1. Trust is in the Balance™
THE BLUEPRINT
FOR CONTINUOUS
ACCOUNTING

2. In today’s highly complex global business environment, companies are
constantly expected to do more with less, to run leaner while becoming
more effective than ever. This is especially true for Accounting and Finance.
They are now required to not only deliver periodic financial data and
reports, but also real-time analysis and intelligence.
To meet mounting demands, Finance is shifting from traditional, rigid, and manual accounting
processes to more automated, flexible, and agile operations. This shift is essential because it
provides the productivity benefits that free organizations to deepen their focus on analyzing
and reporting financial performance.
Yet nearly 70% of respondents in a recent survey by The Hackett Group report that manual processes are
still the biggest bottleneck in financial close and accounting operations, with most of these processes
completed with extreme resource requirements at the end of every accounting period. It’s no surprise
that more than half of Finance executives report being frustrated by spending too much time on non-
strategic work. They are awash in transactional activity and two-thirds say they don’t have time for
process improvement.1
Failing to transform core accounting business processes leaves companies at a competitive disadvantage.
In order to make the shift from overworked cost center to strategic partner for their business, accounting
and finance teams must step out from behind the spreadsheets and embrace the future.
Technology is changing the way business is done all around us, and it’s time for Accounting and
Finance to realize the evolutionary benefits of modernity. However, technology is only part of the solution.
True organizational transformation requires adopting a fundamental shift in philosophy, one that combines
technology with a focus on reimagining legacy processes, empowering the best employees, and embracing
a culture of continuous improvement.
It’s Time to Build Your Future
1
FSN – The Future of the Finance Function – 2016 Survey

3. The Blueprint for Continuous Accounting 3
Falling Short
There’s a better way.
There’s a significant obstacle facing accounting and
finance teams: traditional financial close processes
were not built for the modern business economy.
Manual processes are tedious and error-prone,
resulting in gratuitous resource demands and
long hours that put incredible strain on employees
during the financial close every month.
The conventional record-to-report (R2R) model
condenses a huge amount of work into a short span
of time and delays data processing and reporting
until the end of the period. This is a reactive approach,
and the costs of operating this way are high. It leaves
no time for analysis, and the increased risk of error
can damage the quality, accuracy, and timeliness
of results. Leaving so much work to get done in just
a week or so places incredible amounts of strain on
accounting and finance teams, often only to deliver
out-of-date or inaccurate results.
It’s not that the process is broken. It’s simply failed
to modernize. The always-on nature of business today
involves globally dispersed transactions that come
in around the clock, vastly increasing the number
of unreconciled transactions. Reactive accounting
processes in the form of traditional record-to-report
risk hindering business operations and damaging
the integrity of financial reports.

4. That’s where a new approach called Continuous Accounting comes in.
It can be thought of as real-time record-to-report, a blueprint for a more
modern accounting organization, and a call to evolve beyond batch processing.
Continuous Accounting embeds automation, control, and period-end tasks within day-to-day activities,
allowing the rigid accounting calendar to more closely mirror the broader business. Continuous
Accounting transforms the way business process works by emphasizing real-time processing,
especially skilled employees, and deep analysis. The result is a more efficient close, more accurate
financials, and a more effective organization.
Continuous Accounting more evenly distributes the workload associated with the period-end
close, while enabling constant reporting, verification, and analysis. The ability to perform tasks in
smaller chunks on a more frequent basis evens out workloads. Being able to evaluate the integrity
of information at any point in time enables continual monitoring for errors, fraud, and inefficiencies.
Anytime-access to the data allows teams to look at the impact of changes such as currency
fluctuations with up-to-date financial intelligence.
This concept represents a fundamental shift in the way that accounting and finance are done.
When automatic processing eliminates rote tasks, accuracy is inherent. Continuous Accounting empowers
the Office of Finance with real-time intelligence, enabling skilled accountants to spend more time on
strategic research and analysis, and become proactive business leaders instead of reactive operators.
The Modern Approach

5. The Blueprint for Continuous Accounting 5

6. This is not simply a technology story.
Continuous Accounting is not just another way to do account reconciliations, nor an impractical
pipe dream attainable only by the largest companies or the smallest, most agile teams.
This modern, philosophical shift is an ongoing, stepwise journey with achievable milestones.
It is a story about timing, process design, and unleashing the power of exceptional accountants.
Continuous Accounting is a blueprint for the modern, strategic accounting organization.
Effectively implementing Continuous Accounting requires a holistic approach, combining a mix
of technology, process, and people to realize continued improvements across the accounting
organization. Using technology to automate procedures enhances the benefits of process optimization,
while increasing the overall productivity of accounting team members. Optimized processes will
streamline automation, reduce risk, improve accuracy, and increase efficiency, benefiting the entire
accounting and finance function. Reducing manual and rote workloads frees team members to
be more productive and use their exceptional abilities to conduct strategic research and analysis.
Finally, the entire F&A organization uses these gains to provide increased strategic value to the
broader business.
Continuous Accounting in Action

7. The Blueprint for Continuous Accounting 7
ANALYSIS
INTEGRATIONLAYER
WORKFLOW
ANALYSIS
& REPORTS
RULES &
BUSINESS LOGIC
TEMPLATES
RECONCILIATION
CONSOLIDATED
RECONCILIATION
JOB
SCHEDULING
CASH
MATCHING
INTERCOMPANY
PROCESSING
TRANSACTION
ANALYSIS
JOURNAL
ENTRY
EXCEPTION
RESEARCH
ACCOUNT
DETAIL
ANALYSIS
VARIANCE
ANALYSIS
SMART AGENTS
WEB SERVICES
CONNECTORS
ETL TOOLS
SOFT CLOSE
HARD CLOSEIF NECESSARY
MANAGEMENT REPORTING
CLOSE LEDGERS
INTERCOMPANY SETTLEMENT
DISCLOSURE MANAGEMENT
XBRL TAGGING
VARIANCE EXPLANATION
SFTP

8. Bill Gates once said, “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation
applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation
applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”
Though truer words may never have been spoken, this is often interpreted as process-first
guidance on transforming business process. However, following that logic often leads to
clever workarounds that masquerade as “automation” within existing systems, including
spreadsheets. Instead, by investigating the technology landscape while reviewing process,
if not before, organizational leaders can open their eyes to previously unimagined possibilities.
For example, Caesars Entertainment Corporation aggressively blends technology into
everything they do. They’re constantly looking for ways to automate, streamline, or optimize
processes. Caesars has built a strong relationship with their internal IT group, so instead of
any sort of rivalry, business users feel comfortable pulling in IT resources when they need
help. That cultivated trust grants the accounting team broad leeway to adopt business-owned
technology projects, which allows them to be agile to their division’s unique needs and
continuously look for new ways to optimize and automate process with technology.
End-to-end process automation is critical for keeping pace with change and elevating the
strategic role of finance. The results of upgrading business performance through automation
are substantial. According to PwC, best-in-class finance organizations run at a 40% lower cost
than their peers, yet spend 20% more time on analysis versus data gathering. Companies are
also seeing faster financial close cycles, doubled accounting efficiency, and a more satisfied
and engaged accounting and finance organization.2
Technology
Using technology to automate procedures enhances
the benefits of process optimization while increasing
the overall productivity of accounting team members.
“Some people suggest that
you should fix a process
before you introduce new
technology. In our case,
technology drove us to
fix and standardize our
process.”
EAMONN MATTHEWS,
BUSINESS PROCESS LEAD,
ACCOUNTING & REPORTING
2
How to Create a World-Class Finance Function - CFO.com

9. The Blueprint for Continuous Accounting 9
Left unchecked, manual processes together with expanding data volumes are
preventing Finance from making the shift from back-office accountant to strategic
business partner. Rote, human-driven, and error-prone manual procedures expose
companies to the undue risk of inaccuracy, or worse, restatement.
The essential first step to process improvement is to identify the bottlenecks, which
typically stem from highly manual procedures. This is where you’ll find the greatest
opportunities to improve and streamline existing processes.
Cox Communications is a prime example of success. Where Cox stands out is in their
process organization. They started with a couple of assumptions: R2R is good but
“the Close” is bad. As a result, they’ve taken all of the tasks typically associated with
the R2R process, broken them down into their component parts, and then assigned
them out at a granular level.
Cox sees Continuous Accounting as a two-step process. First, automate everything
that’s rote or manual, including every journal entry, ERP job, reconciliation, or function
that has any logic whatsoever. Once that’s complete, they focus their accountants’ time,
effort, and energy on analysis and activities such as issue identification and resolution,
contracts and revenue, and business operations.
These changes didn’t take place over night. Taking a gradual approach to modern
process improvement allows an organization to realize incremental results and benefits
with every step and at every level.
Process
Optimized processes will streamline automation,
reduce risk, improve accuracy, and increase efficiency,
benefiting the entire accounting and finance function.
“At Caesars we’re
always looking at our
processes to see how
they can be improved.
And we’re evaluating
new technologies
to see how they can
help get us there.”
ALLISON COMBS,
CONTROLLER

10. There appears to be widespread agreement that accounting and finance teams have the
necessary skillsets to drive business strategy, but these skills are underutilized. To unlock
this value, companies need to automate the tedious and manual accounting work that
consumes so much of accountants’ time and effort.
Cox hires people who they believe will fit into their culture. Individuals are chosen for promotion
based on their intelligence, work ethic, and decision-making ability. Accountants are chosen
for their flexibility and comfort taking initiative. If overall responsibilities, processes,
and tools on hand change frequently, accountants must be comfortable with change,
so flexibility is sought out when hiring new team members. They prefer to promote internally
for management positions as few senior accountants outside of Cox would understand their
processes, structure, tools, and responsibilities.
Along similar lines, the Caesars team is made up entirely of accountants who have a deep
interest in technology. The group began with a financial controller and one accountant who
had minor technology backgrounds. They began optimizing, almost as a hobby, and their
success was noticed by senior management. The team now works in very fluid fashion.
Workloads are unstructured and often shared. Accountants, analysts, developers, and managers
are cross-trained on other functions, which allows work to be balanced across all employees.
When manual processes are automated, accounting and finance teams spend fewer hours on
transactional activities. The focus shifts to analyzing the data and reports, and addressing only
the exceptions. Thus, by embedding Continuous Accounting practices, everyday accountants
can become exceptional accountants, providing high-value, strategic services in areas like
fraud detection, compliance, data analytics, technology, and business advice.
People
Reducing manual and rote workloads frees team
members to be more productive and use their
exceptional abilities to help guide the business.
25%
2016
75%
20203
Share of time
finance staff
spends on
analysis
3
Death by Digital: Good-Bye to Finance as You Know It, CFO.com

11. The Blueprint for Continuous Accounting 11
Modern business requires every part of the organization to be forward-looking and
strategic. Adopting technology, improving process, and empowering people should
have clear, tangible benefits for any organization.
Understanding the benefits of transformation projects requires measurement.
Evaluating KPIs for timeliness, accuracy, efficiency, and employee satisfaction
enables organizations to establish baselines and review results to facilitate continuous
improvements over time. Additionally, these metrics give finance leaders visibility into
how their department is performing, so they can efficiently manage their operations
and enable data-driven decision making.
More data might seem alarming at first. As sources of information continue to expand
across every business division, the volume of data in Accounting and Finance is
increasing as well. According to a recent survey by FSN, 81% of senior finance
executives believe the CFO will be responsible for corporate data in the future,
and two-thirds of CFOs believe that an inability to master the variety and volume
of new business data is a serious threat to the future finance function.4
However, by applying the principles of Continuous Accounting, automating accounting
processes with technology, and improving legacy processes, strategic accountants
are unleashed to analyze data. This in turn gives senior finance leaders timely,
accurate, and consumable information. In other words, Continuous Accounting
delivers real-time intelligence and unlocks competitive advantages for finance
and the entire organization they serve.
Organization
Accurate, always available, and real-time financial
intelligence enables agile, strategic business
decisions and a more effective organization.
“We now have the
time to spend working
on the really crucial
parts of accounting:
analyzing results
and understanding
the business cause
and effect of account
balance changes.
As result, we’re
providing more
strategic, long-term
value to the company.”
TAMMIE COLEY,
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
OF FINANCE OPERATIONS
4
FSN – The Future of the Finance Function – 2016 Survey

12. Legacy
Processes
Manual, time-consuming, and inefficient
processes are “the way it’s always
been done.” Armed with only ERPs
and spreadsheets, talented accountants
spend most of their time on rote tasks.
Modernized
Record-to-Report
A strong leader with the vision and
mandate for change evaluates and
implements individual tools to begin
automating and streamlining the
existing record-to-report process.
Many organizations fear finance transformation projects. Horror stories of failed attempts
and the confusion of figuring out exactly where to start leave many quitting before they even begin.
Indeed, just getting started might be the hardest part. Continuous Accounting is not an all or nothing
proposition. It’s a step-wise journey. The best performing finance teams embrace this journey and
embark on it by building a culture of continuous improvement focused on enhancing technology,
process, and people that benefit the entire organization. They know that success means setting
goals and always adapting, innovating, and improving in order to meet them. Evaluate this maturity
model in the context of your organization’s specific needs and goals, and start building your future.
The Continuous Accounting
Maturity Model

13. The Blueprint for Continuous Accounting 13
Continuous
Processing
Best-in-breed software automation
supports increased volume and
complexity. This creates decision-
making autonomy for senior
accountants, and delivers a fast,
effective Close for the Controller.
Strategic
Accounting
Real-time visibility into granular
information frees accountants to
instantly research and fix issues.
No longer a Close-focused cost
center, Accounting is a strategic
partner to the business.
Continuous
Improvement
Looking for new ways to
use technology to parse
and automate logic-based
processes, hiring exceptional
accountants, and developing
a culture of continuous
improvement. Every day.

14. LEVEL 1
Legacy Processes
While technology has revolutionized the modern
business world, the record-to-report process
has remained unchanged since the days of
Lotus Notes and 18in paper. ERP systems and
spreadsheets are still the only traditional tools
available to today’s accounting and finance
professionals, and while this is accepted by
many as “the way it’s always been done,”
it results in a time-consuming, inefficient process
that is fraught with risk. Talented accountants are
spending most of their time performing rote tasks
that take them away from value-adding activities,
like the enhanced analysis and strategy that drew
them to this profession in the first place.
LEVEL 2
Modernized R2R
The Continuous Accounting model utilizes individualized
tools and integration to automate the record-to-report
process. The key to success is a combination of
technology, process, and people. An investment in
purpose-built technology to automate and streamline
existing processes must be led by a strong leader
with a vision and mandate for change. There is often
internal resistance to change, stemming from a distrust
of technology or simply not wanting to depart from the
familiarity of current processes. An empowered change
agent can create an understanding of technology
as a tool that not only delivers speed and accuracy,
but completely transforms the way accounting and
finance works as well.

15. The Blueprint for Continuous Accounting 15
LEVEL 3
Continuous Processing
Cutting edge, best-in-breed software provides extensive
automation and support for complexity and volume.
With this in place, the financial close is effectively
managed, issues are identified as they occur, and
analysis can be performed throughout the month.
All of the concerns that Controllers previously had
about overtime, incomplete work, errors, and not
completing the close on time are eliminated. Front-line
managers and senior accountants have broad autonomy
to balance workloads and make decisions. The road
to this point of the process is paved with questioning
conventional wisdom, challenging organizational
inertia, and rebuilding the R2R process with an
emphasis on real-time processing.
“We auto-certify 95-98%
of our 134,000 reconciliations,
and import more than 2 million
transactions every month
via matching. Being able to
utilize technology to make the
accounting and finance process
more manageable and more
efficient means we have time
to perform more analysis and
manage risk.”
SHAKORA DERIXSON, VICE PRESIDENT OF
FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING OPERATIONS
2,000,000+
Transactions
automatically
imported via
matching
every month

16. LEVEL 5
Continuous Improvement
All of this leads to an organization that is truly data-
driven. Work is broken down into smaller and smaller
segments, more automation is brought into play, and
reconciled and validated actuals are produced with
virtually no added work. Accounting and Finance are
constantly looking for new ways to use technology,
while real-time data and metrics are utilized to benchmark
success, coach professionals, and continually identify
little ways to improve. These small changes add up and
lead to a daily increase in efficiency and effectiveness,
encouraging a company-wide culture of continuous
improvement. Continuous Accounting puts you ahead
of the curve, and continuous improvement is your
investment into staying there.
LEVEL 4
Strategic Accounting
People are at the heart of innovation at every company,
and there is undeniable value in developing exceptional
accountants. This means empowering your people to
make decisions, expand their strategic and analytical
abilities, and maximize their skillsets. When staff
accountants are granted broad autonomy to regulate
their own workload and to identify, remediate, and
resolve issues, they will work collaboratively with limited
oversight. With the right tools in place, the financial close
becomes a non-event, rendered trivial by a combination
of technology and process redesign. The Accounting
organization shifts its focus to driving value for the
business, proactively identifying issues, and partnering
with other teams.

17. The Blueprint for Continuous Accounting 17
By embedding process standardization, technical automation, and constant analysis, the Office of Finance and its
team members advance beyond transactional accounting execution to become strategic partners to their business.
Continuous Accounting is not the destination, but a journey yielding continuous improvement in the quality, accuracy,
and efficiency of accounting operations. But, the first step is always the hardest. Here are six steps to get you started:
Building Your Future
STEP 1
Analyze Your Current State
What are your greatest challenges? Consider visibility
and efficiency gaps, determine risk exposure and ask
your staff accountants for help with identifying the most
painful, inefficient, and risky accounting processes.
STEP 2
Design Your Future State
Imagine the ideal state by playing the “What If” game to
design your plan for the future. Start with the low-hanging
fruit and areas with excess risk exposure. Then, identify
critical areas for regular review and proactive investigation.
STEP 3
Automate & Optimize Process
Split batch processes into smaller components, then
schedule those components more often and embed them
within daily activities. When your processes are improved
and standardized, automate wherever possible.
STEP 4
Monitor Metrics & Results
Leverage continuous activity to constantly review output,
and investigate alerts from flux analysis, exceptions,
and anomalies. Make adjustments as needed in real time.
STEP 5
Review Outcomes & Controls
On a quarterly or annual basis, review the
outcomes of your Continuous Accounting journey.
Discover macro trends and identify process and
control gaps. Compare successes vs. original
objectives – what worked, and what didn’t?
STEP 6
Improve Continuously
Combining the knowledge gleaned from the
Review stage, rinse and repeat. Return to Step 1
and focus on a more challenging tier of improvements,
targeting the risky and critical gaps.

18. The most successful process evolution projects start at the
bottom and work their way up. By breaking down any process
into its smallest components, opportunities for continued
automation and optimization surface organically.
Let’s take the process of reconciling a bank account as an example. Organizations in the early
stages of the Continuous Accounting Maturity Model likely manually tick-and-tie transactions to
complete reconciliations on spreadsheets, print them out, and store them in a binder somewhere.
An obvious first step to improvement here would be to adopt software for account reconciliations.
This helps streamline and control the process, but transactions are still manually matched and
reconciled, and correcting journal entries are created separately in the ERP, then attached to
support the reconciled balance.
Transform from the Bottom, Up
INTEGRATIONLAYER
POS
MERCHANT BANK
CREDIT CARD
PROCESSOR
BANK
BLACKLINE
MATCHING

19. The Blueprint for Continuous Accounting 19
The next step to improving this business process is to automate the processing of the detailed data behind the
account balance. Thousands of transactions make up high volume bank accounts, requiring manual ticking-and-
tying, a frightful process full of rainbow spreadsheets, macros, and confusion. Automating transaction matching
not only removes much of the pain associated with reconciling high volume accounts, but also makes exception
handling and categorizing transactions as reconciling items easier.
Once an organization begins modernizing their R2R process by centralizing account reconciliations and
automating transaction processing, automating logic-based, complex journals creates a comprehensive end-
to-end process. By leveraging journals management software, companies can unify journal entry creation and
posting across disparate ERPs and systems, and ensure correcting entries are always tied to the associated
reconciliation. This embeds consistency and control into the creation of journals, while ensuring instant visibility
into all reconciling items.
With transaction matching, automated journals, and account reconciliations, even historically resource-intensive
processes like reconciling high volume bank accounts can be run automatically and continuously, leaving only
exception handling to the capable, nuanced intelligence of exceptional accountants.
POST
ADJUSTING
JOURNAL
ENTRIES
Once this process – one of many – is automated and optimized, imagine
extrapolating these results across all reconciliations, journal entries, and
matching opportunities. This bottoms up approach allows organizations
to methodically and continuously improve over time. As new technology
is adopted, processes are improved, and people are empowered, the
entire business realizes unprecedented agility that enables intelligent
analysis and data-driven decision-making.
AUTO-CERTIFY
RECONCILIATIONS

20. Continuous Accounting is an exciting and novel approach delivering
incredible benefits for Accounting and Finance. Instead of reactive
operations, organizations and teams work proactively.
Instead of gross workload imbalances, work is distributed throughout the period,
freeing time for in-depth analysis and more value-adding projects. With unique
visibility into the current state of a company’s finances, company leadership,
and thus the entire business, realizes unprecedented agility.
The Future of Finance is Bright

21. The Blueprint for Continuous Accounting 21
A world where the CFO can walk into any meeting and provide real-time – not only up-to-date,
but up-to-the-minute – financial intelligence is achievable. Modernizing legacy record-to-report
processes is not an option. Any company that avoids transforming its finance function
is putting itself at risk.
Beyond the risks associated with out-of-date accounting and finance practices,
the increasingly complex nature of global business cycles means that companies that
are slow to modernize their accounting operations are at a competitive disadvantage.
The best performing finance teams know that success means always adapting, innovating,
and improving. This shouldn’t be discouraging. It’s inspiring. Every day can be better than the last.

22. Trust is in the Balance™
ABOUT BLACKLINE
BlackLine’s mission is to continuously improve
the quality, accuracy, and efficiency of Accounting
and Finance by centralizing key accounting functions
within a single, unified cloud platform. BlackLine
enables customers to move beyond outdated
processes and point solutions to a Continuous
Accounting model, which embeds real-time
automation, controls, and period-end tasks within
day-to-day accounting activities. As a result,
BlackLine helps companies achieve Modern
Finance and ensure an efficient and more accurate
financial close. More than 1,500 companies around
the world trust BlackLine to ensure balance sheet
integrity and confidence in their financial statements.
LEARN MORE & DOWNLOAD THE BLUEPRINT
FOR CONTINUOUS ACCOUNTING
BLACKLINE.COM/BLUEPRINT