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BlackLine

BlackLine

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…

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Recent Reviews

BlackLine Review

9 out of 10
March 31, 2024
Incentivized
We use BlackLine for Journal Entry and Reconciliation approvals within our organization. I am a part of the Internal Controls team, so our …
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amazing we want more

10 out of 10
March 28, 2024
I use BlackLine (BL) for reconciliations - in my case I cannot integrate the tool for credit cards recs with BL for some reason. I would …
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Excellent Product!

9 out of 10
October 22, 2023
BlackLine will allow us to more efficiently and effectively complete account reconciliations. We will be able to more readily analyze our …
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Goes Beyond

9 out of 10
October 21, 2023
BlackLine helps Carlisle Companies automate financial close processes across a disparate Finance and IT landscape. It gives us better …
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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

View all 5 features
  • Multi-currency management (28)
    8.9
    89%
  • Customizable Workflows (35)
    8.9
    89%
  • Detailed Audit Trails (51)
    8.6
    86%
  • Journal entries and reports (41)
    8.4
    84%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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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.

8.5
Avg 8.4
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Product Details

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 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 Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android

Frequently Asked Questions

Reviewers rate Multi-currency management and Customizable Workflows highest, with a score of 8.9.

The most common users of BlackLine are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(319)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 98)
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Elisaveta Mitova | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We executed Direct Sourcing RFP and BlackLine was the chosen vendor. We purchased Balance sheet Reconciliation, SAP Connector, Matching module and Manual Journal Voucher. Currently we have implementation project with expected go live May'2024
  • excellent support from our partners
  • very knowledgeable Project Manager for project implementation
  • Excellent professionals participated during we run the RFP
  • Their prices are pretty high
Excellent Balance Sheet Reconciliation module. Excellent SAP connector and Matching module Excellent Journal voucher module. Room for improvement is SSO with MS Azure to be set as standard, so organizations to pass easily the authorization groups from MS Azure to BlackLine.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently use it for our tasks, account recons, journals, and hope to have variances turned on here in the next few months. These modules have helped us speed up the journal entry and approval process. It has also streamed lined our reoncs to a cnetral data base from being saved per user on multiple locations.
  • Account Reconciliations
  • Journal Entries
  • Tasks
  • Would like to have some out of the box examples on how to automate journals
  • Need to have a easier way to put custom screens/data on the home screen
  • Would like to have the ability do more on the mobile app
For my job I relay a lot of journal entry uploads. Until we brought BlackLine on, it was easy to load in SAP but all the other accounting and finance users could not get my backup easily without reaching out to me directly. BlackLine has given the ability to have this readily available to the others.
October 24, 2023

Reporting and Insights!

Amanda Lochtefeld, CPA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We utilize BlackLine for Account Reconciliations, Journal Entries and Tasks. We utilize various reports from the tool to evaluate performance and track key performance indicators. Additionally we rely on both manual and automated controls around the tool.
  • Reporting
  • User access provisioning
  • Connects to Tableau
  • Connects to multiple ERP systems
  • Dashboards
  • App bugs
Well suited in both our manufacturing and retail entities. Additionally connects with various ERP systems. The task module allows for designating key tasks clearly for close tracking.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I implement BlackLine for my clients and they use it to automate their various Close to Report processes, from recs to journals. BlackLine is a one-of-a-kind tool in the market. It helps tackle various intercompany pain points through a methodical, well-thought-out, end-to-end solution.
  • Connecting to SAP
  • Automating recurring manual steps
  • Visibility to leadership
  • Less time spent initially acting upon tickets
  • Better connectivity with ERPs other than SAP
  • Provide a list of choices for generally requested customizations
BlackLine is a one-of-a-kind tool in the market. It helps not only with managing IC transactions but also with identifying potential data issues that can help improve data quality and processes upstream.
Angelique Peltier | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use transaction matching in BlackLine to reconcile our fiduciary bank accounts. BlackLine has moved us out of the traditional Excel bank reconciliations and opened the door to automation. Our month-end close process for these accounts is more efficient than we ever imagined it could be, because of BlackLine.
  • Transaction Matching
  • Automation
  • Reporting
  • Education Documentation
  • Commenting on transactions
  • Easier ways to rebuild match sets and data sources
Bank reconciliation and data matching are two scenarios we have found BlackLine to be the most useful.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently use Tasks, Journals, and Accounts. The product addresses our need to keep all data in one area where good data can provide accurate reports.
  • Automation
  • Tasks
  • Data Storage
  • We need more flexibility with usage on portable devices
  • Better responses to our BL Support Cases
  • Less System Issues
The system is wonderful. It facilitates our close.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I am a reviewer of reconciliations and monitor monthly tasks to determine where we are on our close process. We needed a repository for all reconciliations and supporting documentation, as well as reportable data we can look at in a dashboard or report.
  • Customer Support is AMAZING
  • Everything is user friendly
  • BlackLine cares about listening to customer's needs.
  • Daily certification!
  • Being able to maintain seeing the reconciliation while entering a comment.
  • User groups for industries (financial institutions)
BlackLine has been awesome at creating reconciliations in a uniform manner, allowing visibility into our close process, and being a repository for all of our supporting documents.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We previously had a very manual process which was fully excel based. With the BlackLine tools, we have been able to modernize our accounting function and increase flexibility and automation within our department. We use BlackLine for account reconciliations, journals, transaction matching, intercompamy management, and AR automation.
  • Great customer service
  • Application always works
  • Many product offerings
  • Getting data from ERP can be challenging
In my experience, the tool always works! It has solved multiple business problems and added significant automation for us.
September 15, 2023

User Friendly

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Blackline was used to perform balance sheet reconciliation as well as posting financial adjustment during month end closing. It is user friendly system where system will prompt error message when incorrect data inserted. The batch upload template of the financial adjustment template save time and work in efficient way to reduce any potential mistake.
  • system prompt details error message when something not right
  • time saving and less hassle when using batch upload function
  • produce accurate result
  • system respond speed is slow when perform financial adjustment
  • it take time to run when switching from individual task to team task
  • searching tool is slow to respond
BlackLine is a good tool help to reduce error when posting financial adjustment. The approver can clearly see all the supporting documents and related entries which certainly help to reduce time to find it manually.
The fallback will be the slow response from the system when searching the journal entries under department.
September 15, 2023

BlackLine Review

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Account Reconciliations, Journal Entries, Cash Applications, Task Management
  • Automated Journal Entries
  • Auto-Certification of documents
  • Account Reconciliation Approval Workflow
  • Transaction Matching
  • Training
  • Use Case Examples
  • More granular recorded videos
  • Telephone Support
Good 1. Account Reconciliations 2. Journal Entries 3. Task Management 4. Team Structures Not So Good 1. Controlling of some user/account assignments by date 2. Alert Preferences at the User level 3. Programming Languages for AJD's
September 14, 2023

Great Solution

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We implemented BlackLine as part of our Finance Transformation process. It gave us great visibility not only of the month end close process, but the day-to-day accounting functions as well. We were able to reduce time to close and save hours of manual work and spreadsheets. We currently utilize the Reconciliations, Tasks and Matchin modules, but with the help of the Optimization team, we were able to automate AT and Fixed Assets Rollforward reconciliations. Great company
  • Reconciliations
  • Customer Service
  • Listen to clients
  • Access customer instances to analyze data and suggest improvements more often
  • Reach out to customers on a regular basis to check on their pain points using BlackLine.
BlackLine is a great solution for your Accounting close process needs. It is very easy to us for your month-end reconciliation and documentation of tasks. It has great technology to support transaction matching and journal entries. It has capabilities to help with your intercompany accounting processes and financial reporting. If an onboarding is well-thought from the very start, it can be a very powerful solution. The challenge we have is how to utilize all that BlackLine has to offer when we already have an ERP system that offers some of these capabilities (like journal entries).
September 13, 2023

Blackline

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
BlackLine has helped us move away from color coded massive excel documents, to a more streamlined and efficient approach in the accounting organization. Team members were spending hours updating massive excel workbooks entirely by rote with little to no understanding of the mechanics, which was a time drain and caused errors that were not always noticed. Since implementing BlackLine, we have saved hours of time and enabled the analysts to repurpose their time from building spreadsheets to analyzing the data.
  • Transform and enhance data
  • Simplify processes
  • Provide time savings
  • More updates from the accounts grid view
  • Ability to restrict sub roles by entity
  • ability for users to use if then logic on import definitions
I have only used BlackLine with my current company, and I have always had success with using BlackLine as a solution. We have automated quite a few processes and continue to look for more ways to leverage BlackLine and its modules to optimize our processes. I approach any potential BlackLine project from the perspective that it may not be the solution, but I can try and have had much success. The only project that I have not been able to migrate to BlackLine is my SOX controls, but I will probably give them another try as I gain more experience with the system.
Jodi Martin, CPA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are just beginning the Automation journey and have implemented reconciliations and are working on tasks. We hope to add matching and journal entries after variance analysis. In the Black Conference is a great learning resource!
  • Blackline has great customer service and support.
  • Blackline provides great visibility of key accounting functions
  • Blackline allows standardization and visibility of finance and accounting tasks and processes.
  • I’d like to see the learning paths in Blackline U be more intuitive.
  • I’d like to see further Essen of use in Blackline in designing reconciliation templates
Blackline is a great tool to move toward automation and get a change management and automation plan in motion. I haven’t found anything that Blackline isn’t appropriate for. Generally the Blackline tool works great when it is set up and used as intended. That being said, it takes time and focus to implement correctly. Investment of time up front reaps the benefits.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
BlackLine is helping to streamline our process and ensure all tasks (such as journal entries and account reconciliations) required during a period-end are completed timely and accurately while providing insights into progress along the way. For us, the dashboard provides great visibility on the status of reconciliations and tasks assigned to both you and your team. Reports generated out of BlackLine are very useful as well.
  • Transaction matching
  • Journal Entries
  • Account reconciliations
  • It would be nice if it was easier to modify/ customize the fields shown when you select an item on your dashboard.
  • I wish the dashboard refreshed automatically once an item was marked completed
  • Greater visibility over different time periods
Account reconciliations can be standardized with various template options to choose from depending on the type of account. Account reconciliations can even be set up with amortization schedules that are easily customizable and accounts have the option to auto-certify. Tasks help our team to monitor, certify, and collaborate. It's nice that tasks can be set up with custom frequencies.
August 18, 2023

Great Cash App!

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
we use BlackLine AR automation to assist in our cash application. we receive hundreds of payments on a daily basis with the same amounts and not a lot of remittance advice. this tool helps us apply the cash timely and in large volume
  • Cash Application
  • Quick Processing in the website
  • Central hub for check images and remittance advice
  • User Interface
  • Integration with non popular ERPs
  • Less window jumping within the application
In my opinion, BlackLine is well suited for the more popular ERPs like SAP, Oracle, Dynamics. Although we made it work with Deltek Vision, it required a lot of customization on our end in Vision to make the data integration work. the magic of BlackLine is in the intel of the actual application which helps us apply cash very quickly and better than our in house built application
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
BlackLine is used at my organization as an automation tool to reconcile cash transactions in order to generate journal entries in an efficient manner. We also utilize BlackLine's account reconciliation module which adds a layer of sophistication and control to our month end financial close procedures.
  • Cash matching automation
  • standard format and control for account reconciliations
  • Fixed Asset and Depreciation account reconciliation template
  • More user friendly administrative functions
BlackLine is very well suited to match large sets of data to generate journal entries.
August 01, 2023

Finance from heart

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use for balance sheet reconciliation. It address internal control process. identifying any issue or error, reduces the manual work for reconciliation. Help in identifying the transactions.
  • Reconciliation
  • List detail of transaction
  • User friendly
  • It has streamlined various financial operation
  • Training
  • sending notification
  • two user access for same account
I think blackline can be suited for all types of business with a bit of modification. But it is well suited for any corporate or backend finance function. It can replace various excel manual processes. It will be difficult to use where technical like usage if accounting standard or taxation guidance is required or any law changes
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We primarily use BlackLine to substantiate the month-end close for our growing portfolio of managed entities. Since we utilize many different banking solutions and have multiple bank accounts per entity, the volume of transactions we have to reconcile monthly was much too tedious to do manually with our accounting ERP. As such, we had previously spent a week out of our close just reconciling bank activity; now we are able to reconcile the cash accounts daily, with BlackLine doing most of the work.
  • Bank reconciliation
  • Audit and attestation
  • Month-end close
  • Module-based pricing
  • Unintuitive reporting
  • No dark mode
BlackLine is incredibly robust when it comes to transaction matching. The functionality of creating match rules helps the users come up with ways to match over 95% of the transactions and makes it easy to understand how to make sure that the data entered into your accounting ERP will jive with the given rules. BlackLine can also be used in many more situations, and the flexibility of the software allows for your accounting team's creativity to create automated solutions. While they do offer customer service and will work with you to build more automation solutions, I would recommend that you have a team that is more tech-savvy or innovative.
June 29, 2023

#BlackLineforlife!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are currently using Blackline Matching and Reconciliations and have heard all great things from all of our Finance departments about improvements and time savings. The Reconciliations product has opened visibility of all recons to our Internal and External auditors and has allowed us to work on standardization across the board as well. Matching has saved so many hours from the financial close process and we have so many use cases we add to the list to start building all the time!!
  • All reconciliations are in one spot - don't have to access from multiple drives/folders
  • Matching pulls in transactional data which allows more automation through In Transit and auto-certifications
  • Everything is easily accessed from the side bar of the main page - the search is even more helpful if you're not sure of the category you're looking for
  • I'd love to have the option to dynamically group in Matching on both Data Sources instead of just the first one
  • I wish there was a report option for UnMatched Transactions that I could schedule to send - specifically it pulls the transactional detail for unmatched transactions for specific Match Set
One thing we found is that you need to have your recons laid out before you start recons in Blackline. There are many options in there so discussing the appropriate way to create a recon in BL before implementation might be better.

One other thing we found is that Matching is a much quicker implementation if you already have the account you're wanting to create a Match Set on completely reconciled. This will not help you reconcile an account that is really large without drawing a line in the sand for a write off threshold.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Blackline plays a key role in our culture of process improvements. It has enabled our team to reduce the use of spreadsheets and manual procedures for many of our processes. We have rolled out multiple modules that provided instant wins. I cannot imagine going back to our old processes and handling our current volume without Blackline.
  • Transaction matching eliminates the need for "rainbow" spreadsheets (manual excel matching). It increases the visibility and control of items. It can be a huge time saver.
  • The task module is a great way to manage items or responsibilities. Inclusion of up to date and accurate purpose and procedures helps when tasks transition between team members.
  • Consolidation Integrity Module has simplified the reconciliation between the consolidation software and our general ledger system. It was a great improvement to our processes.
  • The journal entry module does not allow users to tab between fields in the templates and online forms.
  • In transaction matching, I would like to see the ability to match two transactions that net to zero within the same data source.
  • In static transaction matching, I would like to see the option to allow the preparer to approve suggested matches.
Blackline is an excellent transition from manual processes such as excel reconciliations and excel task lists. The reconciliation module electronically stores the reconciliation, support and workflow all in one place. Tasks can be scheduled based on the desired frequency and due dates so that no tasks is overlooked.
Christopher Boutros | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
BlackLine is used to monitor our close processes, account reconciliations, and task management. It is only used in our accounting department, but benefits the entire company by ensuring that the data is accurate. We used to manage the close process in Excel which yielded no accountability and did not assure us that the work was getting done accurately.
  • Easy to use UI.
  • BlackLine system training.
  • Automation.
  • Not all fields have an audit trail.
  • They didn't have an API that worked with Intacct when we initially onboarded them.
It really depends on the needs of the company, but any company that needs to monitor and automate their close process, my first choice is BlackLine.
June 21, 2023

BlackLine is Great!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The accounting department uses BlackLine for monitoring month end close tasks and balance sheet account reconciliations. We are currently implementing the matching module.
  • Standardization.
  • Visibility.
  • Controls.
  • Connectivity of modules.
  • System administration.
  • Size of data.
BlackLine is best suited if you have a high volume of reconciliations. If you are a smaller company with few recs, there may not be a need for this product.
Tímea Ágnes Bánréti-Kulcsár | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Blackline is a document repository and a financial closing tool for Journals, accounts and intercompany invoicing. The system helps in centralizing data, and standardizing our closing process all around the company.
  • Standardization of our closing process
  • Helps in audit compliance and audit reviews
  • Shortens closing for journal posting
  • Automation on both system admin and user side is efficient
  • Our success manager makes sure we are informed in any possible improvement and/or topic we are interested in
  • They could improve on the reporting side. Although it is a good reporting tool, not every report has all the information, field that we would like to use
  • The system can slow down significantly during screen share
Compared to other financial systems, the users have opportunity to create small automations themselves. Eg.: recurring journals.
The community, trainings and Blackline University is a great support system provided by Blackline to help us decide on improvements, fill in user knowledge gap etc.
When audited, Blackline is one of the easiest process to go through as the auditors can have view access to some aspect of our system. This saves time to our users, as they won't have to provide supporting documents separately.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use BlackLine to prepare, review and approve journal entries to post to Oracle ERP. We also use BlackLine to prepare, review and approve month end Reconciliation and to document all related support. We also use BlackLine for reporting and data analysis. BlackLine helps us manager the month end close and reporting process seamlessly.
  • Keeps the month end Reconciliations organized and auditable.
  • Simple to understand and easy to use.
  • GL data is readily available for quick downloads and analysis.
  • Sometimes data download is delayed/problematic.
  • Sometimes BlackLine auto refreshes and kicks out while working and so we lose the work in progress.
  • I wish I could work with multiple accounting periods at the same time.
Simple to understand and easy to use.
Keeps the Reconciliations organized and auditable.
Great in keeping the supporting documents for any accounting record.
Has very useful built in reports.
GL data is readily available for quick download and data analysis.
Great in tagging team members to get quick responses to be able to resolve the issues, if any.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our Business uses a variety of BlackLine products, most notably Journals, Reconciliations, and Tasks. We are starting to implement cash app and variance analysis soon. BlackLine helps address the very manual processes we have and either completely automates them or automates part of them improving the efficiency. In my BlackLine experience and journey the best way BlackLine has improved my job has been with account reconciliations, specifically using their transaction matching product. This allows a bank reconciliation to be almost completely automated allowing a much faster and accurate close process. Matching goes much further than just bank reconciliations and we have slowly been implementing it into reconciliations that require a higher level of detail.
  • Transaction Matching
  • Automated Journal Definitions
  • Constant product improvement
  • Reporting functionality is hard to use within BlackLine
  • Email alerts are not detailed enough so they are not very helpful.
BlackLine is a very good software that is always improving. It can be leveraged to create a drastic difference in your financial teams process. Not only does BlackLine help improve efficiency but it also enforces separation of duties improving the accuracy of the financials as everything requires a separate reviewer. BlackLine is also capable of using an API to extract data such as how far along your close process is or your banking data to get insight into all of your different bank accounts in one dashboard.
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