- DATE:
- AUTHOR:
- The Fountain team
Offer and Opening Approvals for Every Hire Customer
Approve offers and openings inside Hire, with multi-level rules, one approvals queue, and the actual offer letter in front of every approver.
Openings had a narrow approval model and offers had none. Offer sign-off happened over email and spreadsheets, with no gate on compensation, no way to route an exception to the right approver, and no record in Fountain of who approved what.
Watch how to set up an approval and use the new document template editor
What's new
One settings area — Company Settings, then Approvals, with Approver rules and Approvals tabs. The rules list switches between Offers and Openings and shows each rule's trigger, approvers and an Enabled toggle.
Multi-level rules — levels run in order, a level whose condition doesn't apply is skipped rather than blocking, and each level can require any approver or all of them. An offer that matches more than one rule goes through each of them.
Approvers by name or by attribute — choose people directly or by a user attribute such as the hiring manager of the opening, with a backup approver who steps in after a set delay.
A shared condition builder — scope rules by position, opening, location or location group, plus custom attributes. Offer rules add data keys and applicant pay.
One approvals queue — the Approvals tab lists what's waiting on you under My approvals, with Type and Status filters, search by opening or applicant name, each level's status, and a Review button.
An offer decision dialog — read the actual offer letter, see each rule's approvers by level and when a request escalates to backup approvers, download the offer, then approve it, reject it with a reason the requester sees, or edit it.
Approvers shown before the offer is sent — the recruiter previews the letter alongside the approvers for each matching rule, sends it for approval, and the applicant shows Awaiting approval until it clears. Editing an offer during approval restarts it from the beginning.
Opening approvals on the same rules — opening approvals use the same rule builder and queue, and can route by location, position or opening.
Approval outside Fountain — an Offer Generation stage produces the letter and an Offer Approved stage records sign-off completed elsewhere, unblocking later stages.
Works with document templates — offers generated from Document Signing templates go through the same rules; the template editor is announced separately in Document Template Customization.
Why it matters
The decision, the letter and the audit trail sit in one place, so compensation exceptions reach the people who own them and every approval leaves a record.
What to expect
This is additive. With no approval rule configured, nothing changes, and everyone who could already approve openings receives the two new offer permissions automatically. Approval does not send an offer on its own: it goes to the applicant when Send to applicant is clicked, or as soon as it's approved if the Document Signing stage is set to send it automatically. Offer approvals are not available in Hire Go.
Availability
Available to all Hire customers.
Help Center Documentation
Approve offers and openings inside Hire, with multi-level rules, one approvals queue, and the actual offer letter in front of every approver.
Openings had a narrow approval model and offers had none. Offer sign-off happened over email and spreadsheets, with no gate on compensation, no way to route an exception to the right approver, and no record in Fountain of who approved what.
What's new
One settings area — Company Settings, then Approvals, with Approver rules and Approvals tabs. The rules list switches between Offers and Openings and shows each rule's trigger, approvers and an Enabled toggle.
Multi-level rules — levels run in order, a level whose condition doesn't apply is skipped rather than blocking, and each level can require any approver or all of them. An offer that matches more than one rule goes through each of them.
Approvers by name or by attribute — choose people directly or by a user attribute such as the hiring manager of the opening, with a backup approver who steps in after a set delay.
A shared condition builder — scope rules by position, opening, location or location group, plus custom attributes. Offer rules add data keys and applicant pay.
One approvals queue — the Approvals tab lists what's waiting on you under My approvals, with Type and Status filters, search by opening or applicant name, each level's status, and a Review button.
An offer decision dialog — read the actual offer letter, see each rule's approvers by level and when a request escalates to backup approvers, download the offer, then approve it, reject it with a reason the requester sees, or edit it.
Approvers shown before the offer is sent — the recruiter previews the letter alongside the approvers for each matching rule, sends it for approval, and the applicant shows Awaiting approval until it clears. Editing an offer during approval restarts it from the beginning.
Opening approvals on the same rules — opening approvals use the same rule builder and queue, and can route by location, position or opening.
Approval outside Fountain — an Offer Generation stage produces the letter and an Offer Approved stage records sign-off completed elsewhere, unblocking later stages.
Works with document templates — offers generated from Document Signing templates go through the same rules; the template editor is announced separately in Document Template Customization.
Why it matters
The decision, the letter and the audit trail sit in one place, so compensation exceptions reach the people who own them and every approval leaves a record.
What to expect
This is additive. With no approval rule configured, nothing changes, and everyone who could already approve openings receives the two new offer permissions automatically. Approval does not send an offer on its own: it goes to the applicant when Send to applicant is clicked, or as soon as it's approved if the Document Signing stage is set to send it automatically. Offer approvals are not available in Hire Go.
Availability
Available to all Hire customers.