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. This page does more to reduce HR call volume than any other in the booklet.
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
BART 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, HTML, or PowerPoint.