$3.5 Billion Manufacturer Simplifies Complex Accounting Processes

Connecticut-based Hubbell is a $3.5 billion manufacturer of electrical and electronic products for the construction, industrial, and utility markets. Thanks to an aggressive acquisition history since its founding in the late 1880’s, Hubbell today operates manufacturing facilities, joint ventures, and sales offices in 14 countries.

Still, the company wasn’t able to track account reconciliations down to the local level. In some cases, executives were signing off on public filings without having real-time visibility into key areas of accounting and finance, such as reconciliations and tasks.

If corporate finance wanted to see a reconciliation or the composition of an account balance, they had to reach out to a local finance group. This was difficult because of the time differences associated with being a global finance organization.

Hubbell wanted to move from manual spreadsheets to a system of automated, standardized processes. The company chose BlackLine because they had the automation processes and tools Hubbell needed as standard products, without requiring any customization.

Hubbell has now implemented BlackLine in more than 40 of its businesses, covering 5,000 GL accounts and 200 users. Here are their results:

• Strong controls and process standardization across all business units—Account reconciliations are the bread and butter of the balance sheet, and BlackLine helps ensure that the company’s processes are consistent and repeatable.

• Increased visibility—The accounting team no longer has to wait hours to receive a report from a business unit in a different country.

• Reduced risk—The company was previously exporting from the local ledger and uploading the results into Oracle’s Hyperion Financial Management system, thus raising the risk of manual error.

BlackLine helped Hubbell gain visibility into their accounting projects, and greatly simplified the tasks involved with reconciliations and the month-end close. As a result, accountants can now focus their energy on more value-adding activities.