Offer approval form template: getting compensation signed off before you call the candidate

An offer approval form is the internal document that gets a candidate's compensation, level and start date signed off by finance, HR or a second-level manager before anyone calls the candidate with a number. It exists to catch problems while they are still cheap to fix: a base outside the band, a title that does not match the level it was scoped at, a sign-on bonus nobody budgeted for. Below is a template you can copy, the approval thresholds that keep it fast instead of a bottleneck, and a filled example with the arithmetic shown.

This is not the same document as an offer letter template, which is what goes to the candidate after approval. The approval form never leaves the company. Its whole job is to make sure the number in that letter has already been signed off by the time the candidate hears it.

Why this step exists

Skip the approval step and the failure mode is always the same: a recruiter or hiring manager gets ahead of themselves on the offer call, the candidate hears a number, and then finance or HR flags it after the fact as out of band or missing a required sign-off. Now someone has to call the candidate back and either lower the number or explain a delay while it gets "confirmed." Both versions read as the company not having its own process in order, and both make the candidate wonder what else was said too soon.

The form is not there to slow good offers down. A clean, in-band offer with standard components should clear it same day. It is there so the offers that need a second look — an exception, a new title, an equity grant — get one before the candidate hears anything, not after.

What belongs on the form

Keep it to what a signer actually needs to make a decision. Everything else is noise that slows the read.

• Requisition reference. Link or ID, so the signer can see the approved band and level without asking.
• Candidate and role. Name, title, level, department, and the hiring manager requesting the offer.
• Recommended compensation. Base, target bonus or commission, equity, sign-on, relocation — each as a specific figure, not "competitive."
• Where it sits in the band. The band range and how far the recommended base is from the midpoint, shown as a number, not a description.
• The reason for any exception. Market data, a competing offer, a scarce skill, an internal equity concern — named specifically, because "the candidate is great" is not a reason a signer can act on.
• Start date and contingencies. Background check, reference check, license or certification still outstanding.
• Signers and their decision. A line for each required approver: approved, approved with changes, or declined, with a date.

The offer approval form template

Copy this into your ATS, HRIS or a shared doc. Delete any line that does not apply to your process rather than leaving it blank and ambiguous.

OFFER APPROVAL — [Requisition ID / link]

Candidate: [Name]
Role / level: [Title], [Level or grade]
Department: [Department]                Hiring manager: [Name]
Recruiter: [Name]                       Target start date: [Date]

Recommended offer
  Base salary: $[amount]
  Band for this level: $[low] – $[high], midpoint $[mid]
  Base vs. midpoint: [amount] ([percent]% above/below midpoint)
  Target bonus / commission: [amount or %]
  Equity: [units or value, vesting schedule]
  Sign-on bonus: $[amount], [clawback terms if any]
  Relocation: [amount or terms, or "none"]

Exception requested: [Yes / No]
  If yes, reason: [market data / competing offer / scarce skill /
  internal equity concern — be specific]
  Internal comparison: [how this compares to the 1-2 closest peers
  at this level, without naming salaries of people not being compared]

Contingent on: [background check / references / license verification / none]

Approvals required for this offer (see routing table):
  [ ] Hiring manager       Name: ______  Date: ______
  [ ] HRBP / Comp          Name: ______  Date: ______
  [ ] Second-level manager Name: ______  Date: ______
  [ ] Finance              Name: ______  Date: ______

Decision: [ ] Approved  [ ] Approved with changes  [ ] Declined
Notes: [changes required, or reason for decline]

Setting approval thresholds

The form is only as fast as its routing rules. If every offer needs four signatures, people start routing around it. A simple tiered structure keeps routine offers quick and reserves extra signers for the offers that actually carry risk.

Publish this table somewhere recruiters and hiring managers can see it before they start negotiating with a candidate, not after. The most common cause of a blown timeline is a hiring manager who promises a number, and only then discovers it needed a signer who is traveling this week.

A filled example

An invented candidate and role, showing the band math a signer would actually check:

Notice what makes this approvable in one read: the percentage is calculated, not described, and the reason names specific facts a signer can weigh rather than an opinion about the candidate.

Getting it filled out fast, not slow

• Pre-clear the band before the search starts. If the recruiter and hiring manager agree on the band at the intake meeting, most offers arrive already inside it and need only one signer.
• Give signers a deadline, not an open invitation. "Please review by end of day tomorrow, or reply if you need more time" gets a faster answer than a request with no date attached.
• Batch routine approvals. A weekly comp review meeting for standard, in-band offers moves them in bulk instead of one email thread per candidate.
• Track turnaround by signer. If one approver is consistently the slow step, that is a process conversation, not something to work around quietly every time.
• Keep one place for the current bands. A recruiter who has to ask compensation for the range every time is a recruiter who cannot tell a hiring manager, on the spot, whether a number will need extra sign-off.

None of this removes judgment from the process. It moves the judgment earlier, to the people who are supposed to exercise it, instead of leaving it to whoever happens to be on the offer call. A recruiter who knows the routing table can tell a hiring manager in the intake meeting, before a single candidate is even sourced, which of their likely finalists will need a fast approval and which will need a week. That single sentence prevents most of the "can we call them today" fire drills that show up later.

Common mistakes and the fix

When you can skip the form

Some organizations let a fully in-band offer with standard components (no sign-on, no equity exception, existing title) go out on the hiring manager's approval alone, logged rather than routed. That is a reasonable lightweight path if your band data is trustworthy and kept current — it is not a reasonable path if bands are stale or a hiring manager routinely pushes to the top of the range. If you are not sure which situation you are in, route everything for a month, look at how many approvals came back unchanged, and lighten the process for the categories that never do.

Whichever path you choose, keep a record of what was approved and by whom. It is the fastest way to answer "why did this person get that number" eighteen months later, when nobody remembers the conversation and the only reliable account is what was written down at the time.

It also protects the recruiter. If a candidate later disputes what was promised, or a manager claims they never agreed to a figure, the form is the record that settles it in minutes instead of becoming a he-said, she-said conversation months after everyone involved has moved teams. Store completed forms with the requisition, not in a personal inbox, so the record survives past the recruiter who filled it out.