Item: BlackLine
Rating: 8
Author: Maxwell McKendry, CPA

Overall Satisfaction with BlackLine

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using the reconciliation product from BlackLine. Previously we had a very archaic process that was driven by excel spreadsheets and manual checklists. Adding the reconciliation product allowed us to formalize our reconciliation process which should provide operational efficiencies in the amount of time spent putting together reconciliations. This also centralizes all of our support and reconciling items so its much easier for reviewers and management to get a view into our accounts. This product also increased our general transparency across entities as we can now easily look into the reconciliations and accounts of foreign entities that we previously did not have access to.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Transparency across multiple entities.
Operational efficiency in performing reconciliations.
Centralized storage of supporting data and reconciling items.

Cons

Complex functionality that is hard to understand for someone with little or no IT experience.

Return on Investment

Operational efficiency in performing reconciliations.
Operational efficiency in reviewing reconciliations.
More visibility into foreign accounts that we previously did not have ability to see.

Alternatives Considered

Vena Solutions

Vena and BlackLine essentially did the same thing in terms of account reconciliations. However, BlackLine is more of a household name and we had heard testimonial's from other similar companies who liked the product. Thus we did not want to take the risk of using a newer platform like Vena when we already knew that BlackLine would suffice for our needs.

Key Insights

Do you think BlackLine delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with BlackLine's feature set?

Yes

Did BlackLine live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of BlackLine go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy BlackLine again?

Yes

Usability

In terms of usability the product is very easy to use. I would recommend to anyone who works in an accounting or finance role as it is easy for anyone to learn quickly and utilize the functionality. Even if you are not very technologically sound they provide many different avenues for educating and learning the software.

Support Rating

The support has been great and available at any time.

Likelihood to Recommend

If you are looking to simply clean up your reconciliation process then the reconciliation product will do just that. Additionally, if you are trying to improve your operation efficiency the reconciliation product can provide an opportunity to eliminate work by utilizing the auto-certification and threshold certifications. Lastly, this will help you set due dates and hold the account preparers and reviewers accountable for timely reviews.

Comments

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BlackLine lives up to the hype!