Case Study: Franklin Resources streamlines global account reconciliations and achieves 191% ROI with BlackLine

Better visibility and transparency into the close process for SOX purposes

Franklin Templeton, a global investment manager, faced a fragmented, Excel-driven month-end reconciliation process with regional format differences, limited visibility into close progress, manual SOX sign-off workarounds, and time-consuming post-close transaction matching. Because all GL accounts were reconciled monthly and many were deemed high risk, the corporate accounting team often worked overtime and struggled to prioritize truly high‑risk accounts early in the close.

The firm deployed BlackLine in a phased rollout—including Transaction Matching and a new global risk‑profile framework—using a train‑the‑trainer approach to scale globally. The solution eliminated many manual Excel processes, enabled daily matching and faster exception resolution, cut printing and storage, reduced high‑risk accounts by ~50%, shifted work to lower‑cost locations and lowered headcount, and strengthened SOX controls. Financially, Franklin Templeton achieved a 191% ROI with a 1.3‑year payback and cumulative net benefits of roughly $1.9M by year three.

Franklin Resources