blackline system admin best practices

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Best Practices for Administration Roles

Sonia Luna, CPA, CIA Aviva SpectrumQuintin Dykes, BlackLine Solutions Consultant team

INTRODUCTIONS & SPEAKERSSonia Luna, CPA, CIA; CEO, Aviva SpectrumMrs. Luna CPA, CIA with over 16 Years in public and internal audit professional. Appointed to Smaller & Emerging Companies Advisory Comm. By the SEC. Mrs. Luna now leads the Aviva Spectrum financial transformation efforts with her clients regionally in the West Coast!

Quintin Dykes, Solutions Consultant, BlackLine

Mr. Dykes, has over 20 years of combined financial and accounting experience, 10 years within Corporate Accounting as a manager at UnitedHealth Group and 10 years at U.S. Bank in Corporate Accounting, Consumer Banking and Trust. He has worked on the Solutions Consultant team at Blackline for the past 3 years helping clients eliminate unnecessary manual activities during the close cycle.

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HOUSE KEEPING ITEMS

1) Answer polling Qs2) Complete Feedback form3) Q&A = chat session on bottom right

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Agenda & Outcomes

Best practice items for roles in:

1. Local Admin

2. Business Admin

3. System Admin

Action items to leverage or create your own “cheat sheet” when back to “work”.

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Polling Question• What is your PRIMARY BlackLine User ROLE?

A. Local Admin

B. Business Admin

C. System admin

D. Process Owner &/or Preparer/Approver/Reviewer

E. IT &/or Audit user

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List of 5…

1. Diligently enforce Due Date compliance

2. Enforce Account Grouping integrity

3. Develop a consistent new User onboarding process

4. Encourage BlackLine Team usage

5. Encourage Account Rules based assignments

For Local Administrators…

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Diligently enforce Due Date compliance Ensuring Due Date compliance is the first steps toward a robust, quality

account reconciliation (and month-end close) program.

Develop a culture that Due Date compliance is an integral part of each User’s responsibilities. o Due Date compliance is a “Must Have”, not a “Nice to Have”.

PTO should not be an excuse to missed Due Dates. For Local Administrators…

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Enforce Account Grouping integrity Groups should occur because an Accounting process impacts multiple

GL strings and/or one Supporting document package supports multiple balances.

Get Preparers and Approvers away from the notion that “less clicks = more efficient reconciliation process”.

Develop and publish expectations for Grouping requirements.For Local Administrators…

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Develop a consistent new User onboarding process Consistency is a primary building block of quality.

o Introductory emails alert new Users to documents, training and FAQ answers that facilitate a smooth transition to BlackLine success.

Leverage BlackLine U.

Create a Peer-to-Peer checklist for teams to convey shared knowledge to new team members.


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Polling QuestionWhat resource do you use to find BlackLine answers to your questions?

A. My friends/co-workers/other users

B. BlackLine Resources (BL U/Detailed Help/Community)

C. YouTube/videos online (free)

D. LinkedIn User Groups

E. My Boss/Manager

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Template – Onboarding (Sample)• BlackLine specific items

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Encourage BlackLine Team usage BlackLine Teams bolster Due Date Certification compliance and foster

team knowledge sharing.

Teams are crucial to Managers to help manage every changing priorities!


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Encourage Account Rules based assignments

Assignments, risk ratings, Template choices can be automated!


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List of 5…

1. Lead a Quarterly Quality Assurance Program

2. Publish Monthly Trend Reports

3. Publish Timely Certification Attestation Status Updates

4. Publish a Quarterly newsletter

5. Lead Quarterly Accounting principles reviews

For Business Administrators…

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Lead a Quarterly Quality Assurance ProgramSuggested topics to review: Reconciliation done on time?

o Set operational due dates separate from SOX due dates. Are all required Supporting documents attached (at the correct spot)? Are BlackLine functions leveraged?

o Correct template choice?o Purpose & Procedures populated with meaningful information?

Are required adjustments (R items) correctly identified and managed? Are related Accounting principals correct?

For Business Admin…

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Publish Monthly Trend Reports Distribute a rolling 12 month Trend Report to Management to publicize

the work effort and results going on within the BlackLine processes. Key metrics to report on include:

o # of reconciliations and licenses used o % of reconciliations certified on time.o # of R items (+ ABS) and # of R items > 90 days (+ ABS)o # of T items > 90 dayso # of Account groupso % of reconciliations with empty Purpose & Procedures boxes


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Publish Timely Certification Attestation Status Updates

Develop a standard template to report Certification progress to Management.

Report Certification progress during consistent times.

Use Key accounts to highlight reconciliations with more risk and Manager focus than the rest of the population.


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Publish a Quarterly newsletter Develop a newsletter as a method to cure program execution gaps and

highlight new aspects of the BlackLine platform that will help Users to do more with less effort but higher quality.

Suggested topics include:o What’s new?o FAQo Who to contact?o QA and/or Certification progress reportso Tips and Trickso Best Practices


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Lead Quarterly Accounting principles reviews

Develop Accounting reviews based on information contained in BlackLine.

Alternate reviews throughout the quarter to balance work loads. Suggested Review topics include:

o Abnormal balances (credit balance in Asset account & vice-versa).o Misc. Receivable/Accruals L items > 120 days.o R Items > 90 days.o Stale balances (GL balance hasn’t changed in 6 months).


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List of 5…

1. Lead ongoing data feed automation

2. Promote Auto-certification rule usage

3. Encourage custom account reconciliation certification frequencies

4. Develop a consistent new user onboarding process

5. Routinely check for BlackLine updates

For System Administrators…

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Lead ongoing data feed automation Account balance import scheduling:

o Each day: 2 months (current reconciliation period + current accounting period) via an automated feed.

o Work with Management to schedule the automation upgrade project for 2017 (if still importing balances manually).

See where Items imported into a reconciliation template can be automated.

See if there are opportunities to add automated sub-ledger balances into BlackLine.

For System Admin…

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Promote Auto-certification rule usage

Develop a semi-annual auto-certification review process.

Be sure Auto-certification process metrics are included in the Trend reports distributed monthly.

For System Admin…

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Encourage custom account reconciliation certification frequencies

Develop an annual auto-certification review process.

Ensure that each manual reconciliation frequency makes sense for the GL account type and the business performing the certifications!

For System Admin…

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Develop a consistent new user onboarding process

Coordinate with the Local Administrator on the new User onboarding process that begins with the System Administrator creating the User profile.

The process should be easy to perform but impactful for all new Users.

For System Admin…

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Routinely check for BlackLine updates Check Trust.BlackLine.Com for new system information.

Check the Community for new User information.

Understand how the BlackLine Customer Service Department can help you help your Users.

For System Admin…

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What’s inside “Trust BlackLine”• Trust

– Current Status – Status History– Web Requests– Response Time

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Next Steps…

• Embrace your role as a leader representing these topics to your organization

• Meet with your Management to discuss their thoughts on some of these topics

• Join “Free” user networks like……

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Community & Sharing

BlackLine Best Practices & Tactics

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7039150



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ROI Analysis – FREE!

Process review Module

ROI Assessmen

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[email protected]

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Questions? Let’s Connect:

Quintin Dykes, BlacklineSonia Luna, Aviva Spectrum