Anaplan vs BlackLine

• Anaplan is great for headcount reporting. We have reports by dept, office location, and subsidiary that is great for planning and also for full company reporting.
• Although they can be complicated to set up, Anaplan is also great for setting up complex P&L views. For example, setting up a P&L with a combination of subs/depts., that still needs to consolidate to the total P&L.
• Systems-wise, I like that it's impossible to #REF the model! Anaplan shows you where everything is referenced, so it's very difficult to break anything.
• I also like that formulas copy across, so there is no chance of pointing to the wrong cell, like in Excel

Read full review

• Task Management is straightforward. Ownership, review, and approval are straightforward and pretty easy to configure and follow.
• Account Reconciliation works similarly. Supporting documents can be attached to a given rec to ease the audit. If balances change after approved, the approval is peeled back.
• Integration with our financial system works seamlessly. Configured to run every 4 hours each day, it's helpful to know even when balances change, BlackLine is up-to-date.

Read full review

• Performance - in the case of complex business cases, the size of Anaplan is increasing drastically, and even a simple click would take more than it should.
• UI - The User interface needs to be improved: group/expand hierarchy, "Ctrl " + select option to allow multi selection, Content page clean up, easier "Drag & drop" when customizing or building exports.
• Review & enhance the type of security user roles.

Read full review

• Workflow tracking capability in the Compliance module.
• The worksheet that is a UDF in the Compliance module could have better functionality. It doesn't have all the capabilities of true Excel, so we don't currently use it. It would be great if we could copy information (including formulas and formatting) into the worksheet.

Read full review

• I'm sure the impact is positive. We have streamlined many processes and created capacity for our finance team.
• It's great to have "one source of truth" and know that everyone is looking at the same metrics.

Read full review

• Transaction matching has had a positive impact on our cash account reconciliation. We are now able to reconcile the account within the closing cycle without additional overtime hours.
• The task module has also increased visibility. It has allowed us the opportunity to move different tasks to earlier time frames helping spread out the work load.
• The CIM module has decreased the preparation time by at least 50 percent. The control and reliability of the reconciliation has also been improved significantly.

Read full review