---
id: B-012
type: barrier
title: "Offer Closing & Contract Execution"
lang: en
registry: 2026.08.2
canonical: https://hoba.work/barriers/B-012
json: https://hoba.work/api/v1/barriers/B-012.json
---

# Offer Closing & Contract Execution

Final mutual execution of the formal employment agreement and start-date confirmation.

> **On the canonical path** — [A written offer with everything in it](https://hoba.work/process#WF-003-offer)
>
> Salary, level, title, location terms, start date and anything conditional, in writing, with a decision window the candidate agreed to. Nothing in it changes after acceptance.
>
> This entry is one of the ways that commitment stops being kept.

## At a glance

- Stage: Post-offer
- Step in the funnel: #14
- Evidence: established

## Passing condition

Both parties sign offer contract and onboarding workflow is triggered.

## What it looks like

Composite excerpts, written to be typical rather than copied. No particular message, company or person is quoted here.

**Closing sequence** — *reconstruction*

```
  day 0  Contract issued for signature
  day 1  Candidate signed
> day 1  Countersignature pending
  day 4  Start date confirmed · onboarding workflow triggered
```

*What to notice* A signature from one side is not the gate. Until the countersignature lands the requisition is still open, which is where a late freeze can reach it.

## From each side

The same entry from inside each position that meets it: what reaches them, what it means from there, and what happens next given what they control.

### Employer policy

- **What reaches them:** A requisition still open, a contract issued, and one signature returned. The countersignature is a step in an approval queue alongside the quarter's other commitments.
- **What it means from there:** Until the second signature lands, the headcount is a commitment that can still be paused; after it lands, it is a cost that cannot.
- **What happens next:** Countersigns and releases the start date, or holds the file while the quarter's funding is reconfirmed.

### Recruiter

- **What reaches them:** The candidate's signature returned on day one and the countersignature line still empty. Whether the delay is a queue or a funding question is not in the recruiter's fields.
- **What it means from there:** The requisition is not closed and the fill is not counted; days of silence here are indistinguishable from a signature waiting its turn.
- **What happens next:** Chases the countersignature internally and calls the start date provisional in every message until the contract is executed by both sides.

### Candidate

- **What reaches them:** A contract signed and sent back, an unconfirmed start date, and days passing with no countersignature.
- **What it means from there:** From here the process reads as finished, though nothing takes effect until the second signature, and that step is not visible from outside.
- **What happens next:** Holds off on resigning or closing other processes until the countersigned copy arrives, and records the dates and the wording of what was promised.

---

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