Switching from Trintech to BlackLine to Increase Accountability, Visibility, and Automation
Founded in 1981, LAZ Parking is one of the nation’s largest parking management providers. LAZ operates over one million parking spaces in thousands of locations across the United States. They provide parking management services in the following markets: hospitality and valet, office buildings, medical and hospital, airport and transportation, campus, government and municipal, retail and mixed-use, event parking, residential buildings, and shuttle services.
The Challenge
When Dorcal Jimenez joined LAZ as Director of Quality and Controls, her priority was “finding gaps” in the company’s current accounting process. The first thing she noticed was that staff weren’t performing accurate reconciliations.
“People were doing what they thought were reconciliations, but the bulk were really roll-forwards. Not only did these roll-forwards lack the proper support, but only about 60% were completed.”
Relying on a process that was a “stone’s throw away from green ledger paper” left LAZ Parking open to increased risk. “We have a complex operation, with six lines of business and individual contracts for each client,” says Jimenez. “But we had little visibility, as well as accountability. Our process and technology could no longer keep up with our data.”
That technology was Trintech T-Recs, a system Jimenez found “old and very slow.”
“It had limited automation capability. It also didn’t allow for journal interoperability, so we had to maintain processes in multiple systems. Even the system's owner couldn’t give me a reason to keep it.”
Why BlackLine
Jimenez knew that her team needed a solution that would increase visibility, reduce risk, and enable scalability as the company grew.
“We process over one million transactions per month. I went to my boss and said we needed a tool that worked for the size of the organization and the dollars we were processing. What we were doing wasn’t sustainable. T-Recs simply couldn’t help us meet our current goals.”
While Jimenez had used BlackLine at another company, she and the team reviewed several other vendors. But after a demo with BlackLine, she immediately knew they had found their solution.
“BlackLine is really an all-inclusive tool. It’s more polished than T-Recs. There’s also more connectivity and integration than other tools in the market. At the end of the day, we want to be best in class. There was no reason why we wouldn’t implement the best-in-class solution.”
LAZ was already in the process of switching ERPs and opted to integrate BlackLine with Microsoft 365 Dynamics Business Central.
The Results
Freed staff for more value-added work. BlackLine helps LAZ Parking make better use of people resources.
“BlackLine increases our staff’s time. They can focus on work that is more strategic,” says Jimenez.
“With BlackLine, we also restructured our accounting team, putting specific functions where they belong. Transactional items can go to the transactional teams, where the cost per head is lower, and accountants can focus on value-added work.”
Increased accountability. By eliminating manual work and increasing visibility, BlackLine has enabled greater accountability.
“Before Blackline, we had no way of holding people accountable for their work,” says Jimenez. “Now we understand where our weaknesses are. We’re leveraging BlackLine to help us increase controls and drive better process.”
Modernized accounting. Jimenez’s plan is to ensure LAZ is prepared for future growth.
“We were a 40+ year-old multimillion-dollar organization operating as if we were 10 years old with 50 clients. We’d outgrown Trintech T-Recs. With BlackLine, we’re able to mature and develop better processes that support our growth.”
Leisure, Hospitality & Travel
Microsoft Dynamics
United States
Midsize
Freed staff for more value-added work
Increased accountability
Saved time, and modernized accounting.
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