Travel and tourism
How BeFly sped up finance with automations built by business teams
With business teams building their own automations, the travel holding accelerated accounts payable, accounting routines, information consolidation, and management analysis.
Cátia Valente
Accounting, Tax, and Financial Efficiency Projects, BeFly
At a glance
- Company
- BeFly — Travel and tourism
- Challenge
- Reduce the time spent on spreadsheets, report exports, classifications, and manual data transfer across finance and accounting systems.
- What they automated
- Automations built in Abstra by business users, supported by Financial Projects and Innovation, to prepare files, classify documents, consolidate information, and support payments.
- Result
- Payment provisioning went from up to 6 hours to about 5 minutes, bank postings from up to 4 hours to 10 minutes, and sales breakdowns from up to 3 days to about half an hour.
Stack
- Internal finance systems
Microsoft Excel
SAP
Abstra
Before and after
Payment provisioning
Before Abstra
5 to 6 hours of manual markings
After Abstra
About 5 minutes with automation
Bank postings
Before Abstra
2 to 4 hours preparing files in Excel
After Abstra
Up to 10 minutes with automated treatment
Sales breakdown
Before Abstra
2 to 3 days crossing spreadsheets
After Abstra
About 30 minutes
Management information
Before Abstra
Queries by tax entity, exports, and pivot tables
After Abstra
Approval pending items consolidated in one application
Team role
Before Abstra
More time executing and adjusting data
After Abstra
More time for analysis and new automations
How BeFly brought automation to business teams
Teams know the process rules; Abstra turns that knowledge into applications that connect files, systems, and decisions.
- Business teams
- Financial Projects
- Abstra
- Systems and spreadsheets
- Analysis and management
Full video
Who is BeFly
BeFly is a travel holding company operating across different segments of the tourism market. In an operation that brings together several companies and systems, getting information to move requires constant work.
Part of that connection depended on spreadsheets, report exports, and manual adjustments. In Accounting and Accounts Payable, professionals spent hours preparing files, classifying documents, and moving data between platforms.
These tasks were necessary to meet deadlines, but left little room to analyze the numbers. With Abstra, BeFly started changing that routine by putting automation building in the hands of the people who know the processes.
The challenge: creating space for analysis in a routine dominated by execution
The innovation team challenged departments to identify processes that could be improved and automated. In finance, the opportunities appeared in reconciliations, validations, data imports, and other high-volume activities.
For Cátia Valente, who leads Accounting, Tax, and Financial Efficiency Projects, the goal was to free the team from repetitive execution and recover analytical capacity:
“What we really want is to gain the data analyst.”
The environment involved different systems, business rules known by specialists, and spreadsheets connecting the steps. Beyond the time consumed, manual file editing created room for typing errors, overlapping information, and rework.
From proof of concept to business teams building solutions
BeFly met Abstra through an innovation challenge from Tourist Hub. After winning the pitch and going through a proof of concept with a specific group, the platform started gaining space in the company’s strategy to democratize AI.
According to BeFly’s Innovation and AI manager, among the tools tested at that time, Abstra had the strongest fit and the largest number of applications developed by professionals from business areas.
The perceived difference was the ability to turn an idea into a working solution. Users knew the rules and operational needs, even without mastering Python, SQL, or software development.
The Financial Projects team became a bridge: identifying opportunities, presenting the platform, and supporting teams during development. As usage advanced, professionals themselves began sharing learnings and helping colleagues.
Payment provisioning in cash flow: from 6 hours to 5 minutes
Thiago needed to access a system, extract reports, check documents, and individually mark which payments had been provisioned in cash flow. If there were one hundred documents, there were one hundred manual markings.
The activity could consume five to six hours. With Abstra, it started taking about five minutes.
The automation is triggered by a button and runs the checks defined by the team, classifies the items, and performs the required markings.
With information prepared, the owners continue with payments. Reducing the effort in this routine also opened space for Thiago to work on new automations.
Bank postings: from up to 4 hours to 10 minutes
In Accounting, Lucas faced another manual preparation routine. He exported data from a system, treated it in Excel, and prepared the file for import into the accounting system.
This work took two to four hours. With Abstra taking over the treatment step, the process started running in up to ten minutes.
“I have much more time to do the analytical part than the operational part.”
With less time spent preparing postings, he gained more availability to analyze the trial balance as a whole.
Building the automation required translating accounting rules into clear instructions for AI. That learning also became a base for expanding the platform to other close routines.
Sales breakdown: from three days to about half an hour
For Luana, also an accounting analyst, one of the most labor-intensive activities was breaking down the many sales that made up an invoice.
The process required crossing information between spreadsheets and could consume two to three days of manual work. With automation, it started taking approximately thirty minutes.
According to Luana, the first project was developed in about one day, including the time needed to understand how to guide the AI and make the solution interpret the files.
After that initial step, it became easier to explain what was needed and evolve the application. The time saved created space for other demands and for developing new knowledge.
Consolidated information for leadership
Beyond executing routines, Abstra started simplifying access to management information.
Cátia describes an application developed to show approval pending items in the payment queue. Before, this type of query required accessing different tax entities, exporting information to Excel, building a pivot table, and filtering data by owner.
During a demo, the application showed 65 pending items assigned to the director. He opened the system to check and found exactly the same number.
For Cátia, that episode made the value of consolidated, quickly available management information tangible.
Learning that spreads among colleagues
Adoption involved a learning curve. In the interviews, users highlighted the importance of explaining rules clearly, checking results, and adjusting instructions when needed.
They also mentioned support from the Abstra team during development. Even professionals without programming experience started interpreting solution logic and evaluating whether behavior matched the expected process.
Results began circulating among teams. People who had already developed an automation started presenting the platform and supporting new users, creating references inside the business areas themselves.
This autonomy also appeared in the story from Kauan, from Revenue. While working on an automation for a collaborator database, he helped distribute adjustments among the areas responsible for the information, reducing centralization in a single team.
What comes next
With the first results in production, BeFly started developing new fronts to connect systems, consolidate data, and expand automation governance.
- 01
Payment database
Centralize information to support cash flow and reduce distributed queries across systems and spreadsheets.
- 02
SAP integration
Prepare files from an operational system for SAP integration with less manual treatment.
- 03
Governed development pipeline
Map business rules, prioritize new automations, and structure a controlled development routine.
At BeFly, the hours saved are creating room for analysis, process improvement, and new automations built by the people who live the operation.
Next steps: connecting systems and expanding automations
With the first results in production, BeFly started developing new fronts.
Among them are a database to centralize payment information and support cash flow, as well as an automation to prepare files from an operational system for SAP integration.
The evolution also involves structuring a governed development pipeline and mapping business rules currently distributed across specialists, systems, and spreadsheets.
For Vittor, from the Financial Projects team, the impact already perceived goes beyond task duration:
“Reducing it to time savings feels like too little.”
At BeFly, the hours saved are opening space to analyze information, improve processes, and build the next automations with direct participation from the people who live the operation.
What we really want is to gain the data analyst.
Accounting, Tax, and Financial Efficiency Projects, BeFly
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