International Capabilities
BlackLine’s applications are in production in over 40 countries for organizations that are headquartered throughout the world. BlackLine’s clients have varying local statutory reporting requirements as well as international reporting requirements including IFRS, US GAAP, and AASB 101 – 141.
Because BlackLine is fully browser-based it can automatically detect the cultural settings of the end user’s browser. Therefore, a user with a French browser setting will see dates and numbers displayed “properly” for their culture, while a simultaneous user in the U.S. will see dates and numbers displayed in the U.S. format (eg. 31-12-2008 vs. 12/31/2008 and 8.000,99 vs. 8,000.99). With thousands of international users, BlackLine has been thoroughly vetted against many different cultural settings.
BlackLine has additional proven functionality in the following areas:
BlackLine’s applications allow your organization to determine the appropriate information that auditors may access through the system. Access can be further restricted based upon the status of a process. For example, a company may want to limit auditor viewing of reconciliations to only those that have been completely reviewed first.
Auditor access brings tremendous convenience and cost savings to our clients. No longer does the auditing staff need to give repeated requests for information to the accounting staff. With their own view-only login, they are able to access complete packages including supporting documents. In fact, auditors don’t even need to be on-site to complete their work!
BlackLine makes it easy for all policy and procedures to be readily accessible, using text fields, attached documents, or links to intranet web sites. Multiple links to policies and procedures can be defined, both at a global level and for individual or groups of processes. For example, a particular set of accounts may have its own policy documents that drive the policies for reconciling those accounts.
Accessible, well-defined policies and procedures are critical to compliance.
The BlackLine approach is that any electronically available information should not be retyped. Retyping introduces errors and wastes valuable time. BlackLine utilizes proprietary tools to rapidly configure interfaces to other systems via queries or extracts. These interfaces are placed on a schedule to run automatically at whatever frequency is required. GL Account Information can be imported from one or even many GLs if necessary.
BlackLine has successfully interfaced to virtually every major GL system available. In addition to account information, other types of information can be rapidly imported. Examples include balances from subsidiary ledgers, bank statements with balances and transactions, journals, activity summarizations, detailed line items, user information, currency exchange rates, and financial consolidation information.
To lessen a preparer’s work, information can be seamlessly exchanged to and from Microsoft Excel. No more retyping.
BlackLine products include a fully configurable automated Alert Service. Alerts may be sent to any selected group of users based on changes in system information. For example, a preparer may receive an email alert three days before the deadline stating that there are 15 incomplete reconciliations that need to be completed.
An important alert is one that notifies the preparer if the GL Balance has changed after a reconciliation has been certified. If account balances change in certified reconciliations, an email notifies the preparer that the account balance changed and that the reconciliation was decertified. The system automatically updates the GL Balance within BlackLine. This single process prevents a common situation where balances stored in Excel are not the same as balances stored in the GL and often the focus of many auditor hours.
This proactive alert also allows preparers to begin the reconciliation process immediately after the period closes and without having to wait for all journal entries to post.
If new accounts are created in the General Ledger, these accounts will be automatically imported into BlackLine. If these accounts are not able to be automatically assigned to individuals for preparation and approval, then an email alert will be sent to the system administrator.
Escalating alerts can be sent up the management chain notifying managers that deadlines have been missed. Preparers and Approvers will become immediately responsive when they realize that the controller is copied on their Delinquent Alerts.
Standard email of any type is supported. Email alerts will make all users aware of issues that need attention – even without logging in to BlackLine
All of our modules provide the ability to attach files as supporting documentation. This eliminates the need for shared drives, remote access, and folder permissions.
Documents are attached, uploaded to a central repository, and become version-controlled. Multiple documents, of any type may be attached and uploaded. Documents may include spreadsheets, Microsoft Word documents, PDFs, images or extracts.
Anyone with authorization to view a reconciliation, task, journal, etc. can also view the supporting documents that are attached to it. Users may save a copy to their local drive, but they cannot modify the system’s official document of record. The only person authorized to change or replace a document is the person that originally added that document and only up until the point of electronic certification. Certification renders the entire record to be read-only and all attached supporting documents are locked in their current version.