- SAP Managed Tags
In today's fast-paced business environment, Finance departments face numerous challenges in their record to report processes.
People – CFOs are facing significant talent shortages – and young entrants into the workforce expect more modern working environments
Process – multiple process variants, lack of standardization, and reliance on manual steps leads to error prone processes and inaccurate data, eroding confidence
Technology – over-customization has led to technical debt, and disparate data sources leads to expensive integration and high reconciliation efforts – an expensive set of solutions
As companies grow and evolve, the complexity of financial reporting increases, demanding more robust systems and processes and empowered teams. This blog will explore some of these challenges and offer insights into how Finance departments can overcome them to achieve a gold-standard record to report process.
The numerous challenges in the record to report process include significant talent shortages, inaccurate enterprise data, and costly solutions. Often finance teams struggle with dealing with multiple sources of transactions and manual processes. And the set of systems isn’t static and may evolve over the years.
Enter the "Gold Standard" for record to report, a suite of solutions that will set your team up for success. The Gold Standard is comprised of SAP solutions and SAP financial close solutions by BlackLine - that work together seamlessly to deliver a great experience for your finance team.
The SAP financial close solutions by BlackLine provide unique capabilities that have been premium qualified to SAP product standards and with integration scenario testing to confirm interoperability with SAP solutions. These addons support the following use cases:
- Journal entry: automatically create and post journals to SAP S/4HANA, and potentially multiple other ERP systems, using standardized templates and workflow processes to prevent errors; substantiation documentation is automatically included.
- Transaction matching: ingest detailed data from multiple sources, automatically matching transactions and eliminating error-prone manual handling with logic that automatically identifies repeat exceptions.
- Financial review: review financial statements and conduct variance analysis efficiently at the entity or group levels with clearly defined ownership of explanations, reviews, and control certifications.
- Substantiation: automate the load of reconciliation-supporting items and increase efficiency with auto-reconciliation rules and standardized reconciliation templates.
- Intercompany: deploy a proactively managed intercompany process, including templates for origination of non-trade transactions, reconciliation, netting, and settlement.
Data is then further processed via SAP Group Reporting and financial reporting tools. Additional visibility and intelligent orchestration of the entire process is provided by SAP Advanced Financial Closing.
These use cases combine creating the gold standard – an improved architecture that connects and unifies people, processes, and technology. Labor-intensive financial close and compliance processes are automated, routine manual tasks are reduced or eliminated, and visibility and standardization are improved. Intelligent workflows help accounting and finance teams focus on high-risk areas and support ongoing business strategies and policies.
Proven Business Value
What are the positive effects companies that have adopted the gold standard approach as a part of their digital transformation? SAP and BlackLine have co-sponsored a report quantifying these benefits*:
- People – 45% fewer days required for journal entry completion
- Process – 25% improved reporting accuracy
- Technology – 621% ROI with excellent project payback
*Source: IDC Business Value Snapshot, sponsored by SAP and BlackLine, The Business Value of SAP Financial Close Solutions by BlackLine, doc #US53204425, Feb 2025.
When should finance teams think about adopting the gold standard?
The SAP financial close solutions are a set of capabilities that can be deployed regardless of where your finance team is in their landscape transformation:
- If you don’t plan to move in the next years? That’s fine – you can use standard integration to SAP ECC or older releases and your team can benefit from automation and best-practice approaches to accounting operations already. When you’re ready to move forward one day, you’ll already be in a good position.
Customer Success Examples:
"Allowed upfront introduction of a best-in-class process technology which in turn drove standardization and improved controls." – Consumer products customer
| "The SAP financial close solutions by BlackLine have improved control, compliance, and the standardization of intercompany processes across a large organization with over 800 legal entities and a complex intercompany environment across multiple ERPs. The solutions provided efficient workflows, automated postings, and documented approvals." - Professional services customer |
- If you’re moving to RISE? Great! By automating manual tasks, you can lessen the impact of the close on your finance teams and give them more time to support the transformation. You will also have a “safe haven” for your substantiation details in BlackLine during the transition.
"Enabled tremendous scalability of accounting resources and activities." - Healthcare customer "Enabled seamless integration with SAP software, allowing the streamlining of all closing tasks performed." – Consumer products customer | "The SAP financial close solutions by BlackLine were implemented in advance of the move to SAP S/4HANA enabling a control environment that validated the results of account balances migrated from the old ledger to the new." – Financial services customer
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- If you’ve already reached your target architecture? Congratulations! Your team can still benefit from AI innovations and the additional control provided by solutions for financial close in a highly automated approach.
"Increased efficiency through automation and had the additional benefit of leading to greater accuracy because fewer manual error-prone processes were needed. They also saved this customer a lot of rework." – Oil & Gas customer | "Provided a holistic solution completely complimentary to SAP S/4HANA. The solution extended beyond account reconciliations and was managed by the Finance team." – Consumer products customer
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Want to learn more? You can read more at sap.com or get in touch with me!
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