Offer Manager
1. What it is
Offer Manager handles the full lifecycle of an employment offer: drafting the letter, routing it through internal approval, sending it to the candidate, tracking negotiation rounds, collecting an e-signature, and handing the accepted hire to Onboarding Hub. It connects Job Board candidates to offer letters and keeps compensation decisions auditable from draft to signature.
- Enablement: Offer Manager requires a license. An admin enables it in Admin → Apps → All Apps; it is off by default.
- What it is not: Offer Manager is not the recruiting analytics dashboard. Aggregate hiring metrics, pipeline charts, and cross-app reporting live in Talent Hub.
2. Standing it up
- Go to Admin → Apps → All Apps and enable Offer Manager.
- Go to Offer Manager → Settings and review the default toggles. All features — Approval Workflows, Offer Templates, AI Offer Generation, Market Analysis, Offer Analytics, Compensation Benchmarks, and E-Signature Integration — default to On.
- If you will use e-signature, enable either the E-Signature app (built-in signing) or configure an external provider (DocuSign or HelloSign — the two Offer Manager can send through) in Admin → Organization → Integrations → E-Signature. Then confirm the E-Signature Integration toggle is on in Offer Manager Settings.
- To route offers to more approvers than the job’s hiring manager, go to Offer Manager → Approval Workflows and create at least one workflow with conditions and approval levels — for example, a workflow with a salary condition that adds a finance approver for larger offers. Without a matching workflow, the job’s hiring manager approves the offer.
- Create at least one offer template under Offer Manager → Templates. Templates carry default compensation ranges, benefits and the offer letter. Without a template, recruiters author every letter from scratch.
- Grant access to the recruiting team. Business admins and Offer Manager app admins manage settings, templates and workflows. Offers are created by the recruiting function (business admins, HR admins, Offer Manager app admins), Offer Manager contributors, the recruiter of a job, and whoever added the candidate. A job’s hiring manager can see, withdraw and reopen its offers and approves them, but does not create or send them.
What silently does nothing until paired: enabling e-signature integration in Settings has no effect unless either the E-Signature app is enabled or an external provider is configured in Admin → Organization → Integrations. The setting is a per-app gate on top of the provider.
3. How it fits together
Offer lifecycle
An offer moves through a fixed sequence of statuses: Draft → Pending Approval → Approved → Sent → Accepted (or Rejected / Withdrawn at several points). At any point from Sent onward, the candidate can counter-offer, which moves the status to Negotiating. Once a negotiated or sent offer is accepted and the candidate is marked as Hired, the status becomes Ready for Onboarding.
Example: a recruiter drafts an offer for a Senior Engineer at $140,000 base plus $15,000 signing bonus. They submit it for approval. The approval workflow matches on salary range and routes it to the VP of Engineering (level 1) then the CFO (level 2), beside the job’s hiring manager. All approve. The recruiter sends the offer. The candidate counters at $150,000 base. The recruiter records a company response at $145,000 and marks it as the final offer. The candidate accepts via the portal and signs the letter, whose signature request went out with the offer. The signed PDF syncs to HR Files.
Who approves an offer
Approval workflows are condition-based templates that an admin creates under Offer Manager → Approval Workflows. Each workflow defines conditions (salary range, department, location, job level, employment type) and one or more approval levels. When an offer is submitted, the most specific active workflow whose conditions match is used: workflows with conditions are checked before catch-all ones, the default wins among equals, then name order. If none match, the default workflow (if set) applies. Workflows support sequential approval (level 1 must approve before level 2), delegation, and a configurable timeout.
The job’s hiring manager is added as an approver on every submitted offer, beside any workflow’s approvers — unless they created the offer. When no workflow matches, the hiring manager is the approver. If nobody can approve the offer (no matching workflow and no hiring manager on the job), submitting is refused with the reason, and the offer stays a draft.
Who approves is who the offer’s workflow and its job name — not a role. A super admin approves only an older offer that has no approval rows, and Offer Manager admins (business admins and Offer Manager app admins) can always use Override Status on the offer page. With Require a separate approver on (the default), nobody approves an offer they created.
With Approval Workflows turned off in Settings, offers skip internal approval: submitting an offer approves it at once.
Candidate portal
When an offer is sent, the candidate receives a secure link to a branded portal page. There they can view the full offer, accept it, decline it, or submit a counter-offer (if negotiation is enabled). The portal is public — no account required. The link is tied to the candidate record and works for every offer sent to that candidate.
Negotiation
Negotiation is controlled by the Maximum Counter-Offer Rounds setting (default: 1 Round). Each round is one candidate counter followed by one company response. The admin can set it to No Negotiation Allowed (candidate can only accept or decline), any number up to 5 Rounds, or 10 Rounds (Maximum). The recruiter can also mark a company response as the Final Offer, which blocks further counter-offers from the candidate.
Offer visibility
By default, only the recruiting function (admins, HR admins, and Offer Manager app-admins) sees every offer. Everyone else sees only offers they created, offers for jobs they recruit or hiring-manage, or offers where they are a named approver. The Who can see all offers? setting in Offer Manager Settings can widen this to everyone with app access, or to specific people.
E-signature flow
When e-signature is enabled and a provider is configured, the recruiter can send an approved offer letter for signature. If Request Signature When Sent is on in Settings (the default), the signature request goes out with the offer; when it is off, the request goes out when the candidate accepts. The system tracks the signature status — Not Sent, Awaiting Signature, Viewed, Signed, Declined, or Expired. When the candidate signs, the signed PDF is cached and, if HR File Manager is enabled, synced to the employee’s HR file.
Offer templates
Templates are reusable blueprints for offer letters. Each template carries a role level (Entry Level, Mid Level, Senior Level, or Executive), optional department and country/state targeting, a default compensation range, a default benefits package, and approval rules. When a recruiter selects a template while creating an offer, the compensation and letter content are pre-populated.
Templates can be authored in two modes: Simple (a single rich-text offer letter body) or Sections (multiple named sections that are assembled into one letter, each optionally linked to an e-signature template for multi-document signing packets). Templates can also be imported from the central template library or drafted by AI from a description (Draft template with AI, when AI Offer Generation is on). A candidate’s offer letter is filled in from the template’s placeholders, not written by AI.
A template cannot be deleted if any offers reference it; it can only be deactivated.
Compensation validation
The offer form validates that the base salary and total compensation do not exceed the position’s posted maximum salary. This check runs when the offer is submitted for approval (not while it is a draft). Negotiated offers that land above the original range are exempted — negotiation is the explicit mechanism for exceeding the band.
HR Files sync
When a signed offer document is received (e-signature status becomes Signed), the PDF is cached and — if HR File Manager is enabled with recruiting as a sync source — automatically filed in the employee’s HR records. This happens in the background; no manual upload is required.
Calendar integration
Offer events (response deadlines, start dates, and negotiation deadlines) are projected to the Calendar Hub automatically. Events are created when an offer is saved and removed when it is withdrawn or deleted.
Mobile
Phone-sized browsers and the native app are automatically redirected to the mobile-optimized views for the dashboard, offer detail, and internal approvals pages. Tablets stay on the desktop view. A user can opt out with the ?desktop=1 query parameter.
4. Running it
Creating an offer
- Go to Offer Manager → Offers and click Create Offer.
- Select a candidate (only candidates whose status is Interviewed with a completed interview, or Ready for Offer, appear in the dropdown). Candidates who already have an open offer — a draft, or one pending approval, approved, sent or in negotiation — are excluded.
- Select a job and optionally choose a template to pre-fill compensation and letter content.
- Enter the compensation package: base salary, bonus, signing bonus, and equity percentage.
- Set the start date and offer expiration date.
- Save as draft or submit for approval.
Reviewing and approving
- Go to Offer Manager → Internal Approvals to see offers awaiting your approval.
- Approve or reject individually (a rejection needs a reason, which the recruiter sees), or select multiple offers and click Approve Selected. Each offer is re-checked server-side — offers you lack permission to approve are skipped.
- If approval workflows are configured with sequential levels, earlier levels must approve before later levels can act. The tab badge shows the count of offers you can act on now — for the recruiting function it counts the whole pipeline’s pending approvals.
Sending and tracking
- Once approved, open the offer and click Send offer. The candidate receives an email with a portal link.
- From the offer detail page, you can send reminders, add internal notes, extend the expiration date, or withdraw the offer.
- If the candidate counters, record the company response and optionally mark it as the Final Offer.
Post-acceptance checklist
After a candidate accepts, the offer detail page shows the next step:
- Mark as hired — updates the candidate’s status.
- Start date — edit it with the pencil beside the start date to record the agreed day.
- Notify Hiring Manager (in the offer’s actions menu) — sends the job’s hiring manager an in-app notification and, when they have an email address, an email.
- Set up onboarding — when the Onboarding Hub app is enabled, opens a new onboarding plan for the hire. When it is not, the page asks you to enable Onboarding Hub; Offer Manager does not create a plan on its own.
Delegating approvals
Any approver can delegate their pending offer approvals to a colleague while out of office. Go to Offer Manager → Internal Approvals, click Delegate approvals, choose a delegate, and set a date range. The delegation is additive — the original approver keeps access, and the delegate can see and act on the delegator’s assigned approvals. Only one delegation can be active at a time.
5. Settings
All settings are under Offer Manager → Settings. Every toggle listed below has a runtime consumer that gates the corresponding feature.
| Setting | Default | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| AI Offer Generation | On | Lets template authors draft an offer template, and its letter text, with AI |
| Market Analysis | On | Enables AI-powered salary and market analysis under Reports & Data → Market Trends |
| Approval Workflows | On | Routes offers through internal approval before they can be sent; when off, submitting an offer approves it at once |
| Offer Templates | On | Shows the Templates tab and allows template-based offer creation |
| Compensation Benchmarks | On | Enables the compensation benchmarks view under Reports & Data → Market Trends |
| Offer Analytics | On | Shows the Offer Analytics page under Reports & Data |
| E-Signature Integration | On | Enables e-signature for offer letters; requires a configured provider to take effect |
| Automated Reminders | On | Sends automatic follow-up reminders for outstanding offers |
| Offer Event Notifications | On | In-app and push alerts for offer views, signatures, acceptances, declines, counter-offers and approval nudges; emails are not affected |
| Maximum Counter-Offer Rounds | 1 Round | Controls how many times a candidate can counter-offer; 0 disables negotiation |
| Require identity re-verification for document downloads | Off | When on, downloading signed or sent offer letters requires the viewer to re-verify their identity first |
| Preferred E-Signature Provider | The E-Signature app’s default | Which e-signature provider to use when more than one is available |
| Who can see all offers? | Recruiting admins & app admins only | Widens who can see the full offer book beyond the recruiting function |
6. More help
- Offer Manager FAQ — specific setup and operating questions, limits, and troubleshooting.
- Ask AI — the assistant answers questions about Offer Manager from these articles.