BlackLine adopts predictive AI capabilities to combat transaction errors
Accounting software firm BlackLine has released new software capabilities aimed at improving intercompany transactions and reducing errors.
Financial software provider BlackLine has announced new software aimed at minimising the time and resources spent processing intercompany transactions.
BlackLine’s Intercompany Predictive Guidance is built on a machine learning model that analyses an organisation’s transactional data.
The applied AI then predicts where issues are likely to arise and pose a risk to financial close processes and data accuracy – before the transactions are booked.
It highlights high-risk transactions, explains risk factors, shows accounting teams where immediate corrections are possible, and provides guidance for future transactions.
“Using Intercompany Predictive Guidance, companies can dramatically reduce, or in some cases eliminate, their transaction failures, achieving significant time and cost savings,” the software provider said.
BlackLine founder and co-chief executive Therese Tucker said the Intercompany Predictive Guidance leverages the power of AI to help solve the real-life challenges these teams face daily, making them less reactive and freeing them up to focus on strategic work.
HFS Research chief strategy officer Don Ryan said intercompany reconciliations overwhelm most accounting teams with their high volume, frequent data inconsistencies, significant administrative and manual work, long lead times, and stringent compliance and regulatory risks.
“Using AI solutions like BlackLine’s Intercompany Predictive Guidance to reduce error rates can save significant costs and enhance the reputation of companies of all sizes,” said Mr Ryan.
Intercompany Predictive Guidance will initially be available for BlackLine’s Intercompany Non-Trade solution, which manages and automates services-related transactions.
BlackLine’s intercompany non-trade solution provides pre-configured billing routes designed to automate journal entries and produce tax-compliant invoices for challenging service-related expenses.
“Applied AI enables you to predict transaction problems before they occur, eliminating time-consuming cleanup, reducing risk, and boosting efficiency,” the company said.
The software also enables accountants to produce settlement-ready transactions and actionable intercompany insights at faster speeds.
BlackLine noted that intercompany transactions can often represent tens of millions of transactions each month and can have a value up to 10 times a company’s reported revenue.
“These transactions frequently span geographical borders, currencies, and ERPs. Given their inherent complexity, compounded by data quality issues and omissions, intercompany transaction failures are an issue organisations simply cannot ignore,” it said.
“Failures result in billing, invoicing, reconciliation, and settlement delays while adding time, inefficiency, and frustration to an organisation’s intercompany operations.”
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