BlackLine vs. S&P Capital IQ

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BlackLine
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
BlackLine automates the the processes required to finalize periodic closing of the books. Beyond close/reconciliation management the product includes capabilities to enhance the management and control of financial processes throughout the accounting cycle. In October 2020, BlackLine acquired Rimilia, an AR automation solution. Rimilia's capabilities are now part of the BlackLine platform.N/A
S&P Capital IQ
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Capital IQ is a market intelligence software solution offered by S&P Global Market Intelligence, which is the result of McGraw Hill Financial's acquisition of SNL Financial.N/A
Pricing
BlackLineS&P Capital IQ
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BlackLineS&P Capital IQ
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
BlackLineS&P Capital IQ
Consolidation and Close
Comparison of Consolidation and Close features of Product A and Product B
BlackLine
8.1
56 Ratings
2% below category average
S&P Capital IQ
-
Ratings
Financial data consolidation7.624 Ratings00 Ratings
Journal entries and reports8.439 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-currency management7.626 Ratings00 Ratings
Detailed Audit Trails8.750 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Workflows8.033 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BlackLineS&P Capital IQ
Small Businesses
Tipalti
Tipalti
Score 8.0 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
FloQast
FloQast
Score 9.3 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Enterprises
FloQast
FloQast
Score 9.3 out of 10
Factiva
Factiva
Score 6.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BlackLineS&P Capital IQ
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(241 ratings)
9.0
(7 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(21 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(51 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.7
(134 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.9
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BlackLineS&P Capital IQ
Likelihood to Recommend
BlackLine
BlackLine has worked well for our companies, as we have a very old ERP system that is limited to what can be done within the system. Everything was done manually through Excel and binders to keep everything together, and each location had their own way of closing, so there was no consistency. It took longer to complete our close, and it created opportunities for a lack of separation of duties within the process. BlackLine has everything in one place, easy viewing of past months, strict separation of duties implemented (based on your specifications,) easy viewing for an auditor to get everything they need without a lot of hands on from the team, and works the same across all of our global locations, but in their local language and currency. BlackLine may not be a huge assist to those that have ERP systems that can handle doing the Recs, the JE's, the approvals, etc., all within its own system, as long as every location is on the same system. If they are all on different accounting systems, BlackLine can assist in providing consistency across all accounting locations, so processes can be the same no matter where they are located.
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S&P Global Inc.
Cap IQ is well suited for analyzing security pricing and valuation, tracking stock performance over time, looking up comparable transactions, and analyzing valuations on an industry basis. The service is also well suited for charting and data analysis purposes.
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Pros
BlackLine
  • Saving time! Our manual process became automated the minute we "turned on" Blackline!
  • Focus! By saving time using Blackline, our employees are able to focus on other job responsibilities and profit-generation
  • Support! Blackline's support throughout our implementation and post-implementation has been exceptional. We always receive timely responses and get answers fast, when needed
  • User Friendly! Their system is very easy to navigate. Even individuals in our organization that don't like or embrace change said the transition to Blackline was smooth and painless
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S&P Global Inc.
  • Plugins that change and analyze analysis improve it.
  • Capital IQ is user-driven, unlike other market participants, which helps streamline the dashboard and acquire accurate data.
  • Any report or analysis delivers the most in fewest words. In this data-driven world.
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Cons
BlackLine
  • Early functionality for Oracle users - a lot of the new products are only for use by SAP users.
  • Access to API data to improve the reporting of data out of BlackLine.
  • Ability to create reports in BlackLine across data sources.
  • Ability to email reports out of BlackLine (either ad-hoc or scheduled reports) as opposed to the current process of having the user access BlackLine to retrieve the report.
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S&P Global Inc.
  • S&P Capital IQ's add-in slows down my Excel when I incorporate formulas into it.
  • S&P Capital IQ's algorithms don't necessarily look in the footnotes of company filings, which can make for a less robust analysis of financials and multiples than desired.
  • The user interface is not very user-friendly and thus makes maximizing the software's features difficult. It could be more intuitive to use and not so busy (e.g. not so many small icons on one web page). The S&P Capital IQ support team, however, is always available and very helpful.
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Likelihood to Renew
BlackLine
Because this is a great tool with many possibilities and cool perks. Plus, as an admin - because I am both user and admin - I can say that this is easy to handle, you don't even have to be able to write a single piece of code to do so
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S&P Global Inc.
[It's the] best ever.
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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.
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S&P Global Inc.
No answers on this topic
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.
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S&P Global Inc.
No answers on this topic
Performance
BlackLine
BlackLine performs rather quickly considering the amount of data we were pushing in and out of it.
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S&P Global Inc.
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
BlackLine
In my experience, the support team is beyond exceptional. They are incredibly knowledgeable and dedicated to the customer. You can expect prompt, professional and succinct responses. I have been working with the support team for BlackLine for more than ten years where I have been a customer four times. If anyone does Support right, it is definitely BlackLine. Not only can you trust your financials, but you can trust the team to support you through all your objectives!
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S&P Global Inc.
No answers on this topic
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.
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S&P Global Inc.
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
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S&P Global Inc.
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
BlackLine
I have not used any products similar to Blackline. However, Excel does offer many similar functionalities to Blackline in terms of reconciling accounts. Blackline offers many benefits over simply using Excel. The reconciliations are organized and easy to find, and they roll over each month on their own. They include the ability to auto-certify if they meet the criteria that your team selects. They also include an audit trail of documentation and approval for each step.
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S&P Global Inc.
We had Capital IQ in addition to Bloomberg. It was much easier for a new person to use Capital IQ than Bloomberg. The ease of use was a huge selling point for us. Yahoo finance on the other hand is free, but you cannot gather all the data you may need in one location like you can in Capital IQ.
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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.
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S&P Global Inc.
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
BlackLine
  • More insight into balance sheet account balances. Our team is more timely with getting errors fixed and monitoring important accounts.
  • The task management tool helps us ensure that we are completing all accruals and reviews each month. This has led to fewer errors and missing accruals.
  • Our use of BlackLine has greatly increased our efficiency by reducing manual work.
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S&P Global Inc.
  • We were a boutique investment bank, so it helped multiple people doing their job at the same time instead of waiting for a turn on the Bloomberg terminal.
  • Brought more interactive reports in PDF format to the table.
  • Saved some money, if I have to go basic.
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