Analytic fits to the recommended electron-impact excitation and ionization cross sections for Be I are presented. The lowest 19 terms of configurations 2s nl (n </ 4) and 2p2 terms below the first ionization limit are considered. The fits are based on the accurate calculations with the convergent close coupling (CCC) method as well as the B-spline R-matrix (BSR) approach. The fitted cross sections provide rate coefficients that are believed to approximate the original data within 10% with very few exceptions. The oscillator strengths for the dipole-allowed transitions between all the considered states are calculated with the relativistic multi-configuration Dirac–Hartree–Fock (MCDHF) approach and compared with the CCC and BSR results. This comparison shows a very good agreement except for a handful of cases with likely strong cancellations.