Hey everyone 
I’m excited to share a new n8n workflow I’ve put together:
Extract Data from Trip Receipts with GPT-4-1 Mini, Google Sheets, and Email Notifications
Workflow: n8n.io/workflows/6896
It automates pulling structured data out of receipt images, logging them in Google Sheets, and sending email alerts.
What this workflow does
This workflow is all about automating receipt processing:
- You supply receipt images (e.g. for travel)
- Extract key data from them (dates, amounts, vendor, etc.) using GPT-4-1 Mini
- Append the extracted data to a Google Sheet
- Notify via email with a summary of what was extracted
Step-by-Step Flow
- Trigger — Manually trigger or send in receipt images.
- OCR / Text Extraction — Use an OCR node (or image-to-text) to read the receipt content.
- Data Extraction — Send the extracted text to an OpenAI model (GPT-4-1 Mini) with a prompt to parse out structured fields: date, vendor, total, etc.
- Google Sheets — Write the structured data into a specified Google Sheet (add as new row).
- Email Notification — Send an email summarizing what was extracted (so you can verify, get alerts, or forward).
Requirements and Setup
- OpenAI API key (configured in n8n)
- Google Sheets credentials (with access to the target sheet)
- Email node credentials (SMTP or provider setup)
- OCR/image-to-text setup if receipts are in image format
Possible Customizations
- Trigger via web-hook or upload folder instead of manual trigger
- Add vendor-specific prompt templates for better accuracy
- Add validation (flag mismatched totals)
- Store receipt images in GCS/S3 with links in sheet/email
- Swap out email with Slack/MS Teams/SMS notifications
- Batch processing on a schedule
Demo Video
I also made a walkthrough video so you can see exactly how it works:
Would love to hear your feedback:
- Have you tried something similar?
- What other data sources/outputs would make this more useful?
- How would you extend this in your projects?
Thanks for checking it out 