By Michelle Moody, Deputy Director, Business Operation and Solutions Division
Customer service and support is a top priority at the Department of FISCal (FI$Cal). As part of this priority, it is vital that the system remain modern, agile, and ready to support the evolving needs of end user departments.
There are many ways we ensure the system is working for the state of California. We partner with departments for ongoing feedback, whether in the Customer Impact Committee, through our Relations Coordinators, or via our annual department system survey. The growth and evolution of the FI$Cal system is driven by our security, changes in laws and requirements, and through these feedback loops with our end users.
Since 2023, we have administered our annual system survey to identify the ease of use of the system, including user satisfaction with accounting, procurement, and budgeting functionality. Year-over-year, our overall satisfaction score increased by four percent according to survey results. The feedback we receive is important for guiding enhancements that make government processes more efficient and effective. Consistently, through various channels, users have requested more automated processes. One of the most requested enhancements is electronic funds transfer.
In order to address this request, this year we will implement a series of projects to streamline invoicing and payment processes, aimed at making these processes more efficient and modern for end users and suppliers. Electronic invoicing capabilities, self-service supplier portal, and electronic funds transfer capabilities will be added to the FI$Cal system as a suite of projects aimed to modernize and streamline payment processes.
Electronic invoicing is a project that will allow suppliers to submit invoices electronically, introducing such features as expanded approval options, automated creation of FI$Cal vouchers, electronic dispute capabilities, and tracking of invoice aging. Currently, invoices are submitted by suppliers typically by paper or email, which requires departments to manually process those documents and key vouchers with attached invoices into FI$Cal. If a department needs to dispute an invoice, they populate a form and mail the form and disputed invoice to the supplier. These processes are manual, time consuming, and have little visibility to the supplier.
The electronic invoicing project is well under way, with much of the planning, configuring, and testing complete. The initial pilot department is already transacting in the solution, and has successfully paid invoices through the system. As our teams and pilot departments continue to test this new product, we anticipate continued success as the next group of departments begin using this functionality. FI$Cal is supporting the pilot departments with regular touchpoint meetings, training materials, and monitoring. We are thankful for the pilot departments that allow us to improve the product, materials, and rollout plan with their valuable input.
The second part of this initiative is supplier information management, which is a self-service supplier portal that will digitize the supplier onboarding process, while automating key supplier data validations. This will contribute to efficiencies, and is a prerequisite for the electronic funds transfer solution, which is also in progress and is planned to be deployed this year. We have now completed configurations and are finishing testing, and are well on our way to piloting this new feature.
The final project in this initiative is the electronic funds transfer solution, which will include the creation of electronic bank files, and will allow supplier payments to be made electronically, based on a supplier’s electronic record. This will streamline the payment process and provide suppliers with the often-requested payment method. Planning and testing are currently underway, with pilot implementation expected following the launch of the supplier information management project.
The ongoing enhancements and maintenance of the system are a part of our continued goal of ensuring the FI$Cal system remains ever-evolving, modern, and meets the needs of our end users.