asurion and blackline systems

and BlackLine Systems

Asurion_Confidential

Michael Baas Director, Finance Systems

March 2016

2Asurion_Confidential

Agenda

Asurion

Issues & Opportunities

Why BlackLine

Implementation

Current State

Return on Investment

Future State


Over 20 years of innovation, leading provider of Support Services, Mobile Protection & Extended Warranties

Asurion Overview

Global Accounting OperationsAmericas – Nashville, TN (HQ) and Sterling, VAEurope – LondonAsia Pacific – Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, New Delhi, Seoul, Taipei, Beijing, Shanghai

Global and growing – 16,000+ global employees serving 275+ million consumers


Microsoft Dynamics A/X 2009 for ERP (in process of upgrading to 2012 R3/AX 7)

Asurion Finance Systems Overview

BlackLine for Reconciliations, Consolidation Integrity and Task Management

Hyperion for Planning and Reporting



Before BlackLine

Pre-Close Activities

Month-end Post Month-end Activities Reporting

Month end processes

Reconciliations

Tie-out ledgers to reporting

These issues created inefficiencies in our close processes along with a list of control gaps that

had to be corrected



1. Global, high level close deadlines issued before close to all of finance

2. Manual checklists for month end close

3. Audit requests were distributed via email in a spreadsheet and then emailed internally and externally

4. Tracking of completeness of account reconciliations was tracked in various spreadsheets

Tracking month-end processes prior to BlackLine



Balance Sheet Reconciliations Prior to BlackLine

94% of spreadsheets contain errors with 5% of cells having errors *

* Source: Panko, Raymond R.. “What We Know About Spreadsheet Errors.” Spreadsheet Research (SSR. 2 16 2009). University of Hawai’i. 27 Feb 2009

2. No tracking / visibility / accountability

3. No standard templates

4. Manual process of updating reconciliations

5. New accounts added for a fast growing business

6. Difficult to track deadlines and completeness of reconciliations

7. No efficient way to review reconciliations globally or share them with auditors

1. Spreadsheets



1. Multiple ledgers and a master file from Hyperion compared in spreadsheets (ignored smaller companies for materiality)

2. This process took hours and was too time consuming to repeat throughout close

Matching in Spreadshee

t

Reporting Trial

Balance

GL Trial Balanc

e - Japan

GL Trial Balance - Europe

GL Trial Balance – US

GL Trial Balance

– Australia

GL Trial Balance – Hong Kong

Prior to BlackLine: Matching our general ledger trial balance to our reporting system


Why BlackLine

• Functionality that we needed via the, Accounts (Reconciliation), Tasks and Consolidation Integrity modules

• Customizable calendars, deadlines and tasks

• 1 instance, accessible anywhere (SaaS)

• Centralized storage of reconciliation support and other documents

• Wide array of knowledge bases

• Customizable alerts and workflow

• Easy to update balances multiple times per day

• Standard templates (Bank, prepaid, accruals, sub ledger match…)


BlackLine Implementation

Software Search

late 2010

Implement U.S.

Q2 - Q3 ‘11

U.S. Live in Sept ’11

Added Sterling VA

location Q2 ’12

Europe/Japan Q3 ’12

APAC Q4 ’12 -

Ongoing

Initial implementations accomplished with Finance, little IT involvement and 3rd party consultant = $$$

Int’l locations implemented by 1 BlackLine Admin, very little IT involvement = $


Current State - Reconciliations

12 General Ledger Instances (11 – v2009, 1 – v2012)

160+ Entities

140,000+ Balance Sheet Accounts Monitored

4,000+ Accounts With Balances

2,100+ Reconciliations

155 Users

1 System Administrator, 1 Local Admin (Finance)


Current State - Tasks

• Monthly close checklists• Audit request tracking• Controls compliance sign-offs• System Admin and other tasks

Uses

• Tasks in central location and easily updated• Each task assigned (optional approval)• Task dependencies can be set• Emailed alerts (past due, workflow)• Document tasks in detail and attach other

documents as needed• Dashboard used to check status of tasks

Key Feature

s


Current State – Consolidation Integrity

Consolidation Integrity Reconciliation

Mapping file between

Reporting and Ledger accounts

Trial balance

from Hyperion reporting

Trial balance

from ledgers


Integration to BlackLine

ETL Server Location

BlackLine FTP Server

BlackLine Software

DAX Instances

SCHEDULED INTERFACESExtracts are scheduled across 8 of 11 AX 2009 instances.· U.S. Instance – 7 loads/day

during close· International instances load

3/day during close.

DAX Instances

MANUAL INTERFACESExtracts are run manually for 3 of the 11 AX 2009 instances 1/day during close.


Closing the Gap

Before BlackLine



Month end processes

Reconciliations

Tie-out ledger to reporting

With BlackLine



Month end processes

Reconciliations

Tie-out ledger to reporting

Tasks Module

Accounts Module

Consolidation Integrity Module


Return on InvestmentTim

eVi

sibi

lity

Improved Visibility• Balances and

explanations during month-end close

• Improved documentation of tasks/procedures

• Central database• 1 instance, accessible

anywhere

Time $avings• Reduced time for

reconciliations, system tie-outs and total month-end close time

• Less interaction time needed with auditors

• No manual update of spreadsheets

• Transition of reconciliations to new preparers

• Improved quality of reconciliations• Control gaps filled!• Reduced use of spreadsheets

• Reduced paper, storage, overhead, audit costs

• Reduced staff


Future State

Shorten deadlines to complete reconciliations Formal balance sheet preparation reviews Revisit certification thresholds (current levels

are very conservative) Further roll-out of tasks globally for month-end

close, audit and compliance tasks Increased utilization of Reporting module Implement future BlackLine functionality To Be Continued…

Faster

Efficient

Better Information

Asurion_Confidential

Thank you.


Questions?

Asurion.com

[email protected] of Finance Systems

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/michaelabaasPresentation access: Slideshare.net/MichaelABaas

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