diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/processing/DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/processing/DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine.ts
index 2ae104666f..bed1fe6f50 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/processing/DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/processing/DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine.ts
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ export class DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine implements CatalogProcessingEngine {
       processTask: async item => {
         await withActiveSpan(tracer, 'ProcessingRun', async span => {
           const track = this.tracker.processStart(item, this.logger);
-          addEntityAttributes(span, item.entityRef);
+          addEntityAttributes(span, item.unprocessedEntity);
 
           try {
             const {
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/processing/DefaultCatalogProcessingOrchestrator.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/processing/DefaultCatalogProcessingOrchestrator.ts
index 98f9cd32a5..c5eaacbc68 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/processing/DefaultCatalogProcessingOrchestrator.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/processing/DefaultCatalogProcessingOrchestrator.ts
@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ export class DefaultCatalogProcessingOrchestrator
     context: Context,
   ): Promise<Entity> {
     return await withActiveSpan(tracer, 'ProcessingStage', async stageSpan => {
-      addEntityAttributes(stageSpan, context.entityRef);
+      addEntityAttributes(stageSpan, entity);
       stageSpan.setAttribute('backstage.catalog.processor.stage', 'preProcess');
       let res = entity;
 
@@ -208,7 +208,7 @@ export class DefaultCatalogProcessingOrchestrator
         if (processor.preProcessEntity) {
           let innerRes = res;
           res = await withActiveSpan(tracer, 'ProcessingStep', async span => {
-            addEntityAttributes(span, context.entityRef);
+            addEntityAttributes(span, entity);
             addProcessorAttributes(span, 'preProcessEntity', processor);
             try {
               innerRes = await processor.preProcessEntity!(
@@ -238,7 +238,7 @@ export class DefaultCatalogProcessingOrchestrator
    */
   private async runPolicyStep(entity: Entity): Promise<Entity> {
     return await withActiveSpan(tracer, 'ProcessingStage', async stageSpan => {
-      addEntityAttributes(stageSpan, stringifyEntityRef(entity));
+      addEntityAttributes(stageSpan, entity);
       stageSpan.setAttribute(
         'backstage.catalog.processor.stage',
         'enforcePolicy',
@@ -274,7 +274,7 @@ export class DefaultCatalogProcessingOrchestrator
     context: Context,
   ): Promise<void> {
     return await withActiveSpan(tracer, 'ProcessingStage', async stageSpan => {
-      addEntityAttributes(stageSpan, context.entityRef);
+      addEntityAttributes(stageSpan, entity);
       stageSpan.setAttribute('backstage.catalog.processor.stage', 'validate');
       // Double check that none of the previous steps tried to change something
       // related to the entity ref, which would break downstream
@@ -303,7 +303,7 @@ export class DefaultCatalogProcessingOrchestrator
               tracer,
               'ProcessingStep',
               async span => {
-                addEntityAttributes(span, context.entityRef);
+                addEntityAttributes(span, entity);
                 addProcessorAttributes(span, 'validateEntityKind', processor);
                 return await processor.validateEntityKind!(entity);
               },
@@ -339,7 +339,7 @@ export class DefaultCatalogProcessingOrchestrator
     context: Context,
   ): Promise<void> {
     return await withActiveSpan(tracer, 'ProcessingStage', async stageSpan => {
-      addEntityAttributes(stageSpan, context.entityRef);
+      addEntityAttributes(stageSpan, entity);
       stageSpan.setAttribute(
         'backstage.catalog.processor.stage',
         'readLocation',
@@ -379,7 +379,7 @@ export class DefaultCatalogProcessingOrchestrator
                 tracer,
                 'ProcessingStep',
                 async span => {
-                  addEntityAttributes(span, context.entityRef);
+                  addEntityAttributes(span, entity);
                   addProcessorAttributes(span, 'readLocation', processor);
                   return await processor.readLocation!(
                     {
@@ -423,7 +423,7 @@ export class DefaultCatalogProcessingOrchestrator
     context: Context,
   ): Promise<Entity> {
     return await withActiveSpan(tracer, 'ProcessingStage', async stageSpan => {
-      addEntityAttributes(stageSpan, context.entityRef);
+      addEntityAttributes(stageSpan, entity);
       stageSpan.setAttribute(
         'backstage.catalog.processor.stage',
         'postProcessEntity',
@@ -434,7 +434,7 @@ export class DefaultCatalogProcessingOrchestrator
         if (processor.postProcessEntity) {
           let innerRes = res;
           res = await withActiveSpan(tracer, 'ProcessingStep', async span => {
-            addEntityAttributes(span, context.entityRef);
+            addEntityAttributes(span, entity);
             addProcessorAttributes(span, 'postProcessEntity', processor);
             try {
               innerRes = await processor.postProcessEntity!(
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/util/opentelemetry.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/util/opentelemetry.ts
index 391869deb8..c2df008452 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/util/opentelemetry.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/util/opentelemetry.ts
@@ -15,22 +15,31 @@
  */
 
 import { Span, SpanOptions, SpanStatusCode, Tracer } from '@opentelemetry/api';
-import { parseEntityRef } from '@backstage/catalog-model';
+import { Entity } from '@backstage/catalog-model';
 
 export const TRACER_ID = 'backstage-plugin-catalog-backend';
 
-export function addEntityAttributes(span: Span, entityRef: string) {
-  try {
-    const fields = parseEntityRef(entityRef);
-    span.setAttribute('backstage.entity.kind', fields.kind);
-    span.setAttribute('backstage.entity.namespace', fields.namespace);
-    span.setAttribute('backstage.entity.name', fields.name);
-  } catch (err) {
-    span.recordException(err);
-    span.setStatus({ code: SpanStatusCode.ERROR });
+function setAttributeIfDefined(span: Span, attribute: string, value?: string) {
+  if (value !== null && value !== undefined) {
+    span.setAttribute(attribute, value);
   }
 }
 
+export function addEntityAttributes(span: Span, entity: Entity) {
+  setAttributeIfDefined(span, 'backstage.entity.apiVersion', entity.apiVersion);
+  setAttributeIfDefined(span, 'backstage.entity.kind', entity.kind);
+  setAttributeIfDefined(
+    span,
+    'backstage.entity.metadata.namespace',
+    entity.metadata?.namespace,
+  );
+  setAttributeIfDefined(
+    span,
+    'backstage.entity.metadata.name',
+    entity.metadata?.name,
+  );
+}
+
 // Adapted from https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/blob/359fbcc40a859057a02b14e84599eac399b8dba7/api/src/trace/SugaredTracer.ts
 // While waiting for something like https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/pull/3317 to land upstream