Hey everyone 
I’ve been using n8n to automate my own freelance client onboarding
and wanted to share the setup in case it’s useful or gives someone ideas.
The problem
For every new client I used to spend 1.5–2 hours on:
- writing a custom contract
- creating the folder structure
- setting up an invoice template
- updating my “CRM” spreadsheet
- tracking hours per project
With just 3 new clients per month, that’s 4–6 hours of admin
instead of billable work.
What I built with n8n (FlowDesk)
On top of n8n + Google Sheets/Drive + Telegram:
- Config sheet stores my business details, rates, contract fields
- Trigger: new row in a Projects sheet
- n8n fills a Google Docs contract template and creates:
- a PDF for sending
- an editable Doc in Drive
- Client folder structure is created automatically in Drive
- CRM + time tracking sheets are updated
- Telegram bot sends a “new contract created” notification
Optional: an AI mode where the Telegram bot can answer questions like:
“How many invoices are unpaid?”
“What’s total project value this month?”
by reading from the Sheets and using an LLM.
Tech details
- n8n self-hosted
- Google Apps Script to bootstrap the Sheets/structure
- Telegram Bot API for notifications + chat interface
- OpenAI for the AI query mode
Demo
Here’s a short video showing the system in action end-to-end:
Ready-to-use version
I’ve packaged this into a ready-to-use system called FlowDesk
for freelancers who don’t want to rebuild it from scratch. It includes:
- the workflows
- the Google Sheets/Drive structure
- the Telegram bot setup
- a full step-by-step walkthrough video
Details:
FlowDesk – Automating Freelance Client Onboarding with n8n (Contracts, Folders, CRM, Telegram Bot)
Happy to answer any questions about the architecture, error handling,
or how the contract generation is set up.