ACCRUAL PROCESSES
Navigate the accrual world with digital finesse.
Supercharge your accrual processes by leveraging end-to-end process automation.
Optimizing our accruals process with BlackLine means not having to run the reports, not having to gather the data, knowing that it’s all contained within BlackLine—it changes your life. The quality of life that it gives back to you and your people is incredible. The confidence you have in what you are presenting and your ability to research, it's night and day compared to the old Excel process.
Common Accrual Processes
Accounts Payable Accruals
An invoice is expected to be processed for this expense within the next period
Estimate Based Accruals
True-ups are required once all payments have been processed
Subsystem Accruals
Payments are made in arrears for processes like PO receipts not invoiced or payroll withholding
Revenue Accruals
Income recognition from customers who are invoiced in arrears
challenges
Why Manual Accruals Processes Are Unsustainable
Manual Processes
Are your F&A teams performing the following accrual process activities manually?
Collecting accrual process data from your general ledger or payment system
Booking and reversing accrual journal entries
Ticking and tying every transaction to its related payment or invoice
Calculating the variance between the current period accrual and the release, then recording the corresponding adjustment
Risks & Challenges
Manual accrual processes have downstream effects that carry risk and pose additional challenges:
Forgetting to reverse accruals leads to an overstatement of expenses
Applying expense to the incorrect period due to lack of precision in process
Storing and retaining supporting accrual documentation for audit purposes
Too much time spent and too many resources allocated
WHY BLACKLINE
What BlackLine Brings to Accrual Processes
BlackLine’s unified financial close platform centralizes, standardizes, and enables continuous accounting within your accrual processes, creating increased capacity. With an automated accrual process, F&A teams can:
Import detailed transactional data from the GL, payment processors, and other data sources into BlackLine
Prepare and record new accruals based on imported data and initial accrual data
Compare accruals against actuals
Reverse accruals and record true-ups based on automated matching results
Link adjustments to the face of the related account reconciliation
Analyze accruals through reporting and provide timely insights with increased visibility
Want to see step-by-step accrual process examples from your BlackLine peers?
Gain leading-practice automation and optimization strategies in our complimentary virtual Optimization Academy.
Optimize More Processes
Accrual processes are part of the BlackLine Nine. With our framework, you can apply proven strategies to optimize key processes.
Amortization
Save time and increase accuracy by automating and optimizing your amortization processes.
Calculations
Optimize capacity, control, and value by automating your calculation processes.
Rollforwards
Save time, reduce errors, and enhance reporting quality by streamlining and optimizing your end-to-end rollforward process.
Subledgers
Harness the power of your subledger data without having to load it yourself.
Suspense & Clearing
Your suspense and clearing accounts may net to zero, but how much time is your team spending to get there and are you confident in the process?
