New BlackLine AR Intelligence Optimizes Working Capital

Accounting automation software leader BlackLine, Inc. (Nasdaq:BL) has unveiled BlackLine AR Intelligence, the latest offering in its portfolio of accounts receivable (AR) automation solutions designed to complement and enhance its platform more broad management of financial operations. BlackLine AR Intelligence empowers clients to manage financial risks and opportunities by giving them access to real-time, actionable data to help them understand their clients’ financial behaviors and use the insights to influence strategic and operational decision-making. .

Receivables management and overall assessment of customer payment behaviors have never been more critical than in today’s economic climate. Businesses need to make decisions based on accurate, real-time information. BlackLine AR Intelligence takes the strategic value of BlackLine’s AI-powered treasury application solution to the next level by leveraging real-time data and combining it with powerful analytics to improve critical decision-making across the company.

“Today more than ever, business resilience and cash management are at the heart of our priorities. BlackLine AR Intelligence provides our clients with a deep understanding of financial risks and opportunities within their client bases, unlocking data that was previously inaccessible to them or that took days and weeks to generate manually,” said Kevin Kimber, Managing Director of Global Accounts for BlackLine. receivables business unit. “BlackLine AR Intelligence provides real-time credit, debt, and sales insights that not only benefit accounts receivable, credit management, and order-to-pay departments, but also other stakeholders in high-level such as the CFO, Office of the Controller, Treasury and even the CRO/Sales team, enabling companies to reduce risk, improve forecasting, optimize working capital and increase revenue by accurately analyzing customer payment and credit behavior.

Over $187 billion in payments were applied through the BlackLine Cash app in 2020. By adding BlackLine AR Intelligence, customers get critical business insights to manage risk, cash flow and collections, plus analytics and real-time reports. Preconfigured interactive dashboards display key information such as:

Customer behavior information: Data on sales and payment performance, such as sales billed per month and cash per month, and the correlation/variance between the two.

Terms of payment v. Cash collected: Ability to track and measure payment terms, outstanding balances, collected cash, and customer debt positions and see how customers are actually paying against those terms.

Payment forecast: Ability to forecast weekly receipts and measure accuracy using real-time data on customer payment behavior.

Sales ledger analysis: An analysis of the relationship between the volume of customers and the value of outstanding debt, eg debt by value, number of invoices by value, number of customers by value.

Use of the bank: Ability to see customer accounts linked by same bank details or sales ledger accounts linked by payee details to see how customers are paying and for which accounts, providing insight into overall exposure/risk .

Days of outstanding sales (DSO): Automated calculations around the time it takes to collect payment, such as cash collected last month, customers by balance, most indebted customers and debtor’s daily value per month.

“BlackLine AR Intelligence is a natural complement to our Cash Application solution, fulfilling our vision to be the most indispensable platform for the controller,” Mr. Kimber added. “Coupled with the ability to connect everything to our market-leading financial close platform for currency adjustments, intercompany treasury, bad debt reserves and suspense accounts, we are redefining the way AR work is done and unlock new strategic value for our customers.

Here’s what customers are saying about their experience with BlackLine AR Intelligence:

• “A strategic review and a dynamic approach to collections. I haven’t seen any other solution to get to this level of data.
• “Improves operational performance to see issues that would normally be overlooked because we don’t have the data.”
• “Very powerful and easy to use; of great value to us, especially from a management point of view.
• “I love that we thoroughly and quickly assess what’s going on within our customer base.”
• “The real power is having all the data at your fingertips rather than spending hours creating reports.”

After October 2^n/a, 2020 announcement of its acquisition of Rimilia, BlackLine is actively expanding its capabilities in the AR automation space. BlackLine AR Intelligence is designed for use with the BlackLine Cash app and is one of many upcoming AR automation offerings. To learn more, register for the upcoming Modern Accounting Summits and attend a series of sessions dedicated to AR automation, cash application, and AR intelligence.