Likelihood to Recommend 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.
Read full review Sage Intacct is well suited for most accounting needs, specifically journal entries, accounts payable/receivable processes and cash management. Intacct is also useful for budget planning and integration with financial actuals, as well as report writing to coincide with financial reporting processes on monthly, quarterly and annual basis. I'm not sure that Intacct has the capability to fully house a financial reporting process, but it is a great tool.
Read full review Pros 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 Read full review Sage intacct will be useful in month end reconciliation by extracting all the required reports. It is helpful for viewing of any type/particular GL codes directly in the General ledger folder It will be helpful to apply the credit memos for a particular date Read full review Cons 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. Read full review More "in your face" notice of added features that require being added to a user profile Clearer explanations of what is needed on importing sheets Go back to emailing office hours recaps for people that attended or signed up to attend Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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
Read full review Sage Intacct is continuously evolving and increasing it's functionalities. I am excited to attend conferences to learn what is in the roadmap for future releases. Additionally, using Sage Intacct allows me grow as a professional, I am really enjoy the knowledge that I have within the product to be able to share my experiences.
Read full review Usability 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.
Read full review The ease of use as a seasoned user is wonderful; however, new users struggle to adapt to the program efficiently. Better training videos--all in one location--would be beneficial. The use of a "sandbox" environment is a great tool for new employees or for the fiscal department to test certain journal entries or other transactions to verify accuracy of data.
Read full review Reliability and Availability 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.
Read full review There has only been one occurrence where Sage Intacct was not available to me, however I had already been working a number of hours trying to get a project completed. It honestly allowed me to step back and take a much needed break.
Read full review Performance BlackLine performs rather quickly considering the amount of data we were pushing in and out of it.
Read full review As fas as integration is concerned I don't feel this slows Sage Intacct down at all. However, sometimes I do feel it takes some larger reports more time to load due to all the detail. As well as, I "move very fast" in my motions so sometimes I double click on fuctions too quickly and the system seems to think that I have a duplicate request.
Read full review Support Rating 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!
Read full review Only a few times have we had to reach out to support, and every time we did, we received a relatively quick response and a solution was found fairly quickly. Only once was there an issue that took longer than a week to resolve, but it still did eventually get solved.
Read full review In-Person Training I have taken in person training classes at several of the annual Sage Intacct user conferences. It is very interactive and the trainers are very easy to follow and understand. They are great at getting everyone in the class involved. They also make sure everyone has learned to task before moving to a new one.
Pam Bakker Controller and Director of Human Resources
Read full review Online Training 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.
Read full review The free training is very minimal. For what we pay for the service, I would like more training. We end up training new users in-house because the provided free training is not nearly comprehensive enough. That being said, the training provided, for the material covered, was adequate and relevant for the given topics.
Read full review Implementation Rating 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 I would not use a thrid party administrator to implement your system, especially if you are going to be modifying the system at all. Use Intacct implementors as they will be able to better support you on any issues that come up after you go live.
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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.
Read full review Sage intacct is known for its robust financial management capabilities. It offers features like general ledger, accounts payable and recievable, project accounting, expense management and more. It is suitable for small top mid sized businesses and larger enterprises. Sage intacct is highlyscalable and can accommodate the needs of growing businesses.
Read full review Scalability 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.
Read full review You can do a lot with this system and integrate it with a lot of your additional systems you use daily.
Read full review Return on Investment 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. Read full review Sage Intacct provides multiple modules based on business requirements and it will fulfill the client's needs as per their budget. AP aging and AR aging help clients to make the decision at any time to allow reserve for doubtful debts to ensure the financials are shown with correct values. Financials are published on time with minimal adjustments or corrections. This client benefits and files taxes on time. Read full review ScreenShots