11 BEST BlackLine Alternatives And Competitors: A Comparison

Review the top BlackLine Competitors and select the best BlackLine alternative for managing the entire accounting and finance lifecycle:

BlackLine is a unified cloud-based solution for accounting and finance. It can automate complex, manual, and repetitive accounting processes.

It has functionalities for orchestrating and automating the end-to-end financial close, accounts receivable, and intercompany accounting processes.

BlackLine Alternatives Review

BlackLine has the functionalities for managing the entire accounting and finance lifecycle. It is a centralized, secure, and reliable system. It offers the solutions for finance transformation, accounting process automation, close process management, balance sheet integrity, intercompany hub, and smart close for SAP.

Features:

• BlackLine is a solution specifically made for accounting and finance.
• It is built on a single codebase and deployed through the cloud.
• It provides comprehensive finance controls.
• It gives a consistent experience with a single sign-on. It eliminates the need for switching between multiple systems.

The below image provides more insights into this research:

Benefits of finance automation: Automating the finance processes and accounts payable increases operational efficiency, reduces errors, ensures consistency, and empowers teams.

Risks of finance automation: Consistent & effective oversight, strong internal controls, and well-built bots are the most significant factors for the proper introduction to automation.

Finance automation provides a lot of advantages but it also includes some risks which are as follows:

• Automation can cause some errors, and this can lead to reducing the accuracy of regulatory reports. This also includes the risks of fines, sanctions, or legal recourse.
• It is important to design the bots carefully, otherwise, it can impact IT infrastructure.
• Poorly designed and implemented finance automation can lead to incomplete reports or statements.
• This can also lead to reputational damage.

List of the Top BlackLine Competitors

Here is the list of some impressive BlackLine Competitors:

1. Record to Report Automation by Redwood (Recommended)
2. Planful
3. Workiva
4. FloQast
5. Vena
6. Oracle Cloud EPM
7. OneStream
8. Kenandy
9. Winshuttle
10. Sage Intacct
11. SAP ERP

BlackLine Cloud-based Solution

Comparison Of The Best BlackLine Alternatives

Detailed review:

#1) Record to Report Automation by Redwood (Recommended)

Best for automating the most amount of manual tasks across Record to Report.

Record to Report Automation by Redwood can either be deployed on-premises or as a cloud-based solution, that can help your team automate up to 90% of the time-consuming manual effort across the entire record to report process. It offers the highest depth and breadth of automation across these time sensitive tasks as possible.

It can be scaled easily to highly complex needs and automates both the tasks within ERP, as well as the multitude of tasks that reside outside of ERP systems. Uniquely it is intimately integrated within SAP, meaning that users do not have to take data out of SAP, manipulate information and pass back to the ERP.

Everything is done as if it is an actual user within the system. It has a catalog of ready-made financial tasks and connecting and assembling many processes becomes much easier with Redwood’s orchestration engine

Record to Report Automation by Redwood is a designed  from the ground up for highly reliable orchestration of critical finance applications and processes.

Features:

• Ready-to-use components, comprehensive orchestration, and process expertise.
• It will let you clone or edit entire processes.
• The solution provides the ultimate level of automation, up 90%
• Its ready-made catalog of tasks will help you to get started quickly and make setting up automation of the process much easier.
• The solution has built-in audit and compliance controls.

Verdict: You can create a seamless connection between the processes, to include human approvals and review cycles with the help of Redwood’s solution. It can be used for intelligent automation and to complete processes without human intervention, if required but of course wherever you need, you can intervene.

#2) Planful

Best for structured & dynamic planning.

Planful is a cloud-based Finance Planning & Analysis platform. It is an end-to-end solution with functionalities for financial planning, consolidation, and reporting & analytics.

It will help you build an agile organization and have an elevated financial IQ. It has reporting capabilities that can meet the needs of all financial, management, ad hoc, and regulatory reporting.

Features:

• Planful’s structured planning solution provides structure, control, and consistency for comprehensive planning, budgeting, & forecasting.
• It gives highly flexible and bespoke plans & models for dynamic planning. This feature is for empowering finance & business leaders.
• It has a tool for complete financial consolidation, including intercompany eliminations.
• It has a robust library of reporting formats and delivery options.

Verdict: Planful provides the benefits of elimination of manual processes, conducting ad hoc analysis, decreasing time to close, and many more.

#3) Workiva

Best for seamless orchestration of data among your systems and applications to get the transparent & trusted connected reports & compliance.

Workiva has solutions for accounting, audit, FP&A, Financial Services, and Legal teams. It helps with automating processes and taking control of data transformation and can automate tedious and manual tasks like gathering data and updating numbers. It can be connected to on-premise and cloud applications, actively & bi-directionally.

Features:

• One platform for connecting & preparing for financial statements, reports, presentations, etc.
• It makes the data accessible.
• With Workiva, all the disparate ERPs, GLs, and programs will be together on one platform.
• We can use it for building all the reports, including Statement of Cash Flows, Income statements & Balance Sheets, Global Statutory Reporting, SEC Reporting, etc.

Verdict: Workiva is an intuitive platform. It can provide a special combination of features and functionalities as per the requirements of teams. It has capabilities for automating repetitive tasks, orchestrating workflows, and turning the data & reports into reusable assets.

#4) FloQast

Best for streamlining & automating common accounting workflows.

FloQast is software for accounting workflow automation. It will accelerate accounting processes and you will always be audit-ready. It provides the functionalities for streamlining and automating common accounting workflows.

It provides at-a-glance visibility to track the progress towards an on-time close and identify the bottlenecks if any. It provides all the functionalities required by accountants.

Features:

• FloQast is an AI-driven account reconciliation solution.
• It has the capability of creating standardized Excel reconciliations in a single click.
• Excel reconciliations created by FloQast are presentable and fully auditable.
• Its Accounting Ops dashboard will help the FP&A teams with tracking the status of the Close.
• It has the features to document the processes in one place and this gives you improved collaboration and reuse.

Verdict: FloQast has solutions for close management, account reconciliation, FP&A, financial reporting, SOX compliance, and audit readiness. It provides out-of-the-box integrations and can be integrated with ERP and Excel workbooks.

Further Reading => Most Popular FloQast Alternatives to Look For

#5) Vena

Best for native Excel complete planning platform.

Vena is a planning solution that can convert your Microsoft Excel into the FP&A tool. For the FP&A it has functionalities for budgeting & forecasting, rolling forecast, Capex & Opex planning, revenue planning, and cost allocation.

It has solutions for financial close management, financial reporting, agile planning, sales performance management, regulatory reporting & compliance, workforce planning, etc.

Features:

• The solution helps with finance-led planning, extended planning, and beyond planning.
• It is a solution for tracking, planning, or analyzing in Excel and refining it.
• It is a platform with capabilities of templates, collaboration, security, and enterprise-level scalability.
• It provides drill-down features that will assist you with automating variance analysis and identifying discrepancies.
• It will let you build ad-hoc reports quickly.

Verdict: Vena is a cloud-based solution. It simplifies your key processes and can automate tedious tasks. You will uncover the hidden insights and dependencies between departments as financial, operational, and other business data can be integrated.

#6) Oracle Cloud EPM

Best for providing unified user experience and simplified administration over different business functions.

Oracle Cloud EPM is a solution with functionalities for modeling and planning across finance and streamlining the financial close process. We can use it for scenario modeling, long-range planning, budgeting, line of business planning, etc.

It helps with building transparent allocation models to get profitability analysis, shared service costing, IT financial management, and tax transfer pricing.

Features:

• Oracle Cloud EPM’s Enterprise data management feature includes the capabilities of data governance, changing data visualization, and hierarchy management.
• It has the features of narrative reporting.
• It has built-in functionality for the full spectrum of end-to-end close tasks.
• It has functionalities for automating account reconciliations and transaction matching.
• It has functionalities for Tax Reporting, Narrative Reporting, and Enterprise Data Management.

Verdict: Oracle Cloud Enterprise Performance Management is a framework of technical and functional components that are shared among cloud EPM processes.

#7) OneStream

Best for providing extensible dimensionality and financial intelligence.

OneStream is a platform that unifies the various corporate performance management processes, like financial consolidation, planning, and reporting. It is a solution for applying financial intelligence to large volumes of operational data and getting the trends and financial signals for informed decision-making.

OneStream contains a built-in understanding of accounts, currencies, ownership, etc. It offers the features and functionalities for the detailed line of business planning and reporting. Corporate standards are supported by OneStream.

Features:

• OneStream can be used for the most complex global consolidation and reporting requirements.
• It has functionalities for automating & accelerating the financial close and reporting process.
• Provides the features for aligning the financial and operational plans.
• It gives powerful data integration, validations, certifications, and audit trails.
• The tool provides financial intelligence and extensible dimensionality.

Verdict: OneStream is a truly unified CPM software. It gives financial & operational insights. Manual processes or standalone reconciliation solutions will get eliminated by the use of the OneStream Account Reconciliation solution. Organizations of multiple industries can use it. The time, effort, and cost of maintaining legacy applications will get reduced.

=> Check our Review of OneStream Alternatives Here

#8) Kenandy

Best for companies that are designing, manufacturing, and distributing the products.

Kenandy is a cloud ERP platform that is built on the Salesforce platform. It offers 150 business-ready objects for an end-to-end ERP.

It offers financial management software for manufacturers and distributors. It has the capabilities such as fixed assets & accounts payable and functionalities for the accurate management of quotes, pricing, and orders.

Features:

• Kenandy gives seamless, automated integration with operations and makes it convenient to get significant details.
• It has a feature of Accounts Receivable that will help you with the efficient management of payments by combining it with Salesforce CRM.
• You will get a 360º visibility of customer interaction across CRM with the help of this feature.

Verdict: Kenandy provides critical and real-time information that helps with the management of rapidly changing businesses. Kenandy’s General Ledger is highly automated and flexible. It provides powerful and easy-to-use financial reporting.

#9) Winshuttle

Best for automating SAP finance processes.

Winshuttle offers a finance and accounting solution for automating the SAP finance processes. It will not only digitize & streamline the processes across SAP FICO but also improve data quality, governance, and compliance. The platform has capabilities for finance automation, R2R (Record to Report), Asset accounting, and Accounts payable.

Features:

• For the R2R process, it offers all the functionalities, from G/L master data to journal entries and closing & reporting.
• Your asset accounting processes will get improved with this solution.

Verdict: Winshuttle can improve accounts receivable processes, such as billing, customer invoices, and sales orders. The solution gives you better, faster, and more efficient digital transformation.

#10) Sage Intacct

Best for cloud financial management software for small to medium-sized businesses.

Sage Intacct is an accounting and financial management software. It provides real-time, multi-dimensional reporting. Sage Intacct has AI-powered solutions. It will let you model with a powerful what-if scenario.

Suggested reading =>> Best AP Automation tools for Sage Intacct

Features:

• Sage Intacct helps with the quick consolidation of entries.
• It has functionalities for automating mundane tasks.
• For analytics, it provides over 200 pre-built visuals that can be customized.
• The solution contains the HR and Payroll features.

Verdict: Sage Intacct provides a native, bi-directional connector for planning with live financial data. It is an intuitive solution and provides interactive reports and dashboards.

#11) SAP ERP

Best for connecting all departments and functions using an ERP system with resilience & operational excellence.

SAP offers various products for ERP and finance, like FP&A, Accounting & Financial Close, Account Receivable, Billing, and Revenue management, etc. You will get the functionalities for planning, analysis, budgeting, and prediction on one platform. It includes business intelligence and predictive analytics. It can be integrated with SAP S/4HANA.

Features:

• FP&A solution provides the features of automated reporting, financial modeling, allocations, and smart insights.
• It helps with predictive planning through automated machine learning and augmented analytics.
• For accounting, financial close, and tax management, it will let you automate workflows.

Verdict: SAP ERP is a solution with functionalities for running the core processes through one platform that can include Finance, HR, Supply Chain, etc. It is a flexible, scalable, and maintenance-free platform and has built-in machine learning and digital assistants. It provides advanced analytics.

Conclusion

BlackLine is a unified solution for accounting and finance. It can automate complex, manual, and repetitive tasks but as per customer reviews, it doesn’t provide ease of use and setup.

Redwood Finance Automation, Planful, Workiva, FloQast, and Vena are the top-recommended BlackLine competitors. If compared to BlackLine, Redwood provides superior integration with standard applications like SAP, Excel, & email. It is easier to use, set up, and admin.

Research Process:

• Time taken to research and write this article: 26 Hours.
• Total tools researched online: 32
• Top tools shortlisted for review: 11

We hope these detailed reviews and comparisons will help you choose the right BlackLine alternative.