Automating Excel Data Sync from Master File to 5 Protected Forms on OneDrive - Is This Possible in n8n?

Questions
1

I work in insurance and manage policy data across 6 Excel files stored on OneDrive:

  • 1 Master file (my own file - 114 columns, clean single header row at row 1, fully editable)
  • 5 destination files - these are official submission forms provided by insurance companies

I currently fill every form manually by retyping data from my Master file into each form one by one. This is very time consuming and I want to automate it.

What I Want to Achieve:

When I trigger the automation (manually, once a day is fine - no need for scheduling):

  1. Read my Master file and find all rows where the “Synced” column is empty
  2. For each unsynced row, push the data to all 5 destination files
  3. After successfully writing, mark that row in Master as Synced = “Yes” and write today’s date in a “Sync Date” column

The Complications I’ve Run Into

This is where I’m stuck and need your advice:

1. Merged cells
Several forms have merged cells in the top rows for titles and section headers. The actual column headers I need are at:

  • file 1: row 9
  • file 2: row 4
  • Others: row 1 or 2

2. Different column names across files
Every file uses different column names for the same data.

3. Dropdown mismatches
Some fields use dropdowns with different values. For example, my Master file stores “Married” but other form dropdown only accepts “M”. I need value conversion/mapping as part of the automation.

4. Excel Online only
I’m on a Mac and only have access to Excel Online on browser.

My Questions

  1. Can n8n handle writing data into Excel files with merged cells on OneDrive?
  2. If not directly, is there a workaround?
  3. How would you approach the column name mapping and value conversion (e.g. “Married” → “M”) for 114 columns across 5 different files?
  4. Is there a better tool you’d recommend for this specific situation?

Any advice, workarounds are very welcome. Thank you so much!

2

honest take: the merged cells thing is the real blocker. not 100% sure how n8n handles it under the hood, but the graph-based excel api (microsoft graph) usually ignores merged cell boundaries anyway — you might need to use a preprocessing step (like splitting your unmerged data into a separate sheet) or just accept that mapped columns need to be at row 1. the column mapping across 5 files is the bigger problem tho — you’d probably need a config object that maps master_col → file1_col, file1_col → file2_col etc. and then a function node to apply the mappings row by row. doable but tedious. are your destination files all using the same data structure under the headers, or is the actual data different too?

3

Hi @zoe.trnz , welcome to the n8n community!

I’d approach this by separating data from layout. In n8n, I’d read from a clean table (no merged cells), then use a mapping config + Function node to transform per file. Merged cells can stay for display, but writes should target structured tables only.