Skip to main content
TrustRadius
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…

Read more
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 …
Continue reading

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 …
Continue reading

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 …
Continue reading

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 …
Continue reading
Read all reviews

How BlackLine Differs From Its Competitors

Partnership

We are going to modernize our Balance Sheet Reconciliation process with more sophisticated tool BlackLine. We are going to substitute our SSF tickets (SSF=Shared Service Framework - SAP system) with Journal Voucher entries from BlackLine
Continue reading

Partnership

BlackLine has helped bring our company into a much more efficient and automated way of doing things. This has made a very positive impact on productivity and accuracy.
Continue reading

Partnership

We are fairly new to this but from the most part it's something that the leadership is excited about and feels is already driving positive change and increased productivity.
Continue reading

Partnership

BlackLine has made our accounting close to be a faster and less stressful experience from day one. Where our 6-person team would be here, days 1 to 7, early and stay late in the evening to complete all of the tasks manually, transitioning to BlackLine has allowed our 4-person team to continue …
Continue reading

Partnership

The partnership with BlackLine has been positive. The account manager has been supportive and has helped us stay informed on the product as well as helping ensure we stay up to date with the platform. We are also continuing to assess what areas we can improve by potentially implementing other …
Continue reading

Partnership

The real surges available have been excellent for identifying and understanding all the characteristics and fields that are used so that when reports are generated we have a clear understanding of the data being viewed and the story it is telling.
Continue reading

Partnership

BlackLine's support is unbelievable. They have created an IT company that you want to have a dialogue with and converse with. Many IT companies make it difficult to gain knowledge and solve issues, but BlackLine makes it easy. BlackLine's CEO has even offered to personally answer any …
Continue reading

Partnership

Although it takes a while to implement, it has helped automate mundane processes and provided uniformity and structure to how processes are accomplished.
Continue reading

Partnership

BlackLine allowed us to meet our digital transformation initiatives quickly.
Continue reading

Partnership

BlackLine has impacted the way we do things and how we plan on improving current processes.
Continue reading

Partnership

Our business is using BlackLine to keep up with with current trends in accounting and finance. I've never seen BlackLine utilized the way it is here. There are many possibilities for process improvements.
Continue reading

Partnership

BlackLine has been a great partner, always working with us to solve our business problem. They always bring the appropriate subject matter exerts to the table.
Continue reading

Partnership

It has streamlined our Account Rec process and the Task Mgnt has helped keep us on schedule for our close.
Continue reading

Partnership

They are checking on us consistently to see how they can help. It brings these back to top of mind for us to help us continue to work through automating and improving our processes
Continue reading

Partnership

We rely on our BlackLine partners to help guide us through our strategy and goals in order to be successful. Currently we are working through expanded adoption on account recs and in the near future we will utilize our Customer Success Manager to guide us through optimizing our reconciliation …
Continue reading

Partnership

Blackline help to put all the separate processes into single platform where this will help to retrieve related data in more efficient way. Audit trail of the financial adjustment helps to enhance internal control and proper approval obtained before posting the financial adjustment which could lead …
Continue reading

Partnership

Increase efficiencies around automated journals and auto-certification of reconciliations and journals and more granular insight into data painpoints.
Continue reading

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

View all pros & cons
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing
BlackLine

BlackLine

N/A
Unavailable

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

Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?

172 people also want pricing

Alternatives Pricing

Budgyt

Budgyt

$499
per month Departments
What is Budgyt?

Budgyt is a platform made to simplify business budgeting. With built-in functions designed for data integrity, team collaboration, and scenario planning & analysis, Budgyt is presented as an optimized budgeting experience that rids users of complex, error-prone spreadsheets and the time-consuming…

Return to navigation

Features

Consolidation and Close

Consolidation of data from multiple entities with currency management, reporting and audit trails.

8.5
Avg 8.4
Return to navigation

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 Competitors

BlackLine Technical Details

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

Frequently Asked Questions

FloQast, Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management, and Adra by Trintech are common alternatives for BlackLine.

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).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(319)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-1 of 1)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
June 01, 2022

BlackLine solves close process challenges by automating the majority of the headaches

Verified User
Director in Finance and Accounting
Gambling & Casinos Company, 1001-5000 employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We implemented BlackLine in May 2017 after a significant deficiency in our Account Recs. We also wanted better clarity on the monthly, quarterly, and annual close and automation of our prepaid and other JEs. The initial installation included Account Reconciliations, Tasks, and Journal Entries. BlackLine made a huge impact in those areas within the first six months.
Pros and Cons
  • 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.
Likelihood to Recommend
Account Reconciliation is BlackLine's strength from having GL balances imported during the close process to uploading data within those recs that can be easily reviewed and balanced. The Preparer/Approver roles prevent someone who prepares a reconciliation, tasks, or journal entry from being the approver as well and timestamps on the process allow management to determine the timeliness of both. The approver can decertify recs/tasks/JEs and provide reasoning which is sent back to the preparer to correct all within the BlackLine system. BlackLine could use a better view of the overall close when a customer is using multiple modules instead of treating everything separately.
Most Important Features
  • Account Reconciliations
  • Automated Journal Entries
  • Transaction Matching
  • Tasks
  • Reporting
Return on Investment
  • Timeliness of the close process and certification mitigating deficiencies.
  • Time-saving of prepaid reconciliations adding new items and the creation of monthly automated journals flowing back into the accounting system.
  • Performing daily bank reconciliations with matched transactions saving two days over the previous manual process.
  • Knowing that the organization is on the same page on how processes within BlackLine are being performed.
Alternatives Considered
We did not evaluate other products when implementing BlackLine. The decision was made primarily by our Financial Controller who used BlackLine at a previous company.
Other Software Used
Users and Roles
20
Primarily accounting. Anyone who performs or reviews a rec, task, or journal.
Support Headcount Required
2
The Director of Financial Systems is the subject matter expert for BlackLine and we identified one of our Financial Controller as the champion. Those roles are responsible for making BlackLine a success in the organization by making sure training and support are available and that the system is used to its fullest.
Business Processes Supported
  • Solving a previous significant deficiency
  • Getting a handle on the close process and the ability to summarize and report the flow.
  • Saving users time by automation
Innovative Uses
  • Auto-certification of reconciliations where the balance is zero or did not change.
  • Utilizing external data to automate journal entries.
Future Planned Uses
  • Variance module
  • Additional automation of journals using data from front-end systems.
Likelihood to Renew
10
BlackLine is invaluable to our close process. The time saved from moving paper and auto-certifying can be used for better review of the data. It allowed our CFO and Board of Directors to have confidence that our close process was timely and accurate.
Products Replaced
No
Key Differentiators
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
  • Prior Experience with the Product
The most important factor was that our Financial Controller previously used BlackLine and raved about what it could do for our organization. She wasn't wrong - the return within the first year saved countless hours and gave us confidence that our close process was secure.
Evaluation Lessons Learned
In retrospect, I would have reviewed other products that could have made the timing longer but we were in a hurry to mitigate a significant deficiency.
Implementation Details / Implementation Partner
  • Implemented in-house
Implementation Phases
Yes
We initially implemented account reconciliations and tasks to mitigate a significant deficiency and then moved on to journals. After a few years which were impacted by the COVID shutdown, we started using transaction matching.
Change Management Lessons
Change management was minimal
Implementation Issues
  • Determining how we wanted the system set up and the process flow within the organization.
  • Determining the level of the accounts that we wanted to reconcile. We have multiple dimensions flowing in our ERP so we settled on the Company and Account for rec purposes.
  • Evaluating what we wanted to list in our Task module. We found that the checklist used by our SEC team for their flow did not function well and kept the entire checklist as one task within BlackLine.
Implementation Rating
9
A longer implementation of learning the ins and outs of BlackLine will improve the success of the system over time. There a quite a few fields we did not use as the organization as a whole did not have them defined prior to implementation.
Training Types Used
  • Online Training
Online Training
9
The online training is great but quite still feels more like it's theoretical versus real use case scenarios. We find that users retain the knowledge when the training is closer to what they know.
Support Rating
10
BlackLine has always had our back from the implementation to add additional functionality to the system. During the COVID shutdown, they provided unlimited support and training for our staff to get the best out of the system. If we have an issue with the system it is easy to open a ticket and get a quick response no matter what level the issue may be.
Premium Support
We purchased premium support to make sure as we added more functionality to the BlackLine system we had the availability of all of their online training and direct support when we needed it.
Bug Resolution
Yes
We found an issue when importing data for our bank transaction matching testing. The issue was identifying and solved with three to four days and did not hold up our process.
Exceptional Examples of BlackLine Support
During the COVID shutdown, BlackLine made sure that the staff we retained were provided unlimited training through their support center which included online training and virtual one-on-one training. This was extremely unexpected during a time when we weren't sure whether or not our Vendors could perform at the same level during the shutdown.
Usability
8
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.
Easy Tasks
  • Certifying reconciliations, tasks, or journal entries.
  • Writing useful reports from the internal report writer.
  • Running automated journal entries.
Difficult Tasks
  • Setting up automated journal entries from matching data.
  • Initial set up of the BlackLine system and importing of general ledger data.
Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions
Yes, but I don't use it
Scalability
10
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.
Reliability and Availability
10
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.
Performance
10
BlackLine performs rather quickly considering the amount of data we were pushing in and out of it.
Return to navigation