in the listed currency; check current pricing on each tool's site before deciding.
| Tool | How it captures | Data location | Audit trail / seal | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CallNote | Receives an existing transcript (paste, voice memo, email-in, Dialpad). No audio. | Australia (AWS Sydney) | Append-only log, SHA-256 seal | AU brokers / advisers needing a compliant file note |
| Claras | Records or uploads your meeting, then transcribes | Australia | SOC 2 certified | AU financial advisers, especially XPlan users |
| Granola | Captures device audio, deletes it, keeps transcript | US (AWS) | SOC 2 Type 2 | Personal / team meetings, macOS |
| Otter | Visible bot records and transcribes in real time | US | Not a compliance focus | Accurate transcription, generous free tier |
| Fireflies | Bot records audio and video | US (default) | Says it does not train AI on your data | Broad CRM integrations, low pricing |
| Fathom | Device-side by default, bot optional | US (Oregon) | Not a compliance focus | Unlimited free recordings, less disruptive capture |
None of these is bad. Otter has one of the best real-time transcription engines going. Fireflies has very broad integrations and low pricing. Fathom's free tier is the most generous here. They are just built for a different job to the regulated Australian file note.
How to choose for a broking business
- Decide if you can touch audio at all. If your compliance team is uneasy about recordings sitting offshore, that rules out most recorders and points you at a transcript-only or no-audio-stored tool.
- Check where your calls happen. Mostly phone? You want a tool built for phone calls, not a Zoom-first bot. Mostly video? The recorders are a fair option.
- Look at the output, not the summary. Ask to see a real NCCP-style file note, not a generic meeting recap. If it does not capture your inquiry and the not-unsuitable reasoning, you will be editing every note.
- Confirm the audit trail. A note you can silently change later is weak if anyone ever questions it.
- Trial it on real calls. Most of these offer a free trial. Run five actual client calls through it and see how much editing you do.
Common questions
What is the best file note software for mortgage brokers in Australia?
It depends on how your calls happen and how strict your data rules are. For a transcript-only, AU-hosted tool built around the NCCP file note and phone calls, CallNote is purpose-built for brokers. For a financial adviser living in XPlan, Claras is the established Australian option. General recorders like Otter, Fireflies and Fathom are accurate and well integrated but store audio offshore and produce meeting summaries rather than compliance notes.
Do I have to record the call to get a file note?
No. CallNote never records audio. It receives a transcript your phone or meeting system already produced, or transcribes a voice memo you upload, and turns that into a structured file note. That sidesteps a lot of the recording-consent question. See our guide on whether it is legal to record phone calls in Australia for the state-by-state detail.
Is my client data kept in Australia?
With CallNote, yes, it is hosted in AWS Sydney, AES-256 encrypted, and never used to train AI models. Claras also hosts in Australia. Most of the US tools (Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, Granola, Zocks) store data on US servers, which is worth checking against your own compliance requirements.
What makes a file note NCCP-ready?
It needs to record the inquiries you made, the client's objectives and circumstances, and your reasoning that the loan is not unsuitable, with enough detail to reconstruct the conversation later. A generic meeting summary usually misses this. Our guide to writing a compliant NCCP file note walks through what to include.
Can these tools push notes into my CRM?
Some can. CallNote's CRM connectors (HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, MyCRM) are being built and rolling out, not live yet, so we will not pretend that push is available today. The Dialpad connector for pulling call transcripts in is live. Claras integrates with XPlan, Salesforce and Microsoft 365. Always confirm a specific integration is live before you rely on it.