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.
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FloQast
Score 8.7 out of 10
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FloQast in Sherman Oaks offers their financial close software to streamline accounting month end close, simply providing automation around reconciliation and eliminating human error, and visibility via a close status dashboard, as well as providing a complete audit trail.
At the time of evaluation, FloQast just offered a web system that effectively did what we were already doing. It provided the ability to be SOX compliant which we didn't really need. Blackline offers a level of automation and integration unparalleled in the industry. We …
Verified User
Executive
Chose BlackLine
Both are great products and I’ve used both. Successfully implemented FloQast to great success. Looking at the BlackLine approach currently due to size and complexity and my desire to build a best-in-class shop with appropriate scale and the potential for further enhancements …
Better depth of product. You can have specific items in account reconciliations besides just an Excel spreadsheet. This increases the visibility of account reconciliations. You can use the reporting functionality to view each of these items, and classify them (temporary timing, …
Verified User
Director
Chose BlackLine
FloQast is cheaper, but Blackline is more automated and facilitates comparability between periods because it stores historical information side by side with current periods, whereas FloQast really only provided tie-out functionality within Excel documents. Those Excel documents …
For FloQast, the answer is easy as they have built their platform around integration with existing Excel workbooks which is exactly what we were trying to get away from. Cadency has a lot of similarities to BlackLine and in some areas it had a more fluid UI experience however …
Blackline outperformed both FloQast and Vena in our RFP. The staff felt that Blackline was the most user-friendly. Both FloQast and Vena try to sell you on linking to already saved documents instead of saving documents onto their systems. They're both more of an Excel …
At the time, FloQast did not have the tasks function, which was important to us as we maintained our close process in an excel checklist. We were not able to know timely if all steps were completed.
Verified User
Vice-President
Chose 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 …
Verified User
Manager
Chose BlackLine
BlackLine has more internal control and matching module stands out.
Verified User
Employee
Chose BlackLine
More mature, more robust, SOX compliant, secure, scalable, access control, multiple modules vs two
user experience and customer service was better. Pricing was also favorable with the additional features. Account manager for our company is proactive in working with us, getting full attention. Great support and recommendations on how to implement other features of the …
FloQast
Verified User
Manager
Chose FloQast
FloQast stacks up extremely well to BlackLine, at a fraction of the cost. While BlackLine may have more top-end options, much of it is not applicable to the mid-market space. FloQast would instantly provide a significant boost to any mid-market company, while BlackLine would be …
Verified User
Team Lead
Chose FloQast
The two applications were a great upgrade for us. We went with FloQast because of all of the positive remarks and lower cost. Nothing against BlackLine but FloQast was cheaper and that was in the best interest of our company. Another reason why we chose FloQast was due to the …
Consultor Tecnico - Java Developer and Php Developer.
Chose FloQast
It seems to me much better FloQst you is easier to use and more adaptable to our needs, in turn it is more economical according to the benefits it provides and it is very simple to configure the reliable results is less time, it also simplifies our checklist of end of the month …
BlackLine is a very robust system and is capable of improving processes. However, it does take time and resource investments. If companies do not have the time and resources and are not willing to invest time and resources, this product will not solve their issues. This is an investment and can be an incredibly powerful tool; however, it won't do the work without guidance. The level of engagement and size of project may evolve over time, however, companies need to understand that it is not an overnight success, but the success that can be achieved in the long run is worth it. I also recommend working with a seasoned implementation partner on a new project. As a company develops the skills to lead the transformation, a partner may not be needed as much, but it is definitely recommended to start.
FloQast is excellent in helping you to manage your month end closing processes and to help auditors with their review process. Auditors can have limited access to ensure GAAP is followed (segregation of duties, etc.). During month end, you can tell on the fly just where we are in the process and who or what is still outstanding. This also let's you know who may need help in prioritizing and managing workloads.
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
In the master journal entries, it would be nice if you could insert a line without having to rekey the entire entry over again.
Before I would have said the "to-do list" needed improvements, but now it is so easy to tell what I need to look at instead of searching each section for items.
It would be great if the "certify - next" worked on all reviews
FloQast is an excellent tool that everyone should have in their company but could improve the characteristics of the calendar making them more adaptable to the user.
Be easier to connect with other tools.
Include new items in the checklist such as configurations and reconsiderations.
BlackLine is invaluable to our close process. The time saved from moving paper and auto-certifying can be used for better review of the data. It allowed our CFO and Board of Directors to have confidence that our close process was timely and accurate.
There are some processes that we currently use that cannot be done in BlackLine. Our users don't want to change their processes or learn new processes even though it would make their jobs easier. We have very few users who have adopted BlackLine fully, and management has not made it a requirement to use the application.
FloQast is incredibly intuitive and easy to use. The only reason I don't give it a 10 is that the Flux Analysis feature is not great in terms of getting the information into the system. Once it's in, fantastic! But some work is needed
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.
My conversations with vendor representatives and our account managers have all been very positive. They provide solution suggestions that are tailored to our organization and requirements. Questions are answered quickly. The company seems genuinely interested in seeing our organization succeed, not only in the implementation and use of their product but also financially.
Our experience with Customer Support has been great. We have not had any issues in communication nor in assistance from the customer service team. They have always been helpful in assisting us with either technical issues, set up of new users, simple questions regarding updates or complicated ones about integrations.
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
Implementation occured before I started with the company (but despite the instruction to skip the question if I did not participate, the site required I put in a rating in order to move on to the next page)
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.
We have not used or evaluated any other products besides using an Excel file that is shared by the accounting team. When there is a dedicated software that has assigned tasks and will flag balance sheet schedules that don't match, you are forced to correct them. If done by Excel, there is no check for these and it gets harder for people to follow through to using Excel.
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.
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.
Certainly ROI - The amount of time "wasted" prior compared to how quickly things are done now allows us to free up time for other projects and necessary tasks.
FloQast allows for minimal stress in the closing process. Everything is laid out.