Elizabeth Milne, Accounting and Financial Close Expert, SAP
Molly Boyle, SAP Solutions Expert, BlackLine
SAP S/4HANA for central finance foundation (Central Finance) is a deployment option for SAP S/4HANA Finance, which accelerates implementation without compromising productivity nor disrupting the business. It is an S/4HANA system that receives financial accounting transactions via real-time replication from SAP and/or non-SAP ERP source systems.
Benefits of Central Finance include:
- Transparency – a single, central source of harmonized financial data for local, entity and group reporting
- Efficiency – integration, standardization and automation of business processes such as managing accounts payable, treasury, and other financial operations
- Simplification – one rationalized, and consolidated solution for transaction capturing, reporting, planning and consolidation
- Business Continuity – SAP and non-SAP ERPs are connected without disruption to SAP S/4HANA and can run as a digital business
So how does SAP Account Substantiation and Automation by BlackLine complement Central Finance?
Central Finance provides powerful data unification and reporting capabilities. This helps decision makers run a better, simpler business without having to wait for consolidated financial statements for a complete picture. Yet in order for the information in Central Finance to provide period end reporting, accounting organizations must close the books.
For most companies, this involves local accounting teams executing and performing a number of tasks, which are typically done at month end. These tasks are usually performed in disparate ERP systems before data is consumed into Central Finance. Typically, these tasks are manual, and they rely heavily on spreadsheets. SAP Account Substantiation and Automation by BlackLine complements Central Finance by streamlining and automating core close tasks like balance sheet substantiation, manual journal entries, and high-volume transaction matching. This improve the period close and allows for more complete, meaningful data to be pushed into Central Finance on a continuous basis.
Leveraging both Central Finance and SAP Account Substantiation and Automation by BlackLine together provides maximum transparency, efficiency, simplification and auditability to your financial close process.
A Blog Series to Answer Your Questions
There are a number of common questions about BlackLine and SAP and how our solutions work together. Please check out these blogs to answer them:
Check out the SAP S/4HANA Finance Reasons to Move on demand webinar series
https://www.sap.com/move-finance
There are specific deep dive session for SAP Solution Extensions by BlackLine
Register for "Establish Trust Across the Financial Close" to gain access to
Create More Efficient, Transparent, Trusted Accounting Processes: SAP Account Substantiation and Automation by BlackLine
Bring Governance and Automation to Your Intercompany Processes: SAP Intercompany Financial Hub by BlackLine
