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The CASE-MIS subsystems are used by the Office of Chief Counsel to track
time keeping, human resources information, and various work products of the
office. CASE-MIS subsystems provide vital information about work load within
the entire organization. Executives use this information to determine resource
needs (staffing and budget). The Associate Chief Counsel (F&M) is responsible
for justifying those needs to the Commissioner, the Department of Treasury,
the Office of Management and Budget, and to Congress. The statistical data
collected from CASE-MIS provides Chief Counsel with the ability to justify
resource needs.

There are several subsystems discussed below, which track specific work
products by specific offices (i.e., CASE-GL, CASE-DL, CASE-CT, etc.). Within
Chief Counsel, the Associate Chief Counsel offices provide legal guidance
to the IRS and taxpayers through formal and informal advice, policy, procedures,
and regulations. In addition to legal guidance, the Associate Chief Counsel
offices coordinate tax litigation with field office attorneys and the Department
of Justice. Division Counsel Attorneys also track case specific work on CASE-MIS
subsystems.

In addition, the subsystems CASE-HR tracks personnel information on
all Chief Counsel employees and CASE-TR tracks time reported.

The Tax Litigation Counsel Automated Tracking System (TLCATS) is a nationwide
automated system for tracking docketed and non-docketed cases from opening
through closing. TLCATS allows a user to:

Access to TLCATS is controlled by a userid and password reflecting the
users security level. See Tax Litigation User Handbook, Chapter 2, System Security, for access information; it is
available at http://counsel.web.irs.gov/intranet_new/guides/IRS_TLGuidebook/index.html
.

Messages may be exchanged with Chief Counsel offices nationwide. Transmittals
may be sent and acknowledged between Chief Counsel offices nationwide to track
the mailing and receipt of cases and documents. See Tax Litigation
User Handbook, Chapter 4, Messages and Transmittals
, for additional information.

The Docket and Records Branch, Legal Processing Division, in the Office
of the Associate Chief Counsel, Procedure & Administration (P&A) establishes
the regular, small, and declaratory judgment cases directly on TLCATS from
Tax Court petitions. Once entered on TLCATS, the petitions and files are then
mailed to the assigned office for updating as necessary. See
Tax Litigation User Handbook, Chapters 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 14 for
instructions on updating and entering additional information.

Tax Refund complaints are actions filed in Federal District Court or
U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Refund cases are entered into TLCATS by the
receiving organization and updated as necessary. Complaints filed in Federal
District Court and the Court of Federal Claims are assigned to the appropriate
Division Counsel local counsel office. See Tax Litigation User
Handbook, Chapter 6 for instructions on Tax Refund cases.

TLCATS tracks review of a statutory notice of deficiency or other non-docketed
cases in which a statute of limitations must be monitored. These cases are
entered into the system by the receiving organization and updated as necessary.
See Tax Litigation User Handbook, Chapter 7 for instructions
on Non-Docketed cases.

Numerous reports are available on TLCATS. For a complete listing of
available reports and instructions, see Tax Litigation User
Handbook, Chapter 12.

Information from the TLCATS database can be obtained by online inquiry.
The information may be used to answer a wide variety of questions concerning
case inventory. See Tax Litigation User Handbook, Chapter 13, Inquiry.

Case numbers, also referred to as docket numbers and jacket numbers,
are assigned to all cases in Chief Counsel, whether they are docketed or non-docketed.
Some tax litigation work is tracked on the Tax Litigation Counsel Automated
Tracking System (TLCATS); consequently, the procedures for those cases are
different. All other cases will be numbered in accordance with the procedures
below.

Petitions filed in the U.S. Tax Court will be assigned docket numbers
by the court. Refund litigation and tax litigation non-docketed (Statutory
Notice) cases will be assigned case numbers generated by TLCATS. All other
cases will be assigned case numbers in the CASE-MIS subsystems where the case
is worked.

The
case number
will consist
of the segments below to identify the subsystem and/or case category, number,
and the calendar year, as appropriate. Segments of all case numbers will be
separated by hyphens (-).

Case Name
— To enable
easy retrieval of cases in the CASE-MIS subsystems, use no punctuation and
enter the name of the case as follows:

To ensure that data files and sensitive information are protected on
our computer systems, the following guidelines for adding, deleting or modifying
employee access to CASE-MIS need to be followed.

Prior to an account being established allowing a user to access CASE-MIS
subsystems, an Information System User Registration/Change Request, available
through the Online 5081 application at https://o5081.enterprise.irs.gov:8443, must be completed.
This automated system has been developed to:

Online 5081 is an automated process that is initiated by a manager or
employee. The Chief, Systems Coordination Branch, in the F&M Planning
and Finance Division (or designee) has final approval for allowing an employees
access to CASE-MIS. Managers will use appropriate information to make proper
suitability determinations prior to granting employees access to systems.

The Systems Coordination Branch will conduct a semi-annual review of
users’ access and the Online 5081 system to ensure employees have only
those privileges needed to accomplish their responsibilities.

Separating employees’ access rights will be deleted immediately
when they leave the IRS. Open accounts will be periodically checked to ensure
separated employees no longer have access.

All current administrative accounts will be assigned to individual users.

All Chief Counsel Offices are responsible for the entry of workload
and time information. This includes indirect and direct, case, and non-case
specific time.

Executives, managers (legal and non-legal), attorneys and paralegals
are required to report 100% of their direct and indirect time in CASE-TR.
Management may require other professional, administrative, and clerical support
personnel to report their time.

The Associate Chief Counsel, Finance and Management (F&M) implements
national management information systems that support Counsels business programs.
The workload and time reporting function is assigned to the Planning and Finance
Division (PF), which coordinates this through the Systems, Associate, and
Division Coordinators. PF has the following responsibilities:

In addition to the responsibilities listed in paragraph (1), Planning
and Finance Division has the following specific time reporting responsibilities:

Systems Coordinators (Coordinators) are responsible for ensuring that
all program requirements are communicated to all participants and any problems
are reported to management. Among other things, their duties are to:

The data entry operator designated by the office manager or support
team leader is responsible for entering time and workload data promptly and
accurately into the system. The office manager or support team leader, or
their designees, will decide who does the actual data entry. The duties of
the data entry operator are:

The ability of individuals to interact with CASE-TR depends upon the
CASE-MIS permission role each is assigned. Although an individual may be able
to see all the menu selections available under a particular category, they
will only be able to access those screens which pertain to their access role.

These roles ensure system security and reduce the risks of improper
access to information. If management determines that an employee has a valid
requirement for additional access to the system, a request must be submitted
through their appropriate Systems, Division, or Associate Chief Counsel Coordinator
to the Counsel Information Systems Office (CISO). See the
CASE-TR User Handbook for the list and description of permission roles.

The total hours for the reporting week should reflect all hours worked,
including compensated and uncompensated hours. Total time includes time taken
for annual, sick, and administrative leave.

Compensatory/credit hours taken, including religious compensatory hours
taken, should not be entered if the hours are compensation for time previously
worked and reported. In addition, time donated through the leave donation
process should not be entered.

Corrections and Late Entries
.
The need for accurate and complete information requires that the data be input
timely and accurately. When corrections and late entries are unavoidable,
there are no time limitations for making corrections or adding records to
the database after the end of the week to be reported. However, because data
extracts will be downloaded timely, it is critical that all time be posted
as specified in this document to ensure that management decisions are based
on valid data. Thus, corrections or additions of data after an extract has
been downloaded will not be included in statistical reports created or provided
by Planning and Finance, and generally will not cause the extract to be downloaded.
Regardless, it is important for future reports that the database be as accurate
as possible; thus, corrections and additional data are encouraged even after
the initial extract has been downloaded. When in doubt in this regard or significant
errors are detected which require changes, Coordinators should contact the
Systems Coordination Branch Chief in PF for advice.

Time spent on travel and meetings should be charged to the specific
case or project requiring the travel or meeting.

Special Indirect categories have been developed for use exclusively
by executives and managers, both legal and non-legal. Any substantive work
(including review, additional research, discussions, or meetings) related
to a case should be charged to the case.

Time spent as a student, regardless of the subject, should be charged
to the appropriate “Indirect Training”
(As
Student) category (Chief Counsel sponsored training or IRS sponsored training).
Time spent as an instructor, regardless of the subject, should be charged
to an open case/project under the appropriate ”
Direct Training”
(As Instructor) category (e.g., External Training
& Public Outreach, Internal Training-Instructor, IRS Training-Instructor).

Time should be reported in 15–minute increments, rounding to the
nearest 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or full hour. The system has been
programmed to require a minimum of 15 minutes to be input on each case before
it can be closed, since it would be rare for a case to not consume at least
15 minutes of time.

The week for CASE-TR purposes begins on Sunday at 12:00 a.m. and ends
on Saturday at 11:59 p.m. CASE-TR identifies a reporting week by the Saturday
date, i.e., the last day of the week. Therefore, when running a time report
be careful to identify the proper begin and end dates in the parameter values.

Reporting Period Ending During the Week

. PF generally prepares quarterly and fiscal year-end statistical
reports; thus, time has to be divided for the weeks containing the quarter
ending dates of December 31, March 31, June 30, and September 30. When these
dates occur on a day other than Saturday, separate time sheets must be completed
for the days of the week that fall in the new quarter.

Programmed Time Reports
.
All offices participating in CASE-TR have the ability to generate time reports.
Reports are available summarizing Division Counsel and Associate Chief Counsel
offices’ functional time, down to the participant level. Reports contain
a summary of hours by case number or category. Instructions for generating
and printing reports are contained in the CASE-TR User Handbook
. Quarterly and fiscal year cumulative time and workload statistics
may also be obtained from the Chief Counsel Quarterly Report (CCQ) available
on-line through the Chief Counsel Intranet.

Offices should run their own reports to assist them in making management
decisions and in preparing evaluations. They are highly encouraged to run
reports regularly to ensure that time is being input on schedule and that
it is valid and accurate. Refer to the CASE-TR User Handbook
for instructions on retrieving information with reports online.

Special Ad Hoc Queries
.
Counsel offices may request ad hoc queries from CASE-MIS by contacting their
Systems, Division, or Associate Coordinator. National Office functions may
request ad hoc queries by contacting the Planning & Finance Division (PF).
Ad hoc queries encompassing national summary data may be requested by contacting
PF. Such requests need the approval of the Chief Counsel, Division Counsel,
Associate Chief Counsel (or their Deputy), or a Special Counsel to the Chief
Counsel. While every effort will be made to comply with each request, these
will be filled in order of priority during peak periods in the year.

PF maintains the archives of select output records for a period of five
years.

CASE-TR is the vehicle for gathering cost data to be input into the
Enforcement Revenue Information System (ERIS) and other projects. ERIS is
managed by the IRS Chief Financial Officer to account for revenues collected
and costs incurred from conducting enforcement activities. ERIS also provides
an automated link between certain types of cases tracked by these enforcement
activities. Through these functions, ERIS supports managers in their efforts
to manage enforcement functions and obtain measures of cost and revenue. Form 1734, Transmittal Memorandum, http://publish.no.irs.gov/FORMS/INTERNAL/PDF/21220H04.PDF
provides this information to ERIS for the Chief Counsel tax litigation
function. For additional information about the ERIS automated system, please
refer to IRM 8.20.2.

CASE-TR is programmed to generate an automated version of the Form 1734,
Transmittal Memorandum. With Division Counsel management approval, other documents
may be used as long as the hours and grade computation is in conformance with
the formula displayed below.

Six fields on the automated Form 1734 are required for ERIS. Two fields
(“Total Counsel hours worked”
and “Average
Employee grade”
) are computer-generated. The other four must be completed
by the attorney/paralegal when applicable. The hours worked are a summary
of all hours posted on the case.

Formula for hours and grade computation
in the Form 1734
. For each employee, multiply the number of
hours worked on the case by grade. This produces hours by grade. Add hours
by grade for each employee to produce total hours by grade. Divide total hours
by grade by total hours worked on the case to obtain the average grade.

Problem Resolution. Participants
should sequentially follow these steps should any problems with the CASE-TR
system be encountered:

Requests for
simple modifications
not
requiring programming and modifications to workload and time reporting categories,
procedures, or requirements are approved and implemented by Planning and Finance
Division (PF). Offices may submit requested changes to PF. The requester will
be notified promptly if requests are not approved and will be kept informed
of implementation status of those which are approved.

Requests for changes which require CASE-MIS

programming modifications
should be submitted as a Systems Change
Request (SCR) to CISO. Contact the appropriate Systems, Division, or Associate
Coordinator to prepare the SCR form. All SCRs will be coordinated with the
CASE-MIS User Group, who will make approval recommendations to the Associate
Chief Counsel (F&M). All recommendations that may result in system changes
affecting workload and time reporting are routed through PF for coordination
prior to being forwarded for approval. PF ensures that changes to the system
are consistent with existing workload and time reporting policies and procedures.

The Associate Chief Counsel (F&M), through the Planning and Finance
Division, is responsible for:

The following reports are archival sources of workload and time data: