BlackLine Financial Close Management Pros and Cons

I am a user of Blackline that inherited the program when I started my current job and had little understanding of what it was and how to use it effectitively. After attending the conference Beyond the Black I now not only have a very good understanding of how to use Blackline effectively but I also know where I can further my knowledge and other opportunities where we could use Blackline. I wish I had attended the conference when I first started using Blackline as so much time has been wasted doing thing manually when I didn't have to. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The only downfall I can think of is if you are unaware of how the system works you can't take full advantage of it. I don't know that this is a Blackline fault, more likely it is a failing of my company for not offering more effective training on the system when someone new starts. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Although we do not utilize all the product offerings Blackline has, the few features we do use have been very intuitive and easy to implement. Tasks has enabled our organization to move away from the dated spreadsheet tracking and now have a centralized interface for all Finance & Accountings tasks. The dashboard gives ourselves and management a quick overview to see at any point where we stand in our financial close process.

Reconciliations has also been a great tool for centralizing all of our reconciliations and support for easy review and approval. Auditors will enjoy having all the necessary data in one location as well.

We only recently brought matching into our production environment and expect to use it for the upcoming month. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

As a system admin, navigating the menus and system preferences is a little daunting sometimes, but the search bar and support has been very helpful in finding what you need.

During implementation, we ran into issues with being unable to bring a lot of our settings and match rules over into the production environment once we got them setup the way we wanted. We found ourselves doing double work in some cases once we were informed that certain settings and features could not be automatically ported over to our production environment.

Overall, Blackline University is a robust offering with many helpful videos and articles to help navigate any issues you could encounter. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It is one of the best tool for the management of account Receivables. What I like most about BlackLine Financial Close Management is how it automates many of the tasks that typically take a lot of time, like reconciling accounts and closing books. This makes the whole process faster and less prone to errors. Another great thing is the visibility it provides—you can see the status of the close in real-time, which helps in keeping everything on track. Totally very useful to manage to account receivables. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There is no any particular reason for dislike the Blackline tool. because it is very simple in interface and easy to adopt and use daily. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It is created specifically for the accountant's mind so it makes adoption easier and allows for an organized task managment solution. Audits are way easier. Fantastic customer support and the system rarely has issues where it is down for any extended period of time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Ours was implemented so long ago and not well optimized. We need to have more time and buy-in on optimizing what we already have to reduce manual tasks. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

My career started within corporate companies with BlackLine. I have been using BlackLine for almost 13 Years plus. Using BlackLine modules like Recon, Tasks, Journals, Transaction Matching, Variance analysis, and Compliance are user-friendly and easy to navigate and understand the functionalities. BlackLine has very sound knowledgeable professionals who can guide you 24/7.

BlackLine addressed preparing manual Excel reconciliation files for all recons and converting them into an excellent template for each type of transaction. Setting up threshold and auto-certification limits allowed us to streamline and focus on material account reconciliations. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Avoid customizations to align with BlackLine Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The thing I like best about Blackline is your ability to improve the tracking of daily, weekly, monthly, and annual task. It takes away the questioning of if a regulator requirement, journal entry, or accont reconciliation has been complete. You create the task and sign off on when it is completed. While having the ability to attach support documentation to the task itself. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The inability to duplicate what you've set in the sandbox into production without having to recreate or upload it into production. It would be more efficient, if sandbox could be copied and uploaded into production during the implementation stage. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The account grouping and transaction matching features make the close process a much easier, less manual process. I cannot imagine going back to old way. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The user experience is a bit clunky at times. For example, the navigation required to remove accounts from groupings can be tedious. A single link from the account to the grouping could reduce several clicks to one. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Blackline Financial Close Management works as a one stop shop for all your close needs. From task management to account reconciliations. Blackline centralizes all your necessary close needs Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

To have a complete close management you do have to assure your erp is integrated, which can be a painful and long process, but all the upfront work is well worth it in the end Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like the account reconciliation process and how easy the system is to learn.

Having used the system now for over 6 years, we have leveraged the task management and transaction matching module giving us the ability to close the books in half the time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There is a lot of work that needs to be done initially setting up and configuring the system, but the best part about it is that it is a 1 and done. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Oranization is key in this process as things tend to fall through the cracks and with FCM it allows the team to stay more on top of action items. Clear, consice and accountable. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Just eager for the Workday Connector to be available, hopefully in the next 12 months Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.