BLACKLINE : MAKES LEADING FINANCIAL AUTOMATION SOFTWARE PLATFORM AVAILABLE TO GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SECTOR IN THE UK

Successful G-Cloud 9 Application makes BlackLine Available to over 36,000 Public Sector Buying Organisations through the UK Government's Digital Marketplace

LONDON, May 22, 2017 -BlackLine is bringing its flagship cloud platform for financial automation to the UK government's Digital Marketplace.This move will make it easier for government agencies and public sector bodies to benefit from the technology - ensuring better internal controls and achieving greater efficiencies for financial processes - without having to go through a full tender process.

'There has been a significant investment, especially by local government, in ERP systems recently - allowing organisations to implement new ways of working, and cut costs in the process,' said Andy Bottrill, Regional Vice President, BlackLine. 'Establishing shared services centres has been an important step. For these organisations, accuracy and transparency are now more important than ever. BlackLine enables Finance & Accounting teams to accelerate the close process, whilst gaining confidence in the accuracy of the data, developing real-time insight and securing immediate access to information that substantiates transactions.'

If not using cloud services, traditionally Finance & Accounting departments - both in the public and private sectors - rely on spreadsheets to operate and link the elements of the finance processes. Even with ERP systems in place, many teams still have to go through the close process manually before being able to start consolidating. This spreadsheet based approach is time-consuming, prone to human error and can lack transparency.

BlackLine's Finance Control and Automation Platform is built specifically for accounting and finance. It enables customers to move beyond outdated processes and adopt a Continuous Accounting model. By automating functions like account reconciliations, variance analyses and transaction matching, among others, accountants don't have to wait for month end to close the books. In addition, process automation allows accountants to gain peace of mind regarding missing or incorrect data, as the system automatically raises alerts when a job has not been completed or lacks all necessary supporting data - dramatically reducing the risks that come with handling financial data.

In the public sector perhaps even more so than for private companies, it is mission critical to avoid inconsistencies in financial reports. In this context, tightening controls and moving beyond the manual record-to-report process are two of the obvious benefits of adopting financial automation.

About the UK government digital market place

Launched in 2012, the UK government's G-Cloud programme provides public sector bodies with an easy way in which to procure cloud-based services. The scheme simplifies the rules that public bodies must follow to award contracts to suppliers, saving considerable time and money.

Just like in the private sector, public organisations have many incentives for moving to the cloud - improved security, privacy and control, flexibility gains and the ability to scale services rapidly when required. While there is willingness among local government and wider public bodies to implement these kinds of technologies, initiatives for change have long been slowed down by red tape and a complex tender process. The Digital Marketplace simplifies the process to allow government organisations to redefine their business, and deliver the improved transparency and efficiencies that are high on the public sector's agenda.

BlackLineis a provider of cloud-based solutions that transform Finance and Accounting (F&A) by automating, centralizing and streamlining financial close operations, intercompany accounting processes and other key F&A processes for large and midsize organizations. Designed to complement ERP and other financial systems, BlackLine's cloud platformincreases operational efficiency, real-time visibility, control and compliance to ensure end-to-end financial close management and accounting automation.

BlackLine's mission is to continuously improve the quality, accuracy and efficiency of Finance and Accounting by centralizing key functions within a single, unified cloud platform. Enabling customers to move beyond outdated processes and point solutions to a Continuous Accountingmodel, in which real-time automation, controls and period-end tasks are embedded within day-to-day activities, BlackLine helps companies modernize accounting operations with intelligent automation, ensuring more accurate and insightful financial statements and a more efficient financial close. More than 1,800 companies with users in over 130 countries around the world trust BlackLine to help ensure balance sheet integrity and confidence in their financial statements.

BlackLine is recognized by Gartner as a Leader in its 2016 Magic Quadrant for Financial Corporate Performance Management (FCPM) Solutions and as a pioneer of the Enhanced Financial Controls & Automation (EFCA) software category.

Based in Los Angeles, BlackLine also has regional headquarters in London, Singapore and Sydney. For more information, please visit www.blackline.com.