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 We are a publicly-traded healthcare company with over 50000 full-time and part-time employees. We also currently have about 15000 contingent workers in our workforce. Oracle Cloud ERP is very well suited for an enterprise our size. Our financial department relies heavily on Oracle cloud ERP for daily business functions like procurement, supply chain, accounts reconciliation, ledgers, payables, receivables, and supply chain logistics. The executive team uses this system for project management and our risk assessment and management department for Compliance, risk management portfolio.
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 I no longer need VPN to login into the ERP cloud system. I no longer need Java app required for form based application. Data uploading feature using excel was highly required as it makes user life easy. The application is self explanatory and easy to use. 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 Wide localization process. Automated (without a human) business operations, better rpa solutions, scanning, mobile app, etc Central systems for the company re using more than one erp systems. Better reporting tools Developer source also not such enough maybe to support them in each (in their market) countries. Price policy also 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 Oracle ERP cloud is a significant investment for our company. It will be an ongoing software cost and there's no looking back on that. Our users have become very accustomed to this tool that it is not practically feasible to rip them off from this system. So yes we will continue to renew the subscription going forward.
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 Because as I said before, there are some good and some bad things. But good things seem to be more than the bad, and the bad things I personally think are going to be solved quickly, maybe with some patches over time.
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 The application is used by big banks like HSBC is a testament to its reliability. I did not hear or experience any outages.Oracle is in the hosting business since long. In its previous avatar, it used to be called as Oracle on demand. So oracle has enough experience and expertise in hosting and managing customers applications in their datacenters. Oracle is the only major company which has platform as a service, database as a service and software as a service product offerings on the cloud.Hence customers can rely on Oracle as many major fortune 500 companies do.
Read full review Performance BlackLine performs rather quickly considering the amount of data we were pushing in and out of it.
Read full review Cloud performance is something that they need to improve. Also it is not consistent. Sometimes for some users it is slow while for others it is fast. This is frustrating for users especially when they are in the middle of what they are doing. We communicated this to Oracle and they suggested to submit request for environment re-sizing. But again this we think should be a proactive effort from Oracle rather than relying on customers to reach out. This is something Oracle definitely needs to work on.
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 Support is always providing step by step details to resolve any issue we encounter. If the issue is currently not a functionality or feature of the application they are supportive in offering guidance on submitting an enhancement request. Currently there is an enhancement that will be rolled out by Oracle that was designed for our organization.
Read full review In-Person Training The inperson trainings from Oracle University are effective. The trainers have vast experience and teached thousands of students. In person training will make people sit in a class and do the exercises. One can also learn from other students, who come with different background, industry etc. In person training will be an immersive experience and helps learn more in a short period of time.
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 We bought online training subscription from Oracle University. The subscription allowed our team to learn the nuts and bolts of the application.The subscription model helps access to all the modules as opposed to buying training for one module. We also leveraged guided learning subscription from Oracle. Guided learning is a state of the art learning application from Oracle. It resides within the application and guides the users on each and every step. This is learning by doing and is very effective. Once you buy guided learning, oracle keeps updating it with the release of new functionality in the quarterly upgrades.
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 Try to use the system as true to generic form as possible and cut over quickly. Parallel implementation is not recommended. If the numbers are accurate and materially similar to prior period - cut over. A small accounting adjustment is much better than millions in project overruns or dual system maintenance.
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 Oracle ERP Cloud is very powerful in giving us reliable financial management analysis that helps us run our business and makes sure our business is growing and developing each and [every] day. The support team from this tool is very useful, reliable[,] and supportive 24/7.
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 Orcle ERP Cloud transformed and stabilized in this past 2 years since it was implemented. We have past the auditor reviews and 24 month end closes and 8 quarter closes and 2 FY closes. Above all we do have SEC reporting with all this data. Having said that our ERP subscription is a worthy investment and highly reliable source of information for our organization's needs
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 A tool that has made us able to get much ROI by the bank account integration, management of cash, and controlling business unit. Project management is made easy with its module and tracking with the exact time and issuance makes it more convenient and compatible for the return. Automation in pay and expenses improve the company’s visibility in the market. Read full review ScreenShots Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP Screenshots