This document provides an overview of BlackLine Systems and their financial close automation software. It discusses how the software can help shared service centers overcome common challenges around the financial close process. It then presents a case study of Albemarle, a specialty chemical company, and how they have benefitted from implementing BlackLine's software across their global accounting operations. Key benefits for Albemarle include increased process standardization, improved visibility and controls over account reconciliations and journal entries, and significant time savings.

1. CREATE AUTOMATED
WORKFLOW & ACHIEVE
BALANCE SHEET INTEGRITY

2. • BlackLine Systems Overview
• Discuss common challenges shared service centers face around the
close and how technology can help companies ensure integrity of the
balance sheet and financial reports
• Albemarle Case Study
AGENDA
2

3. BLACKLINE SYSTEMS
OVERVIEW
Susan Parcells
Director, Finance Transformation & Product Expert
BlackLine Systems
Follow along via
Twitter Handle:
@SusanParcells

4. ABOUT BLACKLINE
• Global headquarters in Los Angeles with regional main offices
in London and Sydney
• 800+ clients (many in the Fortune 500/Global 1000) and over
85,000 users worldwide
• First to market and offer software to automate the entire
financial close process
• BlackLine Certified Implementation Professionals all around the
world
• First account reconciliation provider with a SOC1 (SSAE 16),
SOC II, & SOC III independent audits & ISO 27001 certification

5. • The BlackLine Financial Close Suite for SAP® Solutions is
an SAP-endorsed business solution and is the only financial
close solution to achieve this
• Solutions endorsed by SAP are complementary to SAP
software offerings, have been specifically integrated with
SAP solutions and tested by SAP
• BlackLine’s SAP Connector seamlessly integrates BlackLine
to SAP Financials
SAP PARTNERSHIP

6. • REAL-TIME MONITORING AND REPORTING
• CONTROLLED PROCESS
• DATA INTEGRITY & INTEGRATION
• SIMPLE, SECURE SaaS SOLUTION
BLACKLINE FINANCIAL CLOSE SUITE

7. SHARED SERVICE CENTERS – A
QUEST FOR CONTINUED
SUCCESS

8. 8
PROCESS EXCELLENCE
SERVICE EXCELLENCE
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Shared Service Centers
A Quest For Continued Success

10. HOW TECHNOLOGY CAN
HELP SHARED SERVICE
CENTERS OVERCOME THESE
CHALLENGES

11. BLACKLINE PROCESS

12. HOW FINANCIAL CLOSE SOFTWARE
CAN HELP SHARED SERVICE CENTERS
– Standardized policies, procedures and systems
• Standard reconciliation templates
• Ability to associate respective policy and
procedure to each reconciliation or task
– Transparency
• Real time dashboards and reporting on status of
reconciliations, close tasks and journals
• Proactive email alerts
– Clear ownership over activities
• Workflow - All account reconciliations are assigned
a preparer and approver (2nd level reviewer is also
available)
• Certification audit trail
PROCESS
EXCELLENCE
SERVICE
EXCELLENCE

13. HOW FINANCIAL CLOSE SOFTWARE
CAN HELP SHARED SERVICE CENTERS
– Visible metrics/KPI’s
• Dashboards, reports, alerts
• Access available to service center and
management
– Timely feedback on performance
• Various reviewer type roles available
• Evaluations
– Easy to set up and manage
• Flexible
• Configurable
– Easy to use
• Intuitive
• Training available 24/7
CONTINUOUS
IMPROVEMENT
NEW
TECHNOLOGIES

14. ADDITIONAL BENEFITS
• BlackLine can be used for entire balance sheet (pre-paids,
accruals, bank, sub-ledger, debt, equity, etc.)
• Auto-certification of low risk reconciliations
• Templates-based process for standardization and quality
• Supporting documents – can be saved/accessed from
within the system
• Approval workflow – multiple levels with flexible scheduling
• Automated e-mail alerts for proactive notification/monitoring
• Reporting for real-time status updates
• Centralized, global access – anywhere, anytime
• Multi-currency AND multi-language (available in 15 languages!)
• Easy integration with existing ERP, GL systems

15. Albemarle Case Study
Andrea Balázsi-Vörös
Accounting Team Lead
Albemarle

16. 16
Albemarle & BlackLine
Budapest, July 2014
Andrea Balázsi-Vörös, Accounting Team Lead

17. 17
Agenda
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Albemarle Overview
• Before BlackLine
• Why BlackLine?
• Where we are now?
• BlackLine in numbers
• Benefits / ROI
• Plans for the future
Agenda

18. 18
18
• 2013 Revenue $2.6 billion
• Leading specialty chemical company
– Catalyst solutions
– Performance chemicals
• Over 4,100 employees globally
• Serves customers in over 100 countries around the World
• Accounting operations
– Americas (Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA)
– Europe (Budapest, Hungary)
– Asia (Dalian, China)
Albemarle Overview

19. 19
Before BlackLine
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• No streamlined process for account recons
• No appropiate ownership of accounts
• No standardization of processes
• Recons performed manually
• Journal entries and supporting
documents printed on papers
• Files stored locally
• Time consuming approval process /
audit
• Hard to control
• Lack of confidence in recons /
approvals done completely
Before BlackLine

20. 20
Why BlackLine?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Flexibility to import open items and journals
directly from SAP
• Different modules (Account recons, Journals
and Tasks) at the same place
• Different roles settings
• Automatic e-mail notifications (Alerts)
• Possibility of group accounts / auto-certifications
• Better policy compliance management
• Ability to access site anywhere (with internet access)
• Online trainings
• Userfriendly system
Why BlackLine?

21. 21
Where we are now?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• BlackLine Accounts module implemented in Q4 2010
– Gradual induction
– All accounts imported by Q2 2011
• BlackLine Journals module implemented in Q4 2011
– Workflow approval electronically
– Supporting documentation in one central place
• BlackLine TaskS module implemented in Q2 2013
– closing and non closing tasks for RTR (Finance) and PTP
Where we are now?

22. 22
BlackLine in numbers
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• ~4,700 accounts
• 250 groups
• Over 100 users
• Average 1500 JEs / month
• Over 500 tasks
BlackLine in numbers

23. 23
Benefits / ROI
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Better quality
• More consistent data in less time
• Global visibility on account recons
• Central repository for recons and journal entries
• Much simpler and efficient review
• Save an enormous amount of time
– Directly
– Indirectly
• Aid in comliance with SOX
• Supplying documentation to the auditors
much simpler
Benefits / ROI

24. 24
Plans for the future
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Implement custom frequencies for
account recons
• Standard account descriptions and recon procedures accross the
globe
• Roll out the Tasks module globally
• Implementation of additional BlackLine modules
– Variance module
Future plans

25. 25
Questions?
Any questions?

26. 26