BlackLine's cloud-based financial operations management platform unifyies data and processes, automating repetitive tasks and enhancing accountability. BlackLine solutions for financial close, accounts receivable, and intercompany accounting support large enterprises and midsize companies.
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Prophix
Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Prophix One, a Financial Performance Platform, is used to improve the speed and accuracy of decision-making within a harmonized user experience. To reduce complexity and uncertainty, the software offers automated insights and planning, budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and consolidation functionalities.
BlackLine's functionality is richer and broader. However, it is not as user-friendly as FloQast. I wish BlackLine would take on re-platforming the User Interface and Experience as a major initiative. This will enable BlackLine to explore new market segments such has High Tech …
Frontier is the product that we had before going to BlackLine. There are some parts of BlackLine that don't stack up well but overall BlackLine is slowing becoming the product of the future now that is is address some of the issues that have been a problem us - again have a …
I like that BlackLine has things built OOB versus in OneStream everything is configurable, which is a pro and a con but I mainly see it as a con. I like that there are recommended processes and configurations from BL OOB so our team doesn't have to figure everything out from …
BlackLine is more advanced with the SAP Connector that we are using from a timing perspective. Being a global company, they couldn't meet our volume requirements that we set forward.
The API functionality is one that was very important to our landscape, and they weren't ready …
BlackLine does not match reconNET for high volume transaction capabilities and does not have some of the additional modules leveraging the data e.g. cash sweep, research module, GL extract etc. BlackLine and Cadency are fairly even products. Both have advantages and …
I've just recently evaluated FloQast and was very intrigued with their product. Overall review is they don't have a budget/forecasting tool. This is a main piece of our business and doesn't hold up against Prophix.
I have used other budgeting and forecasting tools at different companies, and Prophix is a much easier product to use and implement. I have received better user feedback from Prophix compared to other tools I have used at other companies. Other tools lacked dashboard …
Prophix was the clear choice when evaluating multiple software applications. The concept of dimensions in Prophix allows the organization to generate reports of any kind and there is no request for a report that we have not been able to create. Having direct budget entry into …
I was not in the selection process; however, after using Adaptive at a former company, I feel Prophix is much easier from the user standpoint (especially for those who don't work in finance). The one pro of a tool like Adaptive, though, is that it is a Workday product so that …
We ultimately chose Prophix for its stronger automation features and direct relationship with CMiC. While Vena offers a similar set of capabilities, we found Prophix to be more intuitive, especially when it comes to creating and managing reports without heavy reliance on Excel. …
We carried out an evaluation with IBM, and some other national software that is not on the list, such as Lever Pro and Allstrategy. For IBM, our main problem was that the software representative wanted to sell something modular, thus losing all the functionality of a "blank …
We felt Prophix was much more flexible than Briq and offered a more solid financial reporting and budgeting package. Briq is more custom built solution-focused. They build solutions to fit your specific needs. The primary reason we went with Prophix is that we wanted something …
Prophix is much more advanced and has more capabilities to Quickbooks. It is more flexible, agile, and creative than these softwares. The automation is really what sets it apart from these type of software. Integrating directly with our ERP is something that is enormously …
I didn't select Prophix for our company, but it does some things very well. It is way easier to set up and maintain than Hyperion and BPC, which require ongoing support from our IT department. Prophix only requires us to involve IT when we need to map new external data or …
We chose Prophix because of their better service, their Canadian presence, cost and overall it seemed a better match to our needs. Workday seemed like it was for bigger companies and came at a higher cost.
I was not apart of the Prophix selection process or the initial implementation. Prophix has been a good tool for us to expand upon and grow and innovate with all of our enhancements. I have not used any other tools like Prophix, but it does have a lot of good features and …
I was not specifically part of the selection process, but it is my understanding that Prophix's security model played a big part in choosing the platform. Gaining efficiencies from processes that were previously done manually in excel was another driving factor. Additionally, a …
The learning curve to understanding Prophix is far less severe than it has been with other softwares. It requires much less time in order to learn how to be a beginning user and then each progression to deeper levels of understanding is remarkably easy. I appreciate the …
Workday seems as though it had similar features, price point was much higher. We selected Prophix because we had it many years ago before the cloud and several new features.
We compared Prophix with Board and Adaptive Planning. Prophix seemed to be much more user friendly when compared to Board. It was just a more robust product. It did stack very well with Workday Adaptive Planning, but what set them apart was that Prophix has a great …
Prophix works for our business and is flexible enough to work for a number of different types of business. We are able to work with Prophix to develop cubes that record out business needs and supply our budget holders with graphical data to support their reporting needs. The …
While all had similar features at the time of our evaluation, especially from the reporting standpoint. Prophix worked best for our zero-based budgeting model and the level of detail that we were looking to maintain. We also felt it was a better fit for our Dynamics GP …
BlackLine is well-suited for us when it comes to the bank reconciliations, as our systems feed right into BlackLine, and the various match sets reconcile the data effortlessly. BlackLine would work to its fullest extent if all departments utilized it, so you can take advantage of all the various products that are available.
Prophix is substantially out of the box product to be easy to use but flexible enough to allow for varied business modelling. No technical skills are required to deploy and maintain the solution. Owing to its out of the box nature, departing from Prophix sweet spot e.g. when leveraging transactional data, the solution is not as capable, however this is being addressed by the new Prophix release.
On the home page I can see Team Assignments usually first time not My assignments.
JV posting is slow.
Many error emails about failed JV with the same context.
We receive emails about task certification. Can we receive the list of reconciliations monthly?
Posted/prepared JVs cannot be deleted from the to-do list (there is only one extraordinary case, where we had a BL issue and the JV was booked but without a Document ID).
Version control; there are issues using the same budget version in multiple years if adding detail (line item detail). What Prophix has explained as a benefit is a huge detriment for us and we've been working with them for 6 months on a fix and it's yet to get resolved
There are certain aspects that a messy; within our budgeting and forecasting detail, we have "unexplained balance" lines that show up that are distracting and add no value.
Lack of a centralized location for content outside of tool; for example, training, help, support, intranet, etc are all separate websites and not easy to get to. I'm not sure why all of this isn't linked to the same account and accessible through the tool. Why should we need separate passwords for everything Prophix?!
Because this is a great tool with many possibilities and cool perks. Plus, as an admin - because I am both user and admin - I can say that this is easy to handle, you don't even have to be able to write a single piece of code to do so
The system works well for us, and meets all of our needs. All of our future plans can and will be achieved within Prophix, so there is no need to pursue another product. Prophix has continuously proven to improve their product over the years, which provides an even higher level of confidence in this tool, and future developments
There are some processes that we currently use that cannot be done in BlackLine. Our users don't want to change their processes or learn new processes even though it would make their jobs easier. We have very few users who have adopted BlackLine fully, and management has not made it a requirement to use the application.
The data can be sliced and diced many ways, and each user is able to do it however they like. It is easy to create or run existing reports. We have made many of our processes more efficient, and Prophix has allowed us to save more time than you can imagine. We are able to use Prophix for Expense tracking, Expense and Capital planning, reforecasting, Compensation planning, Project tracking, Expense allocation, GAAP PLOB reporting, and still have several more tasks to implement through Prophix
We never experienced an outage with BlackLine. The only time the system was unavailable was during planned outages for updates and upgrades usually Friday evening after 6pm pst until Saturday morning at 6am pst.
The availability in Prophix is relatively good. We have occurred random outages in different versions that wipe out data, which can be brought back. Or we have ran into system wide slowness that impacts all users in the system, but we have been able to get more capacity to supply our performance.
Prophix has always performed consistently. We are using on-premise so many factors can contribute to slower than desired performance, most having nothing to do with Prophix itself. If we move to the web-client cloud based solution I believe performance will even be better.
In my experience, the support team is beyond exceptional. They are incredibly knowledgeable and dedicated to the customer. You can expect prompt, professional and succinct responses. I have been working with the support team for BlackLine for more than ten years where I have been a customer four times. If anyone does Support right, it is definitely BlackLine. Not only can you trust your financials, but you can trust the team to support you through all your objectives!
The Prophix staff is very helpful and quick to respond. I like that they teach me instead of doing it for me when possible, so I don't have to contact them as often! Never talked to anyone at Prophix that I didn't respect or think highly of! Very professional, great customer service!
The initial integration consultant was very helpful in making sure we were set up with all the essential uses we required: reporting/budgeting/forecasting. There was a learning curve but our consultant made it very easy to understand and helped me be comfortable in my Global Admin role in the system. Even after integration, we were given support whenever I came up with an idea I would get in touch and I would be trained on how I can implement it.
Trainings are available for all topics on the BlackLine U portal. These were incredibly helpful when first starting with BlackLine to get the hang of it. Trainings are useful for any module. I have personally used this to teach myself how to use the tasks and variance modules, which are now fully utilized by my organization. The support team is also very helpful in training our team on anything additional we have needed.
We used our system and created a test cube to work with our own data. We ran through the different functions of Prophix and covered alot of material. We did two sessions a week, with homework tasks assigned. We were able to ask questions and cover any questions during the followup sessions.
You will have to meet up with your final users, approver, internal auditor and accounting policy holder. Everyone has to agree. When you have a well written process, workflow, policy, approval requirement, and control, your implementation process will be much easier
Planning, planning, planning. Prophix will send you some Excel spreadsheets ahead of implementation. If those spreadsheets are complete, implementation will be smooth. Also, set aside some time during implementation to work with the Prophix staff and ask lots of questions. The knowledge they share is invaluable.
I have not used any of the other products, but we did evaluate them during our discovery phase. BlackLine was the "Cadillac" of the product offerings. You could get a similar product, and maybe even at a lower cost, but we wanted the best of the best, and that's what BlackLine is. We wanted a product that we could grow into, rather than a product we would outgrow over time as our organization grows. We have only touched the surface with BlackLine so far, and we've already reaped the benefits.
I have used other budgeting and forecasting tools at different companies, and Prophix is a much easier product to use and implement. I have received better user feedback from Prophix compared to other tools I have used at other companies. Other tools lacked dashboard capabilities and account reconciliations.
After implementing BlackLine our company acquired another large company with multiple operations. We were able to use the COVID shutdown to bring them on board with BlackLine with little effort in the setup and training of the users.
I gave Prophix a 10 on scalability because we currently deploy the solution to department heads across our entire organization and never have any issues with those individuals using or accessing the system to look at their financial information within premade templates . They currently enter budgets and review reports within the system currently. The only issue is they cannot typically use the ad hoc functionality because that would require higher level licenses that cost more and it is not worth it to give them more costly licenses since they really aren't working in the system quite like the robust finance users
Ability to centralize certain functions across the team into one role, as opposed to having multiple team members perform the same function for their entities.
While not a negative impact, it's important to note that getting the best use of BlackLine is a time commitment. The time, resources, and energy you put into it will determine how successful you are at utilizing BlackLine to transform how your team gets the job done. This optimization journey is a continuous evolution and will not be an overnight transformation.
Prophix has made it possible to move away from some Excel reporting we were doing, which allows for 50% quicker reporting on a monthly basis.
Although it has saved us time, an improved PowerPoint feature that automatically updates our decks would save an additional 75% on top of what we already do.
Our Board Reporting has improved by 10 hours by moving our reports fully into Prophix.
