How CMM started capturing 98% of tax documents and gained predictability over expenses

“Every financial process starts with a tax document. Once we gained visibility into 98% of them, we were able to record better, report better, and give shareholders much more predictability.” — Renata Alves, Finance Manager at CMM

---

TL;DR

• Company: CMM — a Brazilian company specialized in engineering, construction, assembly, and maintenance solutions for the oil, gas, and energy sectors, operating in highly complex industrial projects.
• Leader: Renata Alves, Finance Manager
• Challenge: lack of visibility into tax documents issued against the company, affecting accounts payable, cash flow, expense predictability, and reporting reliability.
• Previous process: four people dedicated daily to receiving, checking, and manually posting documents, with validations performed across different systems.
• Automation: automatic tax document capture, PO validation, exception handling, and pre-registration in Microsoft Dynamics.
• Integrations: Abstra, Qive, Microsoft Dynamics, and the PO management system
• Implementation: carried out together with Abstra, with a dedicated specialist to ensure a safe implementation aligned with CMM's processes.
• Results:
  • 98% of tax documents captured automatically
  • higher accuracy in financial numbers, more predictable cash flow, and more consistent reports
  • reduction from four people executing the process to one person supervising it
  • 2,007 invoices received in the first full month, compared with an initial estimate of 900
  • fewer delays, interest charges, and penalties

Who is CMM?

CMM is a Brazilian company specialized in engineering, construction, assembly, and maintenance solutions for the oil, gas, and energy sectors, operating in highly complex industrial projects.

As the operation grew, the finance team began handling an increasing volume of tax documents. The challenge was no longer only processing this information. It was ensuring that all documents reached finance at the right time, preserving cash flow predictability, reporting reliability, and control over expenses.

Under the leadership of Renata Alves, Finance Manager at CMM, the team decided to review one of the most critical processes in the operation: receiving and posting tax documents. After all, processes such as accounts payable, cash flow, accounting close, and financial reporting all start from these documents.

The challenge: how do you control an expense finance has not seen yet?

Before automation, four people were dedicated every day to receiving, checking, and posting national tax invoices, invoices, and bills.

Documents arrived mainly by email and had to be opened, checked, and handled individually. For each posting, the team also had to consult the PO management system to verify information such as:

• whether the purchase order existed;
• approval status;
• authorized amount;
• cost center;
• accounting account;
• consistency between the PO and the tax document.

Depending on complexity, checking and posting a single document could take hours of work.

But the biggest problem was not only the operational effort or the time spent.

Finance depended on suppliers sending documents by email and had no way to ensure that every invoice issued against the company had actually reached the accounts payable process.

In practice, many expenses only became known when the supplier contacted the company to collect an overdue payment.

“When we closed the project, we estimated a volume of approximately 900 invoices. In the first full month, we received 2,007, not counting invoices and bills. We really were not receiving an important share of the documents.” — Renata Alves

This lack of visibility directly affected financial planning. In some periods, actual expenses were around 40% above forecast, because part of the expenses was still unknown when the projection was prepared.

The difference was not just a forecasting variance. These were expenses that were not visible to the team when cash flow was built.

In addition to affecting cash flow, this scenario created:

• late payments;
• interest charges and penalties;
• month-to-month variations that were hard to explain;
• inconsistencies in expense reports;
• more difficulty for controllership and audits;
• reactive work with suppliers.

The solution: automate the process from document issuance

CMM implemented an automated flow with Abstra to capture, validate, and pre-register tax documents, connecting document issuance directly to accounts payable.

The implementation was led and monitored by Abstra, with continuous evolution of the flow to address the particularities of CMM's systems and processes.

How the flow works

1. Tax document capture

Abstra connects to Qive, which queries integrated municipalities and automatically captures tax invoices issued against CMM.

As a result, the process no longer depends exclusively on suppliers sending documents.

2. Purchase order lookup

After capturing the document, Abstra checks the PO management system and automatically verifies:

• whether the purchase order exists;
• approval status;
• authorized amount;
• cost center and other required information;
• consistency between the PO and the tax document.

3. Exception handling

If the document does not have an approved PO, presents value discrepancies, or has any other inconsistency, it does not automatically move to the ERP.

The exception is routed to the responsible team, which can consult the buyer or Supply team before continuing the process.

In addition to preventing operational errors, this step strengthens compliance: documents issued without approval or outside the agreed conditions are not automatically registered.

4. Pre-registration in Microsoft Dynamics

After all validations, Abstra performs the pre-registration in Microsoft Dynamics.

At this stage, CMM keeps human supervision to validate the tax matrix, taxes, and other posting details before final accounting registration.

5. Post-issuance monitoring

The integration also identifies documents canceled after issuance, creating a control that did not exist before and increasing the reliability of financial information.

The impact: more than productivity, reliable numbers

98% of tax documents are now visible

With the connection to available municipalities, CMM started capturing approximately 98% of the tax documents issued against the company.

The remaining cases are mainly related to municipalities that are not yet covered by the integration. As new situations are identified, the process continues to evolve.

This coverage changed the way finance works: the expense becomes known when the document is issued, not only when the supplier sends the document or contacts the company to request payment.

From 900 to 2,007 invoices received

CMM's initial estimate was approximately 900 invoices per month.

In the first full month of operation, CMM received 2,007 tax invoices, more than double the initial estimate, not counting invoices and bills.

The result showed that a significant share of documents issued against the company was not reaching finance at the right time.

From four people executing to one person supervising

Before, four professionals worked every day receiving, checking, and posting tax documents.

With automation, only one person remained supervising the flow and handling situations that truly require analysis.

The other three were redirected to new challenges inside the company. The professional responsible for the process also started dedicating more time to higher-value activities, such as:

• analyzing the tax matrix and taxes;
• contacting suppliers;
• handling exceptions;
• checking canceled documents;
• monitoring process consistency.

The team stopped executing repetitive tasks and moved into supervision, analysis, and continuous process improvement.

More predictability for cash flow

With documents captured at the right moment, expenses that previously appeared only as actuals became known in advance.

This reduced the difference between forecast and actual cash flow and brought more confidence to financial planning.

Now, when a document does not enter the process, there is an identifiable cause: missing PO, lack of approval, value discrepancy, or another exception that needs to be handled.

“The difference stopped being an unexplained discrepancy. If an invoice did not enter, we know there was a problem and can handle it correctly.” — Renata Alves

More consistent reports and audits

Greater document coverage also brought more stability to financial reports.

Before, recurring expenses could appear in one month and disappear in the next simply because some documents arrived late. This made controllership analysis and variance explanations harder.

With the new process, the numbers now better reflect the reality of the operation, making reports more linear, consistent, and auditable, both for internal use and for audits and external reporting.

“Today we report a much more consistent number. For me, this is the main highlight of the project.” — Renata Alves

Fewer delays, interest charges, and penalties

CMM also started paying fewer documents late.

Before, many cases were only identified when the supplier contacted the company to collect payment. Now, because the invoice is captured directly at the source, finance can start the process before the due date becomes a problem.

Although the reduction has not yet been quantified financially, the team considers the change material given the volume of documents that became visible.

More than reducing operational effort, the project gave finance a much more reliable foundation to record expenses, forecast cash flow, prepare reports, and support decision-making. Renata summarizes the main gain as ensuring the accuracy of financial numbers.

Before and after

Indicator	Before Abstra	After Abstra
Tax documents received	Depended on suppliers sending documents	Approximately 98% of documents captured
Monthly volume known	Around 900 documents known by finance	2,007 invoices in the first full month
People in the process	4 people dedicated daily	1 person supervising and handling exceptions
Document receipt	Manual, mainly by email	Automatic capture via Qive
PO checking	Manual lookup and validation	Automated validation
ERP registration	Manual data entry	Pre-registration in Microsoft Dynamics
Expense visibility	Partial and reactive	Greater coverage and traceability
Cash flow	Relevant differences between forecast and actuals	More predictability and accuracy
Reports and audits	Oscillations and complex explanations	More consistent and real-time information
Late payments	Identified after supplier collection	Reduction in delays, interest charges, and penalties

Safe implementation for a process that cannot fail

According to Renata Alves, this model brought more safety to a financial process where the margin for error is minimal. Throughout the project, Abstra's specialist acted as the focal point, receiving requests, proposing solutions, and adapting the flow to the particularities of the operation and the systems used by the company.

“She receives the issue, handles it, and delivers the result. Even when there is a technical limitation, she always presents one or more solutions to meet the need.” — Renata Alves

In addition to implementing the automation, the project also represented a learning process for the CMM team. Because this was the team's first experience with AI applied to finance, the implementation was conducted with tests, validations, and continuous evolution of the flow, ensuring that the technology was incorporated without compromising process reliability.

“With Abstra's support, we felt safer. From the perspective of a finance team that cannot make mistakes, the work has been exceptional.” — Renata Alves

The biggest result: accuracy for decision-making

Although the reduction in operational effort was significant, CMM considers the main result of the project to be the increased reliability of financial information.

Every financial process starts with a tax document. It is the basis for recording expenses, making payments, calculating taxes, forecasting cash flow, and preparing management and financial reports.

By expanding coverage of these documents to approximately 98%, CMM started operating with a much more complete and reliable data foundation, bringing more predictability to financial management, greater consistency in reports, and more confidence in decision-making.

“The main impact was ensuring the accuracy of our numbers. With visibility into 98% of documents, we record better, pay taxes more correctly, and give shareholders much better predictability.” — Renata Alves

More than automating an operational process, the initiative enabled the finance area to work with more complete, reliable, and traceable information, strengthening control and governance across the operation.

What comes next

With the results from the first phase, CMM has already started expanding the project to handle invoices and bills.

At the same time, the gains achieved by finance sparked interest from other areas of the company. In management meetings, the evolution of the automation started being shared, leading to new initiatives.

Operations has already started conversations to evaluate its own processes, while finance continues mapping manual activities with automation potential.

“Other areas heard about the project and started asking whether it would also be possible to automate their processes. Each area has its particularities, but this mindset is spreading across the company.” — Renata Alves

A new foundation for CMM's growth

CMM's experience shows that automating tax document receipt goes far beyond reducing manual work.

By connecting tax documents, purchase orders, and ERP in a single flow, the company began knowing its expenses at the moment they happen, strengthening compliance, increasing cash flow predictability, and building reports on a much more reliable foundation.

More than automating a process, CMM established a new way of operating: a supervised, traceable flow prepared to support the company's growth with more control, consistency, and safety.

“Go for it. They are a serious, competent team that always finds good solutions, respecting the company's limitations and the systems already in place. With Abstra's support, we have the confidence that we are doing it the right way.”

Renata Alves
Finance Manager
CMM

---

Ready to write your success story?

Automate financial processes without replacing the systems your company already uses.

Talk to an expert