Accounts Management (AM) managers must provide leadership and direction to employees responsible for tax and account related inquiries received via telephone, correspondence (paper), and e-mail.

Managers will refer to guidelines outlined in other IRMs such as:

As a manager in AM, you must be knowledgeable in the use of various tools/resources used by AM employees. Examples of these tools/resources include:

Managers are required to manage work programs and perform program and employee reviews to ensure Accounts Management work is completed according to procedural guidelines contained in applicable IRMs.

Program management and review guidelines are detailed in IRM 1.4.16.2, Operational Guidelines.

IRS uses access control measures to provide protection from unauthorized access (UNAX), alteration, loss, unavailability, or disclosure of information. Access control will follow the principle of least privilege and separation of duties. This IRM provides guidance for managing access to protected data and for reviewing adherence to data security and procedural guidelines.

Managers are required to review administrative, privacy, security, and safety practices according to the responsibilities outlined in this IRM in conjunction with other applicable IRMs and IRS guidance.

Throughout this IRM, references to CSRs include terms such as Assistors,Telephone Assistors,Agents, or Staff. The term telephone assistor applies to any employee who is assigned to work the toll-free lines. The term paper assistor applies to any employee assigned to work paper inventory such as referrals, Adjustments, or Taxpayer Relations (TPR), etc.

The AM website https://irsgov.sharepoint.com/sites/WI/SitePages/Accounts-Manag.aspx is an excellent resource for AM managers. It provides vital information regarding the AM organization including various tools for the AM manager to use in performing daily managerial tasks.

Human Capital Office (HCO) offers a wealth of managerial tools and information via a page on their website entitled, New Manager Orientation Support Center, which is found at: https://irsgov.sharepoint.com/sites/HCO. Examples of the tools found on this resource page include:

Another excellent managerial tool is iManage. It is a virtual community for IRS managers. It contains targeted information, advice, and interactive features to help you work more efficiently. The iManage site automatically grants access to employees coded as managers in HRConnect. You cannot access the site if you are not coded as a manager. Access the iManage site at: https://irsgov.sharepoint.com/sites/iManage. If you are unable to access the iManage site, please e-mail the Managers Resource Center at MRC@irs.gov.

AM managers follow the Strategic and Program Plans outlined in the following documents:

The AM Program Letter (identified above) is an annual communication from the Director, Accounts Management, and it provides the following:

The Customer Service Agreement (CSA) (identified above) applies to all bargaining unit employees assigned to AM campus and remote sites. It is intended to enhance taxpayer service and business efficiency by taking full advantage of changes in technology, while at the same time promoting employee satisfaction.

The guidance in the Program Letter, along with budget allocations, makes up the work plan. Work plans are a projection of the staff hours needed to meet workload demands for each program for the entire fiscal year.

General goals based on resources are determined on an annual basis in the Planning and Budgeting process.

The work plan includes three Planning Periods (PP):

Work plans change throughout the year depending on different factors, such as peak months for paper receipts and peak toll-free call demand.

Managers must schedule available staffing for each planning period based on the telephone staffing schedules, no attempt is or should be made to catch up on shortfalls in scheduled services within a planning period or in any other planning period.

AM HQ Resource, Management & Training (RMT) staff coordinate with the Joint Operations Center (JOC) to ensure adherence to telephone staffing requirements so that program goals are achieved.

AM sites must schedule available staffing for the Toll-Free Telephone operations using telephone requirements.

The following AM programs must schedule available staffing based on inventory:

To reduce inventory, it may be necessary to request additional staffing. Sites must submit this request to the AM HQ RMT staff for coordination.

Efficient telephone staffing is key to meeting the planned Level of Service (LOS) and Average Speed of Answer (ASA) objectives. For more information, see IRM 1.4.16.2.4.1, Toll-Free Measures.

Managers must ensure staffing is efficient. An increase to the Average Handle Time (AHT) can impact LOS, ASA, and other business measures and in turn increase the need for staff.

Information is available from system reports for you to monitor the efficiency of your staff. Reports available include:

AM measures focus on business results (including quantity and quality), customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction.

Diagnostic goals are developed to determine how to manage and assess performance. Refer to IRM 1.4.16.2.4.1, Toll-Free Measures.

AM guidelines for Read and Meeting Time are outlined in the current Customer Service Agreement (CSA), Part 1, Section 2, Read and Meeting Time. The CSA web page is found at: Customer Service Agreement. This web page includes the CSA / MOU, CSA Frequently Asked Questions, and additional CSA information including a Meet and Read Desk Guide.

Managers will schedule read and meet time each week throughout the year with their employees. This includes filing season. Generally, do not schedule read and meet time during peak hours or on peak days. This exception would apply if new materials are issued and are critical to the employee’s job performance. Some examples of peak workdays are:

Read time is scheduled for 60 minutes each week. This time is generally spent on reading and filing activities (e.g., SERP issuances, technical or procedural information, all employee memoranda, IDRS message files, work related emails, and management directed topics) to ensure the products and services provided to customers are accurate.

Possible reasons for granting additional read time are outlined in the CSA.

Meeting time is defined as time spent in recurring meetings that primarily focus on clarifying technical or procedural items. Administrative items may also be covered during this meeting time after all technical and procedural issues have been addressed.

Topics which would not be covered in a team meeting include formal training, On-the-Job Instruction (OJI), Employee Engagement Survey meetings and topics covered during "formal meetings" as defined in 5 U.S.C. paragraph 7114(a)(2)(A). Managers should seek the assistance of Labor Relations to determine if a topic of discussion meets the definition of a "formal meeting." For additional information, see the 2022 NTEU Agreement, Article 8, Union Rights, at: https://irssource.web.irs.gov/Lists/EmployeeRightsAndObligations/DisplaySection.aspx?SectionName=4. Also, see Formal Meeting (7114) Planner or 7114 Meeting Guidance for Managers, located on the iManage site at: https://portal.ds.irsnet.gov/sites/iManage/7114/SitePages/Home.aspx.

The manager will schedule, on a weekly basis, 30 minutes for meeting time with an additional 30 minutes allotted as the parties may mutually agree locally.

If additional supplemental meet time is needed, coordinate with your department manager and schedule around the workload.

Ensure the correct OFP codes and time used for Read and Meet time are input into Single Entry Time Reporting (SETR). The codes to use are:

A job aid or desk guide is a resource used to help improve the program quality and performance at an AM site or directorate. The following supplemental resources are examples of job aids:

Each directorate must maintain (review, update, etc.) and ensure the accuracy of any and all job aids, desk guides, websites, etc. created by the directorate.

Any and all job aids, desk guides, etc. created by a directorate must be consistent with the current applicable IRM and must include the IRM references and shared with the appropriate IRM author.

Training courses for assistors are found on Integrated Talent Management at: https://itm.treasury.gov/. You may also contact your Functional Training Coordinator at your AM site regarding the training curriculum found on the Training SharePoint site. You must also review the Training Assumptions, which are found on the Training SharePoint site as well as on the AM website at: https://irsgov.sharepoint.com/sites/WI/SitePages/AMTraining.aspx.

The Training Assumptions include necessary information for managers to deliver proper training. Training material is updated each year and subsequent updates are posted to the Instructors Corner SharePoint site.

Experienced employees, not new-hires, must be fully successful and proficient in their current telephone application or paper inventory skills before receiving additional training (Skill-up Training). The Department Manager and Frontline manager verify an employee is eligible for skill-up training.

To deliver the best quality service to private industry partners, telephone assistors staffing the Practitioner Priority Service (PPS) Application:

CCCFS is utilized by AM HQ staff to ensure the optimum number of staff are available on the telephones and paper programs to enhance customer service to the taxpayers.

It is critical that AM Management, Inventory Control Manager, and Systems Staff jointly plan the work assignments for employees based on skills and availability to maximize quantity, quality, and efficiency. The eWFM/WFO skills and work assignments are displayed by telephone application, agent group, and inventory work type.

The site must review and update (as needed) the telephone skills and assignments monthly to ensure the eWFM/WFO software reflects the current training and site work assignment preferences for each employee.

Additional requirements:

When telephone staff group requirements are published, the Systems Staff must review the requirements to ensure they are consistent with the site's workload. The Systems Staff will communicate discrepancies or concerns through their directorate staff to the Headquarters (HQ) Resource Planning and Scheduling (RP&S) staff.

During the work assignment phases prior to and during execution, the site must review the current workload priorities and implement them into eWFM/WFO. The site must keep eWFM/WFO current during execution as near to real-time as possible so agent availability can be monitored.

Following execution, the site must reconcile tracked eWFM/WFO activities weekly with the reported official time through the use of eWFM/WFO Superstate reports.

In addition to the above reconciliations, the site must also ensure the eWFM/WFO data is current through the following monthly reconciliations:

Additional CCCFS items are referenced in IRM 1.4.16.4.1, Centralized Contact Center Forecasting and Scheduling (CCCFS) - Inventory. The RP&S staff is committed and available to assist the site with questions or problems regarding CCCFS items.

UCCE is part of the call center infrastructure performing distribution of taxpayer calls between site and telephone resources (Agents and VRUs).

Peripheral Gateways are specialized servers that connect the call center to other call center resources.

The Intelligent Call Manager (ICM) routes calls based on UCCE data (specific set of characteristics) to the site with the longest available agent in the appropriate skill group. If no agent is available, the call is queued at the Enterprise level until an agent becomes available and only then is it routed to a site.

English Tax Law calls go to Default Screeners; however, Spanish Tax Law calls are routed to Spanish Accounts. The Spanish calls will be worked by the assistor, if skilled or transferred to other application as needed.

All Toll-Free telephone data is captured daily and stored in the web-based Enterprise Telephone Data (ETD) Warehouse. ETD stores data for historical use and produces daily, weekly, and ad hoc reports at the national (Executive Level Summary) and site level, including directorate roll-ups of remote sites. Site-level measures are also available on ETD when appropriate.

The Aceyus reporting tool provides real-time and historical data at the enterprise and site level.

The role of a manager, in the Enterprise environment, is to ensure the right number of people with the right skills are available to answer calls.

JOC programs Intelligent Call Manager (ICM) (through scripts that use business rules) for maximum call routing efficiency, based on demand and assistor availability.

The UCCE Finesse Supervisor desktop application gives managers access to features such as the ability to:

All announcements and scripts used on toll-free telephone numbers are controlled by JOC.

Announcements are valuable tools to:

As an Accounts Management manager, telephone data is available to assist you in evaluating the service being given to taxpayers and determining the efficiency and availability of site-level staff.

Managers and Systems Analysts (SA) must determine on a half-hourly basis by application if staff is available as scheduled. If less than the required number of agents is signed on, an explanation is required per adherence guidelines. For events planned in advance, any projected deficits should be covered first within the directorate; and must be discussed with the HQ Resources, Planning and Scheduling (RP&S) team to ensure appropriate telephone coverage across the Enterprise. For unplanned events, e.g., local inclement weather or traffic issues, the site must contact the JOC Monitoring Room and the AM RP&S staff to notify them of the resulting loss of staff.

Managers must ensure their employees are signed on to the telephone system and taking calls when scheduled. This reduces shrinkage, which is considered unscheduled time away from normal scheduled activities. Examples of shrinkage include:

Managers must perform a weekly review of incorrect transfers to identify errors and systemic problems. When errors are identified, the error(s) should be shared with the respective employee(s) for corrective actions. Any systemic abnormalities should be reported to the appropriate Resource, Management, and Training (RMT) staff member.

JOC, in collaboration with AM headquarters and site management, makes daily real-time adjustments to AM staffing levels based on actual demand and actual staffing.

Managers should use eWorkforce Management (eWFM)/Workforce Optimization (WFO), including Real Time Adherence (RTA), to assist in scheduling to meet staffing requirements.

Aceyus UCCE- real time reports can be designed to:

The Aceyus UCCE real time reports can assist Accounts Management managers in the following ways:

The Aceyus UCCE real-time reports show the number of telephone assistors who are actually at their workstations handling incoming calls. This data, compared to the total number assigned, provides information about the realization of the scheduled staff.

Managers should ensure all employees assigned to answer calls are at their workstations taking calls.

Managers will be notified by local site System Administrators (SA) or Department Managers if changes are needed in scheduled staffing based on contacts from JOC. This could include adding staff in a specific agent group or taking employees off the telephones to do other work. Employees will be provided a reasonable amount of transition time (e.g., between six (6) and twelve (12) minutes, to move between work assignments, (e.g., paper and telephones). For additional information, see the current IRS-NTEU CSA, which is found at:https://irsgov.sharepoint.com/sites/TS/SitePages/CustomerServiceAgreement.aspx

Telephone assistors may need to make outgoing calls to secure additional information to resolve an inquiry.

Telephone assistors making outgoing calls from their Finesse desktop application are not counted as part of ready staffing for site level adherence to schedule, nor are they considered in routing calls. Managers should monitor the number of outgoing calls to ensure they are necessary.

The wrap time for a telephone assistor for outgoing calls should be appropriate to the type of call.

If a telephone assistor needs to make outgoing calls but cannot, contact your local SA for assistance. A UCCE IRWorks ticket may need to be opened by the SA office.

If a telephone assistor needs to make outgoing calls on their Finesse desktop application, the telephone assistor will place themselves in the idle state and follow the steps below.

In the event of a network failure and/or an agent loses access to their Finesse desktop application, a banner appears at the top of the desktop notifying that the desktop has lost connection to the server. When agent is on an active call during a failover, the call will NOT drop unless there was an issue with the phone connection (i.e., the agent lost internet which impacts Finesse and Jabber).

The System Administrator (SA) is a valuable resource person regarding the features of the telephone system. The SA official titles are Customer Service Systems Administrator/Program Analyst (CSSA) and Telephone System Analyst (TSA).

Managers must coordinate with their SA on any activity limiting the site's ability to deliver its commitment for scheduled telephone staffing.

The SA/TA provides assistance on the following:

CCCFS is utilized by AM HQ staff to ensure the optimum number of staff are available on the telephones and paper programs to enhance customer service to the taxpayers.

It is critical that the Inventory Control Manager (ICM), Systems Staff, and management jointly plan the work assignments for employees based on skills and availability to maximize quantity, quality, and efficiency. The inventory skills and work assignments are displayed by program.

The site must review the inventory skills and assignments monthly and input all needed update(s) monthly, to ensure the eWorkforce Management (eWFM)/Workforce Optimization (WFO) software reflects the current on roll staff, tour of duty; employee Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) extensions used for direct work, training, and work assignment preferences. This includes data for the following employee types: CSR; TSR; and TLS.

Additional requirements:

During the work assignment phases prior to and during execution, the ICMs will review the current inventory workload priorities and communicate work assignment strategies to management and the Systems Staff for implementation into eWFM/WFO.

Following execution, the site must reconcile tracked inventory work weekly in eWFM/WFO with outside reporting and notify management of discrepancies. This reconciliation can be performed using eWFM/WFO Superstate reports.

Additional CCCFS items are referenced in IRM 1.4.16.3.1, Centralized Contact Center Forecasting and Scheduling (CCCFS) - Telephones. The RP&S staff is committed and available to assist the site with questions or problems regarding CCCFS issues.

The majority of paper inventory is sent to the Correspondence Imaging Inventory (CII), which captures images of correspondence from taxpayers. Correspondence includes letters, returned notices, notice responses, and standard forms which are scanned and electronically assigned on a daily basis by routing to a generic employee number for each site.

The cases are then reassigned to specific AM employees, on a daily basis, and according to the established parameters.

After work is completed on a case, including any quality review processes, the images are stored following retention guidelines, and are accessible by other employees with CII access should the need arise.

CII automatically keeps each employee's inventory in received date order. These cases can be re-assigned to other employees to ensure all old age and rollover cases are completed in a timely fashion.

CII inputs Command Code (CC) STAUP on balance due accounts and sends an interim letter to the taxpayer when cases are 25 days old.

Correspondence received from a taxpayer or a third-party representative may be solicited or unsolicited.

For additional information, see IRM 21.3.3, Incoming and Outgoing Correspondence/Letters. A significant portion of AM inventory also includes amended returns.

Although reduction in incoming correspondence is an AM goal, correspondence will never be eliminated as some customers prefer this method of contact.

IDRS Controls are established for correspondence either by an automated or manual system, or combination thereof.

Sites are expected to meet scheduled closure rates and inventory levels as well as established aged case percentages for all correspondence and amended returns.

Accounts Management in the campus locations resolve customer inquiries such as:

The resolutions include analyzing, researching, and making adjustments to customer accounts in IDRS. It may include contacting the customer by telephone or through written correspondence.

Certain guidelines for managing inventories are provided in IRM 21.5.1, General Adjustments.

Distribute work in IRS received date order and ensure your employees are aware of aged receipts. Adhere to the 14-day IDRS control requirements, as well as Action 61/Policy Statement P-21-3, Timeliness and Quality Taxpayer Correspondence, located in IRM 1.2.1.13.3. See IRM 21.3.3.4.2, Policy Statement P-21-3 Procedures.

Some indicators of potential overage problems include:

Re-assign an employee's inventory in CII/AMS/IDRS to another employee for the following situations:

To ensure receipts are timely scanned at the Campus Support sites and work-flow issues are addressed, a review of the process MUST be conducted twice a year. These reviews are performed the last week in May and the first week in November.

The review encompasses workflow and timeliness of receipts into Campus Support as follows:

Document the following elements from the review:

Summarize the review in a report and send to the HQ Analyst in Policy & Procedures IMF (PPI).

Work Planning and Control (WP&C) procedures require a physical inventory count/reconciliation of all AM inventory, which must be completed prior to the end of each quarter. For additional information on this requirement, see IRM 3.30.19.2.7, Quarter, Annual, and Basic Cut Over Procedures.

Each campus Inventory Control Manager (ICM) or the designated campus Planning and Analysis (P&A) analyst must ensure the required WP&C corrections are input and timely submitted to the campus Report Units and a confirmation e-mail is sent (by the due dates shown in paragraph (3) below) to Manager, Reports, Analysis, and Data (RAD). The e-mail must include the following:

The validation due dates for the physical inventory counts are:

Each AM campus must submit a quarterly Statute Awareness Program Report electronically to HQ Policy & Procedures BMF (PPB) Specialty Accounts (SA) Statute Analyst by the 15th day of the month following the close of the quarter in accordance with IRM 25.6.1.4.2, The Statute Awareness Program.

AMS receipts should be validated weekly by comparing available data from the Servicewide Notice Information Program to volumes received in AMS.

If significant discrepancies are identified, this could be an indication of a systemic problem. Please contact the PPM Analyst responsible for the specific program (AMRH, Statute or Refund Inquiry) to report the issue.

Distribute work by IRS received date order and ensure employees are aware of the following aging criteria:

Ensure all employees are profiled in AMS to receive the appropriate type of referral inventory.

Manager or manager's designee must review the referral within 3 business days from the date the referral was initially created or resubmitted for review. Managers are also responsible to ensure the initiating employee has taken action on a rejected referral within 2 business days of the case being rejected. For additional information, see IRM 21.3.5.4.2.1.1, Preparing an e-4442/4442.

Managers must analyze new receipts to determine age, mis-routed cases, trends, etc.

Re-assign an employee's inventory in CII/AMS/IDRS to another employee within 14 calendar days in the following situations:

Ensure employees (when applicable) are familiar with the guidelines for all written communications in IRM 21.3.3, Incoming and Outgoing Correspondence/Letters. Use the following response time frame guidelines:

In general, any case (inquiry) not resolved within 45 days (30 days for referrals) is considered overage.

A quality response is an accurate and professional communication, which, based on information provided, resolves the customer's issue(s), requests additional information from the customer, or notifies the customer that we have requested information from outside IRS. It is the responsibility of the manager to ensure the professionalism and accuracy of their employees' work.

Managers must carefully monitor the age of the correspondence inventory.

Correspondence must be controlled within 14 days (if not resolved) and management must monitor the inventory to ensure that the 14-day control requirement is met.

Due to the critical nature of Barred Statutes, each AM campus must have an effective Statute Awareness Program. Briefings must be conducted by the Statute Unit throughout the year to promote actions to prevent barred assessments.

Weekly managerial reviews and Statute Days are required to identify Assessment Statute Expiration Dates within the Statute inventory, CII, and incoming receipts. See IRM 25.6.1.4, Introduction Procedures.

Statute cases must be reviewed and stamped by Statute employees prior to CII input to create a permanent record on claims cleared by Statute.

All campuses must utilize Statute approved stamps. Cases transferred to other sites based on Enterprise Management of Inventory (EMI) must be reviewed for imminent statute prior to transfer. Sites will not enter into agreements with other functions to provide Statute support inconsistent with the IRM 25.6, Statute of Limitations unless given specific HQ approval. This includes, but is not limited to, the Statute Clearance/Prompt Assessment processes.

Whenever a barred assessment is identified, the AM Statute Function will follow the prescribed timeframes in IRM 25.6.1.13.2, Barred Assessment Procedures for Taxpayer Services Campuses.

Each AM campus must submit a quarterly Statute Awareness Program Report electronically to HQ Process and Policy & Procedures BMF (PPB) Specialty Accounts (SA) Statute Analyst by the 15th day of the month following the close of the quarter in accordance with IRM 25.6.1.4.2, The Statute Awareness Program.

An IRS priority is completion of the Tax Refund Disbursements Corrective Action Plan pertaining to Manual Refunds. AM plays a critical role in this plan as stewards of a large percentage of manual refund adjustments.

Employees MUST complete the following manual refund courses via ITM annually:

Each Quarter, the Manual Refund IRM author will send out a report to the Points of Contact (POC) listing all employees who are profiled with Command Codes (CC) RFUND, REFAP, and RSTRKM. The report must be reviewed for accuracy and the POCs must ensure employees that require the CCs have completed the required Manual Refund Training in Integrated Talent Management (ITM) and remove the CCs from employees’ profiles if they are no longer needed. If an employee is listed as not having completed the proper training on the following quarter’s report, they will be highlighted in yellow and a note will be added advising the POC to either reply with a copy of the training certificate or a copy of the employee’s CC SFDISP screen showing the CC has been removed.

The Manual Refund tool is an Integrated Automation Technologies (IAT) tool and the use of the IAT tools is mandated by IRM 21.2.2-2, Accounts Management Mandated IAT Tools.

All manual refunds must be monitored on a daily basis by HQ Analysts utilizing the Robotics Processing Automation (RPA) bot, which incorporated the EMT/Case Monitoring IAT tool. (This is done to ensure a duplicate refund condition has not occurred.)

HQ Analysts are required to verify each day that all manual refunds were monitored, and to document their verification by completing the EMT RPA Reconciliation Log.

To improve productivity, consistency, and quality, AM managers must continue to emphasize the use of the available IAT Tools.

All AM employees will adhere to the mandatory use of IAT tools as defined in IRM 21.2.2-2, Accounts Management Mandatory IAT Tools.

AM continues to optimize the timeframe for processing CAF submissions.

Inventory will be handled in accordance with IRM 21.3.7, Processing Third Party Authorizations onto the Centralized Authorization File (CAF). Sites must ensure that revocations and deletions are worked timely to prevent unauthorized disclosures.

Campus support plays a key role in program delivery. Campus Support functions must adhere to the guidelines outlined in IRM 21.1.7, Campus Support, with special focus on payment processing. See IRM 21.1.7.9, Payments.

All AM Frontline Managers or designated representatives must validate that IDRS command code profiles are restricted for Form 809, Receipt for Payment of Taxes, book users and employees processing payments through Remittance Strategy for Paper Check Conversion (RS-PCC) as required in IRM 21.1.7.4, Privacy and Security Responsibilities.

Campus Support began evaluative reviews effective November 2017. Managers must use the approved Embedded Quality Review System (EQRS) Data Collection Instrument (DCI) for the AM Clerical – Campus Support Specialized Product Review Group (SPRG). Managers will conduct a minimum of two evaluative reviews (live reviews) per month for each employee.

Unpostable cases are those transactions that cannot post to the Master File and are corrections of previously processed cases. Therefore, it is critical that all Unpostable cases are worked within seven business days of receipt. See IRM 21.5.5.2, What Is An Unpostable, and IRM 21.3.7.8.13, CAF Unpostables.

Managers must maintain a flexible schedule listing all employees in the work group and show the completed evaluative reviews (including CER reviews), telephone monitoring, inventory monitoring, and other review activities each month. Use the following guidelines:

Managers must retain and share the schedules with their department managers. The schedules are retained until completion of operational reviews.

Monitoring and review results reveal employees’ strengths and weaknesses. Managers provide feedback to reinforce positive aspects and address quality improvement opportunities. Managers will provide feedback on every review, including non-evaluative reviews and National Quality Reviews.

Managers will provide feedback to help the employee improve quality during the monitoring/review process. Feedback steps include, but are not limited to:

Do not use National Quality Reviews from the National Quality Review System (NQRS) to evaluate an employee’s performance. National Quality Review data identifies trends, problem areas, and a site’s overall quality. However, NQRS reviews may identify feedback opportunities.

Managers are responsible for ensuring that actions are addressed on National Quality Reviews identified with the word “Flash” or “Corrective Action Required” in the Feedback Summary Remarks section of EQRS or NQRS DCIs. For additional information, see IRM 21.10.1.7.7.1, EQRS Remarks Fields, or IRM 21.10.1.7.7.2, NQRS Remarks Fields.

Additional resources for providing feedback and follow-up:

Telephone monitoring is the most important review of a telephone call site. When monitoring telephone calls, managers and CER quality reviewers can determine whether the employee:

Rude remarks or disrespectful behavior cannot be tolerated when communicating with the taxpayer or in the workplace. Recorded conversations of inappropriate language by telephone employees may be available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Recorded instances of rude, inappropriate language or disrespectful behavior during the conversation with taxpayer or while taxpayer is on hold will be handled as follows:

The use of the ITLA is mandatory by AM telephone assistors when responding to a taxpayer's question on any of the technical tax law topics identified to be "in-scope" topics. The tax law topics considered "in-scope," which require ITLA use, can be found by accessing the following hyperlink through the IRS intranet: https://serp.enterprise.irs.gov/databases/irm-sup.dr/current/itla/itla-home.htm

All telephones subject to monitoring must be properly labeled so employees know that calls may be recorded/monitored. Calls are recorded via the Verint system.

Documented monitoring is a part of the evaluation process. The 2022 National Agreement governs such recordings. When completing reviews, ensure they are:

Manager review narratives must include the following:

When conducting a live review, do not interrupt a call unless the employee is:

Critical Job Element (CJE) 5, Business Results - Efficiency, provides the performance expectations for Timeliness, Time Utilization and Workload Management. This involves the following:

Managers will conduct a quarterly Workload Management/Efficiency review to evaluate employees when they are assigned to work paper inventory programs. This review will evaluate employee performance as it relates to Time Utilization, Timeliness and Workload Management. Paper Inventory includes:

The quarterly review will include the time or period the employee was assigned to work inventory programs. This review can be performed by directly observing the employee (side by side) or reconstructing the actions taken by the employee during the defined period. Typically, this would be a block of time ranging from one to four hours or two complete cases and will include, but is not limited to, the following:

Conducting the review using the side-by-side approach (as discussed above), will allow the manager to complete the reviews timely and improve the quality of the feedback.

Inventory reviews will be documented by completing the Data Collection Instrument (DCI) on the EQ system. The recent EQ system update enables the multi-case review process. Workload Management/Efficiency Reviews can now be completed using the EQ system for all Paper SPRGs. Job Aid and instructions are located on the EQ Website at: https://irsgov.sharepoint.com/sites/eqrsc-support.

Workload Management/Efficiency reviews determine if an employee is:

To ensure work is resolved timely and inventory reports reflect the correct data, each AM campus MUST download the Case Control Activity (CCA) 4243, IDRS Overage Report, and CCA 4244, IDRS Multiple Case Control Report, from Control- D WebAccess (CTDWA). These reports are downloaded weekly to an Excel file, which becomes the Automated Age Listing (AAL). For additional information regarding these reports, see IRM 1.4.16.5.6.1, CCA 4243 – IDRS Overage Report, and IRM 1.4.16.5.6.2, CCA 4244 – IDRS Multiple Case Control Report.

The AAL allows the Inventory Control Manager (ICM), Planning and Analysis (P&A) analysts, and management to sort assigned cases by relevant criteria (e.g., age, category, last action date) to identify and prioritize workable overage cases or cases requiring follow-up actions.

AM Campus and Remote site Managers must monitor overage inventory for their assigned teams using the AAL and share feedback with each employee weekly to ensure the employee is working inventory in accordance with established guidelines.

Managers of all teams with inventory will use the AAL to perform weekly reviews of employees’ assigned cases to ensure employees are closing cases according to established program priority. Inventory should include:

Managers of teams with uncontrolled inventory, e.g., Centralized Authorization File (CAF) and/or Reporting Agent File (RAF), must perform reviews of employee’s work (desk reviews) to ensure established priorities are followed.

Age list reviews are performed for the following reasons:

Some important items to watch in any age list review include:

There are several methods available to conduct an age list review. Two methods are shown below.

The AAL review is a required management review and must be documented and filed in the employee’s EPF per IRM 6.430.2.3.5(4), Employee Performance File.

ITM Course 34765, Inventory Management for AM Managers, includes guidance regarding the AAL and other inventory management topics.

Ensure the integrity and accuracy of adjustments made to taxpayer accounts. Review 100 percent of on-line transactions for each newly trained assistor until the employee's performance is satisfactory (the employee consistently inputs correct adjustments). Follow up with ongoing sample reviews. If performance problem exists, reinstate 100 percent reviews.

Managers and/or their lead technical employees can perform non-evaluative monitoring on the following:

The primary purpose of a non-evaluative review is to help the employee develop and enhance their job skills. Effective non-evaluative reviews foster open lines of communication between the employee, the manager, and the lead technical employee. This enables the manager and lead to receive employee feedback and transfer operational goals informally.

Non-evaluative or coaching reviews do not contain a written rating. Share the results orally. Some documentation is appropriate to establish it actually occurred. EQRS may be used to track employee development for this purpose. Have the employee initial and date. Provide one copy for the employee and retain the other copy in the employee's drop file.

The manager or the lead should conduct the review; however, occasionally delegating these duties to a skilled journey level employee, for training purposes, may be appropriate.

Conduct a minimum of two non-evaluative targeted reviews per employee per month if customer accuracy errors are identified on use of ITLA. This applies only to employees staffing tax law applications.

If it is determined during the targeted review the employee is not following ITLA, use your discretion whether to listen to the entire call and document as an evaluative review.

Clerical employees perform various administrative duties which support the IRS's ability to provide customer service. They may include the following:

You should focus not only on the employee's ability to complete their assignments, but also on their ability to set priorities and complete assignments independently and expeditiously. You must conduct monthly reviews to determine the accuracy and timeliness of employees' work.

Clerical reviews should also address the clerical work process (i.e., Form 3210 acknowledgement and follow-up).

The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is an independent organization within IRS whose employees assist taxpayers who are experiencing economic harm, who are seeking help in resolving tax problems that have not been resolved through normal channels, or who believe that an IRS system or procedure is not working as it should.

A referral to a TAS office should be made if the IRS employee receives a taxpayer contact, and the employee cannot initiate action to resolve the taxpayer's inquiry or provide the relief requested by the taxpayer. A taxpayer does not have to specifically request TAS assistance to be referred to TAS.

AM assistors use IRM 21.1.3.18, Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) Guidelines, to determine if a taxpayer's case meets any of the TAS Case Criteria, 1 through 9, found in IRM 13.1.7.2, TAS Case Criteria.

Effective March 30, 2015, all e-911s, systemically route directly to TAS. AM Managers no longer review the e-911.

For additional information regarding TAS guidelines within AM, see IRM 21.1.3.18, Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) Guidelines.

The United States Residency Certification (USC) program’s inventory and reports are only found on the United States Residency Certification (USRC) Database through the Reports Console. The report that is used to monitor the aged inventory is the Outstanding Cases Listing (OCL).

All managers, leads, tax examiners, and clerks are responsible for reviewing the OCL weekly.

Leads, tax examiners, and clerks must review their OCLs every Monday and return to their manager by close of business every Friday notating the following information:

Managers are responsible for reviewing each employee’s OCL, verifying proper actions have been taken. Managers must ensure:

Operational Reviews must:

The review should address:

Compare the above practices to the following:

Prepare a schedule of planned reviews at the beginning of each fiscal year and no later than November 1st. Schedule reviews to ensure that all teams, including expansion teams, are addressed. Provide the schedule to the Operation Manager, or Director, as appropriate.

Request the information needed from the manager 30 days in advance. This will ensure all information is available at the start of the review. This may include the following items:

It is recommended when the Department Manager (DM) reviews a Team Manager (TM) that you review a minimum of six EPFs; including a work leader, one team clerk/secretary (if one is assigned) and four telephone/paper assistors, Tax Examiners (TEs), or other applicable team employee. Also, try to review EPFs of employees with different levels of experience.

It is recommended that when the OP Manager reviews a DM, the OP Manager reviews at least half of all EPFs of those who directly report to the DM, plus samples of employees' EPFs from teams within that department.

Obtain assistance, as needed, on completing technical portions of the review such as the closed case reviews from the Quality or PAS Units. Operations Managers may also obtain assistance from the P&A staff to assist with department reviews.

Allow sufficient time for performing the review, writing the report, and providing feedback from the final report to the manager or director as appropriate.

Promptly document the operation review in a memorandum to the appropriate manager or department head. Include the following in the memorandum:

Maintain a copy of the memorandum in the office files and one in the manager's EPF. Be sure to follow-up timely with the manager on action items. Document all follow-up actions.

The Operational Review should cover the following:

Review personnel management practices of maintaining Employee Personnel Files (EPF), Drop files and Personal/Training files for the following:

Review Workload Management Practices for the following:

Review Administrative, Privacy, Security, and Safety Practices, including the following:

Review Manager's organization effectiveness:

The EQ process resulted in changes to the measurement of quality in Accounts Management. The AM Quality process is based on five measures:

The Customer Accuracy, Professionalism, and Timeliness measures are reported to the Commissioner as Quality measures. The Customer Accuracy measure is also reported externally to our stakeholders (Congress, GAO, etc.). The Regulatory Accuracy and Procedural Accuracy measures are internally reported process measures - reported to Site Directors and other levels of management along with the other three measures.

The EQ Improvement Plan (Quality Action Plan) is the road map used by the sites to ensure EQ objectives are met or exceeded. This plan outlines key actions in support of fiscal year EQ goals.

Recommended Plan Content:

Quality Review Components:

National Reviews are performed to measure the quality of service to our customers on all our staffed programs (product lines). Reviews are entered into the National Quality Review System (NQRS) and the data is rolled up, providing the quality results for the Balanced Measures. Weighted quality results are available monthly for the Customer Accuracy, Professionalism, and Timeliness business measures.

Data from local reviews performed for quality improvement is entered into NQRS as a Local Review and is not rolled up into the national quality and accuracy rates.

Managerial and Centralized Evaluative Review (CER) reviews creates accountability by connecting employee evaluations to the quality measurement and calculation process. Managers will use this process for planning purposes, and to track employee performance and training needs.

Data from the managerial/CER reviews is entered into the Embedded Quality Review System (EQRS), which maps to an employee's critical job elements and aspects and the data is rolled up to identify overall employee, team, department and site scores for the Customer Accuracy, Professionalism, and Timeliness business measures. It is not combined in any way with national or local quality and accuracy rates.

Managers should:

Centralized Quality Review System (CQRS) generates monthly quality trend reports on all Product Lines throughout the year and are made available on their website. The reports identify error trends and improvement opportunities. The reports contain helpful analysis and recommendations to assist in meeting the quality goals. Sites are encouraged to review these reports as they may be helpful when performing review and analysis of your local results.

Statistical sampling is the basis of the Quality Review process. Sample plans are designed on the laws of probability using mathematical procedures. The advantages are their reliability, objectivity, and consistency. The quality review system uses systematic random sampling to verify the quality and productivity within Accounts Management without reviewing each piece of work.

The quality reviewer reviews work following the sample plan. Results of the reviews are analyzed to identify trends and training needs and to establish accuracy, timeliness, and professionalism measures. Reviewers must strictly follow sampling procedures to ensure valid accuracy rates.

The quality reviewer must understand the following:

Monthly reports are produced from the NQRS system. These reports provide information on Customer Accuracy, Procedural Accuracy and Regulatory Accuracy, Timeliness and Professionalism. Sites may also produce ad-hoc reports for their site. Samples of issued reports are as follows:

A Process Improvement (PI) Specialist is on staff at all AM campuses. The PI Specialist reports to the PI Manager at each campus. The PI Manager reports to the campus P&A Chief.

The campus PI Specialist duties are to:

PI Specialists are to ensure changes are based on the following quality principles:

PI Specialists are to use the following reports when analyzing quality issues:

PI Specialists and QACs are responsible for the AM IRM Procedural Update/SERP Alert Filtering and Distribution process. This includes the filtering of News Release information available on IRS.gov. For additional information regarding this process see IRM 21.10.1.2.7.1, AM IRM Procedural Update/SERP Alert Filtering and Distribution.

Embedded Quality is responsible for forwarding the Adjustment Spot Checking Spreadsheet to PICA Wednesday of the following week. The spreadsheet is used for non-evaluative purposes to identify the work that is stopped for managers to have corrected immediately.

The eWorkforce Management (eWFM)/Workforce Optimization (WFO) software is a comprehensive resource planning and workforce management application that provides automated tools to forecast, schedule, and track call center workload and staffing requirements.

The major benefit of eWFM/WFO is to provide centralized scheduling of customer workload accessible by campuses/sites, AM headquarters, and JOC.

Site management is responsible for the accuracy of information in the eWFM/WFO database. It is crucial that management ensure eWFM/WFO data is accurate and current for each employee. The site must keep eWFM/WFO current during execution as near to real-time as possible so agent availability can be monitored. This involves general information contained in the employee records as well as scheduling information contained in trial and official schedules. Accurate eWFM/WFO data provides the site, directorate staff, and headquarters a clearer picture of how well AM will meet the forecasted customer workload.

eWFM/WFO has two levels of security permissions, which must be requested by submitting a BEARS request:

eWFM/WFO provides managers with many reports covering virtually all aspects of their call center operations.

Most reports give managers flexibility in specifying what information to include and how they want it to appear.

Managers can utilize reports to identify trends, review agent statistics and to ensure the accuracy of the eWFM/WFO scheduling data.

Some recommended reports are:

The Agent Productivity contains two reports: the Agent Activity Report, which shows call statistics for calls handled; and, the Agent Availability Report, which shows adherence to schedule. Both reports are available the next business day and are printed daily to see calls handled statistics and to check employee adherence to schedule for the prior day.

The Agent Check-in Report can be printed daily or weekly to show employees' schedules for day/week.

The Agent Schedule Report shows daily staffing by half hour for each application for day and extended hours.

The Weekly Schedule Report shows employees' schedules for the entire week, including scheduled times off the telephone.

Additional eWFM/WFO resources and specific AM procedures are posted at:

Please refer to IRM 1.4.21.4, eWorkforce Management eWFM, for more information.

Aceyus UCCE and/or ETD Reports provide managers call activity statistics on a particular assistor/agent. Some reports are:

The AHT_Team_Agent_Application Report summarizes data for all agents by application and team over a specified period of time. Managers can see:

Use this report to analyze past and current performance indicators.

Use a weekly report for a good indicator to identify trends.

The Agent Call Detail Report gives the following information:

UCCE call center historical reports available on ETD and Aceyus are:

The Work Planning and Control System (WP&C) is one of the major component-systems contained within Integrated Management Planning Information System (IMPIS). It is not designed for daily production control or individual performance evaluation. Additional information regarding IMPIS is found in IRM 3.30.19, Production Control and Performance Reporting. A basic feature of the IMPIS system is to set out methods and management tools used for planning, scheduling, controlling, and measuring workloads and resources.

The WP&C system generates the following four weekly performance and cost reports to assist in monitoring resources:

The Managers Report and the Program Analysis Report use a combination of schedule and actual production and time reporting data to monitor receipts; production volumes; inventory production rates; and staff hour usage. The Abstract Report and the Employee Detail Summary Report provide fiscal type data by organization. Additional information regarding these reports are outlined in the subsections below.

An important part in the IMPIS / WP&C processing is the Organization Function Program (OFP) Code. This code is used to identify the:

One of the driving forces behind the correct posting of performance data is the OFP code. Without correct and timely updates, the WP&C and other systems within IMPIS will not post or will post incorrectly. The data for the WP&C system is received from various sources and includes the volume of work and hours spent for each OFP.

The input source of the WP&C data is Form 3081, Employee Time Report. This form is completed by each employee and manager. Managers must ensure the accuracy of the data their employees report on Form 3081, and ensure this data is consistent with other reports, such as the Aspect Agent Utilization Report.

Detailed information on the OFP list structure can be found in IRM 3.30.20, Organization Function and Program (OFP) Codes. This IRM contains a list of all currently approved OFP Codes. It also contains specific steps necessary to change and/or modify existing codes and to request new codes.

For additional information on the OFPs used in AM, refer to the AM OFP Time Reporting on the AM website (select Time Reporting) at: https://irssource.web.irs.gov/WI/AMdocs/category_codes.xlsx

Account Management Services (AMS) provides a common user interface that allows users to update taxpayer accounts, view history and comments from other systems and access a variety of case processing tools without leaving AMS.

AMS functionalities include inventory management, next case delivery, nationwide history and follow-ups, immediate print capabilities to fax to taxpayer, generation of electronic referrals and inventory management.

AMS provides several online forms for referring cases to other areas as prescribed by the IRM. The most commonly used form in AM for routing these cases is the on-line e-4442, Inquiry Referral.

The AMS system provides AM managers with access to many reports. The AMS Reports tool allows the manager to generate pre-defined management reports based on data (e.g., e-4442 inventory) available in AMS such as Inventory Reports (e.g., e-4442, AMRH, Entity, and Statute); Case Reports such as the TIN Summary Reports; and Miscellaneous reports such as their Group Profile report.

For additional information regarding AMS, refer to the AMS website at: https://irsgov.sharepoint.com/sites/ADCamsT_usersupport/SitePages/Home.aspx.

Control-D WebAccess (CTDWA) is Web Access software that allows viewing of reports electronically. Control-D reduces the print output currently being produced at the ten AM campuses and allows faster access and greater report management for users to their respective report files.

The reports are made available to the users upon logging in to the Control-D WebAccess server. This action is necessary to ensure employees have access to the workload.

To access Control-D, users must submit a BEARS request.

The most common reports on Control-D used by AM are the Overage Inventory Listings/Reports, which are as follows:

ARS Self Service is intended so that employees can ask to be added and removed from domain groups. To request or remove access to the WITS folder, follow the instructions in the ARS Self Service User Guide. The request is now submitted. The folder owner will receive an email to approve or reject. The user will NOT receive acknowledgement of submission. Once the owner approves (or rejects), the requestor\user will receive an automated email from “ARS@irs.gov” with information and/or instructions.

IDRS produces varied reports for purposes of audit trail information, duplicate controls, overage cases, etc. Managers must know the purpose of these reports and the necessary action to take when received. The reports identified below are some, but not all of the reports generated from IDRS.

Case Control Activity System (CCA) inventory reports (introduced above) are generated from IDRS. The following are the most common CCA inventory reports used by AM:

CCA 4243, IDRS Automated Age Listing/Report
Generated weekly on the CTDWA, this report contains all cases controlled to an IDRS employee number. Each AM campus has the capability of generating an aged list by a specific category. For example, an analyst may want to have a report that lists all cases of 180 days old or a report that lists all taxpayer inquiries assigned to a specific unit/group/team. The CCA 4243 can be used to:

CCA 4242, IDRS Inventory Control Report
This report is also generated weekly on the CTDWA. It summarizes inventory receipts, closures, and age by category. It identifies the controlled inventory in the entire operation by category. The CCA 4242 can be used to:

CCA 4244, IDRS Multiple Case Control Listing/Report
This report is generated weekly in the CTDWA and identifies cases with an open control base on the same TIN by two or more employees. The CCA 4244 identifies the employee IDRS number, tax year, and category for the duplicate controls.

The Enterprise Telephone Data (ETD) Warehouse is a web-based data warehouse available on the Intranet at http://etd.ds.irsnet.gov/. It is the official source for all data related to Toll-Free measures and indicators.

ETD allows managers to pull data and create reports, charts, or export to Excel.

Use ETD to query for current and historical data regarding:

Use ETD reports to monitor and track Average Handle Time (AHT). Coordinate with System Analyst(s) to generate the reports and data needed to address opportunities for improvements. AM Center and Remote sites phone applications should focus on time and resources appropriately: