Section 1. Internal Reports

(1) This transmits revised IRM 8.10.1, Appeals Reports and Projects, Internal Reports.

(1) Added IRM 8.10.1.1.5, Related Resources.

(2) Added Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TBOR) content based on guidance from the Division Counsel/Associate Chief Counsel (National Taxpayer Advocate Program) and Branch 3 of the Associate Chief Counsel (Procedure and Administration). See IRM 8.10.1.1.5 (1), Related Resources.

(3) Added a reference to IRM 25.30.2, Service Level Agreement between IRS Independent Office of Appeals and the Taxpayer Advocate Service. See IRM 8.10.1.1.5 (2), Related Resources.

(4) Removed the last example in the description of Line Number 14 in IRM 8.10.1.7.3 (1), Indirect Time Categories and Definitions for Appeals Technical Employees, to comply with January 2025 Executive Orders and OPM guidance.

(5) Replaced Wage and Investment (W&I) with Taxpayer Services (TS) in IRM 8.10.1.12 (1), Docket Information Management System (DIMS).

(6) Replaced Case and Operations Support with Operations Support (OS) throughout the IRM.

(7) Replaced Tax Litigation Counsel Automated Tracking System (TLCATS) with Electronic Counsel Inventory Tracking Environment (eCITE) throughout the IRM.

(8) Changed incorrect references of “AIMS Office Code” to the correct reference of “Appeals Office Code” throughout the IRM.

(9) Updated links and made editorial changes throughout the IRM.

Steven M. Martin Director, Operations Support

Purpose: This transmits revised IRM 8.10.1, Appeals Reports & Projects - Internal Reports

Audience: Appeals

Policy Owner: Director, Operations Support (OS)

Program Owner: Director, Policy, Planning, Quality and Analysis (PPQ&A)

Contact Information: Appeals employees should follow established procedures on How to Contact an Analyst. Other employees should contact the Product Content Owner shown on the Product Catalog Information page for this IRM section.

There are numerous reports that are used to control all of Appeals inventory. Automated systems are used to accurately monitor and control Appeals inventory and produce management information statistics. All Appeals employees and managers must be actively involved in the process of protecting assessment periods.

Statistical reports, which are produced monthly and quarterly, summarize information on receipts, disposals, inventory, overage work units (WUNOs), etc., and provide a means of controlling work on an overall basis.

The prior Appeals Centralized Database System (ACDS) Diagnostics & Balanced Appeals Measures (D&BAM) Crystal Reports system has been retired. Reports previously contained in standalone D&BAM Classic are now available as Web Intelligence (WEBI) reports. Appeals managers and analysts can access this information from the Appeals Business Objects Environment (BOE) system, found at Appeals BOE.

IRM 8.10, Appeals Reports & Projects, establishes the framework for IRM 8.10.1, Internal Reports.

The Director, OS is the executive responsible for designing, developing, delivering, and monitoring short and long range administration policies, programs, strategies, and objectives for the Appeals organization.

The Director, PPQ&A oversees the Appeals Policy function and is responsible for providing technical and procedural guidance to Appeals employees, and establishing and maintaining policies and standard procedures for Appeals workstreams.

The policy analyst shown on the Product Catalog page as the originator is the assigned author of this IRM.

PPQ&A provides trends and data analyses and detailed summary reports for Appeals. PPQ&A prepares the following report related to this program: TPP Exam Return Level Inventory Report.

The Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TBOR) lists rights that already existed in the tax code, putting them in simple language and grouping them into 10 fundamental rights. Employees are responsible for being familiar with and acting in accord with taxpayer rights. See IRC 7803(a)(3), Execution of Duties in Accord with Taxpayer Rights. For additional information about the TBOR, see Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

In accordance with IRM 25.30.2.3, Statement of Commitment, Appeals will work collaboratively with the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) to enhance the taxpayer experience. For more information, see IRM 25.30.2, Service Level Agreement between the IRS Independent Office of Appeals and the Taxpayer Advocate Service.

Physical validation of inventory is required annually. This section describes the Audit Information Management System (AIMS), AMATCH, and ACDS reports produced to ensure inventory accuracy.

The Appeals BOE Ad Hoc system is a web-based platform executable program that is accessed separately from ACDS and is used to research ACDS data and generate customized reports.

The following information is generally provided for each required report:

DEFINITION: A definition of what each report contains.

OBJECTIVE: The overall objective for each report.

FREQUENCY: The frequency of working each report is stated below at the minimum standard. Reports may be worked more frequently if required by local office management, as dependent on the office's activity or size.

PROCEDURES: The procedures for working each report are described below.

IMPACT: The impact of each report on office statistics, the timely processing of cases, or on other reports may be described below.

DOCUMENTATION: The person assigned to work the report must annotate the research and follow-up action completed. All notations must be made on the report or on an attachment. Notations must be concise and clear as to what research has been completed. Symbols may be used on the report to record research. If symbols are used, a legend at the top of the list or on an attachment to the report is required which clearly defines each symbol used.

DUE DATES: Each office must establish due dates for each report unless a due date for a report is specifically stated.

CERTIFICATION: Upon completion of the follow-up report, date and sign your full name on the top right hand section of the report. The original must be submitted to the Processing Team Manager (PTM) or designee. The PTM or designee must do a final review for accuracy and completeness.

All reports are generated in a basic columnar format and generally are printed on legal size paper, landscaped.

Portions of a report may be duplicated on other reports. However, this does not relieve the person assigned to work the report of the responsibility to fully complete the assigned report as required.

A cursory review of all ACDS fields appearing on a report must be performed to catch obvious errors.

Cases appear on follow-up reports as a result of the input of an ACTION code and a TODATE at the case level. Cases will continue to appear on the appropriate lists until a FROMDATE is entered.

Some ACTION codes will never have a FROMDATE. This includes DECENT, ORDENT, PREPSTIP, AND STIPFF. These cases will appear on the appropriate follow-up report until final closing following ACKCLS.

Follow-up on or before date: The program defaults to a date equal to the last day of the current month. For reports that are due monthly, change the "follow-up on or before date" to a date equal to the current date/report run date. If the current date/report run date is used, and the report is run between the first and the 20th of the month, this will provide a listing of only those cases where follow-up is needed. Then, follow-up on all listed cases, and there is no need for a cut-off line.

The program allows the user to change the date in order to generate a list that results in more cases. The later the date, the greater the number of cases that will appear on the follow-up report. If you generate a list that includes more cases than required, you will use a "cut off" date equal to the current date/report run date.

Sort by: Reports can be sorted by Appeals Office Code (AOC) = "ALL" or by selecting a specific AOC within the area, and then by one of the following:

TPNAME - by taxpayer name

TODATE

Appeals Officer (AO) - by Appeals Technical Employee (ATE)

DC OFFICE - by Counsel office

Page Break Report by: for most follow-up reports, you can select one of the following options:

Office

Group

AO

ACDS OFFICE CONFIGURATION: ACDS will generate a date on the follow-up reports in a column headed "FOLLOW UP DATE" equal to the TODATE plus the number of days entered in the office configuration. This permission level on ACDS is limited to the Account and Processing Support (APS) Director's Technical Advisors and Tax Policy and Procedure Headquarters Analysts. To change the ACDS Office Configuration, the authorized user will first set the "Current Area/AOC" to the desired selection from the main CASES menu. Then, click on the ACDS "ADMIN" button, Perform Area Administration, Manage Areas, Update Office, and then the office hyperlink to open the Office Configuration Table. Then enter the number of days specified in the table below. This sets the timeframes for all of APS. Under no circumstances will the timeframes be greater than the following:

ACDS Office Configuration Field Name