Item: BlackLine
Rating: 9
Author: Ginger Albrecht

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use BlackLine for month-end close process, creating journal entries, tasks, variances, and balance sheet reconciliations. Prior to implementing master journal entries, keeping up with prepaid entries was much more difficult, this has now become a much easier task. During close it was difficult to determine where the team was with journal entries, now I can look in BlackLine and see exactly what journal entries, tasks, variances, and reconciliations have been completed and which have not been completed. BlackLine makes it easy to review and certify or reject back to the user with a note. Over the past 10 years, BlackLine has made major improvements and has added different modules or systems to make our job much easier.

Pros and Cons

Journal Entries-everything is right there at your fingertips. As an approver/certifier, you have the details to the entry and you can automatically see that the journal entry balances.
Reconciliations-just like journal entries, everything is at the approver/certifier's fingertips. Support is available and you can immediately look to see if the reconciliation balances or if there is a variance because it pulls the GL balance for you.
Flexibility-each property has the flexibility to set up what reconciliations they find to be more critical for review, whether that is monthly or quarterly. You can set up what level you want each reconciliation to be approved, manager or executive level. These are just two that I find very helpful.

In the master journal entries, it would be nice if you could insert a line without having to rekey the entire entry over again.
Before I would have said the "to-do list" needed improvements, but now it is so easy to tell what I need to look at instead of searching each section for items.
It would be great if the "certify - next" worked on all reviews

Most Important Features

Reconciliations
Master Journal Entries
Reporting

Return on Investment

We have been able to pick up the month-end close process for another property with the existing staff while using BlackLine. Everything is so streamlined, it is like doing the same thing, but just having to do it twice.

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?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of BlackLine go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy BlackLine again?

Yes

Other Software Used

SmartDocs, SAP Access Control

Likelihood to Recommend

BlackLine is very well suited for balance sheet reconciliations where the accounting teams are remote or working from home. Everything is loaded into BlackLine so there is no need for physical documentation. The Variances is a great addition; however, it would be nice if you could set up each variance with its own comparison period. Sometimes we need to look month over month, and others year over year. Currently, everything looks at the current month versus the end of the prior year. Unless there is a way to change that and I am unaware.

Users and Roles

5 - GL Accountant, Accounting Manager, Revenue Audit Manager, Controller, Director of Finance

Business Processes Supported

Reconciliations
Journal Entries
Reporting

BlackLine makes my job easier!

Overall Satisfaction with BlackLine