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CALSTARS (California State Accounting & Reporting System)

Mission and Goals/Strategies

 

CALSTARS is developed to provide agencies of the state with an automated organization and program cost accounting system to accurately account for all revenue, expenditures, receipts, disbursements, and property of the state. It is also specifically intended and designed to improve the accuracy and timeliness of financial information, standardize the accounting and reporting within and across the state agencies, and expand each agency's accounting and reporting capabilities. CALSTARS keeps pace with the administrative and technological advances to assure its placement within the business strategies and information infrastructure of the client agencies to serve as an information system useful to the business decision makers of those agencies.

MISSION STATEMENT
 

The specific continuing mission of CALSTARS is to insure that the system is a "...modern and complete accounting system for each agency of the state..." (Government Code, Section 13300) and that the system remains a cost effective and value-added service to fully support the business functions of each client agency.

 

To meet this mission, the CALSTARS focuses on the following goals/strategies. 

 

GOALS/STRATEGIES

 

arrow graphic Sustain the original goals and objectives established for CALSTARS. It must continue its goals of uniformity and consistency of the state's fiscal processes. Maintain a close liaison with the State Controller's Office, State Treasurer's Office, and Department of General Services to further integration with other systems and processes of those offices. Shared cost of continued enhancement and expansion of the common system functionality will provide every client agency with a more complete system solution at the lowest cost possible.

arrow graphic Operate and maintain a value-added, cost effective accounting system that satisfies the business needs of its client agencies and the accounting and reporting requirements of the state and federal government. The system must be reliable, auditable, secure, and have long-term durability. Continue to provide a small cadre of superior, experienced staff to support the system and its operation.

arrow graphic Maintain a cost effective technology base and infrastructure of CALSTARS that complements and supports the internal information infrastructures and future needs of CALSTARS client agencies. This will avoid duplicative costs of hardware, software, and communication devices within that infrastructure.

arrow graphic Respond to the business needs and demands for timely and accurate fiscal information and financial reporting. Fiscal information is an important ingredient to the decision making process of client agencies. CALSTARS must provide the reporting tools, techniques, and processes as needed by the agencies in a timely fashion to assist that decision making process.

arrow graphic Exploit the uses of existing and emerging technologies to minimize or eliminate labor intensive workloads of departmental accounting operations. Workload savings will allow client agencies to better utilize their limited resources for analyses of data and information produced by the system.

 

In conclusion, CALSTARS is committed to provide and operate a system that:

Blue Star Ensures compliance with statewide fiscal policies and procedures.

Blue Star Minimizes workload associated with daily, month-end, and year-end accounting processes.

Blue Star Complements the technological infrastructure of its client agencies.

Blue Star Serves as an integral part of the management information infrastructure of each agency.