Key Takeaways from BeyondTheBlack 2020

Planning for the future of accounting

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that businesses are learning to thrive with less. Less time to make decisions, less people in the office, and less manual work. BlackLine understands this and provided a vision of what accounting will look like over the next five years. To keep up with the ever-changing landscape, BlackLine will increase its system speed by migrating its entire platform to Google Cloud starting in 2021. It will also devote considerable research and development to meet consumer software demands and expand its mobile environment to enable more productivity from anywhere in the world.

Integrations are the new norm

Keeping up with the future requires more integrations and less spreadsheets. With BlackLine as an SAP SOLEX partner, BlackLine and SAP are working in tandem to ensure more of their platform is integrated with S/4 HANA. Areas of focus will be account analysis integration, additional journal posting support, ease of connector configuration, and a self-service option to build journal entry and intercompany templates.

Companies do not need to be on the SAP platform to take advantage of the new integrations. BlackLine is developing a new integration platform to allow data to be integrated into BlackLine in any format and establishing a developer portal where users can access technical integration details such as open API information and options for building connectors.

Automation is king

How many times do we hear in business that “cash is king?” Well, time to move over, cash! Automation is the new king. BlackLine is focusing its efforts on driving automation where it matters most. More tasks will be automated than ever before. With the new acquisition of Rimilia, a cash allocation software, BlackLine will be able to automate a significant portion of the cash application process that takes many companies several hours every single day. In addition, companies will easily be able to manage unpaid invoices reducing days sales outstanding and improving working capital. BlackLine expects to have the Rimilia cash solution fully integrated into BlackLine’s platform sometime in 2021.

Time for an upgrade

BlackLine understands modernizing accounting also means modernizing the look and feel of the platform. Transaction matching users were pleased to hear there will be a better user interface for the unmatched transactions grid, allowing more customization and a more modern aesthetic. Over the next year, users will see exciting changes, including a more dynamic screen width, additional highlighting of important/most used items, and the ability to access more data with the click of a button.

Desire to achieve maximum ROI

One theme mentioned throughout the conference was the desire to achieve maximum utilization and ROI. With the world changing to a more virtual workforce, CFOs, accountants, and finance professionals are demanding more from their software providers and partners. From automating mundane tasks to eliminating risks of processes running on spreadsheets, organizations across the globe are looking for answers and guidance on how to achieve more.

Riveron’s partnership approach allows us to recommend the right solution for each of our client’s specific situations. By partnering with world-class, cloud-based technologies, we can broaden our ability to serve and deliver client-focused solutions to address the most complex challenges. To learn more about Riveron’s BlackLine capabilities and offerings, click here.