Counsel is HR compliance software for small businesses. Get state-specific playbooks, onboarding checklists, termination letters, and real-time employment law updates — without hiring a lawyer or an HR team.
Describe what's happening — termination, new hire, complaint, leave request — and get a 7-section action plan specific to your state, your worker type, and your exact situation. Not a template. Your actual next steps.
27 document types generated in seconds — pre-filled for your state, your worker's name, and your situation. Separation letters, written warnings, PIPs, offer letters, COBRA notices, wage notices. Download, sign, done.
Ask any HR question and get an answer grounded in actual employment law for your state — not a generic article. "Do I have to pay out PTO in Texas?" gets a specific answer with the statute, not a disclaimer to consult a lawyer.
No "contact sales." No custom quotes. No hidden fees. Pick a plan, use it today.
Solo owners & small teams under 10
Growing teams of 10–100 workers
Multi-location operations, 50–500 workers
Small business owners managing hourly teams have two options when something goes wrong: call a lawyer ($400–$600 an hour), or sign up for a PEO ($1,500 per employee per year, 2-year contract). Both are overkill for most decisions. Counsel is the third option — a specific answer for your specific situation, right now, built for hourly workers, salaried teams, and everyone in between.
You need to document it properly before you can let them go. But you're not sure what counts as a written warning, whether you owe them final pay today or next Friday, and whether California's rules even apply since two of your crew cross state lines.
Except now you're learning that Chicago has a predictive scheduling law, New York requires a wage notice on day one, and your Florida location needed new hire reports filed within 20 days. You thought seasonal hiring was simple.
It's been 8 hours. You don't know if you're supposed to separate them immediately, start an investigation, or call a lawyer first. Every hour you wait is a potential liability. Every move you make without a plan is a potential mistake.
Counsel isn't a chatbot. Answer 8 questions about your specific situation — the state, the worker type, the reason — and you get a complete 7-section action plan. Not generic HR articles. Exactly what to do next, for your worker type, today.
Three sentences in plain English. No Latin. No statute numbers. What's happening, what the risk is, and what you need to do first — adapted for whether this is an hourly worker, a salaried employee, or a subcontractor.
Numbered, ordered by urgency, with exact timeframes. "Calculate final pay to the minute for their last shift. California rule: payment is due at termination, not the next payday." Every step written for your worker type and your state.
Every risk scored Low / Medium / High with specific dollar exposure. "California meal break violation: $1 premium per missed break per employee per day. If this affected 12 workers over 6 months, your exposure is approximately $4,320 before attorney fees."
The specific moves that protect you and the ones that expose you. "Don't reduce the complainant's hours while the investigation is open — it will be treated as retaliation regardless of your intent."
Pre-filled, editable, downloadable. Separation letters. Wage notices. Written warnings. PIPs. COBRA notices. Offer letters. Equipment agreements. 27 document types — every one state-aware and generated in seconds.
Actual boxes to check. "Final pay calculated including all hours, PTO, and commissions. State-required separation notice printed. Witness confirmed. IT access flagged for cutoff."
We tell you exactly how confident to be — and when to call a lawyer. If your situation is genuinely high-risk, we say "stop here and get an attorney." That honesty is what makes everything else trustworthy.
Every feature works together. Run a playbook, generate the document, complete the checklist, track the task — without switching tools or calling anyone.
12 situation types — terminations, complaints, FMLA, wage disputes, EEOC charges. Every playbook is 7 sections: summary, action plan, ranked risks, do/don't, documents, checklist, and confidence level.
27 ready-to-sign document types — offer letters, separation agreements, written warnings, PIPs, COBRA notices, and more. Generated in seconds, pre-filled with your employee's details.
Per-employee checklists that know your state — withholding forms, I-9, new hire reporting, workers' comp, equipment return. Every step tracked per employee, nothing falls through the cracks.
A central record for every worker — role, pay rate, hire date, state, employment status. Track active, on leave, and terminated employees across locations. Import via CSV in one shot.
Ask anything. "Do I owe a split shift premium?" "Is this worker a 1099 or W-2?" "What's the FMLA notice timeline?" Get a direct answer with citations, not a disclaimer telling you to call a lawyer.
Daily feed from DOL, EEOC, OSHA, and NLRB — filtered by your state. Know about minimum wage changes, new final pay rules, and court decisions before they affect your next decision.
Every playbook creates a prioritized task list — Right Now, Today, This Week. Deadlines tied to real legal requirements, law citations included. Your to-do list is your compliance plan.
Documentation maturity, playbook coverage, and open action items rolled into a single risk score. Know where you're exposed before someone files a charge.
Not 500 generic HR articles. Twelve specific situations — each one built for the reality of managing hourly crews, seasonal workers, multi-location retail teams, and construction sites.
Offer letter, wage notices, new hire reporting — hourly or salaried, all 50 states.
Separation playbook, final pay timing, state-required notices, meeting script.
WARN Act check, selection defensibility, final pay for all worker types.
Performance docs built for hourly roles — specific dates, shifts, and incidents.
Harassment, discrimination, retaliation — 72-hour action plan.
30-day response, position statement, document preservation.
Interactive dialogue, undue hardship analysis, return-to-work plan.
Federal + state leave, eligibility for hourly and part-time workers.
Subcontractor vs. employee — construction and gig roles, IRS 20-factor test.
Overtime, missed breaks, final pay — before someone files a claim.
PTO, attendance, scheduling — multi-state aware, hourly and salaried.
Triage, document response, 72-hour action plan.
A chatbot tells you what the law says. It doesn't know your state, your worker type, or your specific situation.
Counsel gives you the pre-filled California separation notice your crew member needs today — not a generic summary of what termination law says.
A PEO wants $1,500 per employee per year, a 2-year contract, and your payroll. For a 20-person crew, that's $30,000 a year.
Counsel is $20/month, month-to-month. Use it when you need it. Cancel when you don't. You keep your payroll.
A lawyer bills $400–$600 an hour, takes 3 days to email back, and has never stood on a job site at 6am.
Counsel is instant, $20/month, and when your situation genuinely needs an attorney — we tell you, and we connect you to one at a flat fee.
That depends on your state, and the clock starts the moment they walk out. California requires final pay on the last day for resignations with 72+ hours notice. Texas gives you up to 6 days. Some states require PTO payout; others don't. Run a separation playbook and Counsel tells you your exact deadline, what to include in the final check, which documents to have them sign, and how to handle COBRA notice timing — all in one place.
Yes — the Business and Growth plans let you manage multiple companies from one login. Each client gets their own worker roster, state rules, and document history. You run the playbook, download the documents, and hand them off. Clients don't need their own account. Many HR consultants use Counsel to handle 5–15 small business clients without needing a law firm on retainer for every routine situation.
It's built exactly for you. Answer 5 questions about your situation — the state, the worker type, what happened — and you get a step-by-step action plan. No HR background required. The language is plain English, not legalese. Most owners complete their first playbook in under 10 minutes and walk away knowing exactly what to do and in what order.
You need to open a formal investigation — and the way you handle the next 48 hours matters a lot. Counsel's complaint playbook walks you through: who to notify, how to document the initial report, how to separate the parties, what questions are appropriate to ask, and what your state requires you to do before taking disciplinary action. It also generates the investigation log you'll need if this escalates.
Google gives you the law. Counsel tells you what to do about it — in your state, for your situation, right now. It accounts for city-level rules (Chicago and NYC have different scheduling laws than the rest of their states), worker type differences (hourly vs. salaried, W-2 vs. 1099), and timing requirements that vary by termination reason. Then it generates the documents you need so you're not starting from a blank page.
Each playbook is run by state — you select where the worker is located, not your business address. The Business and Growth plans cover all 50 states + DC. Workers in California, Texas, and New York all follow different rules, and Counsel applies the right one automatically. If you have employees in 6 states, you can run 6 different playbooks for the same situation and see exactly how the obligations differ.
The separation playbook covers: documentation requirements, what to say (and not say) in the meeting, final pay timing and content by state, severance considerations, non-disparagement clauses, COBRA timing, reference policy, and system access cutoff. It generates a separation checklist and a ready-to-sign separation agreement. Following the playbook doesn't guarantee immunity, but skipping steps — like late final pay or no COBRA notice — creates liability that's entirely avoidable.
State minimum wages change every January 1. Paid family leave laws are expanding. Non-compete restrictions are shifting. Counsel's rules are updated when laws change — not on a quarterly schedule. Your dashboard also includes a Law Updates feed that surfaces changes relevant to your states, so you're not caught off guard when a new requirement kicks in.
No. Counsel is a compliance workflow tool based on publicly available employment law requirements. We're not a law firm and we don't create an attorney-client relationship. When a situation is complex enough to need a lawyer — a class action threat, a DOL audit, a harassment lawsuit — we tell you clearly. For the 90% of routine HR situations small businesses face every week, Counsel gives you the framework to handle them correctly on your own.
Yes. Month-to-month, cancel any time, no questions asked. Annual plans are refundable pro-rata for the first 30 days.
Start free — no credit card. Run your first playbook in 5 minutes, generate your first document in seconds, and get a live law update feed for your state. Decide if you want to keep it before you pay a dime.
No credit card. No sales call. No PEO. No lawyer required.
Whether it's a product question, partnership, or just feedback — send us a note and we'll reply within one business day.
Free, plain-English guides covering minimum wage, paid leave, final pay deadlines, and hiring rules — updated 2026.