NOG's rapid expansion, driven by numerous billion-dollar acquisitions, created significant challenges for its small accounting team. The financial close process was a prime example of these growing pains. Lacking a standardized schedule, the close could stretch to 20 or 25 days, relying heavily on manual, Excel-based workflows. This created bottlenecks, with one person, Assistant Controller Chad Schneider, often being the final chokepoint.

"We were always significantly delayed at closing," said Schneider. "We didn't even have a regular close schedule."

The reliance on spreadsheets was not just slow; it was risky. As a publicly-traded company, NOG needed to ensure strict SOX compliance and data accuracy, a goal that was difficult to achieve with their old siloed and manual processes. The statement of cash flows was a perfect illustration of this inefficiency—a massive 45-tab Excel workbook that took two full days to prepare.

The team knew they needed a change. Previous attempts to implement other systems had failed, and their rigid ERP system made data integration a constant struggle. "We'd been so busy with everything else that it was a constant struggle to stay timely with auditors’ requests. We couldn't keep doing what we were doing. It was not sustainable for long-term success,” Schneider explained.

NOG sought a solution that could not only solve its immediate close challenges but also provide a platform for future growth and automation. After evaluating their options, NOG’s leadership chose BlackLine, a decision driven by the need for a unified, scalable, and future-proof platform.

The company's IT strategy was to move away from a patchwork of disparate systems. "We wanted our data and information in a uniformed area," said Schneider. BlackLine's comprehensive suite of solutions aligned perfectly with this vision. Working with their trusted partner, RSM, who was already providing managed IT services, NOG implemented a full suite of BlackLine solutions, including Account Reconciliations, Task Management, Transaction Matching, Variance Analysis, and Financial Reporting Analytics (FRA).

For Schneider, the fully integrated and unified platform was key. "We wanted a solution that would simplify our entire financial close process and eliminate the need to log in to several different applications to check on the status of different close items that, inherently, are all interconnected,” he reasoned. This thinking aligned perfectly with BlackLine’s deep focus on the financial close, offering not just a unified platform but one built on best-in-class solutions for each step of the process. This holistic approach was critical. The ability to connect their data warehouse, powered by Palantir, directly into BlackLine ensured that clean, conformed data would feed the entire close process, from reconciliations to the final financial statements. The partnership with RSM was instrumental, bringing deep BlackLine expertise that complemented NOG's intimate knowledge of its own data.