Message From the Director
The FI$Cal system modernized how the state of California manages its finances and is one of the largest and most dynamic IT and business-transformation undertakings in California’s history. It eliminates the need for hundreds of independent legacy systems by combining the state’s accounting, budgeting, cash management, and procurement operations into a single financial-management system. It’s a big job to support the financial management of California, which serves 40 million residents and boasts the fifth-largest economy in the world. Enormously complex by its very nature, FI$Cal is used by 152 departments and nearly 15,000 state employees who process more than $350 billion in expenditures each year.
FI$Cal is the procurement system utilized by all state departments and has over 140,000 suppliers tracked in the system that sell goods and services to the state. Departments are paying their bills and balancing their budgets every single day using the FI$Cal system. FI$Cal is the system utilized by the State Treasurer’s Office to track more than $2 trillion in banking transactions annually; and it is the budgetary system used by the governor, the Department of Finance, and the Legislature in the preparation, proposal, and enactment of the state’s annual spending plan. In addition, FI$Cal has made California state government finances significantly more transparent through the creation of Open FI$Cal, the website that opened California’s “books” to allow the public to view how taxpayer money is being spent. That’s a big win for government accountability and transparency! At FI$Cal, our customers stand at the forefront of what we do, and I’m always eager to share our evolution and how we are moving forward as a system and a department. We are pleased to present the Department of FISCal’s 2021-2025 Strategic Plan, which defines our commitment to the state, our customers, our employees, and the people of California. It outlines our five-year strategy, including the department’s shared Mission, Vision, Values, Goals, and Objectives. The plan serves as a guide to our continued success.
– Bret Ladine, Director of FI$Cal