We know our clients do a ton of account reconciliations, but even we were surprised when we did the math! The following infographic recaps the number of account reconciliations completed with BlackLine in 2012. We expect 2013 to be even higher. (Click on the image to see full size.)

In July 2012, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings posted on his personal Facebook page that Netflix streamed one billion hours of content in June 2012. An amazing fact, quickly picked up by other news channels. This was the first time Hastings used his personal Facebook page to post company information. Netflix hadn’t informed shareholders that the  Continue Reading »

According to IBM, 90 percent of the data in the world today was created just in the last three years. How does a company embrace their petabytes and yottabytes, mine the data for actionable knowledge and communicate that knowledge to the right people? For most companies, that question remains unanswered, based on research published in  Continue Reading »

Big Data can generate smog or sense (and cents). That’s exactly what happened in the 2012 presidential election. Each of the four dimensions of Big Data – volume, velocity, variety, and veracity – were involved. So were outsourcing and insourcing. Volume Campaigns rely on massive amounts of data to get out the vote (GOTV). Communication  Continue Reading »

Create comparative financials to identify changes between standards In order to provide consistency in financial reporting globally, there is a movement away from GAAP toward IFRS. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are a set of accounting standards developed by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) that is becoming the global standard for the preparation of  Continue Reading »

When we think about books on accounting, we usually think about debits and credits and official pronouncements from governmental and professional agencies. However, this book by Jane Gleeson-White gives some amazing insight on the life of Luca Pacioli. As many of you know, he is the Franciscan monk credited with creating our double entry bookkeeping system.  Continue Reading »

TQM, Six-Sigma, ISO … there is a growing alphabet soup of management concepts for addressing the quality of products and processes. All of these distinctions have fancy training, certifications and theoretical ROI to prove their worth. But when you are on the ground, running your accounting team, what applies? How do you judge? How do you  Continue Reading »

The BlackLine Support team is here to serve you and loves doing it! If you have any questions or concerns about your BlackLine service, please do not hesitate to call us at 818.223.9008. In order to ensure we get you all the information you need in the most efficient way possible, we’ve created this handy  Continue Reading »

As I discussed in my previous post, unscrupulous people are just waiting to capitalize on your data leakage. To minimize a possibility of becoming a victim of information theft, let’s first consider the following concepts: Information has value. This value is fluid, difficult to estimate and often overlooked. Unlike currency, where if you add $1  Continue Reading »

As biological creatures, we perceive everything around us using the five senses that evolution has been polishing for us over millions of years. For many, if something is silent and invisible, does not smell and cannot be licked or poked at—it does not exist. Technological progress started testing this axiom roughly 150 years ago with  Continue Reading »

Large volumes of information and multiple systems make it challenging to manage data and, most importantly, determine how all the transactional data impacts your financial results. Feeding data from multiple systems into one tool and employing continuous monitoring techniques can assist with this ever-challenging process. By proactively identifying anomalies in your data, you can reduce errors in  Continue Reading »

Most people have heard of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, and know it is responsible for regulating the securities industries and the nation’s stock and options exchanges. But do they know why it was established? Prior to the big stock market crash in 1929, federal regulation around securities had little support.  Continue Reading »

In the business world we are likely to be called upon to speak in front of a group of people. Maybe it is a large presentation for which we have time to prepare, maybe it is unexpected, like when you are asked your opinion in a team meeting. It doesn’t make too much difference, public  Continue Reading »

“Never stop until you have gained the top or the grave.” The above is a quote from General George S. Patton during his command of the Third Army during World War II.  General Patton was one of the most decorated, successful and sometimes controversial military leaders in American, if not World, History.  During his command, the  Continue Reading »

It appears that the debate for the United States to move to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has had yet another setback. The recent final staff report from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) did not make a recommendation on whether to support IFRS or not but it did list a considerable number of negatives.  Continue Reading »

As a manager I am always looking for new ways to motivate my team and find this can be very challenging.  Being an accountant, I prefer managing by numbers, but not everyone gets excited that way.  So I find myself looking for compromise and have recently found that simply converting those numerical metrics into pictures  Continue Reading »

Wikipedia defines mentoring as a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. However, true mentoring is more than just answering occasional questions or providing ad hoc help. It is about an ongoing relationship of learning, dialog, and challenge. The origins of mentoring  Continue Reading »

Have you heard of the new Section 1502, the “Conflict Minerals” provision of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act? What is the importance? For one, it is a path accounting historically has not gone down but may open other possibilities. It is the idea that profits coming in from these conflict minerals  Continue Reading »

October 2012 marks the ninth annual National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM). During the month of October the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) along with other public and private sector resources spotlight resources available to small to medium sized organizations. Its goal is to provide education to businesses to help protect against ever increasing cyber security risks  Continue Reading »

At the IMA (Institute of Management Accountants) Conference in Las Vegas a few months ago I had the enjoyable opportunity to hear a keynote speech by Rick Harrison, host of the TV show, “Pawn Stars.” If you haven’t seen the show, it has been on since 2009 and in 2011 was second only to “Jersey  Continue Reading »

Today is Shel Silverstein’s birthday, September 25th. He would have been 82 years old. He died in 1999, living until he was 69. He was born Sheldon Allan Silverstein, using “Shel” as his pen name for poetry and “Uncle Shelby” in his children’s books. Together his books have sold over 20 million copies and have been translated  Continue Reading »

The following tweet appeared on Twitter in May 2012 with the hashtag #accountantproblems: “The thought of spending the rest of my life in this profession is making this first work day even more miserable.” This comment is a little discouraging, especially for young people who are either studying accounting or just starting their career in  Continue Reading »

A friend recently forwarded an article that did a great job outlining the benefits of working remotely.  Sure there are those obvious benefits to you as the telecommuter: you can sleep in a bit, save on gas. You don’t need to change out of your pajamas or deal with a dirty shared microwave, the list goes on.   Continue Reading »

A video presented by Linda Stone titled “Attention Yours, Mine, Ours” talked about the shift in communication and activities. She talked about the shift from simple multi-tasking to what she called “continuous partial attention” (CPA). The basic concept was that prior to 2005, people often multi-tasked but it was a simple multi-task. It involved one  Continue Reading »

According to Accounting Today, the summer is a great time to relax and catch up on some reading. Better yet, they have suggested eight short books that are easy to take to the beach or on summer vacation.  The first book is Cheapest Places to Retire in the U.S. in 2012 by CPA Thomas Corley.  Continue Reading »

During the 2012 Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) Annual Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas, many of the attendees were professors from various universities throughout the country. Having been involved in the Northern Arizona University Accounting Advisory Council, education around accounting has always been intriguing. Many of them talked about the difficulties in keeping students  Continue Reading »

Individually, we have all been taught that taking responsibility for our actions is the right thing to do. However, in today’s business environment, it is often uncommon to work alone. Have you ever stopped to ponder the impact a group mentality has on individual responsibility? Many people have heard of “Diffusion of Responsibility“ which is a  Continue Reading »

Exercise balls seem to be the newest trend around the office. You know the large colored balls employees are sitting on in place of their regular chairs? They are also commonly known as stability balls, Swiss balls and balance balls. In our company there are 17 exercise balls out of 85 in-office employees. That is  Continue Reading »

While there have been many setbacks in the new converged standards, revenue recognition is one that appears to be on schedule in the first half of 2013. While the existing standards between U.S. GAAP and IFRS are quite different, the boards have overcome some of those differences and are moving closer toward a converged standard.  Continue Reading »

For years I worked in a variety of corporate offices. Mostly they were very similar, only slight variations in the color and height of cubicle walls, whether there was an office with a door or a window. The coffee makers, copy machines, mail rooms, supply closets, restrooms and common areas–not much new or innovative. Then  Continue Reading »

Today, Forbes published an article on “The Ten Most Innovative Companies in America.” Salesforce topped Forbes’ list of “The World’s Most Innovative Companies,”which also makes it number one in America. Salesforce is a client of BlackLine; we always enjoy hearing about their success. In 2009, Marc Benioff’s book, “Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to  Continue Reading »

At the recent Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) Annual Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas, one of the sessions titled “Truth & Consequences of Accounting Ethics – Beyond the Madoff & Enron Scandals” presented by Dr. Norman R. Meonske, Ph.D. reiterated just how ambiguous the notion of ethics is. There were many definitions or interpretations  Continue Reading »

This coming Monday, millions of people will enjoy a day off in recognition of Labor Day but what does it really mean and where does it come from? According to the United States Department of Labor, Labor Day “constitutes a national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of  Continue Reading »

I find myself becoming more and more convinced that the world is moving much faster than I ever wanted it to! Take the idea of a signature. Let’s say you are ready to sign a big contract with a new customer. Years ago you had to put a contract in the mail and wait a  Continue Reading »

At a recent CPE event, one of the poll questions that was asked during the finance transformation session was “What is the biggest challenge your finance organization is facing?” The responses included technology and system limitations, lack of talent, inefficient execution of core capabilities (e.g. closing the books), and the most popular response, resource constraints.  Continue Reading »

How often do we get excited about something new, start it off with a bang only to have it fizzle out? Well, for those of you who may have been following the BlackLine Blog, you may have seen it start up and then slow down or stop. Like the energizer bunny, we have been charged  Continue Reading »

Regardless of specialty (audit, tax, corporate, forensics, etc.), accountants alike understand the concept of long hours, weekends, busy season and month-end closes. What is interesting is how many of these accountants work through these stressful times and the small things employers could do to help them survive.  Of course one of the biggest ways to  Continue Reading »

It is hard to believe that the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) is celebrating its 125th anniversary. The AICPA, with more than 370,000 CPA members in 128 countries sets the ethical standards for the accounting profession. They also set the U.S. auditing standards for audits of non-profit organizations, governments, and private companies. The AICPA oversees  Continue Reading »

It is often hard to feel like we are truly making an impact in this world when we start to think about going green. Sure, it’s easy to toss a soda can into the recycle bin. It’s easy to put paper in the recycle bin. But does this really do anything? What can companies do  Continue Reading »

It’s no surprise that the new proposed standards for lease accounting have been quite controversial, especially for certain industries such as home builders, airlines and retailers. The standard-setters have received almost 800 comment letters on the most recent Exposure Draft. Historically, FAS13 allowed for two types of leases including capital leases which does appear on  Continue Reading »

It isn’t a secret that the accounting world is quite competitive, especially for college graduates trying to enter the field. Good grades and past jobs are no longer enough. So what does it take to be successful? Well there are of course the usual factors such as computer, math, analytical and communication skills, the ability  Continue Reading »

It is no surprise that more and more companies are expanding globally. What is a surprise is some of the locations. Global no longer just incorporates the United States, Canada, England, Paris, and China to name a few. It is now reaching to places like Brazil, India and United Arab Emirates. The biggest question one  Continue Reading »

While it’s understandable to want to play up skills and experiences in a resume, when is the truth stretched too far? Historically,  falsifications seemed fairly minor like inflating experiences or credentials. Or maybe claiming to have some sort of license or certification when it was actually expired. While falsifying any information on a resume is  Continue Reading »

Identity theft is a problem that is becoming more and more prevalent despite all of the warnings and options for fraud detection or prevention. The US Federal Trade Commission received 250,854 complaints about identity theft during 2010 – nearly one-fifth of the entire number of complaints received by the agency. For the eleventh year in  Continue Reading »

How frequently should COSO (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission) review and update their internal control framework? A recent article in the Journal of Accountancy indicated that the COSO (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission) internal control framework has not been updated in 20 years. 20 years! While it makes sense  Continue Reading »

At a recent class reunion, the accountants at the table started discussing their career paths. One that is rapidly growing and quite interesting is forensic accounting. Although one would think that after all of the fraud with Enron, WorldCom and Qwest to name a few, these scandals would drastically be reduced, a quick search on the internet turns  Continue Reading »

In a world where regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley have completely changed how companies monitor and control financial documents, it is scary to think about the millions of dollars spreadsheet errors have caused. “TransAlta Says Spreadsheet Error Costs It $24 Million” and “Excel error leaves Barclays with $30 Million more Lehman assets than it bargained for.” The worst  Continue Reading »

In my experience, maintaining process documentation was usually given a lower priority and would fall by the wayside as higher priority activities were performed.  This had unfortunate consequences down the road because we would often end up scrambling to bring documentation up to date just prior to an audit or review–not a very effective or  Continue Reading »

Many accounting managers struggle with the annual goal setting process; it can be hard to quantify the work of the folks who do the counting!  It’s ironic, but pretty common outside of sales teams.  It’s not easy to come up with S-M-A-R-T (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time Bound) goals for employees who work in  Continue Reading »

A common theme these days is how to get by with less money at your disposal.  Whether it’s accounting, auditing or IT related, it seems that resources are the first thing to be  scaled back during tough economic times.  The reality is that if you have to do more with less, some tasks are likely  Continue Reading »

Let’s face it… changing process is part of business today.  When I think back over my career at the number of times systems had to be revamped to keep up with technology, it is stunning! And I have only been doing this 20 years.  Can you imagine what the next 20 will bring? When focused  Continue Reading »

A little planning can go a long way toward managing risk and improving an organization’s overall control environment.  Taking the time to develop a strategic plan early in the year can result in time and resource savings throughout the year.  When developing a plan, management should consider the current and future state of their financial  Continue Reading »

I was taking the garbage out the other night when I ran into my neighbor Bruce who is the CFO for a large service company – a big company CFO.  I am a small company CFO.  It was enlightening to speak with him about our differing positions. Of course we share many responsibilities, but the  Continue Reading »

I was reading an article recently distributed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) regarding the FBWT (Fund Balance with Treasury) accounts for the Navy and Marine Corps. Here are some quotes from the article. See if this sounds like your organization… “The Navy and Marine Corps rely on the data from Defense Cash Accountability System  Continue Reading »

As December comes to a close, we want to send each of you our best wishes for the New Year. It’s time to take an audit of our 2011 personal balance sheets and consider what we can do to make 2012 more successful. The crises occurring all over the globe can cast a dim light,  Continue Reading »

At our User Group meeting in Las Vegas this past October, I had a discussion with David Hayes from The Bank of New York Mellon about the frequency of doing account reconciliations. As Director of Internal Controls, he is most concerned with one key priority: are the balances correct?  Not far behind that is the  Continue Reading »

Jon Corzine, head of MF Global, said he was “stunned” to learn that they could not locate hundreds of millions of dollars. “I simply do not know where the money is or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date,” he said in testimony before the House Agriculture Committee. Investors and shareholders everywhere assume that this  Continue Reading »

We are an app world.  Apple has done the greatest job in marketing to the younger generation.  My daughter received a free iPad when she enrolled in college this year. Free! What better way to get 18-year-olds to use your products than to give them a sleek social device? Now she can manage her iTunes in  Continue Reading »

I was listening to a podcast from the Harvard Business Review titled, “Key Questions for Leaders” (August 4, 2011). It was by Robert Kaplan, a professor at the Harvard Business School, author of “What to Ask the Person in the Mirror.” Professor Kaplan talked about several concepts that were discussed in his book. Among them  Continue Reading »

In his testimony yesterday in Washington, former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine actually uttered the words, “I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date.” This injustice and disservice to the company’s hard-working clients could have been avoided if MF Global had a more robust  Continue Reading »

I’ve lived my life using sticky notes.  Thank you 3M.   If you come into my office, you’ll see an array of 2 by 2 colored sticky notes all over my desk.  I manage my work day with them.  Who doesn’t? On second thought, probably most. As I’ve gotten older, I find them to be even more  Continue Reading »

One of my daughter’s friends has a private counselor for college applications.  The counselor advised stretching and lying on college applications to emphasize hardships, noting that illnesses were “especially good.”  In the WSJ recently, there was an article about the latest crisis in the global warming (now global climate change) debacle.  There was outrage expressed  Continue Reading »

On December 2, 2001,  ENRON, with 22,000 employees and an annual revenue of over $100 billion, filed for bankruptcy. Fortune magazine had named ENRON “America’s Most Innovative Company“ for six consecutive years. Who would have dreamed that award didn’t necessarily have to do with company operations, but with accounting policies and gimmicks? As the facts unraveled,  Continue Reading »

It’s the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  Before getting caught up in multiple trips to the grocery stores and airport, it’s a great time to reflect on our blessings.  I am so thankful for many things: my family, friends and health to begin with.  At BlackLine, I’m so thankful for the people I work with.  We have  Continue Reading »

In exchange for accessing and/or contributing to the blog hosted at http://www.blackline.com/resource-center/in-the-black, (the “Blog”) you agree to abide by these Terms of Use as well as all applicable laws. Please read these Terms of Use carefully before posting on or accessing the Blog. Please note that BlackLine Systems, Inc. (“BlackLine”) reserves the right to change,  Continue Reading »

Any new clients like us to assist with initial training and want to do more than just use our weekly online training. We do this with onsite classes or dedicated webinars. Part of the discussion process often involves being asked to use company information for training instead of our sample training information. A give and take  Continue Reading »

People often ask me how frequently they should upload balances into BlackLine. I have no indecision here. During the month-end close you should upload your balances at least three times a day: overnight, late-morning, and mid-afternoon. There are many account reconciliations that should be prepared during the close so your accountants can correct any errors they find.  Continue Reading »

I recently traveled to Memphis, TN to do some onsite training for a client. Before conducting the face-to-face meeting with most of the 80 accountants at the company headquarters, we had a conference call with some of the accountants in Toronto, Canada. I must say I was shocked when one accountant on the call used  Continue Reading »

In a word – no. I developed our training class to make sure accountants knew what a good account reconciliation is and how to use BlackLine. I won’t compromise that goal. I am most often asked to shorten the class by eliminating the beginning 45 minutes about what a good account reconciliation is. This request usually  Continue Reading »

Here’s where I air some of my own dirty laundry. Once in the past I worked for a regional waste hauling company that was acquired by a large international waste management company. During our transition to new billing/routing software and a new general ledger system, we had experts from the corporate office come out to make  Continue Reading »

On June 7 I had the opportunity to attend a keynote session at the IMA conference in Orlando, FL where Sam Antar, one time CFO of Crazy Eddies in New York, spoke about how he became a criminal in perpetrating one of the biggest financial frauds ever. I’m not talking about mis-using financial standards, or  Continue Reading »

Through a joint event with Habitat for Humanity, BlackLine employees, clients and partners volunteered their time the day before the BlackLine Annual User Conference 2010 in New Orleans to help rebuild homes lost in the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. More than 70 BlackLine employees, clients and partners worked on two houses in the devastated 9th  Continue Reading »

Session to focus on impact of SaaS on business, benefits of hosting corporate data off-site Calabasas, Calif. – Aug. 16, 2010 – Financial software provider BlackLine Systems and global Internet hosting leader Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) will be conducting Part 2 in a series of three webinars designed to clarify what SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) is and remove  Continue Reading »

Calabasas, Calif. – June 14, 2010 – Global media company and leading technology industry news source Red Herring has named financial software provider BlackLine Systems as a Finalist for its prestigious Red Herring 100 Award – an annual ranking of the 100 most innovative private technology companies in the North America business region. The Red  Continue Reading »