BlackLine Systems, Inc., is an American enterprise software company that develops cloud-based services designed to automate and control the entire financial close process. The Los Angeles–based company has 17 offices worldwide.

History

BlackLine was founded in 2001 by

Therese Tucker Therese Tucker is an American businesswoman, the chairman, CEO and founder of BlackLine, an enterprise software company with a market cap of $2.17 billion as of 2018. Early life She has a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Mathematics fr ...

, a former CTO at SunGard Treasury Systems. The initial goal was to help customers replace their use of

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with a suite of accounting software. The company functioned with no outside funding until 2013 when the private equity firm,

Silver Lake Partners Silver Lake is an American global private equity firm focused on investments in technology, technology-enabled and related industries. Founded in 1999, the firm is one of the largest technology investors in the world. Its investment holdings have ...

invested more than $200 million in the company. Blackline reached an agreement to form a strategic alliance with the financial consulting firm

McGladrey RSM US LLP is an audit, tax, and consulting firm focused on the middle market in the United States and Canada and is a member of the global accounting network RSM International. It is the fifth largest accounting firm in the United States and emp ...

, in 2015. As part of the alliance, the companies began offering a ''business process as a service'' (BPaaS) platform. The company's IPO was October 28, 2016; they're listed on the

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

under the symbol BL.

Runbook acquisition

In September 2016, the company acquired its European competitor, Runbook for $34 million. Runbook marketed a '' dashboard'' software application program for SAP; before it was acquired by Blackline. The software's "automation of recurring financial processes" adds "visibility and transparency" and strengthens "internal controls and compliance documentation" of data maintained by SAP.

SAP agreement

In 2018 Blackline reached an agreement with SAP for the latter "to resell BlackLine's .. cloud-based finance and accounting solutions" as part of "SAP Solution Extensions."

Rimilia acquisition

In October 2020, the company acquired UK-based accounts receivable automation company Rimilia for $150 million. Rimilia's cloud-based SaaS platform "uses AI to accurately apply payments to customer's invoices with any ERP system".

Operations

Blackline provides software for more than 4,000 companies including Costco, Netflix, Coca-Cola, JetBlue Airways, Google, Kraft Heinz, Under Armour, Sirius XM Holdings. The company creates enhanced financial controls, in contrast to basic general ledger applications. BlackLine's software manages financial data, reconciles balances from sub-systems, ensures accurate and complete closings, and monitors regulatory controls through a system known as continuous auditing. The company's software is cloud-based, primarily running on the

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, and meets ISO 27001 standards.

References