Effective dating rate changes

Keeping workers' compensation rates up to date is important to your workers and your program’s successful operations. Worker rates can change, and you need a way to ensure rate changes are effective on the correct date. For example, a worker may have received a pay increase backdated one month. You must apply the rate increase with an effective date in the past and ensure that timesheets are recalculated correctly.

As a program office user, you can use the Import Data tool and a worker import template to set effective dates for a rate on an individual worker record or a group of worker records. Plus, you can effective date the rate change to make it retroactive.

You can use a worker import template to backdate rate data only. You cannot effective date changes to other engagement fields.

Steps to prepare your import file

To prepare your import template file, complete these steps.

  1. Gather your data.

  2. Create and prepare a comma-separated values (CSV) text or XLSX file with the data you want to change for a specific worker record or a group of worker records.

  3. Make sure your file includes the following fields to ensure your rate change is correctly applied to a worker record:

    • Person ID

    • Engagement ID

    • <Rate Name>: Amount

    • <Rate Name>: Currency

    • <Rate Name>: Frequency

    • Cost Center Code

    • Appendix Start Date (use the dd/mm/yyyy date format)

    • Appendix End Date (use the dd/mm/yyyy date format)

  4. Replace the <Rate Name> with the name of the rate you want to change, for example Bill Rate: Amount or Pay Rate: Amount.

  5. Update the <Rate Name>: Amount to the value you want.

If you want to “remove” a rate, set the <Rate Name>: Amount or the rate multiplier to zero ( 0 ) to nullify any time entered against that rate in amount calculations.

You must include the Appendix Start Date and Appendix End Date fields to define when you want a rate change to be in effect on a worker record. When you specify an Appendix Start Date and don’t specify an Appendix End Date, the rate change applies from the start date you define to the current date.

Effective dating example

For example, assume today is August 1, 2023. You have a worker whose rate increased effective July 1, 2023. To apply the new rate and backdate a rate increase to July 1, 2023, specify 07/01/2023 for the Appendix Start Date and don’t specify an Appendix End Date. The rate change is retroactively applied to July 1, 2023, and becomes the current rate on the engagement.

Steps to import your import file

To import, validate, and upload your file, complete these steps.

  1. Log in to Professional.

  2. Select Import Data from the Quick Actions list on the Home page.

  3. Choose Worker from the Data Object list.

  4. Add any comments you want to store in the import log in the Note field.

  5. Optional: Expand the Import Template section, and then choose Select a template from the list.

    Templates may or may not be available based on your Professional setup. Contact your Customer Success Manager if you’re not sure which template to use.

  6. Select Continue and upload your import file.

  7. Follow the instructions in the Bulk add WORKERS page to confirm the column headers row and mapping of the fields.

  8. Optional: To review any potential errors, turn on the Only show rows with problems toggle in the review section. If errors exist, you can hover over each error to view advice on resolving it. After you resolve the errors, select Continue.

After you submit the template, a message confirms you’ve submitted it successfully. The message doesn’t mean the data was successfully loaded in Professional. Select Settings  Monitoring  Import Logs to determine whether your import was processed successfully.

For more information, see Checking the status of an import process. If the import process fails, make corrections to the template and try again.

Next steps

After your updates are processed, you can review timesheets to ensure your changes were successfully applied.

Table 1. Reviewing timesheets
Timesheet status Updates

Waiting For Submission

After the timesheet is submitted, your rate changes will automatically be applied.

Pending

Timesheet amounts are automatically recalculated based on the new rates. The timesheet remains in a Pending status.

Approved

A timesheet correction and a new timesheet are automatically generated and processed. The timesheet doesn’t need to be reapproved.

Rejected

Timesheet amounts are automatically recalculated based on the new rates. The timesheet remains in a Rejected status.

Invoiced

A timesheet correction and new version must be generated since the invoiced amount will change. The timesheet doesn’t need to be reapproved.