BlackLine, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the second quarter 2020 Backline Earnings Conference call. At this time, all participants' lines are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during this session, you'll need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Ms. Alex Geller. Vice President of IR. You may begin.

Good afternoon, and thank you for your participation today. With me on the call is Therese Tucker, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Blackline, Mark Huffman, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Mark Parton, Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I would like to note that certain statements made during this conference call that are not historical facts including those regarding our future plans, objectives, and expected performance, in particular, our guidance for Q3 and the full year, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements represent our outlook only as of the date of this call. While we believe any forward-looking statements we may make are reasonable, actual results could differ materially because the statements are based on our current expectations as of today and are subject to risks and uncertainty, including those stated in our periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, in particular our Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, as well as risks related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the related responses by government and private industry, including macro and regional economic risks. We do not undertake and expressly disclaim any obligation to update or alter our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Also, unless otherwise stated, all financial measures disclosed on this call will be non-GAAP. A discussion of why we use non-GAAP financial measures and information regarding reconciliation, Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us today.

As you know, the last several months have been unusual for companies and people everywhere. Given the challenges our customers and employees have been facing in this difficult environment, I was very pleased by our team's ability to stay focused, execute, and drive performance in Q2. We saw the demand environment improve throughout the quarter as companies around the world once again began to fund their mission-critical initiatives. We believe the demand for back-end finance automation will benefit Blackline as a market leader during this difficult COVID environment. As a result, Blackline's performance in the quarter was better than expected. As the pandemic continues, it is becoming increasingly clear there is a new normal for a distributed workforce. These circumstances have exposed the limitations of traditional manual processes and put a spotlight on the back office, an area that has historically been overlooked and underinvested in. This new environment is particularly challenging for accounting and finance professionals who are now forced to manage manual and paper-based processes in a remote world. Legacy accounting processes weren't sustainable in a pre-COVID world, and this pandemic has made them even less so. Last quarter, Many accounting and finance professionals underwent their first ever remote close. At that time, I doubt many of them thought we would still be operating in a distributed workforce, and even fewer considered the possibility that their year-end close would be remote as well. Today, that outcome has become a likely reality, creating a sense of urgency for their technology initiatives. As priorities continue to shift and budgets contract, companies must figure out how to automate and transform. We believe these challenges present an opportunity for finance leaders to move beyond legacy accounting processes and prepare their organizations for the future of work with changes that will outlast the pandemic. Mark Huffman will touch on this in more detail shortly. Blackline customers are considerably better prepared for a remote close and those companies that do not have Blackline. We do know, however, that many of our customers in certain industries have been negatively impacted by the pandemic. To support our customers in these challenging times, our customer outreach continued throughout the second quarter. These outreach efforts have been supported by nearly every department in Blackline and span a variety of programs from education, training and development, to coaching sessions with subject matter experts, relief programs, and even some complementary products and services. Our newest outreach effort, Remote Audit, is a solutions and services package composed of subject matter expertise and best practice processes. Aptly named, it focuses on the external auditor, an incredibly important role in the world of accounting. Similar to the accounting and finance organization, auditors are traditionally on-site and heavily reliant on manual processes. Executing these processes off-site can significantly limit access to information and supporting documentation that is required for sign-off. Remote audit, which became available in May, improves the process of auditing a company's financials and gives auditors the ability to verify and validate financials within the Blackline platform. Many Blackline customers already grant their auditors direct access, which has benefited them greatly in the sudden shift to remote work. We offered this outreach package on a complimentary basis to a number of customers to help those who have not yet taken advantage of this capability. I am proud that we are able to support and lead our customers through this pandemic and I am encouraged by the uptake we have seen with these outreach efforts. In addition to enabling companies to close their books in the distributed world, it is also driving goodwill and generating significant praise from our customers. Before I turn the call over to Mark, I wanted to talk about the other news we announced today. Effective January 1, I'll be transitioning the CEO role to Mark. I'll remain involved as executive chair with the goal of helping Mark take Blackline to the next level. This is part of a succession plan we've been working toward for some time, and I'm so pleased with all the work that Mark has done to help scale and grow our company since he joined Blackline in 2018. He's fantastic. This change will allow me in the executive chair role to focus on my passion, product and customers. I'm excited about Blackline's future and look forward to this next phase. And now, I'll turn it over to Mr. Huffman to discuss our recent business performance in more detail.