Time to finish - five English expressions to end a business meeting

In this blog post we’ve already considered how to get business meetings started, but what about when we need them to end? Meetings can’t go on forever so it’s important to have a way to bring them to a conclusion. Here are some phrases to help you finish your meetings on time.

To wrap up

This is a common way to end a meeting and means to bring something to an end, often with a short summary. ‘Wrap up’ is quite an informal phrase, but it’s fine to use in office situations.

E.g. “It’s 1pm so let’s wrap up this meeting and I’ll see you all again next week.”

To sum up

This literally means ‘to summarise’ but sounds more natural in spoken English. Use this expression if you want to summarise the main points of the meeting.

E.g. “Let’s sum up – we can deliver the goods you need on Thursday and you will pay in installments over the next 6 weeks.”

To recap

This is useful if you want to remind the attendees of any points you have covered in the current or previous meeting.

E.g. “So, to recap, when were those items due?”

NOTE: we can also use this as a noun. E.g. “Can you give me a recap of the points we covered last week?”

Action points / next actions

These are the things that the attendees should do after the meeting, and are usually written in the minutes of the meeting.

We usually use the verb ‘to set’ when talking about action points or next actions.

E.g. “Let’s set some action points. Sam, can you make sure the payments have come through? Sally, can you make sure the goods are ready for delivery?”

To look forward to / to be looking forward to

We use this expression to talk about things in the future that we are excited about. It’s a nice expression to show you are interested in working with someone. We usually follow it with a gerund (+ing).

E.g. “I’m looking forward to working with you on this project.”

So, now it’s time to wrap up this article. Your next action point is to sum up your favourite business English expression in the comments section below. I’m looking forward to reading your comments.