Unifying Your Financial Review Processes with BlackLine

Maintaining financial resilience is more crucial than ever in the modern business landscape. According to Gartner, 76% of CFOs indicate improving their financial insights is a top priority.

In a recent webinar, experts Andrew Stutzman, Director of Consolidation & Financial Analytics at BlackLine, and Cameron Andriola, Senior Manager of Finance Transformation at Deloitte, explored how the right solutions play a pivotal role in this process. A key takeaway is the importance of proactive financial review, including variance analysis and flux review, in ensuring timely and accurate financial insights.

The webinar highlights the growing complexity of financial processes due to market dynamics. Increased manual effort and rising risks often result in stress and inaccuracies in financial reporting. Consequently, the need for a comprehensive financial review process has never been more pressing.

In response, BlackLine’s Consolidation & Financial Analytics solutions seamlessly integrate with SAP and non-SAP ERP systems, providing an automated and proactive approach to financial review. This integration enables organizations to conduct continuous consolidation calculations and variance analysis, offering a clear view of financial data before closing. Stutzman noted this proactive approach is critical for identifying material variances and ensuring timely financial insights.

Additionally, it introduces a level of rigor and control often missing in traditional consolidation and analytics tools. With capabilities like attestations, finance teams can ensure the accuracy of account balances before reporting, providing a stronger foundation for financial statements. This control mechanism is essential in maintaining the integrity and reliability of financial data, helping organizations mitigate risk and enhance compliance.

In the discussion, Andriola emphasized that delivering financial insights post-close is no longer sufficient and that finance and accounting leaders expect completeness, accuracy, and timely financial information. Today’s financial review must occur throughout the period, not just at the end. This shift allows for real-time decision-making and reduces cycle times, aligning with the broader goals of financial management and strategic financial planning. This expectation places additional pressure on teams to deliver high-quality data, underlining the importance of automation in finance.

A recurring theme in the webinar was the concept of ‘future-ready financial operations,’ which emphasizes ongoing consolidation and proactive analysis. This approach allows for a more flexible and responsive financial review process, aligning with the need for real-time financial insights.

Andriola highlighted that these insights are crucial for organizations looking to implement flux review and variance analysis effectively. A recent BlackLine customer survey showed that 97% of companies perform flux analysis as part of an internal or external control requirement, making a more flexible approach extremely valuable.

BlackLine’s Consolidation & Financial Analytics offer a unified solution for financial review, covering everything from financial consolidation to the creation of financial statements and organization-wide analysis. This vertically integrated approach connects every level of the organization – from individual entities to HQ teams – accelerating speed to insights and unlocking timely decisions.

Moreover, BlackLine is designed to be a natural extension of an organization’s existing ERP and technology stack. By unifying critical close and consolidation activities and enabling a harmonized approach to closing the books, BlackLine supports a seamless flow of data, provides easy access to insights, and ensures upstream and downstream integration across the record-to-report process. This holistic approach enhances efficiency and alignment with the organization’s broader technology strategy.

By unifying various financial review activities, BlackLine helps businesses move away from ad-hoc and fragmented processes, providing a more streamlined and efficient workflow. According to an Accenture study, CFOs report that 85% of F&A time is spent on tactical and labor-intensive production tasks to prepare data for analysis. BlackLine’s ability to automatically flag material variances for explanation and certification is particularly beneficial for freeing up this time, allowing finance teams to focus on analysis rather than data gathering.

The webinar also touched on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in financial review. BlackLine’s AI capabilities, such as generating variance summaries and management disclosures, help streamline the review process. These features enable finance teams to focus on strategic tasks, such as identifying potential risks and making data-driven decisions.

However, it was noted that AI is not a replacement for human expertise but a tool that enhances the efficiency and accuracy of financial review. The ability to automate routine tasks and focus on high-value activities is a key benefit of incorporating AI into the finance function.

The insights shared during the webinar underscore the importance of a robust and proactive financial review process. With BlackLine’s comprehensive solution, organizations can navigate market dynamics more effectively, ensuring accurate and timely financial insights. By embracing continuous accounting, automation, and AI, businesses can build a resilient financial foundation that supports long-term growth and success.