Jeff Atwater Showcases Florida's New Financial Software

Florida CFO Jeff Atwater showcased recent efforts to improve the state governments financial software on Wednesday. Atwater praised the Planning, Accounting, and Ledger Management (PALM) efforts and noted how long the state had been using the FLAIR program.

Floridas accounting and financial management system that balances the states checkbook, pays all the bills, and processes payroll for the states employees debuted in 1981, Atwater noted on Wednesday evening. This is also the year MTV debuted, the year the Oldsmobile Cutlass was the number one selling car, and a year before the World Wide Web was opened to the public.

Its clear that a lot has changed in the last 34 years and its critical that our current system, known more commonly as FLAIR, change in order to more efficiently and effectively meet the needs of our state, Atwater added. As Floridas economy continues to grow, leading more people to call Florida home, it has become even more important that our system is able to meet the demands of processing nearly $90 billion worth of payments annually.

While FLAIR has been patched, updated, and modified many times, these workarounds are becoming increasingly time consuming, more expensive, and leave the state exposed to unnecessary risks, Atwater continued. An independent study conducted in 2013 affirmed this assessment and the necessity of replacing FLAIR with an updated resource planning system better suited to grow alongside Floridas robust economy. In 2014, the Legislature wisely appropriated funds to ensure there are dedicated staff and a solid plan in place to usher in this complex system transition. These efforts, formerly called the FLAIR and CMS Replacement (FCR) Project, have been recently rebranded as Florida PALM. PALM is an acronym for Planning, Accounting, and Ledger Management, which speaks to the broader functionality of our states new system.

Government works the best when it operates as efficiently as possible, Atwater insisted. Im confident transitioning to PALM will allow for improved functionality in the future and I encourage you to follow along as we make this exciting multi-year transition.