The A/E staff is an integral part of the ERCS support team. They serve as the liaison between the ERCS users and the SB/SE, LB&I and IT employees responsible for the daily operation and support of the ERCS system. These employees include the Headquarters (HQ) AIMS, ERCS and Summary Exam Time Transmittal System (SETTS) analysts, ERCS system and database administrators and the ERCS development staff.

The A/E staff must be familiar with AIMS and ERCS and have knowledge of controlling examinations in SB/SE, Specialty, and LB&I groups, Planning and Special Programs (PSP), Centralized Case Processing (CCP), and Technical Services (TS).

The A/E manager decides who should perform tasks based upon the employee’s position and grade. Responsibilities of A/E managers include, but are not limited to:

Responsibilities of A/E analysts include, but are not limited to:

Responsibilities of A/E assistants include, but are not limited to:

ERCS creates audit trails for selected changes to returns, employee records, and permission records. A special audit trail is also created when users enter a taxpayer identification number (TIN) or a taxpayer name on ERCS. See IRM 4.7.2, Security, for more information. IRM 4.7.2.3.4, Audit Trails, has a list of the changes in ERCS that produce an audit trail.

There are security checks within ERCS to ensure unauthorized users do not access programs and authorized users are kept within the boundaries of their permissions. These checks are performed automatically and silently each time a user attempts to access ERCS. The user has no ability to prevent the checks. For more information about permissions in ERCS, see IRM 4.7.2.3.2, Permissions.

See Exhibit 4.7.10-1, Acronyms and Definitions, for acronyms used in this IRM.

The instructions for the A/E staff for navigating and support of the ERCS programs can be found in the ERCS Technical Reference Manual (TRM).

In additional to this section, the ERCS IRM includes the following sections:

The A/E staff should also be familiar with the:

The ERCS book in the Virtual Library contains helpful information to resolve problems and answer questions. The following types of information is available:

This request type is for an employee who may or may not have an active ERCS employee record, but does not have user access.

Verify the application being requested is the correct application for the employee. If incorrect, deny the request and indicate the reason for the denial and the correct application, if known, in the comments box.

Ensure the following information is included in the Special Instructions box of the request:

A BEARS request should be denied if the business reason does not justify having ERCS access. If the ERCS approver doubts whether a user's access is justified, the HQ ERCS analysts should be consulted.

If required information is not included the ERCS approver has the option to deny the request. Comments must be entered to indicate required information was not provided and advise the employee to submit a new BEARS request with the required information.

Alternatively, if required information is not included the ERCS approver may choose to enter comments indicating the employee or employee’s manager is being contacted for required information to complete processing.

If required information is included in the Special Instructions box or once the information has been received and entered in the Comments box, the ERCS approver must check the ERCS employee history by SEID to see if the employee already has an ERCS employee record.

If the employee does not have an ERCS employee record one needs to be created, along with a WSP for technical employees, before access can be granted. For instructions on creating employee records and WSPs refer to IRM 4.7.5, Group and Territory.

Once the employee has an active employee record the ERCS approver must enter the user’s login in the login field prior to adding permission records.

Permission records should be added before the BEARS request is approved.

Permissions records may be added, updated or deleted for any Area or LB&I as long as the ERCS approver has Admin permission for the Primary Business Code (PBC) of the employee’s permission record.

Permission records are added and removed through the "Utilities/Permission Programs" menu option "Add Users" .

All users are given permanent read permission for their home group AAC, including those requesting temporary access. An employee with an active BEARS application must have a permission record on ERCS. When access is no longer needed users must submit a "Remove Access" BEARS request to have their permission records removed.

In general, administrative support employees are given write permission, managers are given first level approval permission and territory managers (TM) are given second level approval permission. Managers may be given write permission, temporary is preferable, with TM approval. Additional information can be found in IRM 4.7.2.3.2.1, Recommended Permissions.

The user type determines the menu options available to the user, therefore, it is important that permission records are added under the correct user type. The user types available are listed below.

Following the guidance in IRM 4.7.2.3.2.1, Recommended Permissions, and the information from the Special Instructions and/or Comments box of the BEARS request, add, update or remove permission records under all applicable user types. All permission records must be deleted when processing a "Remove Access" BEARS request or Manual Interaction.

Once all actions are complete approve the BEARS request.

This request type is for an employee who has an active ERCS employee record and user access, but needs to change permission records.

Ensure the following information is included in the request:

If required information is not included in the BEARS request follow the procedures in IRM 4.7.10.4.1 (5) or IRM 4.7.10.4.1 (6) to request the information.

Remove permission records that are no longer needed.

Follow the guidance in IRM 4.7.10.4.2, User Permissions Records if new permission records are requested.

Once all actions are complete approve the BEARS request.

This request type is for employees who already have an ERCS employee record and user access, but need to have their user access removed.

Remove Access requests can be submitted by an employee either directly or by the employee’s manager.

Remove Access requests cannot be denied and must be processed.

The ERCS approver should remind the group to inactivate ERCS employee records when an employee transfers to a position outside of ERCS and is not expected to return for a year or more, or to a permanent position.

Remove permission records that are no longer needed.

Once all actions are complete approve the BEARS request.

When an employee’s status is changed to disabled due to a separation event BEARS systemically generates a request for manual interaction.

Security requirements are for separated employees to be removed from IRS systems within three business days.

The BEARS approver must verify the employee’s ERCS employee record has been inactivated and all permission records have been deleted.

Once all ERCS actions are complete mark the BEARS request as "Complete" .

The ERCS local files contain information unique to each area. A/E managers and analysts have the ability to control validation of codes such as project codes and action codes used only in their area.

Local files can also be used to alert users of messages like upcoming changes, the end of the reporting cycle, or contact information. These messages appear on the screen prior to the ERCS Main Menu screen.

Once an input has been made to a local file, the change is immediately available for use by the ERCS programs. For this reason, the local files should be updated as soon as changes are known. It is imperative the contents of the files be entered correctly.

The local files are updated via a menu option on the AIMS/ERCS Analyst Menu. In order to make changes to a local file, the user must be proficient in the use of the visual (vi) text editor. New analysts should be trained by experienced A/E analysts in the area. Refer to the vi help document in the National Information folder under the AES Resources folder on the AIMS/ERCS/SETTS SharePoint for basic tips for running the vi text editor. Refer to the Local and National Files chapter of the ERCS TRM for information about the local files. Refer to the Login Menu chapter of the ERCS TRM for information about the menu option to update the local files.

Selected changes made by users on ERCS are sent to AIMS each time the Requisitions and Updates program is run to completion. In order to run this program, the user must have access to the Requisitions and Updates program (ERCS download application) and to the Generalized Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS) Interface (GII) server. Both of these accesses are granted through BEARS requests.

Access to the ERCS download application is requested through the "PROD ANALYST AIMS-ERCS STAFF" BEARS application. The Special Instructions box should include the ERCS application being requested and list the PBCs needed.

GII related files are required and must be installed in order to connect to the GII server for processing.

Access to the GII server is requested through the PROD USER MEG ERCS (EITCRA GENERALIZED IDRS INTERFACE - MEG) BEARS application, include the applicable PBCs in the Special Instructions box.

The employee must be an active IDRS user before requesting access to the GII server.

A/E staff responsible for running ERCS to AIMS uploads must have the following command codes in their profile, as well as in the employee’s work unit to which they are assigned. If the user does not have a command code that’s included in the uploading file, processing will abort during the initial GII interface.

There are several steps involved in running the Requisitions and Updates program. In general the steps include running the following options:

It is highly recommended that the Uploading Program be completed at least twice daily to maintain the accuracy of the AIMS database. During times when more ERCS changes are created, such as reorganizations or mass updates, it is advisable to run it more often to reduce upload processing time.

The local file, "upload_control" , is read by the Create Reports program and can be used to block specific command codes from being sent to the GII server. Refer to the Local and National Files chapter of the ERCS TRM for more information about this file.

Refer to the Requisitions and Updates chapter of the ERCS TRM for more information about uploading.

A group may submit a request for an original paper return, ESTAB, to the A/E staff for multiple reasons. Those reasons include but are not limited to:

To request an original return the group will submit Form 4844 , Request for Terminal Action to the A/E staff following the guidance below.

When the ESTAB request is received it will be reviewed to verify the type of information associated with the requested DLN. If the DLN is for an electronically filed return or isn’t for a return, the request should be denied and returned to the group. Refer to Chapter 4, Document Locator Number of Document 6209, IRS Processing Codes and Information, for the definition of the DLN.

Once it has been determined that an ESTAB is warranted, the Command Code ESTAB should be input into IDRS. If the request is for a Schedule K-1, include a "Y" in Record Element 20 on the ESTAB request. For more information on the ESTAB command code refer to IRM 2.3.17, Command Code (CC) ESTABD.

If the return has not been received within 30 days of the ESTAB input the group may request a special search be initiated, using Form 2275, Records Request, Charge, and Recharge.

When requesting Form 706, U.S. Estate Tax Return or Form 709, United States Gift (and Generation - Skipping Transfer) Tax Return using Form 2275, include in Section 18, Remarks, "ALL HISTORICAL FILES."

The ESTAB process may be skipped and Form 2275 may be used to expedite the search for the original return if the case meets one of the following criteria:

The Form 2275 may be submitted by the group or by the A/E staff depending on local procedures.

A database transfer request is initiated when ERCS and/or AIMS control is needed for a return controlled in another Area or Campus.

The group will submit Form 5348, AIMS/ERCS Update, to the A/E staff by email to request the transfer and AMSTUR if the record is in Status Code 90 and needs to be reopened prior to the transfer.

If a request is received for a return in LB&I or a LIN Link, return the request to the group and advise them to follow the procedures on the LB&I AIMS Database/LIN Link Requests page.

If the group has established the return on ERCS but AIMS is in a Campus PBC, 190-194, 295-297 or 299, the following applies.

If the request is for a return in another Area, the request is sent to the A/E staff in that Area to coordinate the transfer.

If the request is for a return "claimed" by a group from the local Area Campus, the A/E staff will forward the request to the Campus exam A/E coordinator to transfer the AIMS record to the group. A claimed return may appear on an AAC Difference Report but will drop after the weekly AIMS to ERCS batch processing following the transfer.

SB/SE and LB&I technical employees are required to account for their time in ERCS for each day worked in a cycle. At the end of each reporting cycle the time is extracted from ERCS, validated, and transmitted to the Martinsburg Computing Center (MCC). At MCC, the data goes through a second validation, and is subsequently used in the creation of reports and tables. The term "SETTS" is often used to refer to the entire process from ensuring the time has been input through the receipt of validation results from MCC.

The data sent to MCC is used for planning and monitoring activities by technical employees in SB/SE and LB&I. If the time charges on ERCS are corrected after the data has been transmitted to MCC, the corrections are not sent forward and have no impact on the reports and tables that have already been extracted. Everyone, including the examiner applying time, the administrative support staff inputting or verifying imported time, the manager approving requisitions with time charges, and the A/E personnel extracting the time, plays a vital role in ensuring the SETTS data is accurate and timely.

AIMS/ERCS staff are responsible for monitoring time input for all groups supported, including LB&I and Specialty, and ensuring all time is complete by the last day of the reporting cycle.

At the end of each reporting cycle on the designated day of SETTS transmission, a member of the A/E staff is responsible for:

Since SETTS cycles can be at four, five, or six week intervals, users may not always be aware when the end of the reporting cycle is near. One way to remind users is by inserting a message in the "Message of the Day" local file, named "motd" . The last day of each reporting cycle and the corresponding transmission dates are listed in Document 6036, Examination Division Reporting Codes Booklet.

Managers and administrative support staff should be encouraged to run the ERCS "Check Employees with Uncharged Time" report periodically within each cycle to ensure all time for their employees has been entered no later than the close of business on the last day of the cycle.

The "Check Employees with Uncharged Time" report must be run by the A/E employee running SETTS prior to the creation of the SETTS file. Employees listed on this report with uncharged time for the cycle will be excluded from the SETTS file. If an employee is listed on the report with an In Lieu of Holiday (ILOH) error, it means the employee was not scheduled to work on the holiday and the employee does not have holiday time input on the alternate date the program expected the holiday time to be charged. These errors should be researched to see if holiday time was charged on another day. Errors should be corrected. If this is the only error for the employee on the report, the employee's time will still be included in the SETTS file.

It only takes one day of unreported time or one validation error, either on ERCS or at MCC, to exclude all of the employee's time charges for the cycle. If there is an issue or an error that cannot be resolved by the final MCC validation, it is possible to append the employee's time to the SETTS file the following cycle. There is one exception, time charges from a prior fiscal year cannot be appended, which means time charges missing from September cannot be appended to October. Refer to the SETTS chapter of the ERCS TRM for information about appending time charges from a prior cycle.

"Finished for the Month" should be run prior to the option to "Create the SETTS_FILE" . This option saves the validated data from the previous cycle to a file named "valid.YYYYMM" where YYYYMM is the cycle date. The option also removes the "forms.txt" file.

During the process of creating, validating and transmitting the time data, several files are created. It is important to note that corrections are written to intermediate files and only the file created by the validation is transmitted to MCC. The following files are created during the process:

When the option is run to transmit the SETTS file, a copy of the validated SETTS file, "valid.txt" , is renamed and placed in a dedicated location on the ERCS server where files are picked up every 15 minutes (e.g. 02:00, 02:15, 02:30, 02:45, etc.). The files are transmitted to MCC where a second validation is run.

The validation times at MCC and the times when the validations results are sent back to the ERCS server are in the table below listed in Eastern Time (ET):

The results file should be checked by running the option "Display/Print Most Recent Validation Results" to verify there are no MCC errors. If errors are present, they must be corrected using the "Edit Forms" option. Once the errors are corrected, the options "Validate Forms" and "Transmit Valid SETTS File" must be re-run.

See the SETTS folder on the AIMS/ERCS/SETTS SharePoint for SETTS training materials for the A/E staff. Refer to the SETTS and National Office SETTS Menu chapters of the ERCS TRM for more information about running the SETTS programs.

An unusual error or an increase in errors during the validation process should be reported to the HQ SETTS and the HQ ERCS analysts. Refer to AIMS, ERCS, SETTS, SSIVL and Tableau - Headquarters for contact information.

The SSIVL program enables a field office or a campus operation to extract AIMS data from the ERCS server and load the data into a Microsoft Access database for further analysis. The data may be used to generate reports of potential errors, Statute Tables 4.0 and to generate Inventory Validation Listings (IVLs) of AIMS data. Use of SSIVL is required to validate AIMS inventory. Refer to IRM 4.4.16, Inventory Control, for more information concerning the responsibilities of the A/E staff in conducting the annual 100% IVL validation.

The SSIVL data can be automatically transferred to an area server via Electronic File Transfer Utility (EFTU) or an A/E staff employee with SSIVL and Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) permissions can run an ERCS menu option to extract data from the ERCS server and transfer it to a local area server.

Access to the ERCS server for SSIVL purposes is granted via a BEARS request. There are several SSIVL applications. Refer to Exhibit 4.7.10-2 for determining which application to select and information to include on the BEARS request. Employees with a business need for SSIVL access should contact their local A/E staff or their Campus AIMS coordinator to get approval prior to completing a BEARS request.

Once approval is granted, the user should follow the instructions on the SSIVL SharePoint on how to download and install the SSIVL Access database (ssivl.mdb) file.

As New SSIVL users are approved and access added, users are added to the Outlook email group "&IT ACIOAD-C-SSIVL COORD" . This email distribution group is used to alert users of system downtime, SSIVL issues, and new releases.

Refer to the SSIVL and SSIVL-PC chapters of the ERCS TRM for more information about the program and the available data.

Special programs are available to the A/E analysts to move employee records, employee permission records and inventory records between employees, groups, territories, areas, industries and Business Operating Divisions. There are also programs to reassign returns from one TS employee to another TS employee. The steps for moving a group to another AAC are listed below:

The Group Transfer - All Returns option allows the user to transfer returns from one group to another within the same Area or Practice Area. The user is prompted with the following questions:

The Group Transfer - One Employee option is run to transfer one employee's inventory to another group within the same Area or Practice Area. The user is prompted with the following questions:

The Transfer Returns to Another PBC option is run to transfer returns to another Area or Practice Area. The PBC Transfer Listing should be generated prior to transferring the returns. The listing includes issues that may cause the transfer to be blocked on ERCS or may cause the AMSOC to reject on IDRS. Many of these issues can be worked prior to the transfer. The user is given the following options when transferring returns to another PBC:

For information about locking users out of the system, see the Login Menu chapter of the ERCS TRM. For more information about running the transfer programs, see the Utility Reorganization Programs chapter of the ERCS TRM.

Documents with detailed instructions for reorganizations across PBCs and within the Area are located in the National Information folder under the AES Resources folder on the AIMS/ERCS/SETTS SharePoint site.

Tableau is a server application used to create views, workbooks and dashboards from information in the ERCS database.

To gain access to Tableau two BEARS applications are required, one to access the Tableau server and one to access ERCS data through the Tableau server.

There are two BEARS applications for the ERCS database, one for SB/SE employees and one for LB&I employees.

When requesting access to the ERCS database the BEARS request must include the employee’s position, the business reason access is needed and the PBCs the user needs access to.

There are two BEARS applications for the Tableau server, only one is to be submitted based upon your user type.

When requesting access to the Tableau server the BEARS request must include the employee’s position, the business reason access is needed and the Tableau project folder the user needs access to.

Some of the uses for Tableau are listed below:

Access to each Tableau workbook is controlled by the owner of the workbook. Users in the same project folder typically have read access to workbooks in the folder, unless the owner has restricted access, but cannot save changes to workbooks they do not own.

Users should make sure their reports are available to other A/E staff in their area in the event the owner is out of the office for an extended period.

The ERCS database contains ERCS and AIMS data. The AIMS data is updated each weekend during the AIMS to ERCS batch processing.

Tableau users are encouraged to utilize the ERCS Tableau SharePoint to share issues, resolutions, ideas, etc. The best resources for report issues are other Tableau users.

When Tableau BEARS requests are processed, new users are added to the Outlook group, "&SBSE ERCS Oracle Discoverer" . This distribution list is used to alert users of system downtime, Tableau issues, and new releases.

Knowing the basic group operations enables the analyst to understand the dynamics of the group.

The basic group operations include the characteristics of the group and the division of responsibilities between the manager, administrative support and technical employees in the group.

The characteristics can include items such as the type of cases being worked (e.g., trust, fraud, general programs, etc.), the type of group (e.g. general program, Special Enforcement Program, training, etc.), the make-up of the group (e.g., trainees, seasoned examiners, new manager, etc.), and if there are any special issues affecting the group.

The division of responsibilities in the group can include items such as who runs ERCS inventory reports, inputs technical time, and generates Form 895, Notice of Statute Expiration.

The ERCS database consists of multiple programs and tables, each of these plays a part in maintaining overall accuracy. During an Operational Review it’s recommended review and analysis of the following be included:

As part of the review the A/E staff should ensure the group is aware of reference materials available including the ERCS book in Exam Systems knowledge base of the Virtual Library, the 6209 Code Retriever, Document 6209, IRS Processing Codes and Information, Document 6036, Examination Division Reporting Codes Booklet.

Additional information on Operational Reviews can be found in the 2008 AIMS ERCS SETTS CPE Phoenix, AZ folder under National CPEs folder on the AIMS/ERCS/SETTS SharePoint site.