The $0.02 Workflow That Automates Data Extraction with n8n & AI

The Problem: Manual Data Extraction is a Business Bottleneck

If you’ve ever had to manually extract data from PDFs, invoices, resumes, or shipping labels, you know how tedious, error-prone, and resource-intensive it is.

For many businesses, this critical information gets lost in email attachments, stored in random folders, or remains trapped in unstructured documents. The consequences?

• Wasted time and resources on repetitive manual tasks
• High error rates leading to costly mistakes
• Scalability issues when document volume grows

Manually entering data isn’t just inefficient – it also slows decision-making, impacts customer satisfaction, and limits your team’s ability to focus on high-value work.

But what if there was a way to automate it?

The Solution: Automating Data Extraction with n8n + OpenAI

With n8n as your automation orchestration tool and OpenAI Vision for document intelligence, you can build a scalable, cost-effective solution for extracting structured data from any document type.

In this blog, I’ll show you how to:

1. Detect new documents added to your Google Drive (or any file system).
2. Classify document types using OpenAI Vision.
3. Extract structured data tailored to each document type (e.g., resumes, invoices, shipping labels).
4. Write the extracted data directly to Google Sheets for easy access and analysis.

Whether you’re processing invoices for accounting, pulling data from resumes, or extracting shipping details, this workflow is adaptable, flexible, and cost-effective.

The Tech Stack: What Powers This Automation

1. n8n: A low-code automation platform that connects tools and orchestrates workflows. It’s like Make or Zapier but far more powerful and flexible.

2. OpenAI gpt-4o: Allows you to process document images (converted from PDFs) and extract structured data with impressive accuracy.

3. PDFRest: A simple API to convert PDF pages into JPEG images, enabling better analysis for tools like OpenAI Vision.

4. Google Drive & Google Sheets: Storage for files and extracted data, creating a central hub for your structured outputs.

Step-by-Step: How the Workflow Works

1. Detect: Automate File Detection

• New documents added to a Google Drive folder trigger the workflow.
• n8n monitors the folder, identifying PDFs or other file types you want to process.

2. Classify: Identify the Document Type

• The PDF is converted into JPEG images using PDFRest.
• OpenAI Vision analyzes the content and determines the document type (e.g., invoice, resume, or shipping label).
• A confidence score is generated alongside relevant detected keywords.

3. Extract: Structured Data Extraction

• OpenAI uses structured outputs (JSON schema) to extract data specific to each document type.
• For example:
  • Invoices: Invoice number, due date, total amount
  • Resumes: Name, email, LinkedIn profile, work experience
  • Shipping Labels: Sender, recipient, tracking number

4. Organize: Write to Google Sheets

• The extracted data is formatted and written to specific sheets in Google Sheets, ensuring the data is accessible and actionable.

The Results: Time Savings and Cost Efficiency

By automating document data extraction:

• You eliminate manual errors (up to 90% reduction).
• You reclaim hours each week that were previously wasted on repetitive tasks.
• You process documents for pennies compared to expensive APIs.

Cost Breakdown:

• PDFRest: ~$0.01 per document
• OpenAI gpt-4o: ~$0.01 per document
• Total: ~$0.02 per document

This workflow is infinitely scalable. Whether you need to process 10 documents or 10,000, n8n and OpenAI handle the load seamlessly.

Why This Matters: Free Your Team for Strategic Work

Manual data entry isn’t strategic, and your team’s time is better spent elsewhere. Automating this process:

• Improves operational efficiency.
• Reduces the risk of costly errors.
• Allows your team to focus on value-driven work.

Imagine automatically processing thousands of documents in minutes instead of hours. This isn’t just about saving time – it’s about unlocking productivity and growth for your business.

Get Started: Build This Workflow Today

If you’re ready to automate document extraction, here’s what you need to do:

1. Watch the full video tutorial here: https://youtu.be/2OpXdY4LXqw
2. Set up your n8n workflow with OpenAI and PDFRest.
3. Customize the schema to match your document needs.

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Getting Automated - Business Data Extraction Workflow (n8n)

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