ENTITY was initially a PC-based time reporting and management information system. It started in the North Atlantic Region before expanding to other districts.

In 1998 a pilot program was conducted in Connecticut-Rhode Island District to integrate ICS and ENTITY. The ICS/ENTITY Integrated System was fully functional in the entire country at the end of March 2000.

In October of 2005, the elimination of the ICS group, territory and area servers prompted ENTITY to migrate from the ICS server environment to a Tennessee Computing Center (TCC) SUN Platform. This migration will result in:

The ENTITY Case Management System includes the following functionality:

ICS provides necessary information to ENTITY via extracts on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. ENTITY shares DIAL information with the Automated Lien System (ALS). The extracts are provided within the time frames noted:

ENTITY data cannot be accessed by field personnel in stand-alone mode. The Laptop or desktop computer must be connected to the Local Area Network (LAN) to access the ENTITY application. This can be accomplished in the office, or via Enterprise Remote Access Project (ERAP) off site.

For access to the ENTITY Case Management System, please visit the ENTITY web site at: http://sbse.web.irs.gov/en for complete instructions.

The ENTITY system combines case management, time reporting, activity reporting, and management information. At the group level, ENTITY is used on a daily basis for a variety of tasks including researching taxpayer data, activity reports, time reports, and queries for revenue officers and group managers.

Information is available on ENTITY to assist group managers in group operations. Group managers can use ENTITY to identify cases for review using a broad range of criteria.

New cases are received in the group from the Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS) via ICS or created locally on ICS.

ICS will assign initial case codes and subcodes. These codes must be reviewed upon receipt of case, monitored periodically, and updated by the revenue officer on ICS when necessary.

Revenue officers should pay close attention to subcodes on CIPs and OICs, as subcodes will not always upload on these types of cases. These codes must also be reviewed periodically and updated on ICS by the revenue officer when necessary.

ENTITY, in addition to the above, can be used to:

The ENTITY Queue does not consist of every case in status 24 (7000 Assignment) that is on IDRS. The ENTITY Queue consists of all cases with a RISK Level between 101 and 206 regardless of RWMS score. Cases with RISK Levels between 207 and 399, must have an RWMS score of 5000 or more to be included in the ENTITY Queue. Cases with RISK Levels between 207 and 399 and an RWMS score below 5000, are not included in the ENTITY Queue.

Queue research capabilities are available at the group level and above. This system's capabilities are as follows:

Each field group generates monthly reports in ENTITY. The data from the groups can be complied at the Territory, Area, and National levels.

Time and open inventory reports are available in ENTITY at the group, territory, area, and national levels. The query feature on ENTITY can also be used to pull specific data at all levels.

The GM Case Assignment feature is the method collection group managers will use to assign inventory to the revenue officer.

Under the GM Case Assignment feature, cases are received in the group queue for assignment by the group manager. Only the following types of cases will be sent directly to the managers hold file:

The GM Case Assignment feature is accessed from the " View" section of the ENTITY Main Menu.

From the GM Case Assignment Wizard screen, the group manager chooses cases for assignment according to the following methods:

Cases identified as Accelerated, must be selected and assigned prior to assigning any additional cases.

With the change to the expanded numbering system for the Area offices and the workload redistribution within the Service Campuses, new procedures have been established. If a manager wishes to assign cases that do not reside in the group Queue, the procedures outlined below should be followed.

For cases that do not appear in the group managers Queue (notice status cases, related/X-Ref cases, etc.), the manager will assign cases in the following manner:

Managers should refrain from using these procedures unless there is an immediate need to work the case or the case to be assigned does not reside on their group Queue.

After completion of these actions, IDRS will assign the case to the revenue officer on the following weekend. Please refer to the following table for cases requiring immediate assignment to the revenue officer:

If a case is in the Queue and the revenue officer creates an ICS only case for it, the case will drop off as a selection on the GM Case Assignment on ENTITY. If the case resides within the same Area of the revenue officer, the case will need to be Assigned on IDRS to the revenue officer working it. The case will then come down to ICS over the following weekend. If the case resides outside the Area of the revenue officer, an ENMOD/ENREQ transfer, complete with appropriate assignment, will need to be input on IDRS. The case will then come down to ICS in two to three weeks.

Upon receipt of the case the revenue officer will review the case code and subcode to ensure they are correct.

The revenue officer is responsible for monitoring the status of each case and making changes to case codes and subcodes as circumstances dictate.

Cases are coded so that ENTITY can generate reports by the following categories:

The case code and subcode are a six digit number. Three digits each represent:

The case code and/or subcode must be changed on ICS as the nature of the case changes. Again, the revenue officer has the ultimate responsibility to ensure this is accomplished. For example, a corporation initially may be coded 201 as an in-business corporation. If the RO learns that the corporation is out of business, the case code must be changed to 202. Case code changes are made on ICS. ICS then extracts this information to ENTITY.

Case codes are the first three digits of the six digit number. These codes identify the type of taxpayer. The Case codes are established and defined by Headquarters, and the definitions can only be changed at the national level.

The ICS/ENTITY case codes are as follows:

The last three digits of the six digit code is the subcode. The subcode further describes the taxpayer's case. Subcodes are set and defined by Headquarters or the local area office.

Time tracking for non-IDRS cases and some specific programs, such as OIC (106), Taxpayer Advocate (107), ATAT (309), OVCI (310), LCCI (311), LMSB 9 (312), Promoter CIP (313), Notice 2000-44 (314), Announcement 2005-80 (315), ATAT-FPLP Contract Vendor (316), High $ CNC Project (317) are controlled through subcodes. These subcodes match the time codes on the Form 4872 (Collection Activity Report). Time charged to cases with one of these subcodes is added to the appropriate time code.

All subcodes 500 and below are standard or reserved. Additionally, all subcodes over 500, whose second and third digits fall between 00–19, are reserved for use by Headquarters (see sub code list for examples).

Subcodes over 500, that are not reserved or defined, may be used by the Area office to track cases of local interest.

The IRS reports time in monthly increments that cumulate by quarters. Each quarter consists of 13 weeks. ENTITY structures its time reports to provide time for these National reports.

ENTITY reports time on a monthly basis to Headquarters.

Time is charged to each taxpayer case rather than program time such as Taxpayer Delinquent Account (TDA) or Taxpayer Delinquent Investigation (TDI).

Revenue officers are required to report all time and EOD on ICS, on a daily basis.

Revenue officers will report Direct time (time spent on assigned cases) in either 15 minute (optional) or 30 minute increments. Direct case time of 30 minutes or more must be charged to the assigned taxpayer case. Overhead time will be reported in increments of 15 minutes.

Time spent on unassigned cases will be reported on ICS using the following codes.

The Miscellaneous Direct (809) time code is available for case actions on closed cases or for actions taking less than 15 minutes on open cases.

The Assisting another RO (810) time code is to be used to report time spent working on a case assigned to another RO.

Non-Direct Time will be reported as follows:

Time spent on Overhead Activities will be reported as follows:

Rest/break time will be recorded under the Administrative time code, 611.

Other hours will be reported as follows:

Travel time for field work is charged to specific cases. For consistency, time will be charged as follows:

Field time must be charged to the actual cases. In addition cumulative field time for the day must be reported using time code 621 (Although this time is informational only, revenue officers are still required to report it).

Revenue officers are required to record flex time for the day using time code 622 (this time is also informational only, but must still be reported).

Revenue officers must not project time to be expended on taxpayer cases.

Scheduled leave, training time, and detail out time will be input prior to the employee's absence. Revenue officers, group secretaries and managers will utilize the End of Day (EOD) function on ICS prior to departure.

Revenue officers and other ICS users will EOD (finalize their time on ICS) at the close of business each day, but no later than the next business day except at the end of the Time Reporting Period. On the last Friday of the ENTITY Time Reporting Period, revenue officers must either connect to the Local Area Network (LAN) via ERAP, or come into the office to upload their time by close of business.

If an employee is unexpectedly absent when the month end time report is due or is having difficulty connecting to the LAN, the employee will make every effort to get the time information to the group secretary or manager via telephone or fax no later than COB on the last Friday of the reporting period.

Only the group manager, acting group manager or the group secretary can edit time that has been EOD. Therefore, all time entries should be carefully reviewed for accuracy prior to completing the EOD process.

A realignment is defined as a move where an entire group or territory is created, collapsed or moved. Movement of individual employees between groups or territories is not considered a realignment. The instructions in this section only pertain to the procedures for the Integrated Collection System (ICS) and the Entity Case Management System (ENTITY) portion of realignments. Complete instructions for realignments can be found in the SB/SE Collection Guide to Organization Changes. Copies of realignment documents can be found on the ENTITY web site: http//sbse.web.irs.gov/EN/

There are five main types of Collection realignments:

Realignments generally will be completed on a quarterly basis to coincide with the beginning of each fiscal quarter. The realignments will be implemented on the first week of the fiscal quarter.

The following table outlines the type of realignment and time frames: