The General Handbook acts as a "standard reference point" for bishops and other leaders to make decisions.

"[3] The topics in the General Handbook include guidelines involving general, area, and regional administration; duties of the stake president; duties of the bishop; temples and marriage; missionary service; administering church welfare; church membership councils and name removal; interviews and counseling; physical facilities; creating, changing, and naming new units; military relations; Church Educational System; Perpetual Education Fund; records and reports; finances; stake patriarch; ordinance and blessing policies; general church policies on administrative, medical and health, and moral issues.

It also contains information primarily relevant to the functions of the leaders of the church's priesthood quorums and auxiliary organizations.

In a 1999 lawsuit Intellectual Reserve v. Utah Lighthouse Ministry, a United States district court issued an injunction prohibiting the further duplication of the contents of the handbook and ordered ULM to remove the offending material from its website.

[5] In May 2008, the LDS Church notified the Wikimedia Foundation that it believed the copyright to the Handbook of Instructions had been violated by a link posted in Wikinews.

It "strongly discourages" surrogate motherhood, sperm donation, surgical sterilizations (including vasectomies) and artificial insemination — when "using semen from anyone but the husband."

But [the church] supports organ donation, paying income taxes, members running for political office and autopsies.

The book also says sexual relations in marriage "are divinely approved not only for the purpose of procreation, but also as a way of expressing love and strengthening emotional and spiritual bonds between husband and wife.

[9] As compared to earlier editions, the 2020 General Handbook has a "softer tone on discipline, [an] emphasis on pastoral care, ... clarity on complex issues and [a] push for greater compassion toward same-sex and transgender members".