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.
We also assessed the FloQast platform. We felt BlackLine offers more functionality which is why we chose the platform. FloQast was limited in what they offered and also did not automate reconciliations greatly as they would still be completed in Excel. BlackLine also has many …
The comprehensive functions that BlackLine have make it differentiate with others. End to end process in single platform helps user to work in efficient way as all the data is available in single system. Overall it is great experience using BlackLine and the user friendly …
We do not have experience with other similar products, but when we looked into other options, we discovered that at the time BlackLine offered the most advanced solution at a very competitive pricing.
I think both BlackLine and Oracle are amazing software. However, I believe BlackLine's interface is easier to follow than Oracles.
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Chose BlackLine
We have enable the Matching tool within the Reconciliation process to help our users to perform their reconciliation more efficiently and time saving. The benefits have helped us to spend more time on strategic planning for growth an expansion. The matching tool has been very …
BlackLine can be very useful in helping individuals keep track of their monthly, quarterly, and annual tasks to ensure that the team meets all deadlines and goals. Specifically, the recurring tasks and reconciliations are beneficial for teams with very routine month-end close processes and help keep everyone on track. However, if functions are often changing or irregular, BlackLine may be challenging to use as it would need to be updated and tweaked regularly.
Reconciliations can be set up in many different ways, however you need, and is very easy to use.
Tasks have made it so we always know where we are at as individuals and as a team. If someone is behind, we can view that, and someone can jump in and assist when necessary. A very team-friendly addition.
The journal entries function is a great process as there is a definite separation of duties and an audit trail that cannot be edited, which can be provided upon request. When it can be set up to automatically "speak" to your accounting system, the process is even better as there is limited manual touching.
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
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
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.
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.
