Using Uploads to Edit Starting Rates & Tipped Wages

Overview

When minimum wage rates change, updating Starting Rates and Tipped Wages across your locations should not mean opening every record one at a time. Uploads lets you make those changes in bulk, download your pre-populated Location Data File, update your rates in a spreadsheet, and upload your file back in GovDocs Minimum Wage in a single step.

This article walks you through the full workflow for updating Starting Rates and Tipped Wages using Uploads.

Why This Matters for Minimum Wage Compliance

Minimum wage rates change at the state and local level throughout the year. For organizations managing locations across multiple jurisdictions, each change can mean dozens or hundreds of individual rate updates. When those updates are made manually, one location at a time, there is real risk that some locations get missed, rates get entered inconsistently, or updates happen too slowly to stay current.

Uploads removes that friction. Your team can prepare rate changes in a spreadsheet and push all updates to GovDocs in one upload. The system reviews every entry before anything saves, so errors are caught before they become compliance gaps.

What you Can Update

• Starting Rate: the base hourly rate for a location, used to determine applicable minimum wage requirements
• Tipped Rate: the hourly rate for tipped employees, where applicable to the jurisdiction

Location Notes can also be updated via Uploads but are not the focus of this article. Address fields, Display Name, and jurisdiction data cannot be updated through this workflow.

Interactive Demo at Your Own Pace

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Download your Unique Location Data

• Click Get Location File on your Locations tab. An XLSX file will download to your computer containing your current location data. The file includes the following columns: External ID, Display Name, Jurisdiction, Jurisdiction Type, Starting Rate, Tipped Rate (where applicable), and Location Notes.

Step 2: Edit your file

• Open the downloaded file in Excel, Google Sheets, or another spreadsheet tool. Update the Starting Rate, Tipped Rate, and Location Notes columns as needed. Do not add, remove, or rename columns. When your updates are ready, save the file in XLSX format.

Step 3: Upload your file

• Return to the GovDocs Dashboard. On your Locations tab, click Upload. An upload tool will open. Select your completed XLSX file and submit it for review.

Step 4: Review results

• Before any changes are saved, the system checks your file for errors. You will see a summary of:
  • The total number of records in your file
  • Any rows with errors
• If errors are found, your upload will not proceed. You will need to correct the flagged rows and re-upload.

Step 5: Confirm and submit

• Review the confirmation prompt, which shows the total number of records that will be updated. Click Submit to save your changes. Your location data will be updated immediately.

Things to Remember

• Your file must be in XLSX format. CSV and other file types will be rejected.
• Only edit the columns designated for updates: Starting Rate, Tipped Rate (where applicable), and Location Notes. Do not modify any other columns, including External ID.
• The template reflects your location data at the time of download. If you need to update a specific subset of locations, apply your filters before generating the template.
• The External ID column is included for reference and cannot be changed. It is used to match your file rows to the correct locations in your account.

Common Use Cases

State or local minimum wage increase

A new minimum wage rate takes effect in three states. Filter your Locations tab to those states, download your Location Data File, update the Starting Rate column for each affected location, and upload. All locations are updated in one submission rather than one at a time.

Annual tipped wage adjustment

Several jurisdictions adjust tipped wage rates on January 1 each year. Download your Location Data File filtered to those jurisdictions, update the Tipped Rate column, and upload. The review step confirms every entry is correctly formatted before the changes go live.

Bulk rate correction after a data import

After migrating location data from an HRIS or payroll system, a review reveals that Starting Rates for a group of locations are outdated or incorrect. Download the Location Data File, map the correct rates from your internal source, and upload the corrected file to bring GovDocs in sync.

Onboarding a new group of locations

A recent acquisition adds 40 new locations to your program. Once the locations are created in GovDocs, download the Location Data File, populate Starting Rates and Tipped Rates from your compensation data, and upload to set rates for all new locations at once.

Best Practices

• Download your Location Data File each time you run an update. Reusing an older template may result in outdated location data.
• Apply filters before downloading if you only need to update a portion of your locations.
• Do not add new rows to the template. Uploads is for updating existing locations only.
• Save your file as XLSX before uploading. If you work in Google Sheets, export as Excel (.xlsx) before submitting.
• For large teams, designate one person to manage the download-edit-upload cycle to avoid conflicting files.