An employee handbook that stays current
Publish your handbook and HR policies as a searchable help center. Decide who reads each page, get review reminders, and see what changed.
14-day free trial · No credit card required
Why most handbooks go stale
The handbook lives in a PDF or a shared drive, and nobody is sure which copy is current.
Lost in files
It is one long PDF, a folder of docs and some old wiki pages, so people ask HR instead.
Out of date
A policy changes but the PDF does not, and old copies circulate in inboxes long after they are wrong.
Hard to search
Nobody can search every file for parental leave at once, so the answer exists and still goes unfound.
Unclear access
A shared-drive link opens everything, drafts included, and nobody can say who sees what.
HelpCenter.io turns the handbook into an HR knowledge base: one searchable site your HR team keeps current, with access you control page by page.
Decide who can read each policy
Set access on each article. Public pages are listed and searchable. Anyone with the link hides a page from navigation and search, and a secret share link opens it, which suits a leaver's checklist. Private limits a page to its author and the teammates they pick, so HR can draft a policy before anyone else sees it.
Categories offer Everybody, Everybody with a link (hidden from navigation), Team members only, or Me and selected team members, so your HR team's playbook stays with HR.
Available on Growth and Catalyst Settings
Keep the whole handbook private
In Settings, make the whole help center Public, Private or Password. Private admits only your team and, on Catalyst, employees signed in with single sign-on. Password admits anyone who has it.
Or allow only your office IP addresses: exact IPv4 addresses, no ranges. The allowlist covers the help center, the widget and embeds, your team included, but not the dashboard. Turning it on also switches off your help center's public MCP server, the read-only /mcp address that every plan includes.
Available on Growth and CatalystJS-only access
It keeps the help center off the open web, opening only inside the app or intranet page where you embed it. It is not a security control, because it relies on the referrer. Pair it with a private help center and single sign-on.
Available on Growth and CatalystLet employees sign in with their work login
Turn on JWT single sign-on and employees open the handbook with the login they already use at work. Set your login page as the Login URL: employees sign in there and come back with a signed token. There is no separate account and no second password to share or reset.
Pair it with a private help center and only signed-in employees can read your policies. Choose how long a reader stays signed in, from one hour to 30 days. Your HR team still signs in to the dashboard as usual.
Available on Catalyst Set up JWT single sign-onGet reminded before a policy goes stale
Schedule a review on any article a set number of days ahead, and you get a reminder when it is time to confirm the policy still holds. For a yearly check, schedule it 365 days out.
When a law or a benefit changes, flag the article for review instead. Assign a teammate, add a note on what to check, and email them if you like. The Needs review view in your articles list gathers everything flagged, and each article keeps a review history of who flagged it and who reviewed it.
Available on every planSee exactly what changed in a policy
Every article keeps a version history: each change to its content, title, category or status, with who made it and when. Compare an earlier version with the current one to see what changed, and restore it if an edit went wrong. When someone asks what a policy said before the last update, HR can show them.
On Catalyst, stage changes to a live policy so readers keep seeing the current version until you publish. How far back version history reaches depends on your plan.
Onboarding guides, in the same help center
Publish new-hire guides next to the policies they point to: a first-day checklist, a first-week plan, tools and accounts. New hires get one place to look, and search finds answers even when they misspell a word. It works alongside your employee onboarding software, not in place of it.
Set up your HR knowledge base
Three steps from a PDF to a help center employees can search.
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Move your handbook in
Write in the editor, or send it to us: on every plan, we migrate it for you, free.
How free migration works -
Choose who can read it
On Growth and Catalyst, make it private or password-protected, then set access per category and article.
Article access, step by step -
Sign employees in
On Catalyst, turn on JWT single sign-on for work logins. Every plan includes a custom domain with SSL.
Set up JWT single sign-on
An example handbook structure
One way to organize it, for a made-up company. Rename, merge and nest categories to fit yours.
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Welcome
Everybody- Our mission and values
- Who to ask about what
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Time off and leave
Everybody- Paid time off
- Parental leave
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Pay and benefits
Everybody- Payroll dates
- Health insurance
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Workplace policies
Everybody- Code of conduct
- Travel policy
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New hire onboarding
Everybody- Your first day
- Tools and accounts
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HR team playbook
Me and selected team members- Running payroll
- Policy review calendar
Which plan your HR team needs
Bootstrap
For a handbook you are happy to publish openly.
- Unlimited articles and viewers
- Reviews and version history
- Typo-tolerant search
- 1 team member, one language
Growth
For a handbook behind a password or your office IP addresses.
- Everything in Bootstrap, plus a private or password-protected help center
- Access per article and category
- IP allowlist and JS-only access
- Up to 10 team members, multiple languages
Catalyst
For a handbook employees read with their work login.
- Everything in Growth, plus JWT single sign-on
- Staged changes
- Semantic (AI) search included
- Unlimited team members, 3 hours of manual customization
Semantic (AI) search is included on Catalyst and an add-on on Bootstrap and Growth. Compare every plan
Questions HR teams ask
Can only employees see it?
How do we keep policies up to date?
Can we see what changed in a policy?
Can it be password-protected?
Can some pages stay visible to HR only?
Something else? Talk to us about your handbook.
Give your handbook a home that stays current
A searchable help center your HR team can keep up to date.
No credit card required · Free migration on every plan
Is HelpCenter.io right for your HR team?