BlackLine's cloud-based financial operations management platform unifyies data and processes, automating repetitive tasks and enhancing accountability. BlackLine solutions for financial close, accounts receivable, and intercompany accounting support large enterprises and midsize companies.
BlackLine is easier and cleaner in the sense of being on a platform that standardizes your system. FloQast just comes in and adds a tag to your already existing daily files and processes, which makes it just a bandaid to a larger more underlying problem. BlackLine for our use, …
We were convinced during our RFP, that BlackLine provide better post go live and continuous support. We are still in Hypercare period and I can say, that the implementation went quite smoothly and without big escalations. Currently we are experiencing issues in Productive …
Frontier is the product that we had before going to BlackLine. There are some parts of BlackLine that don't stack up well but overall BlackLine is slowing becoming the product of the future now that is is address some of the issues that have been a problem us - again have a …
Verified User
Professional
Chose BlackLine
BlackLine's functionality is richer and broader. However, it is not as user-friendly as FloQast. I wish BlackLine would take on re-platforming the User Interface and Experience as a major initiative. This will enable BlackLine to explore new market segments such has High Tech …
I like that BlackLine has things built OOB versus in OneStream everything is configurable, which is a pro and a con but I mainly see it as a con. I like that there are recommended processes and configurations from BL OOB so our team doesn't have to figure everything out from …
BlackLine does not match reconNET for high volume transaction capabilities and does not have some of the additional modules leveraging the data e.g. cash sweep, research module, GL extract etc. BlackLine and Cadency are fairly even products. Both have advantages and …
Verified User
Professional
Chose BlackLine
none. we think that studio 60 might be a new add in the future
BlackLine is more advanced with the SAP Connector that we are using from a timing perspective. Being a global company, they couldn't meet our volume requirements that we set forward.
The API functionality is one that was very important to our landscape, and they weren't ready …
Verified User
Administrator
Chose BlackLine
I believe one of the reasons is that it is recommended by SAP.
Verified User
Manager
Chose BlackLine
We have a connection and relationship with someone at BlackLine.
Features
BlackLine
Consolidation and Close
Comparison of Consolidation and Close features of Product A and Product B
BlackLine is great for centralization and standardization of Recs, great for reporting and ease of controls documentation. It is not a full fledged automated GRC platform but what it does do with Recs and GL recs is exemplary. The use of the automated Data Loads for both GL and Subledgers is fantastic.
Segregation of duties - allows for a formal way to ensure that there is a separate preparer/approver for a given task or reconciliation.
Provides visibility - having account reconciliation data in one place has automated processes that were once very manual, and involved multiple team members aggregating data.
Streamlines communication and status of close - having all tasks in one place, in the same format gives us the visibility needed to manage our close process, and know the status of items that are still pending and open for action. This was previously a game of telephone between staff, managers, and leaders, and now has been automated via tasks.
Automation/Optimization - BlackLine provides a lot of opportunity to automate certain reconciliations based on thresholds, rules, and templates. This allows the team to use that time for researching actual issues, and keeping our balance sheet reconciliations clean.
Allow us to have multiple screens open simultaneously without timing out.
When reviewing an individual Match ID#, make it so we can expand text boxes to see the entire text. Currently, we have some comments that are extremely long, and we are unable to read them in their entirety without copying and pasting them into Word.
BlackLine has made our finance team more effective and accurate. Our current ERP system is unable to do any sort of financial activities currently being done with our BlackLine licenses. Prior to BlackLine everything was done manually through Excel and stored in binders. There was no option for a paperless process. We are now 100% paperless in our close process, freeing up time, space and saving money on office supplies.
BlackLine could use a little work in getting around the system. The interface is not without its issues including lots of scrolling up and down and a lack of using the entire screen. Importing of the initial setup data could be better defined and reimporting data to add additional fields could pose an issue of overwriting data in a negative way.
We never experienced an outage with BlackLine. The only time the system was unavailable was during planned outages for updates and upgrades usually Friday evening after 6pm pst until Saturday morning at 6am pst.
Since implementing Blackline, our support team has had quite a bit of turnover, and as such, it has taken longer than normal to get meaningful resolutions to our issues. The people we have worked with have all been great and responsive. However, the turnover has definitely had an impact on our experience.
Trainings are available for all topics on the BlackLine U portal. These were incredibly helpful when first starting with BlackLine to get the hang of it. Trainings are useful for any module. I have personally used this to teach myself how to use the tasks and variance modules, which are now fully utilized by my organization. The support team is also very helpful in training our team on anything additional we have needed.
You will have to meet up with your final users, approver, internal auditor and accounting policy holder. Everyone has to agree. When you have a well written process, workflow, policy, approval requirement, and control, your implementation process will be much easier
I have not used any of the other products, but we did evaluate them during our discovery phase. BlackLine was the "Cadillac" of the product offerings. You could get a similar product, and maybe even at a lower cost, but we wanted the best of the best, and that's what BlackLine is. We wanted a product that we could grow into, rather than a product we would outgrow over time as our organization grows. We have only touched the surface with BlackLine so far, and we've already reaped the benefits.
After implementing BlackLine our company acquired another large company with multiple operations. We were able to use the COVID shutdown to bring them on board with BlackLine with little effort in the setup and training of the users.
Talent retention by creating roles with value-add work and reducing the mundane.
Promotion opportunities for those that have embraced BlackLine and have taken on more complex and more rewarding work as a result of the automation achieved.
Time savings which allowed teams to take on new projects without increasing headcount and without employee burnout.
