Writing offer letters and contracts

Create the offer letter and contract documents your organisation sends, use merge fields to fill in each candidate's details, and adjust a document for a single offer.

Offer letters and contracts are written once as templates, then filled in with the candidate's details when you send an offer. This article covers writing those templates, editing a document for one offer only, and what the candidate sees and signs. For the Send Offer form itself, see Making an offer. For what happens to an offer after it is sent, see Offer lifecycle.

Who can do what

System Admin and HR users can open Settings, then Offers, then Offer Setup, and see the Offer Documents tab. Only a System Admin can create, edit or delete a document. If an HR user tries to save, the save is refused. Other roles cannot open Offer Setup and are told they do not have permission to access it.

System Admin and HR users can both send offers and use Review & edit in the Send Offer dialog.

If your organisation is part of a group and a parent organisation shares its templates with you, those documents appear with a Shared from parent badge. You can choose them when sending an offer but you cannot edit or delete them.

Create a document

Go to Settings, then Offers, then Offer Setup, and open the Offer Documents tab.
The left-hand list has two groups, Offer Letters and Contracts. Select Add offer letter or Add contract under the right group.
Enter a Name (up to 255 characters). This is what recruiters pick from when sending an offer. Turn on Default document if you want the document marked as your standard one.
Select Save. The document is created with placeholder text.
Replace the placeholder in the Content editor with your wording, then select Save again.

The editor supports bold, italic, underline, links, bulleted and numbered lists, text alignment and tables. Content cannot be empty. The two document types are separate: an offer letter template can only be chosen in the offer letter field when sending, and a contract template only in the contract field.

The Default document switch adds a Default badge in this list and "(Default)" beside the name in the Send Offer dialog. It does not pick the document for you. Recruiters still choose a template, or choose an offer type that has default documents set against it.

To remove a document, select it, then Delete, then confirm at Delete document?. This cannot be undone. Offers already sent keep their own saved copy of the text.

Merge fields

A merge field is a tag in double curly brackets, such as . When the offer is sent, each tag is replaced with that candidate's details. Above the editor is a row of tags. Select one to copy it, then paste it into the document where you want it. A toast confirms what was copied.

Tag	Fills in
	Candidate's full name
	First name
	Last name
	Title of the job
	Job location
	City the role is based in
	Region or county
	Postcode
	Country
	Workplace location, the free text employer site from the job
	Employment type, shown by its label such as Fixed Term
	Working pattern, shown by its label
	Your organisation's name
	Salary, formatted as a currency amount
	The pay period chosen on the offer: annual, monthly or hourly
	Signing bonus as entered, without a currency symbol
	Holiday days
	Hours per week
	Start date, for example 1 April 2026
	Date the offer expires
	The date the offer is sent
	The candidate's link to view and respond to the offer

Any custom offer field you have added under the Offer Fields tab also works. Use its merge field key in double curly brackets. works too, if the candidate has an address on record.

If a value is not available, such as a bonus that was left blank, the tag is replaced with nothing. The tag is fixed at the moment you send, so the sent document always shows its real issue date.

Spell each tag exactly as listed. When you save, Recruit rejects a tag it does not recognise and names it, for example: content references , which is not a merge token supplied for offer documents. Correct the spelling and save again.

Edit a document for one offer

You can change the wording for a single offer without touching the saved template.

Open the candidate's profile and select Send Offer.
Choose an Offer template and, if needed, a Contract template.
Enter the Salary. The Review & edit button next to each document stays greyed out until you do.
Select Review & edit. The Review offer letter or Review contract window opens on the Edit tab, showing the template with its tags visible.
Make your changes. The Merge fields button has a search box, and choosing a field adds its tag to the end of the document.
Select the Preview tab to see the document filled in with this candidate's details. The offer link and expiry date shown in the preview are illustrative.
Select Apply to this send. The button beside the document now reads Edited, followed by a prompt to review again.

Your changes apply to this offer only. If you then choose a different template or clear the selection, the edits are discarded. Tags in an edited document are checked when you select Send Offer. An unrecognised tag stops the send and the error names it.

Attachments

In the Send Offer dialog, Add attachment lets you attach PDF, Word, Excel, PNG or JPG files, up to 25 MB each and 5 files in total. They travel with the offer email. They are not added to the letter or contract and do not appear on the candidate's offer page.

What is saved when you send

The letter and contract are filled in and saved on the offer at the moment you send it. Editing or deleting the template afterwards does not change an offer already sent, and the candidate always sees the exact text they were given. A single document cannot be larger than 512 KB once filled in. If it is, you are told the document is too large to generate as a PDF and to shorten it.

Sending also moves the candidate to the Offer stage of the job's pipeline, if the pipeline has one. The offer email is sent from your Offer email template, which must contain . If the link is missing you get an error and nothing is sent.

What the candidate sees

The candidate opens the link in their email. The page shows the position, compensation, key dates, then the Offer Letter and Contract in full. Each has a Download PDF button.

The PDF is produced when the candidate downloads it, from the saved text, with your organisation's branding at the top and bottom of each page. Images in a document do not appear in the PDF, and text alignment is not carried over. Tables are kept.

To accept, the candidate must add a signature, either drawn on the Draw tab or typed on the Type tab, then select Accept Offer. The button stays disabled until a signature is entered. To decline, they select Decline Offer and can give a reason, which is optional.

After acceptance:

The candidate gets a confirmation email with a link back to their documents. Your Offer Accepted email template is used if you have one. Otherwise a standard message is sent.
Hiring managers on the job and the person who created the offer are emailed, unless they have switched off that notification.
If you turned on Auto-start onboarding on acceptance, onboarding begins.
The candidate can return to the link at any time to view and download their documents.

The signature is added to the contract PDF, with the date and time it was signed underneath. The offer letter PDF is not signed. HR and System Admin users can download the signed contract from the candidate's Offer History using Download signed contract PDF, once the offer shows as accepted.

If something goes wrong

The candidate's link says the offer is withdrawn or no longer available. The offer was withdrawn or replaced by a newer one. Send a new offer if needed.
The candidate sees Offer Expired and cannot respond. The expiry date passed. Send a new offer with a longer Expires In (days) value.
A field shows blank in the letter. The value was not filled in on the offer, such as no bonus or no hours per week.
The Review & edit button is missing. Choose a template for that document first.