New BlackLine Compliance Product Streamlines Control Management And Audit Processes

Latest addition to financial automation cloud platform unveiled at InTheBlack 2018

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Nov 13, 2018, 09:00 ET

LAS VEGAS, Nov. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- INTHEBLACK -- Financial controls and automation software provider BlackLine, Inc. (Nasdaq: BL) has unveiled a new compliance product purpose-built for managing internal controls in large and midsize companies. The company will debut BlackLine Compliance, the latest addition to its flagship cloud platform, this week at its annual global user conference InTheBlack 2018: The Accounting & Finance Innovation Summit.

Disparate systems and processes can cause inefficiencies and prevent proper evaluation of risk exposure. Without a solid technology solution, maintaining version control, identifying risk areas and communicating among business units becomes increasingly challenging and complex. With BlackLine Compliance, risks, policies and procedures, controls, issues and audit programs are integrated in a unified, cloud-based system. This accelerates and simplifies audits, consolidates project management and provides enhanced visibility over control activity.

Key BlackLine Compliance product highlights include:

Enables users to connect the performance, validation and testing of controls from within a single application and interface. Internal auditors can access control evidence directly, reducing dependencies.
Management of all compliance projects and documents in one globally accessible system, ensuring version control across records.
Accommodates projects for any compliance initiative, including SOX 302 and 404, IT audits, operational audits and self-assessments. Users can perform testing, attach supporting documentation and validate control effectiveness from a single system.
Real-time visibility into issues as soon as they are identified with workflow for remediation testing.
Ability to configure to support unique business processes.

"BlackLine has always been focused on helping customers ensure data and process integrity within their accounting and finance organizations," BlackLine CEO Therese Tucker said. "With our new compliance product, we've raised the bar for accuracy and trust; now, giving our customers a way to ensure a higher level of control is accessible via a single, unified system and integrated with all of the other functionality of our secure cloud platform."

Chart Industries, a $1 billion+ public company, has been using BlackLine Compliance for the past six months.

"One of the challenges we were looking to solve was the amount of administrative time we spent on SOX — from planning and keeping track of workbooks to managing status," Lindsey Damron, director of Internal Audit, Chart Industries, said. "After implementing BlackLine Compliance, we've seen a huge payoff. We spend significantly less time on administrative tasks and are able to focus on completing our testing and adding more value to the business."

BlackLine Compliance addresses major pain points for compliance and internal audit teams (such as data duplication, lack of standardization and lack of visibility) and provides a centralized and efficient solution for managing processes – ultimately helping to ensure greater accuracy and trust in the company's financials.

"Everyone in the business should be concerned with upholding the highest standards for compliance. It takes people, technology, controls and processes," added Tucker. "With BlackLine Compliance, we are putting the responsibility of compliance into the hands of more people across the organization, increasing accountability and ultimately helping our customers achieve a higher level of confidence."

For more information on BlackLine Compliance, please go here.

About BlackLine
BlackLine is a provider of cloud-based solutions that transform Finance and Accounting (F&A) by automating, centralizing and streamlining financial close operations, intercompany accounting processes and other key F&A processes for large and midsize organizations. The company is recognized by Gartner as a Leader in its 2018 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Financial Close Solutions and as a pioneer in the cloud market for enhanced financial control and automation.

Designed to complement virtually all ERP and other financial systems including SAP, Oracle and NetSuite, BlackLine increases operational efficiency, real-time visibility, control and compliance to ensure end-to-end financial close management and accounting automation from within a single, unified cloud platform. Enabling customers to move beyond outdated processes and point solutions to a Continuous Accounting model, in which real-time automation, controls and period-end tasks are embedded within day-to-day activities, BlackLine helps companies modernize accounting operations with intelligent automation, ensuring more accurate and insightful financial statements and a more efficient financial close.

Approximately 2,500 companies with users around the world trust BlackLine to help ensure balance sheet integrity and confidence in their financial statements. Based in Los Angeles, BlackLine also has regional headquarters in London, Singapore and Sydney. For more information, please visit www.blackline.com.

BlackLine Forward-looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "plan," anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "intend," "potential," "would," "continue," "ongoing" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding our growth plans and opportunities.

Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon BlackLine's current plans, estimates and expectations and are not a representation that such plans, estimates, or expectations will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time those statements are made and/or management's good faith beliefs and assumptions as of that time with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. If any of these risks or uncertainties materialize or if any assumptions prove incorrect, actual performance or results may differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks related to the Company's ability to execute on its strategies, attract new customers, enter new geographies and develop, release and sell new features and solutions; and other risks and uncertainties described in the other filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including the risks described under the heading "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 8, 2018. Additional information will also be set forth in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2018.

Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and you should not place undue reliance on such statements. Except as required by law, we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

SOURCE BlackLine