Build a Texas employee handbook that survives real-world use
Most handbooks fail because they were copied from the internet without understanding how the business actually operates. Handbook Studio walks you through the real decisions — who approves overtime, what happens to unused PTO, who takes complaints — and builds a coherent, professionally formatted handbook around your answers. Then it checks your policies against each other, and against your actual practices.
No credit card. Educational information and document assistance — not legal advice.
How it works
Six stages, guided end to end. Autosaves as you go — leave and come back anytime with a secure sign-in link.
Built for Texas
Federal and Texas authority behind every regulated policy — Texas Payday Law final-pay deadlines, the 2021 sexual-harassment standard that reaches one-employee businesses, the parking-lot firearm carve-out, optional workers' comp. Each compliance topic shows the date it was last reviewed.
Honest about what's required
Nothing here inflates "best practice" into "the law." Every policy is labeled: legally required, required at your size, strongly recommended, or your call. You decide with clear information — not fear.
Policy meets practice
A handbook that promises what your managers don't do creates risk instead of reducing it. The builder asks how things really work — and gives you a gap report instead of a false sense of security.
Who it's for
Small businesses & nonprofits
No HR department needed. Plain language, recommended defaults, and "I'm not sure" is always an acceptable answer — the builder tracks what to come back to.
Texas municipalities & public employers
Public-employer employment-status language, civil service coordination, comp time under FLSA 207(o), statutory military leave, and public-records realities — not private-sector boilerplate with your city's name pasted in.
Free vs. Pro
The free version is genuinely complete — you will finish with a real handbook you can adopt. Pro adds depth for organizations that want implementation support. No surprise paywall at the end.
Free
- Complete guided handbook builder — every stage, every core policy
- One organization, one state (Texas), one handbook
- Consistency scan and policy-practice gap summary
- Professionally formatted handbook (web + print-ready PDF)
- Decision summary, unresolved-items list, versioned acknowledgment page
- Save and return with secure email sign-in
- Discreet "Created with Faulkner HR Solutions" footer on the PDF
Pro
- Everything in Free, plus:
- DOCX export, no footer, your logo and branding
- Supervisor administration guide — how to actually run these policies
- Implementation report: gaps, owners, training needs, rollout sequence
- Existing-handbook analysis with full findings
- Multi-state and addenda architecture, redline compare, version history
- Electronic acknowledgment tracking
What this tool is — and is not
It is an educational document-building system, built by Faulkner HR Solutions — a Texas HR consulting practice that works with small businesses, nonprofits, and municipalities on policy modernization.
It is not legal advice, and using it does not create an attorney–client relationship. Laws change and circumstances differ; the tool shows the date each compliance topic was last reviewed, flags items that deserve attorney review, and never claims that a generated document guarantees compliance. A handbook also cannot fix practices that contradict it — which is why this builder checks for exactly that.
Read the full disclaimer and privacy statement.
Prefer it done with you, not by you?
Dr. Thomas Faulkner works directly with Texas organizations on handbook and policy modernization — including the supervisor procedures and training that make policies stick.
Schedule a strategy call