Commentary: FI$Cal Offers Recap, Looks Ahead to What Awaits in 2025

As we enter the spring season, we have already seen many changes and made significant progress toward our goals at the Department of FISCal (FI$Cal).

We were pleased to welcome Bret Ladine as the new director of FI$Cal earlier this year. Bret brings a significant and varied legal background to the department, and we have been thrilled to have him at the helm. With Bret’s skills and experience, and the plans we already have set before us, I am confident FI$Cal will meet our goals for 2025 and beyond.

We saw many milestones achieved in 2024, and as we continue to make progress toward our road map of activities set forth in Government Code Section 11865, 2025 will be no different. Of the 50 projects identified in our road map plan, 12 have been completed and another 15 are currently in progress. These plans include onboarding departments, continued technical optimization of the system, maintaining security of the system, supporting the transition of the accounting book of record, working with partners to implement needed products, and implementing ongoing enhancements and upgrades to ensure the system remains up to date.

As part of our onboarding goals, the California State Auditor (CSA) will onboard to the system in July 2025. Once CSA onboards, they will continue to receive support from FI$Cal, including a dedicated relations coordinator and one-on-one help in transacting in the system through the completion of their financial statements, among other support options.

In addition, the California Department of Transportation will continue its planned onboarding, working with the FI$Cal team to address gaps and train their staff. We are also pleased to begin working to onboard the California Department of Justice for what will be a two-year onboarding plan, starting in July.

As part of our ongoing maintenance and operation, we remain committed to ensuring the system is technically optimized and modern. Last year, we upgraded several components of our software and hardware infrastructure to newer versions or supported models. These upgrades extend the support for the FI$Cal system and improve our security posture. These enhancements, along with preventive maintenance, ensure our end users are able to work in the system uninterrupted. In March, we completed building our cloud foundation in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), taking advantage of the newest engineered database machine. This year, we will continue our journey to the cloud by moving the FI$Cal system’s non-production environments to OCI.

Security remains a top priority for the department. FI$Cal will continue to align with Cal-Secure, the governor’s security initiative and multiyear cybersecurity road map. FI$Cal’s Cal-Secure initiative incorporates people, process and technology to employ cutting-edge solutions that will strengthen the department’s cybersecurity defenses. This year, FI$Cal will complete the implementation of the remaining two Cal-Secure capabilities.

We look forward to FI$Cal becoming the official accounting book of record for the state of California by the July 2026 statutory deadline. We continue to work collaboratively with our partners at the State Controller’s Office (SCO) to meet the requirements necessary to make this transition. SCO identified and provided 121 system and interface requirements to migrate the book of record functionality to FI$Cal by July 2026. We have already completed 29 requirements and are actively working on 57 additional requirements. In addition, we will complete some of the key data validation activities, namely, Basis of Accounting Comparison and Comprehensive Validation, which are critical to transition the book of record to FI$Cal and produce the financial reports from the FI$Cal system.

We continue to work closely with end users and our partners to identify ways to enhance the FI$Cal system, and ensure it remains modern and working for departments. This year, we will implement a series of projects to streamline invoicing and payment processes. Electronic invoicing will allow suppliers to submit invoices electronically, introducing such features as expanded approval options, automated creation of FI$Cal vouchers, electronic dispute capabilities, and tracking of invoice aging.

The supplier information management (SIM) solution will digitize the supplier onboarding process, while automating key supplier data validations, contributing to efficiencies. SIM is a prerequisite for the electronic funds transfer solution, which is also in progress and is planned to be deployed this year.

In 2023, we began the deal management and bond accounting project. The purpose of this project is to centralize bond information within the FI$Cal system, enabling systematic reporting, while improving the efficiencies to maintain and track debt service schedules and payment information. The first of the three releases of this project was implemented in January and the remaining two releases will be implemented this year.

I appreciate the hard work and dedication of our team and collaboration with our partners and departments to continue improving the FI$Cal system. With our new leadership and a strong plan of action, I am confident we will continue to reach our goals and continue to ensure the security and modernity of our system, while supporting our current and future customers as they continue to mature in the system.

This commentary first appeared in the latest edition of FI$Cal's Focus newsletter.