BlackLine solves close process challenges by automating the majority of the headaches
June 01, 2022
BlackLine solves close process challenges by automating the majority of the headaches
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with BlackLine
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.
- 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.
- Account Reconciliations
- Automated Journal Entries
- Transaction Matching
- Tasks
- Reporting
- 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.
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.
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
Using BlackLine
20 - Primarily accounting. Anyone who performs or reviews a rec, task, or journal.
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.
- 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
- Auto-certification of reconciliations where the balance is zero or did not change.
- Utilizing external data to automate journal entries.
- Variance module
- Additional automation of journals using data from front-end systems.
Evaluating BlackLine and Competitors
- 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.
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.
BlackLine Implementation
- Implemented in-house
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 was minimal
- 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.
BlackLine Training
BlackLine Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
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.
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.
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.
Using BlackLine
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Feel confident using | Lots to learn |
- Certifying reconciliations, tasks, or journal entries.
- Writing useful reports from the internal report writer.
- Running automated journal entries.
- Setting up automated journal entries from matching data.
- Initial set up of the BlackLine system and importing of general ledger data.
Yes, but I don't use it