BlackLine

Score8.9 out of 10

503 Reviews and Ratings

What is BlackLine?

BlackLine's cloud-based financial operations management platform unifyies data and processes, automating repetitive tasks and enhancing accountability. BlackLine solutions for financial close, accounts receivable, and intercompany accounting support large enterprises and midsize companies.

Categories & Use Cases

Media

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Customizable Workflows
The ability to adapt the software to complete tasks in a particular order according to business needs.
Category average: 8.6
Journal entries and reports
Ability to enter journal entry adjustments and produce reports showing all journal entries for a specific period.
Category average: 8.4
Detailed Audit Trails
Tracing changes to data and processes that were run.
Category average: 8.9

Financial data consolidation
Consolidating data from several entities into a single statement using US GAAP, IFRS or other standards.
Category average: 7.7
Multi-currency management
Ability to handle foreign currency conversions during consolidation.
Category average: 6.8

Helen McArdle

Blackline Technical Lead in Finance and Accounting at Chubb (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Blackline for Account Reconciliation, Matching, FRA/Variance, Reporting, and Task Management. Blackline provides a standardized solution for Reconciliation Globally, with a full audit trail of all imports to the modules. Reporting across all modules. The Product allows Chubb to monitor alignment with the Global Policy. The FRA module has replaced manual Excel modules, allowing a consolidated view of the Balance Sheet by applying rules to identify exposure.

Pros

Audit Trail.
Standardization of Reconciliation Templates across the company.
Drill down between Modules.
API connectors.

Cons

The Reporting Module does not provide any FRA reports. Variance reporting is Limited.
FRA, To trace from GL balances imported to the Variance module can be difficult, as you need to map the GL balances to the level in the Var Module. This is a manual offline process. Would be good to have reporting that provides the link.
Matching Module - Intransit, when scheduling, you cannot pull all the unmatched transactions; only the current period.
Match Sets: if you have a chance to a live match set (e.g., filter at DS), you can't update the Match Set; you have to rebuild. It would be good to be able to amend and not rebuild.

Return on Investment

Process standardization.
Audit trail for all changes to the system.
API for reporting.

Alternatives Considered

Accurat

Other Software Used

Oracle PeopleSoft ERP, Alteryx Intelligence Suite

Eddy Aiello

SVP & Chief Accounting Officer in Finance and Accounting at Ocean Bank (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use BlackLine mainly for tracking of key processes through the use of tasks and automating and centralizing our GL reconciliation process. Prior to BlackLine we were decentralized, lacked visibility and completeness of our GL Recs, along with not having the appropriate backups to an extremely manual process that lived within excel spreadsheets.

Pros

Loading of Data in an automated Fashion
The Matching Engine once setup properly is outstanding and adds a ton of value
The reporting capability of the tool is outstanding and very efficient
I love that the system does automated status notifications at the discretion of the users inputs

Cons

Wish they had rolled out high frequency recs previously.
When we setup BlackLine, we had to find work arounds to export the daily Fed Rec Items.
Wish it wasn't so darn expensive and more native AI already live and running

Return on Investment

Teams have gained back hundreds of hours per year
The Month End Close Process is much smoother as everyone knows what they need to do and are able to save down all the items in one place
Tasks is also helpful as we attach the backup to the activity and is easier to review and evidence the approval of the item.

Alternatives Considered

FloQast

Other Software Used

Microsoft Excel

Jakub Marek

Finance systems Proces Lead in Corporate at Currys (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As a company, we do use Blackline's various modules. From reconciliations to transaction matching, etc. My focus is on Smart Close, and at the moment, I am training on Studio360. We have already automated over 30 processes with Smart Close and look forward to doing even more with Studio 360. I'm very keen to see what the actual percentage of automations is gonna be.

Pros

Automation of manual processes.
First time data accuracy.
Controllership.

Cons

Simplification of some of the user menus.
Better filtering.
Me as an system admin would like to see better way of switching roles.

Return on Investment

First time accuracy.
Easy to spot errors of other users as admin.
Removal of manual tasks.

Sergio Aliende

ATR GPO in Finance and Accounting at MSD (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Blackline helps our company in a number of processes, predominantly in the BS Recs space, but also in the Intercompany area. Currently, our company is deploying the Transaction Matching solution for the BS Reconciliation module, and the ATR teams are involved in that project.

Pros

Partnership
Solution Provider.
Technology pioneer.

Cons

Showcase the AI usage in MJE area.
Innovate in the controls space.

Return on Investment

Workload decrease.
Transparency in the data.
Control

Alternatives Considered

Coreflux

Other Software Used

Appian, Microsoft Power BI

Antoine Berland View profile

Finance intern in Finance and Accounting at NBCUNIVERSAL (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I take data from BlackLine based on econciliations completed by our offshore team in India. I take them onto excel to track if they are late or not and get a reason from the team so I can send out a weekly report. This helps ensure that the team stays on top of their tasks and certify in BL

Pros

Good navigation around the application
Easy to take excel files from reports

Cons

Sometimes difficult to certify recons

Return on Investment

Increased effectiveness of visibility

Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management

FloQast

Adra by Trintech

BlackLine

What is BlackLine?

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Key Features

Top Performing Features

Customizable Workflows

Journal entries and reports

Detailed Audit Trails

Areas for Improvement

Financial data consolidation

Multi-currency management

Reviews

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Cons

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Alternatives Considered

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Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

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Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Alternatives Considered

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