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TPS Program Work Activities
Each reviewer goes through several phases in applying and maintaining the TPS design instrument within
the State's UI tax operation. Here are the key components in this process.
1. Planning For Reviews
First, lay the groundwork.
Review the TPS Handbook
and related TPS source materials such as US Department of Labor (DOL) Directives
and TPS Q&As. Ask the Regional TPS coordinator for such material.
Ensure that the tax unit is retaining all necessary records and source documents.
Schedule and conduct introductory meetings with Tax Supervisors and Administrators.
Study and understand the structure of the State's tax operations.
Become familiar with Computed Measures and what they can add to the evaluation of the tax operation.
Develop a TPS Work Plan for the annual review.
2. Conducting Program Review
a) Systems Reviews
Next, analyze the operational procedures of each tax function:
Begin review of each tax function's operations and the internal controls each tax function
has set in place.
Verify the sources of your
information and that controls are in place and operating as intended. This will prove time consuming!
Prepare preliminary findings,
including areas where "Risk" was found (i.e., no controls in place).
b) Sampling
Test a small sample of records from each major tax function for accuracy:
Work with Data Processing Unit to ensure sample universes are captured per TPS Program guidelines.
Extract and review cases from each sample. Click here for a snapshot of the TPS Handbook's
annual sampling schedule. TPS Sampling Schedule Chart
Compare sampling results with Systems Reviews findings.
Are the internal controls working to produce accurate "outputs" from each tax function?
Identify any areas where internal controls are weak or non existent (Risk) and recommend solutions
for program improvements.
Prepare preliminary findings and present findings to Tax Supervisors and Administrators.
Begin data entry of sample cases.
Present final findings to Tax Supervisors and Administrators.
3. Evaluating Computed Measures
Incorporate additional information on timeliness and completeness into the analysis:
Print Computed Measures data for each tax function (link to Computed Measures).
Meet with Data Processing Unit to ensure USDOL reports are generated and submitted.
Compare several years of data.
Consider data in conjunction with Systems Reviews and Sampling results.
Begin to finalize preliminary findings into an Annual Report.
4. Concluding Reviews
Now pull it all together:
Consider recommendations for improvements to the tax function.
Conduct exit interview with tax staff.
Enter data on Sampling results into the Sun System.
Prepare Annual Report.
Many internal factors
drive the TPS review; the time of year a particular tax function can be
sampled, availability and cooperation of tax staff, other work priorities
for tax and data processing staff and much more. However, TPS is
also driven by external time frames and deadlines.
TPS Program Deadline Dates
Listed below are the major program deadlines.
| TPS Work Plan to Regional Office |
August 31 Calendar Year (CY) 0 |
| Systems Reviews |
Jan to Dec as appropriate CY 1 |
| Acceptance Sample |
Different times see example CY I |
| Computed Measures |
End of program year |
| TPS Data Entry |
March 31 of CY 2 |
| TPS Annual Report |
May 31 CY 2 |
| US DOL publishes UI Performs Report |
CY 2 |
| US DOL reports to Congress |
CY 2 |
Since this is a substantial
workload that must be completed in a timely manner, the reviewer needs
to develop a TPS Work Plan that outlines all activities and deadlines for
the calendar year; and to ensure that all necessary TPS activities are
included and completed timely.
The TPS Work Plan will be discussed next.
TPS Work Plan
Incorporating the major
TPS activities into an annual work plan is a difficult job. The results
could look similar to the layout below. However, each reviewer will
need to make modifications depending on many internal and external factors
- such as differences in State tax activities (e.g., when tax rate notices
are issued), availability of other State and Federal staff and more.
Some overlap will occur.
For instance, the universes for Status Determination comprise all four
calendar quarters. Therefore, samples of Status Determinations can
only be extracted when the year under review (CY 1 in the illustration)
has ended. Also keep in mind that as the current year under review
draws to a close and an Annual Report is being produced regarding CY 1;
a new year is beginning (CY 2) and sampling begins anew.
The importance and complexity
of the TPS program's various application and activities requires a detailed
Work Plan. The Work Plan should have starting and ending dates of
each major task:
- Conducting of each
scheduled Systems Review throughout the Calendar Year (CY).
- Monitoring to ensure sampling universes are being constructed throughout the CY.
- Extraction, review and data entry of the various samples throughout the CY.
- Print out and evaluation of Computed Measures findings.
- Preparation of the Annual Report.
- Participation with Federal
Team Reviews in neighboring States.
It is important to keep on track
with the TPS Work Plan because the timing of each review is critical to
ensure that the TPS Program deadlines are met.
The final activity to remember
when considering the scope of the TPS reviewer's work is the Federal Team
Review.
Four-Year Federal Team Reviews
The Federal role is
to assure that States operate an effective and efficient UI tax program. This is accomplished in several ways:
Monitoring State UI Tax operations.
Providing technical assistance and training to States.
Ensuring that State Quality Service Plan performance criteria are met.
Overseeing TPS program.
Oversight of the TPS Program includes four-year federal team reviews.
The purpose of the Federal
TPS team review is to confirm the integrity of States' TPS Annual Report.
For each State, every four years, the Regional Office organizes a team
of State and Regional staff to conduct these reviews. They can involve:
- In-person visits to other States
- Mail exchange
- Or a combination of both.
Such reviews also encourage
interaction between State TPS reviewers to promote consistency in evaluation
and interpretation of TPS requirements; as well as to provide valuable
information on other State's UI tax systems, including best practices.
Conclusion
Now that some of the main responsibilities of the TPS Reviewer have been described, continue reading
this tutorial for more details about the major design components of TPS.
Click here to learn about the TPS design and how to conduct each review.
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