Download the editable files on this page. For section-by-section writing and review, use the employee benefits guide content checklist. For visual examples built from case data, browse the guide theme gallery.
What is a booklet in group benefits?
A group benefits booklet is an employee-facing summary of an employer’s benefit options, eligibility, enrollment dates, contacts and employee costs. Employees use it to understand their choices and how to enroll. Confirm its contents against the approved plan documents; the booklet does not replace them.
This free template turns those details into a twelve-page Word document you can edit, with a fictional PDF showing the completed layout. Download both files below, without an email address or account.
Benefits booklet, broker proposal or SBC?
| Document | Audience | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Benefits booklet or guide | Employees and their families | Explain the employer’s selected benefits, paycheck costs and enrollment steps. |
| Benefit proposal | Employer decision-makers | Compare quoted plans, employer costs and contribution options before choosing coverage. |
| Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC) | People comparing a health plan’s coverage | Present standardized health-plan benefits and coverage information. Keep the applicable SBC alongside your booklet. |
Download the editable booklet and PDF example
Both files download directly, with no email or account. The twelve-page booklet includes fictional medical benefits, a 75% employer contribution and 26-paycheck cost calculations, plus editable eligibility, contact and enrollment sections.
Every company, carrier, benefit and rate in these files is fictional. This is an independently assembled communication template, not a customer case or a Planlined export. Replace all sample terms, dates, contacts and costs, confirm them against the actual plan documents, and inspect every page before sharing.
Want to check the numbers behind a real product export? Inspect the fictional sample proposal and its calculation method.
Booklet or guide?
The two words describe the same content in different wrappers. A booklet is the print-ready artifact — facing pages, a page count divisible by four, handed across a table at an enrollment meeting. A guide is the same material delivered as a single-column PDF or an interactive page.
Build one source document and export both. This page covers the booklet layout; if you want the writing process behind each section, see the employee benefit guide template.
The 12-page structure
Twelve pages is the sweet spot for most small and mid-size groups, and it satisfies the divisible-by-four rule for saddle stitching. Move plan documents, SBCs, and required notices to a linked appendix rather than printing them.
Cover
Company name and logo, plan year dates, and the enrollment deadline. The deadline belongs on the cover — it is the single fact employees most often miss.
What's changing this year
A short, honest summary of plan changes, carrier changes, and contribution changes. Lead with this. Employees who read nothing else will read the page that tells them what is different.
Eligibility and key dates
Who qualifies, when coverage starts, dependent eligibility rules, and the qualifying life events that permit mid-year changes.
Medical plan comparison
One spread per plan or a side-by-side grid: deductible, coinsurance, out-of-pocket max, copays, and network. Keep the column order identical on every page so the eye can compare down the page.
Employee cost tables
Per-pay-period cost by coverage tier for each plan. Show the actual paycheck deduction, not the annual premium — employees budget by paycheck.
Ancillary and voluntary benefits
Dental, vision, life, disability, and voluntary products. A single page with a short description and cost for each is enough; detail belongs in the carrier material.
FAQs
Ten to twelve real questions from last year's enrollment. Use questions actually received by HR, with an owner who can confirm each answer.
How to enroll and who to call
Numbered enrollment steps, what to have on hand, the portal URL, and contacts for HR, the broker, and each carrier. Back cover, so it is findable without opening the booklet.
Print specifications
Hand these to a print shop and you will not get a second email asking for a corrected file.
- Trim size: 8.5 × 11 in folded to 5.5 × 8.5 in
- Binding: saddle stitch — page count must be divisible by four
- Stock: 80–100 lb gloss text, 100 lb cover
- Color mode: CMYK at 300 DPI
- Bleed: 0.125 in on all sides, with a 0.25 in safety margin
- Fonts: embedded or outlined, minimum 9 pt body text
Export two versions, not one
A facing-page spread is unreadable on a phone, and most employees will read it on a phone. Export the print booklet as spreads for the printer, and a separate single-page portrait PDF for email and the intranet.
What does not belong in the booklet
A booklet is a communication piece, not a compliance document. Printing legal disclosures into it makes it longer, more expensive, and less likely to be read — and it does not satisfy the underlying requirement.
- Summary Plan Descriptions — an ERISA disclosure with its own content and delivery rules. Link to it; do not replace it.
- Summary of Benefits and Coverage — the SBC has a federally mandated format. Point employees to it, and use the SBC comparison tool to build the simplified grid that goes in the booklet.
- Full carrier brochures — link or QR-code them.
- Annual notices (CHIP, Medicare Part D, WHCRA) — distribute separately under their own rules.
Distribution timing
Send the booklet two to three weeks before open enrollment opens. Employees need time to read plan changes and discuss them at home before the enrollment window, and HR needs the questions to arrive before the deadline crunch rather than during it.
- 3 weeks out: digital PDF by email, posted to the intranet
- 2 weeks out: printed booklets at the enrollment meeting
- 1 week out: reminder email linking the FAQ page and enrollment steps
- 2 days out: final deadline reminder
Generate the booklet instead of laying it out
Planlined builds every section above from your quote and plan data — branded cover, comparison grids, cost tables by tier, FAQs, and enrollment steps — then exports to PDF or publishes it as a hosted link employees open on their phone.