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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    BlackLine

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/ABlackLine'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.N/A

    Board

    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    Board is presented as an enterprise planning platform, offered as a solution to accelerate business performance and enable continuous planning with greater forecast accuracy to drive confident, aligned decisions.N/A
    Pricing
    BlackLineBoard
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    BlackLineBoard
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    BlackLineBoard
    Considered Both Products
    BlackLine
    No answer on this topic
    Board International
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    99%
    Would buy again
    359 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    56 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    307 Answers
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    53 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    359 Answers
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    55 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    226 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    42 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    85%
    Implementation went as expected
    221 Answers
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    44 Answers
    Features
    BlackLineBoard
    Consolidation and Close
    Comparison of Consolidation and Close features of BlackLine and Board
    Feature
    BlackLine
    8.2
    172 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Board
    7.3
    72 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Financial data consolidation7.984 Ratings8.368 Ratings
    Journal entries and reports8.4113 Ratings6.869 Ratings
    Multi-currency management7.790 Ratings7.659 Ratings
    Detailed Audit Trails8.4148 Ratings6.963 Ratings
    Customizable Workflows8.6108 Ratings00 Ratings
    Intercompany Eliminations00 Ratings7.660 Ratings
    Minority Ownership00 Ratings7.654 Ratings
    Local and consolidated reporting00 Ratings6.766 Ratings
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of BlackLine and Board
    Feature
    BlackLine
    -
    Ratings
    Board
    6.8
    91 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings6.778 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards00 Ratings6.991 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings6.984 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of BlackLine and Board
    Feature
    BlackLine
    -
    Ratings
    Board
    6.9
    96 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Drill-down analysis00 Ratings6.994 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities00 Ratings6.292 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings6.964 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings7.687 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of BlackLine and Board
    Feature
    BlackLine
    -
    Ratings
    Board
    7.2
    88 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Publish to Web00 Ratings6.977 Ratings
    Publish to PDF00 Ratings7.285 Ratings
    Report Versioning00 Ratings6.978 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings7.676 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of BlackLine and Board
    Feature
    BlackLine
    -
    Ratings
    Board
    7.3
    71 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings6.970 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings7.664 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics00 Ratings7.662 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings7.31 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of BlackLine and Board
    Feature
    BlackLine
    -
    Ratings
    Board
    7.5
    72 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings7.671 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings7.467 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings6.970 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.367 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of BlackLine and Board
    Feature
    BlackLine
    -
    Ratings
    Board
    6.9
    75 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings6.270 Ratings
    Mobile Application00 Ratings6.256 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings6.267 Ratings
    Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting
    Comparison of Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting features of BlackLine and Board
    Feature
    BlackLine
    -
    Ratings
    Board
    7.5
    77 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Long-term financial planning00 Ratings7.672 Ratings
    Financial budgeting00 Ratings7.676 Ratings
    Forecasting00 Ratings6.773 Ratings
    Scenario modeling00 Ratings8.369 Ratings
    Management reporting00 Ratings7.675 Ratings
    Financial Reporting and Compliance
    Comparison of Financial Reporting and Compliance features of BlackLine and Board
    Feature
    BlackLine
    -
    Ratings
    Board
    7.2
    75 Ratings
    12% below category average
    Financial Statement Reporting00 Ratings7.670 Ratings
    Management Reporting00 Ratings6.974 Ratings
    Excel-based Reporting00 Ratings6.971 Ratings
    Automated board and financial reporting00 Ratings7.668 Ratings
    XBRL support for regulatory filing00 Ratings6.948 Ratings
    Analytics and Reporting
    Comparison of Analytics and Reporting features of BlackLine and Board
    Feature
    BlackLine
    -
    Ratings
    Board
    7.4
    77 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Personalized dashboards00 Ratings7.676 Ratings
    Color-coded scorecards00 Ratings7.672 Ratings
    KPIs00 Ratings6.974 Ratings
    Cost and profitability analysis00 Ratings7.670 Ratings
    Key Performance Indicator setting00 Ratings7.669 Ratings
    Benchmarking with external data00 Ratings7.460 Ratings
    Integration
    Comparison of Integration features of BlackLine and Board
    Feature
    BlackLine
    -
    Ratings
    Board
    7.4
    75 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Flat file integration00 Ratings7.474 Ratings
    Excel data integration00 Ratings7.473 Ratings
    Direct links to 3rd-party data sources00 Ratings7.369 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    BlackLineBoard
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    IBM Planning Analytics
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    FloQast
    Score8.9 out of 10
    IBM Planning Analytics
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    FloQast
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
    Score6.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    BlackLineBoard
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (370 ratings)
    6.2
    (97 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.5
    (27 ratings)
    9.1
    (7 ratings)
    Usability
    7.1
    (56 ratings)
    7.7
    (5 ratings)
    Availability
    8.2
    (4 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    6.7
    (4 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.3
    (238 ratings)
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.5
    (3 ratings)
    7.3
    (2 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.7
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.3
    (11 ratings)
    7.2
    (3 ratings)
    Configurability
    7.6
    (3 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    6.8
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.3
    (87 ratings)
    Data Sources
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.3
    (95 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.2
    (4 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Professional Services
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    BlackLineBoard
    Likelihood to Recommend
    BlackLine
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Board International
    Board is a useful tool with a great set of features. We migrated from human apps to board and we find it relatively fast in search results and better-managed threads and forums. There are some areas, such as UI and interactions which could be improved but overall a great product. The learning section is also pretty good.
    Read full review
    Pros
    BlackLine
    • 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.
    Read full review
    Board International
    • The user interface is intuitive and easy to navigate
    • You don't need programming knowledge to create dashboards which is a great flex for non-technical users
    • You can seamlessly convert large, raw, and complex data to meaningful reports to visualize better and plan to act accordingly
    • The financial forecasting that Board provides post-analysis is truly reliable
    Read full review
    Cons
    BlackLine
    • The Reporting Module does not provide any FRA reports. Variance reporting is Limited.
    • FRA, To trace from GL balances imported to the Variance module can be difficult, as you need to map the GL balances to the level in the Var Module. This is a manual offline process. Would be good to have reporting that provides the link.
    • Matching Module - Intransit, when scheduling, you cannot pull all the unmatched transactions; only the current period.
    • Match Sets: if you have a chance to a live match set (e.g., filter at DS), you can't update the Match Set; you have to rebuild. It would be good to be able to amend and not rebuild.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Board International
    • Board BI tool has a steep learning curve and can be challenging for a new user to reach to board's full capacity.
    • We have to use a windows scheduler to schedule data import tasks; it would be great if Board could provide its own scheduler.
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    BlackLine
    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.
    Read full review
    Board International
    Board is a fantastic product for swift BI solution delivery when compared with its peers. Ease of use, support and integration with Microsoft Office Addin open a wide horizon of opportunities for further enhancements to solutions. Easy bespoke app development capabilities make it a winner for us. BOARD is just like a white canvas, it lets you explore your creative side while designing and delivering a solution
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    BlackLine
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Board International
    From a user perspective, Board is quite simple to use. You
    can evaluate the presentation of the data, the navigation, the configuration of
    the users, the selection of the data etc ... It would have a better rating if
    it were even more intuitive as regards the construction of a project, starting
    from the database, to the info-cubes, to entities, to data acquisition
    procedures from other servers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    BlackLine
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Board International
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    BlackLine
    On month ends we get complaints about delay in journal postage
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Board International
    very fast and no integration problems
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    BlackLine
    Our issues have been few and far between, and have usually been very niche, requiring an extensive review process on both our end and BlackLine's. BlackLine worked with us every step of the way to get them resolved, but because of their nature, they can take longer than a day/week to resolve.
    Read full review
    Board International
    The only time I needed assistance was due to a problem in
    the prints: the colors of the brochures as they were on the screen were not
    reproduced in the print, but a series of standard colors were reproduced. This
    fact made colored numbers on a colored background illegible. From the
    assistance they confirmed that it was a problem of version 10.2 that occurred
    when leaving the brochures with the default colors proposed by Board. To obtain
    the desired colors, they had to be personalized ... I didn't like the solution
    very much and the technician who recommended it didn't like me either, but they
    would have solved the problem with the following versions. In any case, the
    assistance was quick and effective even if not exactly efficient.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    BlackLine
    It’s impactful to be F2F
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Board International
    Board is fairly simple and straight forward. Advance training on workflows and procedures is a good one but the training content only touches through the interesting areas. training content needs to cover a few areas more in-depth
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    BlackLine
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Board International
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    BlackLine
    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
    Read full review
    Board International
    The problem of user profiling in our context is certainly
    quite complex. The complexity is given by the fact that the company is divided
    territorially into logistic points of sale, but at the same time they are
    virtually divided into divisions (or specific implementation areas) and points
    of sale of competence. The same operator can have access to data at different
    logistic sales points, sales points of competence and divisions.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    BlackLine
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Board International
    Board has been more complete when compared to Anaplan. Although I didn't participate in the buying decision of any of those products I have used both and by far Board just has more features. It's more than a CPM, it's BI and CPM put together. If I had to make a choice now it would be Board.
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    BlackLine
    Depends on the module
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Board International
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    BlackLine
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Board International
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    BlackLine
    • Implementing bank reconciliation matching has taken more time than expected, creating an additional workload for team members.
    • Increased visibility into the team's progress on close tasks and reconciliations, allowing for greater accountability.
    • This allows our team to have a one-stop shop for all things close-related, saving us time with fewer status calls, trackers to update, etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Board International
    • Board facilitates proactive decision making - it gives all the insights of the company's needs, which includes predictive analytics and manipulation of data to make different types of reports.
    • Easy to use for non-programmer and integration with other software is seamless. It has [the] ability to handle large amounts of data.
    • It facilitates advanced decision-making.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    BlackLine Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot

    Board Screenshots

    Screenshot of Board allocation impact analysis: Compares profit and loss figures before and after allocations, with an EBITDA bridge and department cost breakdown.Screenshot of Board planning workflow: Shows group, local, and planner steps for drafts, scenarios, account entry, approvals, and publishing.Screenshot of Board management reporting dashboard: Summarises revenue, gross margin, EBITDA, and operating expenses, with performance trends and AI-generated variance analysis from the Board FP&A Agent.Screenshot of Board financial consolidation workflow: Maps the consolidation process from settings and data collection through adjustments, consolidation reporting, and final reporting.Screenshot of Board project forecasting dashboard: Tracks project and task progress against schedule, with status summaries, charts, and a project timeline.Screenshot of Board demand working plan review: Compares forecast and budget revenue, with quarterly variance charts, regional figures, and shows the Board Supply Chain Agent that can be used for risk and opportunity analysis.