Job Offer Approval Process Template: Who Signs Off and at What Threshold

A job offer approval process template names who proposes the offer, who checks it, who signs off at which pay level, and how long each step may take. Keep it to one, two or three approvers, write the thresholds down, and record the decision so every offer can be explained later.

Why offers need an approval step

An offer is a promise. It sets pay, title, start date and often equity or bonus, and once a candidate accepts, taking it back is costly in money and trust. Approval protects three things. It protects the budget, by checking that the pay fits the range set for the role. It protects fairness, by checking the offer against what peers earn. And it protects the record, because the person who signed can say why. Without a process, offers drift: a manager promises a number in a hallway, finance finds out afterwards, and the company is bound to something nobody agreed. With too heavy a process, offers stall for days while a strong candidate takes another job. The aim is a light, written path with clear owners and a clock. This guide gives you a template you can copy, example thresholds labelled as examples, a request form, the timings that keep candidates warm and a worked case. It suits small and mid-size teams. For offer wording itself, see /offer-letter-template, and for opening roles see our guide to the job requisition approval process.

The roles in an offer approval

Keep the cast small. The proposer is usually the recruiter or hiring manager, who prepares the offer details and the reason. The reviewer checks the facts: the pay range, the level, the peer comparison and the start date. The approver signs off the spend and the exception, if any. In a small company, one person may play two of these parts, and that is fine as long as someone other than the proposer approves. In a team of four or more recruiters, you may separate them: the recruiter proposes, the head of talent or HR reviews, and a department head or finance lead approves. Name a backup for each role, because an offer that waits for someone on holiday is the most common cause of delay. Also name who tells the candidate. It should be one person, usually the recruiter or hiring manager, who owns the conversation and avoids sending mixed messages. Write the roles on one page, and put the page where everyone who makes offers can find it.

Example approval thresholds

Thresholds decide how many signatures an offer needs. The figures below are examples only; set your own from your pay structure and risk appetite. A common pattern is to approve within the range with a light touch and to require more sign-off the further an offer goes beyond it.

Whatever numbers you choose, write the range per role before you advertise it, because approving against a range that does not exist is guesswork. If your team is very small, use a single rule: the owner approves every offer, and the proposer writes down the reason. That is a legitimate process. A threshold table is only worth having if the team is large enough that the owner cannot see every offer.

Job offer approval process template: the request form

Use one form so approvers see the same facts in the same order. Copy this structure.

The evidence line is the one most teams forget. An approver who has to ask "is this person actually good?" is slowing you down, so link the interview feedback and the team decision directly. Do not ask the candidate for their current pay unless your country allows it, since some places restrict that question. Rules differ by country, so check local law.

Service levels: how long each step may take

Approval time is where offers are won or lost. A candidate who has finished interviews and is waiting for an answer is comparing you with every other option. Set a simple clock and publish it. A sensible pattern, labelled as an example, is: the proposer submits within one working day of the decision; the reviewer responds within one working day; the approver responds within one working day; and the offer goes to the candidate within one working day of approval. So a standard offer is out within about four working days of the final interview, and a simple one in a day. Add two rules. First, silence is not approval, so if a step runs past its time, the request goes to the named backup. Second, if you know approval will take longer than the candidate wants to wait, call them. Tell them you are finalising the offer and give a date you can keep. People forgive delay when they are told, and resent it when they are not. Track the days from decision to offer sent, and review the number every quarter.

Where Rezumz fits

Rezumz is an AI hiring workspace for small and mid-size hiring teams, and offer approval is built into it. On a candidate, under Offer letter and signature, you draft the letter, ask an approver to approve it, and then send it. The account owner is the default approver. The candidate reads the offer and accepts by typing their name, or declines with a reason. You get a printable record showing who approved the offer, when it was sent and signed, and that the text has not changed. Before the offer, a request to open the role can also go through an approver, with a reason required for a decline. People make every decision; Rezumz does not decide for you. What it does not do: it does not offer custom multi-step approval chains across departments, so the threshold table above is something your team applies by agreeing who the approver is for each offer, not something the software routes automatically. Its electronic signature is a simple typed-name confirmation, does not verify identity, and some countries or contracts need a stronger kind. There is no deep payroll or HRIS sync, though webhooks and a read-only API can connect it to other systems. The free plan includes 2 free candidate analyses. Paid plans are $29 a month, $199 a year or $499 lifetime (limited). Team is $79 a month or $699 a year for up to 10 teammates, suited to teams of 4 or more recruiters. Try the live demo at /demo.

A worked example with example numbers

A 25-person software company is hiring a support engineer. These numbers are examples. The approved range is 50,000 to 62,000 a year, with a midpoint of 56,000. The recruiter proposes 60,000 because the candidate has two years more experience than the typical hire and is weighing another offer. That is above the midpoint but within the range, so under the company's table the head of department approves, with a one-day target. The recruiter fills the request form: range, proposed pay, two peer comparisons at 55,000 and 58,000 for similar levels, a link to the interview scorecards showing strong marks on troubleshooting, and the reason for going above midpoint. The head of department reads it in the morning, asks one question about the start date, and approves by afternoon. The offer letter goes out the next morning, three working days after the final interview. The candidate asks for 63,000. That is above the range, so the recruiter explains that the company cannot go beyond 62,000 without a separate sign-off, and offers a six-month pay review instead. The candidate accepts at 61,000 with the review. The record shows every step and every reason. Nothing was promised verbally, and finance knew before the candidate did.

The template as a step-by-step flow

Here is the process written as steps you can paste into a handbook. Each step has an owner and a time, labelled as examples.

Copy the table, replace the roles with your own names, and cut any step you do not need. A five-person company might keep only steps 1, 2, 5, 7 and 8. The key point is that a written step exists, with a named person and a time, for each stage where an offer can go wrong. Review the template once a year, and after any offer that went badly, to see which step failed.

Writing the reason for approval so approvers can say yes quickly

Most approval delays come from missing information, not from disagreement. An approver who has to ask three questions has already lost a day. Write the reason in the same structure each time: who the candidate is, why this person beats the alternatives, what the offer is, how it compares to the range and to peers, and what happens if you wait. Keep it to a short paragraph that someone can read on a phone between meetings. For example: this candidate scored highest on the three must-have skills, interviewers agreed on a hire, the base pay is within the range and below the pay of the most senior peer, and the candidate has another offer that expires on Friday. Notice that every claim can be checked against the linked evidence. Avoid adjectives such as amazing or perfect, which tell the approver nothing. If you are asking for an exception, say what the exception is, how much it costs per year, and what you gain from it. Offer a fallback, such as a lower base with a review at six months, so the approver can choose between yes, no and a version of yes. Good requests are easy to approve, and easy to defend a year later when someone asks why the company paid what it did.

Special cases to plan for

Some offers do not fit the standard path, and it helps to decide the rules before they arrive. Counteroffers from the candidate: decide in advance how much room the recruiter has to negotiate within the approved range, and require a fresh approval for anything beyond it. Competing offers: ask the candidate for a deadline, and agree who can authorise a faster path. Internal transfers and promotions: these compare with current colleagues, so involve the manager and HR early. Part-time, fixed-term and contractor engagements: the terms differ, and in many countries the legal classification matters, so check local law before using an employee offer template for a contractor. Remote hires in another country: pay, tax, benefits and contract law may differ, so involve whoever handles employment abroad. Rescinding an offer after approval or after acceptance: this carries legal and reputation risk, so require the owner and, where useful, a lawyer to approve it. Agree these rules once, write them in one paragraph under the template, and your team will not need to improvise when the unusual case lands on a busy Friday.

Common mistakes

The first mistake is approving after the fact, when the manager has already told the candidate a number. If that happens, honour the process by approving quickly or being honest with the candidate; do not pretend the number was firm. The second is a threshold table nobody follows, which is worse than none because it creates a false sense of control. The third is too many approvers. Three signatures for a standard offer will add days without adding judgment. The fourth is approving without the evidence, so the approver signs a number and learns nothing about fit. The fifth is ignoring internal equity: a generous offer to a new hire can upset existing staff if peers earn less for similar work, and in some countries pay equity law makes this a legal matter, so check local law. The sixth is poor records. Keep the form, the approval and the final letter together, and keep them for a defined period. The seventh is forgetting to check the offer letter against what was approved. The letter should match the approved terms word for word, and any later edit should send it back for approval.

A short checklist and who this is not for

Before you send any offer, check: is there an approved range for this role; does the proposed pay sit within it, or is the exception explained; has someone other than the proposer approved; do the offer terms match the approved terms; is the evidence of fit linked; is the start date agreed; has the candidate been told when to expect the letter; and is the record saved. If you can tick all eight, send it. This template is not for everyone. A one-person business can skip the table and simply write down why each offer was made. A large enterprise with several approval chains by region, department and grade will need a system built for that, and should check vendors' current features, because Rezumz supports a simple approval of the offer by one approver, not complex chains. Employment contract rules, notice periods and what an offer may legally say differ by country, so check local law and ask a qualified lawyer for senior or unusual hires. For everyone else, one page of roles, a table of thresholds and a request form are enough to make offers fast, fair and explainable.