Part 1: Feature Overview

1. Introduction

Talent Tracking supports configurable approval workflows for:

• Requisitions (Positions)
  
• Offers

This ensures hiring decisions are governed, reviewed, and auditable before progressing through the lifecycle.

Approval workflows are:

• Defined centrally by Admins
  
• Configured separately for Positions and Offers
  
• Automatically triggered based on business rules
  
• Fully trackable in a centralized Approval Center
  
• Optional (can be disabled entirely)

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2. Automatic Workflow Triggering

Approval workflows are triggered automatically when:

• A position is created
  
• An offer is created or modified

Triggering is based on configured conditions (e.g., title, department, compensation).

If:

• A matching workflow exists → it is applied
  
• No matching workflow exists → a default workflow is applied

This guarantees governance coverage across entities.

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3. Flexible Multi-Step Approval Chains

Each workflow supports:

• Multiple steps
  
• Sequential approvals
  
• Parallel approvals
  
• Multiple approvers per step
  
• Threshold logic (e.g., 2 out of 5 must approve)

This allows modeling enterprise structures such as:

• Hiring Manager → Finance → HR
  
• Regional parallel approvals
  
• Hierarchy-based approvals

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4. Dynamic Approver Assignment

Approvers can be derived dynamically using:

• Organizational attributes (department, cost center, etc.)
  
• Reporting hierarchy (manager chain)
  
• User groups
  
• Specific named users

This enables scalable governance across business units.

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5. Approval Execution Experience

Once a position or offer is sent for approval:

• Approvers are notified
  
• They can:
  
  • Approve
    
  • Reject
    
  • Comment
    
• All actions are recorded and auditable

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6. Approval Center

The Approval Center provides:

• Centralized visibility of all approvals
  
• Filters by role and action required
  
• Historical tracking
  
• Draft visibility (if enabled)

Who can view an offer here: Opening an offer from the Approval Center (or from the candidate profile, pipeline, or Manage offers) no longer requires being a workflow participant and holding offer permissions — either one is enough. A user with offer permissions on the position can open an offer's review page even without an approver/signer/watcher role on it, and a workflow participant without offer permissions can open an offer they're part of. Editing still requires offer permissions regardless of workflow role. Selecting Open profile from an offer's details pane also now opens the full candidate profile — the same view documented in Candidate profile in TA — in a right-side panel, rather than a stripped-down view.

7. Governance & Editing Controls

The system supports:

• Controlled editing while pending approval
  
• Role-based override permissions
  
• Resetting to default approvers
  
• Restricting approver modifications
  
• Controlled re-approval on sensitive changes (e.g., compensation)

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8. Offer-Specific Enhancements

For offers, additional capabilities include:

• Compensation-based re-approval
  
• Clause edits without approval reset (configurable)
  
• Duplicate-offer guardrails
  
• Direct status updates from approval dashboard (configurable)

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Part 2: Configuration Framework

Below are the configuration layers that power the approval system.

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1. Core Approval Toggles

1.1 approval_workflow (boolean, default: true)

Master switch for the approval system.

Enables:

• Approval workflows
  
• Approval pages
  
• Approval Center

If disabled:

• No approvals for positions or offers

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1.2 downward_revision_require_approval (boolean, default: false)

Offer-specific.

If enabled:

• Downward compensation revisions require re-approval

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2. Approval Workflow Edit Configuration

2.1 approval_workflow_edit_config

Controls editing when entity is in approval status (e.g., Pending Approval).

Defined separately for:

• Position
  
• Offer

Per-status controls:

• allow_edit – Can the entity be edited?
  
• allowed_roles – Which roles can edit?

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3. Approver Governance Controls

3.1 freeze_default_approvers (boolean)

Prevents editing or deleting default approvers.

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3.2 enable_reset_to_default_approvers (boolean)

Allows reverting approvers back to workflow defaults.

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3.3 disable_intermediate_approver_editing (boolean)

• Blocks adding approvers at intermediate steps
  
• Restricts deletion to latest approver only

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3.4 roles_as_approver (object)

Restricts which roles can appear in approver dropdown.

Configurable:

• Per entity (position/offer)
  
• Per approval step number

Example structure:

Position:

• Step 1 → hiring_manager
  
• Step 2 → admin

Offer:

• Step 1 → recruiter

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3.5 max_manager_levels_for_reporting_structure_approval_workflow

(integer, default: 3, min: 1, max: 5)

Limits how many manager levels are included when deriving approvers via reporting structure.

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4. Draft & Approval Dashboard Controls

4.1 enable_draft_entities_in_approval_dashboard (boolean)

If enabled:

• Allows saving draft approval requests
  
• Drafts appear in approval dashboard

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4.2 position_approved_calibrate_button (boolean, default: true)

Controls visibility of “Calibrate Position” button for approved positions.

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5. Compensation Visibility to Approvers

5.1 should_show_pay_grade_guidance_to_approvers (boolean)

If enabled:

• Displays pay grade guidance during approval

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6. Offer-Specific Interaction Controls

6.1 enable_skip_send_offer_flow (boolean)

Allows changing offer status (Extended, Accepted, Declined) directly from approval dashboard without sending offer letter.

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6.2 enable_clause_edit_without_approval (boolean)

If enabled:

• Clause edits do not reset approval workflow

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6.3 offer_rollout_config.disable_create_offer_for_status

Prevents creating a new offer when a candidate already has an offer in restricted statuses.

Acts as an approval-aware guardrail.

The tooltip explaining why Create offer is disabled now reports missing offer access first, ahead of offer state/stage, so the reason matches what's shown on the pipeline for the same candidate. This is a message-only change; authorization is unchanged.

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7. Entity Edit Config (Approval-Adjacent)

Applies via:

• position_edit_config
  
• offer_edit_config

Controls:

• allow_edit
  
• allow_revoke
  
• allow_change_template
  
• valid_roles
  
• skip_approval_for_roles

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7.1 skip_approval_for_roles

Allows specific roles (e.g., recruiter, admin, hiring_manager) to:

• Edit approval-required fields
  
• Without triggering re-approval

Provides controlled operational flexibility.

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Overall Architecture Summary

The approval system is built on layered governance:

1. Core toggle (enable/disable system)
   
2. Trigger logic (when workflows apply)
   
3. Workflow definition (steps + approvers)
   
4. Approver governance controls
   
5. Edit controls during approval
   
6. Offer-specific approval behavior
   
7. Dashboard & audit visibility

This creates an enterprise-grade, scalable, and fully auditable approval framework for both requisitions and offers.