ServiceNow Automated Work Plans and Schedules (SNAPS) replaced Suite of Tools for the Review and Creation of Automated Workplans and Schedules (STRAWS) as the tool in preparing work plans. SNAPS is built upon a cloud-based enterprise platform called IRWorks that became effective for all organizational use on November 22, 2024. The STRAWS application was retired and decommissioned from further use in July of 2025.

Management within each campus environment must communicate security standards contained in IRM 1.4.6, Managers Security Handbook, to employees and establish methods to enforce them. Employees must take required precautions to provide security for the documents, information, and property they handle while performing official duties.

The Program Management/Process Assistance (PM/PA) Branch, Resource Section, Program Analyst manages IRM 3.30.127 and keeps current information for the operations necessary to develop workload plans and schedules using SNAPS.

Each Headquarters office sets up their organizations work plan data. In addition, each Headquarters office establishes their organization cut-off dates per the business owner’s (Submission Processing) final transmission dates.

Submission Processing is the business owner of SNAPS. However, each Business Unit’s Headquarters Office will assign, for their organization, one Campus Administrator for each center and a backup, if necessary.

Campus Administrator will perform the campus level administrative requirements of SNAPS.

Program Reports: The reports mentioned in this IRM are used to create the weekly and daily workload management reports.

Program Effectiveness: The program effectiveness is determined by comparing the scheduled data for each function and program to the actual data for each organization within the campuses.

Each campus must have at least one SNAPS Power User and one Editor for each Organization.

Campus Power Users are responsible for reviewing all the scheduling performed within their campus to ensure it is completed in a timely manner.

Campus Editors are responsible for scheduling all production and/or hours within their organization to align with the data provided by prior year actual production and/or hours worked or by special scheduling methods provided by headquarters in a timely manner.

Headquarters Administrators are responsible for establishing and revoking user access to SNAPS.

Headquarters Administrators are responsible for ensuring all scheduling is complete prior to exporting to EFTU.

The table lists commonly used acronyms and their definitions.

SNAPS is described in IRM 3.30.19, Work Planning and Control, Production Control and Performance Reporting.

Instructions for developing data for the system hinge upon the use of unique numeric or alphanumeric codes for each Organization, Function, and Program (OFP). For more information on authorized OFP codes, check the OFP SharePoint Home Page.

The monitoring component consists of computer runs which:

A weekly OFP History Report (Project Literal for Campus Workload Scheduling, Project PCB (562) (PCB-03-40)) provides a summary of the previous reporting period's WP&C data. The report may be generated and used as a planning tool for scheduling purposes. The OFP History Report data is generated by the Headquarters Submission Processing Resource Section who initialize the reporting period data by requesting a PCB 00Q Initialization run from the Enterprise Computing Center-Martinsburg (ECC-MTB)/Enterprise Computing Center-Memphis (ECC-MEM) scheduler and a PCB 03H History Dump. The Headquarters Submission Processing Resource Section must request these runs within thirty days after the previous reporting period has concluded. See IRM 3.30.127.14 , Initializing a Scheduling Period and Generating Prior Year History.

SNAPS replaced STRAWS as the tool in preparing work schedules. The work schedule is developed by using both the Work Schedule Update (WSU) and Work Schedule Spread (WSS) Modules in SNAPS. These modules are used by various organizations within the IRS that report to the WP&C.

The work plan provides the total volume, rates, and staff hours by OFP Code and reporting period. The work schedule allows schedule workload and resources on a weekly or daily basis within each period. Thus, developing a unique work schedule for each of the three reporting periods of the year. These Work Schedule periods are as follows:

The first step in the development of a work schedule is to identify any prior year reports or new information that relate to the new scheduling period. While the type of information available might vary, the following is a list of the most used reports.

Consideration of changes planned for the current work schedule period that are different from the same period last year is a commonsense approach to developing a good work schedule. Some of the examples of known changes are as follows:

SNAPS currently consists of four modules that will assist the Work Schedule developer. These modules are as follows:

The Work Schedule Update (WSU) module in SNAPS is used to schedule only the totals for each period at the parent OFP level. When the WSU module is setup, these totals are loaded to the Work Schedule Spreads (WSS) module. The totals can then be spread out on a weekly and/or daily basis at the fifth digit level if applicable.

The Work Schedule Spread module in SNAPS will create a Work Schedule file (PCB 0128.OUT), which is converted to a PCB 0128 Schedule Master File and used in the mainframe PCB runs to print the daily (PCB-04-40) and weekly (PCB-05-40) workload schedules.

The PCB 0128 Schedule Master File is used to generate the Schedule Review Report (PCB-85-40), which is a comparative report of Work Plan, Work Schedule, and Prior Year Actual data. It is sometimes referred to as the Three-Way Comparison Report.

Date records (e.g., PCB 0121 Scheduling Date Master, PCB 0122 and PCB 0124 Schedule Conversion Record) are input by Information Technology (IT) Schedulers. A ticket is initiated to ECC-MTB or ECC-MEM via email from Headquarters Submission Processing Resource Section.

Users request access to SNAPS (ServiceNow Automated Work Plans and Schedules) through the Business Entitlement Access System (BEARS).

At the Review and Submit screen, click the Submit button.

When prompted to provide more information, click Complete Form.

At the Complete Work Item box, input special instructions indicating Business Unit, Office and Org(s) to which access is needed. Alternately, you may provide the name and SEID of a user who has the same access that you require. Then click OK.

Read the confirmation note as well as the terms and conditions, then click Accept.

The request will be processed and approved or denied by your manager and then by a member of the approval team in PMPA Resources.

Listed below are the available assigned User Roles in SNAPS.

Only the SNAPS Administrators and HQ Power Users will have access to complete the data setup process.

Each Business Unit office must set up their organizations work plan data. In addition, each Business Unit office must establish their organization cut-off dates per the business owner’s (Submission Processing) final transmission dates.

The process of data setup is used to select specific data as a starting point to begin the Work Plan process. Normally, that data would be Prior Year Actual data.

The following steps will help the user to select and move data to Work Plan Projection:

Only the SNAPS Administrators and HQ Power Users will have access to complete the data setup process.

Each Business Unit must set up their organizations work schedule data. In addition, each Business Unit must establish their organization cut-off dates per the business owner final transmission dates.

The process of data setup is used to update quarterly needs with new information that has emerged since the Initial Work Plan.

The Work Schedule process begins with data from the Work Plan as the baseline.

During this process, campuses also complete detailed weekly and daily schedules for each OFP that has planned production or assigned hours.

The following steps will help the user to select and move data from Work Plan Projection:

The Work Schedule Spread process begins with data from the Work Schedule Update Module as the baseline.

During this process, campuses also complete detailed weekly and daily schedules for each OFP that has scheduled production and/or hours.

The following steps will help the user to select and move data to Work Schedule Spreads:

Only SNAPS Administrators and HQ Power Users can import data in CSV format to the Work Plan Projection (WPP) and the Work Schedule Update (WSU) modules.

Before importing the text files to load into either of these modules, user must first format the data to be compatible with the SNAPS application.

Import files for WPP and WSU must be in a CSV (comma separate values) format that is compatible with Microsoft Excel and must have a specific column and data layout as follows:

The cell format for all fields other than fields 8 through 10 should be text so the leading zeros are not lost. User will need to select the data and change the format to text by selecting Format - Format Cells from the Quick Access Tool bar in Excel or right clicking on the affected cells and selecting Format Cells. Select the Number tab and change the Category to Text before selecting OK.

Other than Standard, all other fields from 8 through 10 should be set as numbers with decimals and no commas.

Use the following chart to properly lay out the file in Excel:

The field lengths for the "Production" , "Standard" , and "Hours" fields listed above are maximums. User will only need to put the actual numbers in these cells; leading zeros will not be necessary because these fields will be separated by commas when the file is converted.

Please note the following before converting your file to the correct file format to avoid potential errors:

Once all the above steps have been taken, the file can now be saved as a comma-delimited file format by doing the following:

Only SNAPS Administrators, HQ Power Users and Campus Power Users can import data in CSV format to the Work Schedule Spreads (WSS) module.

Before importing a text file to load into WSS, user must first format the data to be compatible with the SNAPS application.

Import files for WSS must be in a CSV (comma separate values) format that is compatible with Microsoft Excel and must have a specific column and data layout as follows:

The cell format for all fields other than fields 9 through 16 should be text so the leading zeros are not lost. User will need to select the data and change the format to text by selecting Format from the menu or by right clicking on the affected cells and select Format Cells. Select the Number tab and change the Category to Text before selecting OK.

Other than Standard, all other fields from 8 through 10 should be set as numbers with no decimals and no commas.

Use the following chart to properly lay out the file in Excel:

The field lengths for the "Production" , "Standard" , and "Hours" fields listed above are maximums. User will only need to put the actual numbers in these cells; leading zeros will not be necessary because these fields will be separated by commas when the file is converted.

Please note the following before converting your file to the correct file format to avoid potential errors:

Once all the above steps have been taken, the file can now be saved as a comma-delimited file format by doing the following:

The data generated in the Work Schedule Spreads (WSS) Module is exported out and converted to a PCB 0128, Schedule Master File, which is used in the mainframe PCB runs to print daily and weekly workload management reports. These reports help each campus in comparing, tracking, projecting and negotiating their resource usage.

Prior to submission of the PCB runs to ECC-MTB or ECC-MEM, the Headquarters Submission Processing Resource Section must submit to ECC-MTB and ECC-MEM the Form 8242, Scheduling Date Master (PCB 0121), and the Form 8244, Schedule Conversion Record (PCB 0122), for the period being scheduled. See IRM 3.30.127.13 for more information.

The Headquarters Submission Processing Resource Section will create the PCB 0128, Schedule Master Files, for each campus and exporting each PCB 0128 file to the ECC-MTB and ECC-MEM for processing. However, each Campus Administrator will validate their schedules via Control-D for accuracy before ECC-MTB and ECC-MEM processes the Work Schedule PCB 9011, Schedule Analysis Tape (Quarterly Data), file for their campus.

Once validation is complete, each Campus Administrator will give the go ahead to ECC-MTB and ECC-MEM to process the Work Schedule PCB 9011 for their campus. In turn, ECC-MTB and ECC-MEM will provide the PCB 9011 Reel Number for the campuses. These numbers must then be submitted to DCC via email from Headquarters Submission Processing Resource Section to finalize the work schedule.

The following lists the PCB runs generated by ECC-MTB and ECC-MEM:

The Weekly Workload and Staff Hour Scheduled is produced by PCB 05. It contains data from the PCB 0128, Schedule Master File, displaying for each OFP code, the week’s scheduled volume, production, standard, hours, and schedule staff weeks. Scheduled data for each week, as well as cumulative schedule for the period is displayed. Scheduled OFPs are summarized at the fourth digit of the program code. Operations for Submission Processing and Compliance Services, Operations and Departments for Accounts Management, and campus total levels.

When a Schedule Summary Control Record (PCB 0129), Form 8245, Schedule Summary Control Record, is used to specify the range of OFPs to be printed on the Weekly Workload Schedule and Summary, contact the ECC-MTB and ECC-MEM scheduler to use run condition work T-2.

To print the weekly schedule for organizations 31000 (Receipt and Control Operations), 34000 (Document Perfection Operations), and 35000 (Data Conversion Operations), the first OFP in 31000 and the last OFP in 35000 would be entered on Form 8245. If only direct programs are to be printed, several ranges of OFPs will be entered on Form 8245. There is not a limit to the number of Forms 8245 that can be input to Run PCB 05. When a reorganization has occurred, this might impact the OFP range and will require a new Schedule Summary Control Record (PCB 0159), Form 8245, to be input. If a Schedule Summary Control Record is not input, the entire file will be printed.

The Daily Workload and Staff Hour Schedule is produced by PCB 04. It displays the volumes scheduled for each day. This is necessary for those areas that must schedule daily volumes and staff hours.

Form 8245, Schedule Summary Control Record (PCB 0129), is used to specify the beginning and ending OFP range to be printed on the Daily Workload and Staff Hour Schedule and Summary. To print the weekly schedule for organizations 31000 (Receipt and Control Operations), 34000 (Document Perfection Operations), and 35000 (Data Conversion Operations), refer to IRM 3.30.127.15.2 Weekly Workload and Staff Hour Schedule.

In addition to printing the daily schedule for the OFPs selected, the Daily Workload Schedule and Summary for Submission Processing provides 4th digit program code, function, and operation summaries and campus totals. It also provides direct, total overhead, and total hours for operations summaries and campus totals. While only the OFPs specified on the Schedule Summary Control Record are displayed on the daily schedule, the totals and summaries represent the total hours on the Schedule Master File for all OFPs, not just the selected OFPs.

To suppress summary printouts at desired levels, enter slashes (/) in the proper columns of Form 8245, Schedule Summary Control Report. If no suppression is desired, columns 1-8 may be left blank. The following chart shows the summary levels that can be suppressed by a slash (/):

Computer Run PCB 85 produces the Workload Schedule Review, Three-Way Comparison Report. This report displays the total hours, volume and production standards scheduled for the period by each OFP code. In addition, Work Plan and Prior Year Actual data are displayed for each OFP, with the difference between Work Schedule and Work Plan, and Work Schedule and Actual for hours, volume, and production standard printed as "+" or "-" . All OFPs are summarized at each digit of program code, by Function and by Operations for Submission Processing and by Department and Operations for Accounts Management, in addition to Campus totals. Total direct hours, total overhead hours, and total direct and overhead hours are shown for each Operation and Campus, with variance from Work Schedule to Work Plan and Work Schedule to Prior Year Actual.

Campus officials may use the Workload Schedule Review Module as a convenient tool for reviewing the schedule and comparing this year’s Work Schedule to Work Plan and Prior Year Data.