How SAP Financial Close Solutions by BlackLine Complement an SAP Central Finance Deployment

This article originally appeared on SAP's blog and is Part 3 of this blog series. Read Part 1 and Part 2.

SAP S/4HANA for central finance foundation (Central Finance) is a deployment option for SAP S/4HANA Finance, which accelerates implementation without compromising productivity nor disrupting the business. It is an S/4HANA system that receives financial accounting transactions via real-time replication from SAP and/or non-SAP ERP source systems.

• Transparency – a single, central source of harmonized financial data for local, entity and group reporting

• Efficiency – integration, standardization and automation of business processes such as managing accounts payable, treasury, and other financial operations

• Simplification – one rationalized, and consolidated solution for transaction capturing, reporting, planning and consolidation

• Business Continuity – SAP and non-SAP ERPs are connected without disruption to SAP S/4HANA and can run as a digital business

Central Finance provides powerful data unification and reporting capabilities. This helps decision makers run a better, simpler business without having to wait for consolidated financial statements for a complete picture. Yet in order for the information in Central Finance to provide period end reporting, accounting organizations must close the books.

For most companies, this involves local accounting teams executing and performing a number of tasks, which are typically done at month end. These tasks are usually performed in disparate ERP systems before data is consumed into Central Finance. Typically, these tasks are manual, and they rely heavily on spreadsheets. SAP Financial Close Solutions by BlackLine complements Central Finance by streamlining and automating core close tasks like balance sheet substantiation, manual journal entries, and high-volume transaction matching. This improves the period close and allows for more complete, meaningful data to be pushed into Central Finance on a continuous basis.

Leveraging Central Finance and SAP Financial Close Solutions by BlackLine together provides maximum transparency, efficiency, simplification and auditability to your financial close process.

Want to learn more about SAP Solution Extensions by BlackLine? Check these out:

SAP Account Substantiation and Automation by BlackLine on sap.com

SAP Intercompany Governance by BlackLine on sap.com

BlackLine Solutions for SAP on blackline.com

On Demand Webinar: BLACKLINE & SAP – A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A MODERN ACCOUNTANT