Free employee handbook template for small business
- Sections in the handbook
- 19
- Paid time off, hours a year
- 120
- PTO accrued per period, hours
- $4.62
- Sick leave, hours a year
- 40
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs you enter, by the method stated below it. The only constants HeadcountDesk supplies are the published federal payroll tax rates and the overtime multiplier, each cited where it is used. The defaults are a worked example to replace with your own.
The figures above start from a worked example (19). Change any input and the answer updates as you type.
Download the Free employee handbook template for small business worked example (CSV)
This builds the numbers a small employer's handbook runs on. It takes the paid time off, sick leave and holiday allowances you have decided, the accrual schedule, the standard working week and the introductory period, and turns them into the hours, per-period accrual and company-wide totals the policies will state. It also sizes the handbook: a starter, standard or full section set, plus one state addendum for every additional state you employ people in, and one acknowledgement form per employee to collect.
Why the handbook starts with figures
Most handbook templates are prose with blanks in them, and the blanks are where the mistakes live: a PTO policy that says fifteen days while payroll accrues 4.6 hours a period that add up to fourteen, or a holiday list that changed two years ago. Deciding the figures first, and deriving the hours and accrual rates from them, means every section that states a number states the same one. This page is that step, and the sections are written around its output.
Starter, standard or full is a size decision, not a legal one
A twelve-section starter covers the policies you cannot leave out: at-will status, equal opportunity, harassment, hours and pay, leave, conduct, safety and the acknowledgement. Standard adds the policies a growing team asks about, remote work, expenses, devices, social media and performance. Full adds the sections a fifty-person company needs, from travel to whistleblowing. Pick the size for the company you are, not the one you hope to be; a shorter handbook people have read beats a longer one they have not.
One core handbook and a state addendum each
Paid sick leave, final pay timing, meal breaks and jury duty pay vary by state, and an employer with people in three states should not maintain three handbooks. The page adds one addendum per extra state to the section count, because the honest structure is a single core document, applied everywhere, with a short state-specific page where the law differs.
Free employee handbook template for small business: common questions
Is this a free employee handbook template for a small business?
Yes: the figures, the section count and the acknowledgement count are computed on this page for free with no account, and you can print the result. HeadcountDesk Pro builds the handbook document from them with your company name on it, no watermark, saves it against your company and tracks which employees have acknowledged the current version.
How many paid days off should a small business give?
That is your decision, which is why the page asks rather than recommends. The worked example uses fifteen days of PTO, five sick days and ten paid holidays, which the page turns into thirty paid days a year per employee and shows what that adds up to across the whole company, so you can see the cost of the policy before you write it.
How does PTO accrual per pay period work?
Annual PTO hours divided by the number of pay periods in the year. Fifteen days at forty hours a week is 120 hours; on a biweekly schedule that is 26 periods, so about 4.6 hours accrue each period. The page does that division for biweekly, twice-monthly, monthly and front-loaded schedules, and it is the figure the handbook's leave section should quote.
Does this replace a lawyer reviewing the handbook?
No. It produces the figures and the structure, consistently, so the document your attorney reviews is complete and does not contradict your payroll. State law changes and a review for your state is still the last step before you issue it.
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Keeping what you make
The answers are free forever. Pro turns them into your paperwork: your logo on the handbook and the contract, no watermark, every employee's documents saved against their record, reminders to the people who need to sign, and clean exports.
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- Save and reopen later
- Your logo and company name on it
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Where the constants in this tool come from
U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division: Overtime Pay. The standard working week the page uses to convert days into hours is the same 40-hour workweek the FLSA overtime rule is written around.
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Free employee handbook template for small business (Sections in the handbook): 19, HeadcountDesk, worked example.
Cite as: "Free employee handbook template for small business, HeadcountDesk", updated 2026-09-02, https://headcountdesk.com/tools/employee-handbook-template/.