Tips & Tricks

Problem: Whether gathering tables of transactional data or executing formula-heavy reconciliations, accountants love the power and familiarity of spreadsheets. But spreadsheets are often used by different people, and this can lead to multiple versions being emailed back and forth, and that can lead to critical errors…not to mention the time and costs wasted in trying to recover.

Solution: BlackLine’s new Integrated Spreadsheet function now lets you open a spreadsheet from within the Account Reconciliation module. Select the Worksheet with Calculated Balance command to display a fully functional spreadsheet that’s integrated with BlackLine’s unified platform, so the changes you make will be automatically reflected in all other related modules. You can build a spreadsheet from scratch, or you can import your existing spreadsheet into BlackLine to get started.

Problem: You’re trying to reconcile a monthly general ledger account from your SAP ERP system, but the account isn’t reconciling and you can’t figure out why. You suspect that some transactions in transit haven’t been accounted for, so you need to dig into the ERP system. But you’re under a tight deadline. You don’t want to waste the time to open a new browser tab, log in to the ERP system, find the account, adjust for the time period, and hunt for the missing transactions.

Solution: With BlackLine’s ERP Drill Down function you just click the ERP system’s hyperlink, which is displayed in your account reconciliation page right next to the GL Balance. The link jumps you straight into the details of the account, for the period you need. If you haven’t yet logged in, you’ll be asked to sign into your ERP system as you normally would – BlackLine doesn’t store these credentials – then you’ll be taken to the general ledger account.

Your system administrator typically sets up the link - or links, if you have multiple ERP systems – by going into ERP Drill Down Settings to build a link to each ERP system. Once that’s done, your organization’s preparers, reviewers and approvers can see a link back to the specific account in question any time they reconcile an ERP account.