They’re overly expensive, can’t scale with change, and breed unnecessary risk.
From staff accountants to controllers and CFOs, the traditional way of getting accounting work done causes pain for everyone on the accounting team.
These challenges are further exacerbated in this era of the Coronavirus Pandemic, as F&A teams are working in a distributed environment and must maintain compliance and control.
  Top Challenges Facing Accounting Challenges Amid in Uncertain times Response:
1. Continuity is a concern, as most teams operate lean and rely heavily on tribal knowledge or a single resource to perform critical tasks.
2. A remote working environment is less efficient in the short term, as it’s not as easy to make quick decisions, understand status.
3. Some companies rely on paper files, binders.
4. Some companies don’t have laptops for all employees (remote shared service centers don’t always provide equipment for remote working).
5. Multiple meetings a day on top of normal meetings about planning for quarter end, what’s changing.
6. Quarter-end is essentially already here so there is very little time to plan.
7. Economic challenges are resulting in furloughs and layoffs, leaving A&F resources concerned about job security.
8. Audits and reviews must also be conducted remotely, which requires management of PBC lists, and both substantive and control testing to be reevaluated.
9. Financial reporting will be a significant challenge, as updating projections, risk factors, and other disclosures will require new information and analyses.
10. Tracking of required tax filings.
11. Continued adoption of required new accounting standards (revenue, leasing).
12. Tax incentives and other regulatory reactions to the pandemic are evolving rapidly and must be considered in results.
13. Key assumptions and inputs to accounting judgments and estimates are likely to change and will require additional effort and impact results.
14. Existing regulatory requirements (i.e. adoption of new accounting standards, filing of tax returns) will not go away, even if delayed.
15. All these new factors are adding more work to the plates of already busy accounting & finance teams, making it even more important for them to focus on what matters most.
Couple these new challenges with those already present with traditional manual accounting processes, and the need to modernize accounting processes has never been more urgent.
Recent world events have challenged companies in unprecedented ways, forcing them to rethink how they operate.
Modern Accounting needs to be redefined to adapt to times of uncertainty.
For accounting, this means adapting to a distributed workforce and virtually closing the books.
 BlackLine helps companies adapt to a virtual closing process that builds trust during this crisis and beyond:
1. BlackLine helps you to unify the processes to achieve consistency, control and efficiency.
2. Moreover, it supports collaborating from anywhere, promoting responsibility and association through visibility.
3. Finally, BlackLine makes adaptation to a virtual closing process achievable quickly, allowing Accounting and Finance Teams to focus on urgent and emerging challenges.
PROBLEMS FACING FINANCIAL AND ACCOUNTING TEAMS DURING THE CRISIS
1. Accounting teams must adapt quickly to close the books with a distributed workforce in times of uncertainty.
2. Many accounting teams rely on traditional manual accounting processes to close the books.
3. Reliance on spreadsheets, tribal knowledge, and in-person communication is not sustainable, now more than ever.
4. The “always-done way” introduces risks, as companies must quickly switch to working from home and still deliver complete and accurate results by a deadline.
The traditional manual accounting process is not sustainable.
Additionally, manual processes and legacy tools consume accounting.
Third, they are too expensive, they cannot scale with change, and they create unnecessary risk.
From accountants to controllers / regulators to CFOs, the traditional way of doing accounting work causes pain for all members of the accounting team.
Lastly, these challenges are further exacerbated in this era of the coronavirus pandemic, Finance and Accounting teams are working in a distributed environment and must maintain compliance and control.
HOW CAN BLACKLINE HELPS YOU
BlackLine Cloud Accounting software enables companies to virtually close a process that is unified, collaborative and achievable, from wherever you are working.
It also provides a foundation for secure closure [in uncertain times] by enabling a virtual closure process that is unified, collaborative, and achievable.
Even better, BlackLine can be accessed from anywhere, can be remotely deployed and optimized, and enables modern accounting.
It should be noted that a virtual closure is unified: it means building trust and clarity through process standardization and allows coherence, control and efficiency with distributed teams.
A virtual closure is collaborative: it means access to data, activities and progress.
Virtual closure drives accountability and partnership through visibility, allowing teams to work together and complete closure from anywhere.
Plus, a virtual closure is achievable – building a virtual closure can be done quickly for immediate impact.
Replacing traditional manual accounting processes allows modern accounting to focus on other urgent and emerging challenges.
By adopting modern accounting in uncertain times, companies can gain confidence, internally and externally. BlackLine provides a foundation that enables virtual closure that is unified, collaborative, and achievable.
BENEFITS
BlackLine helps organizations embrace modern accounting in uncertain times:
1. Delivers accurate results with confidence from anywhere.
2. Meets ongoing business needs and accounting requirements for performance analysis, planning, and decision-making in light of this new normal.
3. Also creates precision, control and consistency in each process.
4. Reduces errors and risk with standardized processes unified on a cloud-based platform with integrated workflow and controls across all accounting processes.
5. Drives accountability and partnership through visibility.
6. Greater visibility makes work more efficient, ensures confidence in the state of processes, and generates greater trust throughout the organization.
7. Also, get ready and run a remote. Manage PBC lists and share information efficiently and securely.
8. Finally manage tasks and documents. Preserve critical documents and track progress to close and other key Finance and Accounting tasks in one place.
