BlackLine Reviews

We have a very small team that manages the accounting function for 5 subsidiaries globally. We are able to run a tight close process every month, thanks to Blackline. Our team uses the MAP solution to do all of our recs, identify journals that need to be booked and complete all of the close tasks efficently.

The task module is really handy, but it would be great to customize the certification statements. Also, I would like to be able to embed hyperlinks.

We are able to run a 10 day close with a small team across multiple entities. The reporting is amazing and give the whole easy access to where we are at all times.

Financial Close management has made out closing process a lot easier since we a re able to keep track of what is still outstanding and where exaclty we are in the close. Sincd Blackline is still evolving and adding new features it feels like every year we are able to do more and more to make our close that much easier. The customer support from Blackline is also a big reason why we love the Financial Close Management.

Coming from a company that has multiple accounting teams spread across multiple states keeping track of where other teams are in the close process can still be a little but of a pain and is something I think blackline can improve on.

Our main issue before Blackline was close procedures were kept on word documents that were not always up to date and with Financial Close Management we are better able to update our procedures and make it easier for people to take over tasks.

It is something designed specifically for the accounting function. There are so many project management and task management tools but only Blackline provides everything we as accountants need to track those tasks.

The only issue we have is the fact that we don't have a dedicated resource available to help in the approval process for new tasks. Unless you can magically make more time in the day, I'm not sure there is much you can do -- wait you do magically create more time in the day. It just takes a time investment and a champion to make it happen.

It is allowing a remote workforce to remain on task and in communication with each other wihtout the need for daily status update meetings. It also also allows a document repository and easy access to those support items by the audit team. In addition, a trained accountant can more esily jump into a different role and understand the procedures to accomplish the tasks with little to know training.

The BlackLine UI is easy to use and highly customizable allowing our business to streamline the task/reconciliation portions of our month end close process. The automation options really trim down the needed time to complete what would otherwise be a very manual process each month.

BlackLine is in need of more robust connector options as we have had issues efficiently integrating our data from Workday. There are workarounds and many 3rd party options to satisfy this need, however, more native solutions would be preferable.

We use the BlackLine primarily as a task/reconciliation management tool which it has been excellent at. We are still in the beginning stages of implementing the many automation options that are available to us but the support from our account manager has been great and we're making steady progress.

The bank account function is amazing. We implemented at the beginning of 2023 and started with one bank and about 50 accounts. With a little bit of effort, we identified transactions that Blackline can automatically match. It has transformed our account rec process that used to take a team of 3 almost an entire month to complete to the recs being completed in a few weeks. As the assistant controller, it has given me leverage to review quickly, research issues and get the right parties involved across finance to resolve.

I'm not sure it is quite fair to say that I dislike this, but it definitely takes effort from the entire team to invest in learning the technology. This is an accounting and finance tool, and as much as I want to push it off to our IT team to understand, this is a tool for the accounting team to understand fully. When you choose to implement, get your team excited, because it is worth it.

We struggled to complete reconciliations timely. By the time reconciling items got to the right team to review and resolve, it was already the next month. So issues continued month after month without time for resolution. It has sped up the process entirely and now items are resolved quickly, and teams are understanding errors and how to avoid them in the future.

The ability to work towards standardizing our account reconciliations across the organization as well as having one standard way to post journal entries using SAP logic in real time. We are also starting to use the Tasks, and to have the ability to have tasks and dependencies based on other modules in Blackline is helpful.

When we do have issues, Blackline support is very prompt in working to understand the real issue, as well as working to get it resolved timely,including scheduling time to meet and share screens.

The Blackline Community is also a wonderful tool to ask questions, and learn from others, as well as to post ideas for possible enhancements.

It would be helpful if users could share report templates with others. Also, it would be very beneficial if we could make changes to our journals templates and logic without having to engage Blackline support.

Blackline is allowing us to standardize our processess as well as find areas for improvement. Through the standardization, we are able to allow our employees more opportunity to find more value adding work and projects. Our employees are also finding ways to think out of the box to find more ways to use Blackline.

We utilize BlackLine to develop solutions that minimize or eliminate the manual transactions we currently process and replace them with automated processes that reduce the amount of time spent preparing and reviewing reconciliations.

There can be a steep learning curve to develop the matching use cases. There is documentation for administrators, but it is minimal and sometimes requires additioal consultation.

We are able to increase our productivity by loading transaction data direclty into Blackline and using that to create reconciliation items from unmatched transactions. This saves our preparers and approvers time, as the reconciliations no longer have to be manually created in spreadsheets and the items manually typed in. This reduces the amount of time spent approving as well, since the transactions are direclty imported and the backup data no longer needs to be added as an attachment, then opened and reviewed.

I love BlackLine because everything you could possibly need outside of an ERP is available. It's also great that BlackLine continues to expand product offerings, I've been a long timer user of the tool and it's great to see how it has grown through the years.

I recommend having an implementation partner instead of attempting to self-implement. This is to ensure your company starts off with a solid foundation as there are some things difficult to correct if they aren't done correctly during the implementation process.

Eliminating many excel spreadsheets. Bringing together multiple features into one tool: tasks, journals, reconciliations, variance analysis. The interconnectivity is great also.

Using BlackLine has helped our company gain visibility into our monthly financial close process. We are currently using Account Reconciliations, Tasks, Journal Entry and just implemented Variance. We have been using blackline for 5 years now and have had a wonderful experience using the product.

I do not have anything I dislike about using BlackLine Financial Close Management. The product works as advertised and if you have any problems, submitting a case to be worked on is an easy process.

A problem we had before using BlackLine was having a proper audit trail with our Journal Entries for submitting to our auditors. Using BlackLine has fixed that problem since we can see who Prepared and Approved each journal entry.

Blackline gives us a central location to keep track of where we are in the close cycle at any point in time. We track all of our journal entries as well as reporting requirements. Everyone knows what needs to be done and when, and if we are falling behind.

There is a bit of a lag between the feed from SAP to Blackline to certify tasks. However, this can be remedied by increasing the interface intervals.

Not only does it help us track our close process, it also has helped us move away from Excel, where errors can be more easily made. It also allows our auditors to pull tasks and recons on their own without interrupting users.