Overview
What is BlackLine?
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…
BlackLine Review
amazing we want more
BlackLine is a great product and highly recommend
I am not sure I want to work without BlackLine ever again.
BlackLine Goes Above and Beyond
BlackLine helps us streamline processes
BlackLine is the best!
Reporting and Insights!
Excellent Product!
Your Intercompany Partner
BlackLine - Reducing Manual Effort
Closing the Gap Between F&A and Technology
BlackLine is the Future!!!
Goes Beyond
Awards
Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards
Popular Features
- Multi-currency management (28)8.989%
- Customizable Workflows (35)8.989%
- Detailed Audit Trails (51)8.686%
- Journal entries and reports (41)8.484%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
What is BlackLine?
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…
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Features
Consolidation and Close
Consolidation of data from multiple entities with currency management, reporting and audit trails.
- 7.6Financial data consolidation(25) Ratings
Consolidating data from several entities into a single statement using US GAAP, IFRS or other standards.
- 8.4Journal entries and reports(41) Ratings
Ability to enter journal entry adjustments and produce reports showing all journal entries for a specific period.
- 8.9Multi-currency management(28) Ratings
Ability to handle foreign currency conversions during consolidation.
- 8.6Detailed Audit Trails(51) Ratings
Tracing changes to data and processes that were run.
- 8.9Customizable Workflows(35) Ratings
The ability to adapt the software to complete tasks in a particular order according to business needs.
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is BlackLine?
In October 2020, BlackLine acquired Rimilia, an AR automation solution. Rimilia's capabilities are now part of the BlackLine platform.
BlackLine Features
Consolidation and Close Features
- Supported: Financial data consolidation
- Supported: Journal entries and reports
- Supported: Multi-currency management
- Supported: Detailed Audit Trails
- Supported: Reconciliation Automation
- Supported: Close Checklist
- Supported: Customizable Workflows
Additional Features
- Supported: Intercompany Non-Trade
- Supported: Intercompany Balance & Resolve
- Supported: Intercompany Net & Settle
- Supported: Compliance
- Supported: Financial Reporting Analytics
BlackLine Videos
BlackLine Competitors
BlackLine Technical Details
Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android |
Frequently Asked Questions
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Reviews and Ratings
(319)Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(76-100 of 243)BlackLine makes my job easier!
- Journal Entries-everything is right there at your fingertips. As an approver/certifier, you have the details to the entry and you can automatically see that the journal entry balances.
- Reconciliations-just like journal entries, everything is at the approver/certifier's fingertips. Support is available and you can immediately look to see if the reconciliation balances or if there is a variance because it pulls the GL balance for you.
- Flexibility-each property has the flexibility to set up what reconciliations they find to be more critical for review, whether that is monthly or quarterly. You can set up what level you want each reconciliation to be approved, manager or executive level. These are just two that I find very helpful.
- 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
One Source for Audit truths
We used the task function to manage the monthly close process for one of our divisions, it was very useful to have the audit trail of submissions and approvals for the various tasks done by remote employees. We are looking to roll out this capability to our full accounting group later this calendar year, to replace the various Excel spreadsheets were currently use.
- acts as single source for audit trails
- makes tracking status of outstanding items (tasks or recons) easy
- gets rid of Excel sheets for prepaids and amortizable items
- allows for the grouping of accounts as you need them beyond how your chart of charts has them grouped
- their dashboards are a bit less than ideal
- if you have many amortizable items in your recon looking up a specific one is not easy
- also it is difficult to edit an amortizable item once it has been uploaded
BlackLine is LIFE CHANGING
- Reconciliation
- Formatting
- Grouping of accounts
- Journal Entry automation
- Variance Analysis
- Link to other accounting softwares.
Efficiency with BlackLine
- BlackLine keeps all information in one convenient location, the account reconciliation, and backup is very easy to go back and look at.
- It is available from nearly anywhere and we use it across our companies, which creates consistency between all of our companies.
- BlackLine is very user-friendly. The training was great at implementation and updates are made that help make the software easier to use.
- There are many updates to the software, which can make it hard to keep up with. However, the Customer service response seems great and is always able to help.
- The layout of journal entries is well set up, but there are many lines that are not necessary to fill in.
- The software is customized to fit the company but there is not a lot of customization for each user.
BlackLine Feelin' Fine
- Bank reconciliations
- Balance sheet account reconciliations
- Automatic matching function within bank reconciliations
- Multi-currency functionality
- Tracking tasks
- Maintaining documents with reconciliations
- Calculating variances for explanations
- Adding lines anywhere in a journal entry
- Rearranging lines on a journal entry
- Setting default layouts where they show up everytime
Highly Recommend BlackLine!!
- BlackLine is very responsive and helpful when we have an issue.
- BlackLine truly values our input and listens to our suggestions for changes.
- BlackLine is very user friendly and easy to follow and find things you are looking for.
- I wish we could insert a line into the middle of a journal entry that has been keyed instead of only being allowed to enter it at the bottom.
- Similar to the above, I would like to be able to "move" a line in a journal entry up or down.
- The "default" view does not default when I go into the different features - I have to change it to default each time.
BlackLine Review
- Provides a reliable and easy-to-use matching engine.
- Implements a task system that makes managing tasks very easy.
- Their account grouping system makes it very easy to group together accounts that go together.
- Sometimes the matching engine can match the wrong transactions with each other.
- Manually certifying a lot of journals at once can be time-consuming, so some kind of auto-certification option would be helpful.
- When selecting options on a menu with multiple pages, sometimes it unselects things you've selected on previous pages.
BlackLine stacks up with the best of them
- Monthly Reporting
- Task Tracking and Email Reminders
- Ease of Use
- User Interface Display
- Audit and Historical Tracking Reporting
Centralized review dashboard provides efficiency
- Provides single location to see status of all work.
- Workflow routing
- Auto certification of recons within established parameters
- Variances will not provide a variance amount if beginning balance is zero.
BlackLine is great
- It allows for JE's to be automated.
- Easy to navigate in between months to see what was done in previous months.
- Provides consistency when preparing account reconciliations.
- When you delete a amortizable item on accident, there is no undo button and you have to re-upload the schedule.
Blackline Saved the Day
- Month End Close Management
- Balance Sheet Account Reconciliations
- Amortization Schedules
- More User Friendly
- Mobile option
- automatic sync
- The ability to determine which reconciliations should be auto-certified and the reasoning behind the decision.
- Prepaid reconciliations and automation of the monthly journal entries.
- Creation of automated journal entries from banking data in a high-volume environment.
- Decertification of completed reconciliations when GL balances change and the communication of such.
- Importing set up data for automated journal entries is missing. When ADJs are similar you have to go through the entire setup of each.
- Could use a daily summary e-mail to notify the status of month-end close combining separate areas of function.
- The user interface is wasting a tremendous amount of space for users with wide-screen monitors. Scrolling is a constant within the system.
- Some tasks are to perform journal entries (even automated) so a link between the two would help rather than certifying in separate places.
Blackline rocks!
- Task Management
- Account Reconciliations
- Product Support
- User Interface
- Identifies whether tasks and reconciliations are performed based on the frequency assigned.
- Provides good workflow between preparers and approvers.
- Accurately identifies account variances requiring explanation based on multiple criteria.
- We are still importing the data manually as there is not currently a PeopleSoft import tool available.
- I understand that passwords will need to be changed more frequently in future.
Excited to grow our BlackLine usage
- A centralized place to track our close process
- Easy to navigate / Ease of use
- Great customer service
- Doesn't update automatically after certifying tasks.
- Missing customizations for non-admins.
- Access to more training.
BlackLine Makes Accounting Easy!
- The user interface is fairly good and easy to use.
- Customer service has been great when issues arise.
- They offer a lot of education and other learning opportunities to utilize BlackLine better.
- Additional modules or service options can get very pricey.
- Some system administration tasks can be tedious or difficult to complete.
- It can sometimes be difficult to find an answer to specific questions within their support network.
- Automates the assignment of account and due dates and workflow
- Foreign currency capabilities
- Decertifies accounts when balance changes
- Amortization schedules
- Storage of supporting documentation
- Can reassign recons and tasks to others when someone is out on vacation or leaves
- Variance analysis
- Not a good way to set up tasks that only happen one time a year
- Customized reporting to fit how we like to see our variance analysis
GL Manager - System Admin experience
- Document management (upload, download, large files, historical visibility)
- Customizable templates for each account
- Ease of use
- Task management so leadership can see how the team is progressing each day of the close cycle
- The schedule list templates lacks ability to upload multiple schedule items at once
- The roll forward does not have an option to exclude old/closed items
Improved Automation for Small Public Company
- Reconciliation Accuracy/Completeness
- Information Sharing in Real-Time/among team members
- Close Checklist/Project Management
- Training efficiency/more user friendly
- Availability to sign up for training (many courses were full)
- Training geared towards executive users/reviewers
-Risk ranking/assessment of account balances to assist with prioritization of monthly close activities
-Visibility of close activities to all team members facilitates the immediate process and better communication among the team
-Ability to add multiple reviewers for high-risk activities
- Provides consistency for preparing account reconciliations
- Allows to add efficiencies to closing the books by automating JE's
- Allows to streamline closing process and provides visibility on progress made
- The system is not very straight-forward to use and requires training in order to get comfortable with using it
BlackLine Functionality
- The community is a great place to voice your concerns about the product and suggest improvements. Blackline does actually review and listen to what its customers say.
- Blackline support is available at all hours of the day.
- My customer success rep is awesome and always available and willing to help when needed.
- Blackline restricts users from changing account balances and historical support items that lead to manipulation in reconciliations which had been an issue with our previous excel version.
- Variance analysis is not as easy to maneuver around with teams and the dashboard. It should have the same feature as other modules.
- Variance analysis could be improved to group comparison periods year over year. This is the main way our company looks at variances.
- Within journals it would be nice if you could insert line items where you want then in the entry versus being forced to add a new line at the bottom. It would also be nice if the journals could be organized how we want them versus sorting. When using journal masters the lines can change from month to month.
- There should be an option to be able to link up an ADJ to a task.
Sleek and User Friendly with Reservations
- Clean Look
- Easy prior period referencing
- Fast document uploads
- Inability to delete multiple lines at a time.
- Entry screen defaults to numerical input at appx 1s lag.
- Inability to have sub-team views.
BlackLine Basics!
- Reconciliations.
- User Management.
- Journal Entries.
- User Interface can be inconsistent but it's more annoying than actually harmful.
- Updates, even commonly asked updates take a while to implement.
BlackLine - Solution for your financial needs
- Journal Entry posting in real time
- Tasks feature to help users stay organized
- Preparer has ability to set Approver and Reviewer at time of entry posting
- Audit trail for journal entry posting
- Repository for journal entry support
- Inability to require 2nd level approver for entries over certain amount in any currency
- Interface journal entry support in to SAP