Operators are under more pressure than ever. Whether you’re running supply chain, fulfillment, or finance, your job often comes down to the same problem: messy, manual data processes eating away at time and accuracy.
This guide brings together five real-world case studies from operators at brands like Vacation Inc., Tecovas, Rhone, Janie & Jack, and Tushy. Each one shows how a non-technical leader used Parabola’s AI-powered workflow builder to automate work they once assumed had to stay in spreadsheets.
Inside, you’ll see how these leaders:
- Eliminated hours of manual reporting
- Used AI to normalize messy data without writing code
- Built automations that scaled with their teams
- Turned data into faster, better decisions
Vince at Vacation Inc. | Automating OTIF reporting and ship-to-deliver analysis
Context
Vacation Inc., a sunscreen brand in hyper-growth, operates across DTC, Amazon, retail, and wholesale. Vince Stewart, Director of Fulfillment Ops, needed real-time visibility into two critical metrics: OTIF (On-Time, In-Full) and ship-to-deliver speed.
Challenges
Before automation, OTIF reporting was a painful weekly ritual:
- 4+ hours spent wrangling spreadsheets
- Inconsistent date formats between 3PL systems
- Data volume that locked up even Google Sheets
- No way to benchmark carriers against Amazon-level delivery speed
Parabola in action
Vince built two flagship flows:
- OTIF reporting – Pulling from 3PL APIs, normalizing dates with AI, and applying logic to check whether every PO line shipped on time and in full.
- Ship-to-deliver analysis – Using AI to calculate delivery percentiles, benchmark carriers, and create probability charts comparing Amazon vs. other carriers.
Impact
- Reporting time cut from 4+ hours → 30 minutes
- 96% OTIF performance tracked weekly with rolling visibility
- Carriers held accountable with percentile-based benchmarking
- Informed trade-off decisions between cost and delivery speed
Curious about what OTIF automation looks like? Check out the Parabola Flow below – and start building using our free template.
Mallory at Tecovas | Automating QBR and shipment reporting
Tecovas, the western wear brand, manages thousands of SKUs across footwear, apparel, and accessories. Senior Category Manager Mallory Smith faced a reporting nightmare: split POs, manual shipment tracking, and error-prone quarterly reviews.
Challenges
- Hundreds of split POs, each with dozens of SKUs, tracked outside Netsuite
- “Shipping reports” rebuilt manually every week
- Quarterly Business Review (QBR) decks requiring copy-paste actualization
- Frequent misreporting due to manual entry
Parabola in action
Two key automations changed the game:
- QBR reporting flow – Pulls shipment data from Google Drive, enriches it with Netsuite data, and uses AI to assign months/quarters and calculate lead times.
- Actualized shipment reporting – Ingests SPS shipment data and Netsuite receipts (via email), reconciles them, and updates Google Sheets hourly for real-time visibility.
Impact
- Vendor accountability improved: carryover products tracked at 95%+ on-time delivery
- Faster insight into new product delays
- Monthly reporting to factories, instead of once per quarter
- Entire sourcing team shifted from manual data entry → proactive vendor management
Chris at Rhone | Smarter inventory allocation across wholesale partners
Context
Rhone, the activewear brand, needed a better way to allocate limited inventory across wholesale partners while balancing DTC demand. Chris – one of their lead Business Analysts – was stuck in spreadsheets that broke as order complexity grew.
Challenges
- Multiple wholesale partners, each with unique reporting requirements
- Manual allocations prone to error and favoritism
- Difficulty scaling “fair share” allocations as order volume increased
Parabola in action
Chris built allocation flows that:
- Ingest inventory and order data from multiple systems
- Use AI-driven logic to distribute inventory based on predefined rules (e.g., % splits, priority partners, minimums)
- Output custom partner-ready allocation reports
Impact
- Faster, more accurate allocations across dozens of partners
- Partners receive consistent, trusted data
- Freed ops team to focus on relationship management instead of spreadsheet firefighting
Curious about what automated inventory allocation looks like? Check out the Parabola Flow below – and start building using our free template.
Sam at Janie & Jack | Automating carrier invoice reconciliation and shipment tracking
Context
Sam, Senior Ops Manager at children’s apparel brand Janie & Jack, faced chaos in invoice reconciliation. Each carrier sent invoices in a different format, and finance spent countless hours manually reviewing them.
Challenges
- Dozens of carriers with inconsistent invoice structures (PDFs, Excels, emails)
- Shipments and invoices reconciled manually by finance
- Delays in closing the books
Parabola in action
Sam built workflows that:
- Centralize invoice ingestion across carriers
- Use AI to extract structured data from PDFs and messy Excel files
- Automatically reconcile shipments vs. invoices and flag discrepancies
Impact
- Invoice review time cut by 80%
- Discrepancies flagged proactively before month-end close
- Clear, auditable reports for finance leadership
Curious about what automated invoice digitization looks like? Check out the Parabola Flow below – and start building using our free template!
Krystal at Tushy | Automating financial close and invoice digitization
Context
Krystal, Senior Director of Operations at Tushy, needed to close the books faster without drowning her team in manual work. The bottleneck: invoices and fragmented financial data.
Challenges
- Month-end close stretched for days due to fragmented systems
- Carrier and supplier invoices varied in format, requiring manual entry
- Strategic work delayed by manual cleanup
Parabola in action
Krystal’s flows:
- Automated ingestion of finance data across systems
- AI-powered extraction from carrier invoices (PDFs, Excels, emails)
- Real-time dashboards tracking expenses and accruals
Impact
- Month-end close shortened by multiple days
- Errors reduced across finance reports
- Finance team freed up for strategic analysis and planning
Curious about what automated invoice extraction looks like? Check out the Parabola Flow below on extracting shipment details from emails below – and start building using our free template!
Across fulfillment, sourcing, planning, transportation, and finance, the stories in this series reveal the same truth: operators are no longer limited by the manual processes that once defined their work. Whether it’s normalizing messy dates, consolidating 80,000-row spreadsheets, or holding suppliers accountable with real-time reporting, each of these leaders has shown how Parabola’s AI-powered workflows transform tedious tasks into repeatable, scalable systems.
The impact is bigger than efficiency. Faster feedback loops mean suppliers get clearer direction. Internal teams get the data they need in days, not weeks. Executives can make confident decisions with visibility they’ve never had before. And operators—the people who’ve historically had to patch processes together with spreadsheets and late nights—are now free to focus on driving the business forward.
The five examples here are only a starting point. Every team has its own version of manual reporting, reconciliation, or data clean-up that could be automated away. As AI becomes a core part of daily operations, the operators who embrace it will not only save time, but also elevate their role as strategic partners to the business.
During the week of June 9th, 2025, Parabola hosted 5 stellar operators as part of the "How I automate my work with AI" series, which powered the contents in this article. Check out the highlights below!