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Extract timesheet data with Mistral OCR & Gmail human verification

ResilNextResilNext
320 views
2/3/2026
File MonitoringNotificationGoogle DriveAutomationEmail
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📖 Description

🔹 How it works

This workflow introduces an AI + Human-in-the-Loop pipeline for employee timesheet management. It combines the power of Google Drive, AI (OCR + LLM), and Gmail with a human review step to ensure accuracy and compliance.

  1. AI-Powered File Discovery

    • Scans a Google Drive folder for new or updated timesheet files (PDF, Word, Excel, Images).

  2. AI Data Extraction

    • Uses OCR and LLM (Mistral) to intelligently read and extract structured data.
    • Supports multiple formats: PDF, Word (DOC/DOCX), Excel (XLS/XLSX), and Image files (JPG, PNG, scanned documents).
    • Creates clean JSON with file details and timesheet logs (date, hours worked, tasks, notes).

  3. Smart Data Formatting

    • Converts AI output into a clear HTML summary table for easy review.
    • Flags potential anomalies (missing hours, duplicate dates, irregular entries).

  4. Human-in-the-Loop Verification

    • Sends an approval email via Gmail containing:
      • File metadata
      • AI-generated HTML summary
      • JSON attachment of raw extracted data
    • HR/Managers review the summary and approve/reject before final actions occur.

  5. Post-Approval Automation (optional)

    • Approved records can be saved in a separate Google Drive folder.
    • Employees or HR receive confirmation emails.

⚙️ Set up steps

  1. Connect Credentials

    • Add Google Drive and Gmail credentials in n8n.
    • Configure Mistral (or any LLM) API credentials.

  2. Configure Google Drive

    • In the “Search files and folders” node, replace the folderId with your company’s timesheet folder ID.

  3. Customize Extraction Schema

    • Sticky notes explain how JSON output is structured.
    • Adapt it for your organization’s needs (e.g., overtime, project codes).

  4. Set Up Human Verification Emails

    • Update Gmail node recipients to your HR or approval team.
    • Customize the email body (AI summary + JSON file attached).

  5. Activate & Test

    • Enable the workflow.
    • Upload a sample timesheet to trigger the AI + human verification loop.

⚡ Result: A robust AI + Human-in-the-Loop workflow that reduces repetitive data entry, prevents payroll errors, and gives HR full confidence before final approval.

Extract Timesheet Data with Mistral OCR and Human Verification

This n8n workflow automates the extraction of timesheet data from PDF files stored in Google Drive, leverages Mistral AI for OCR and data extraction, and incorporates a human verification step via Gmail for accuracy before outputting the results to a spreadsheet.

What it does

This workflow streamlines the process of managing timesheet data by:

  1. Manually Triggering: The workflow starts when manually executed.
  2. Listing Google Drive Files: It retrieves a list of files from a specified folder in Google Drive.
  3. Filtering for PDF Files: It filters the retrieved files to only process PDF documents.
  4. Looping Through PDFs: For each PDF file, it performs the following steps:
    • Downloads PDF: Downloads the PDF content from Google Drive.
    • Extracts Data with AI Agent: Uses a Mistral Cloud Chat Model as an AI agent to perform OCR and extract structured timesheet data from the PDF content.
    • Human Verification via Gmail: Sends an email with the extracted data to a designated recipient for human review and approval. The recipient can approve or reject the data directly from the email.
    • Conditional Processing: Based on the human verification outcome:
      • If Approved: The extracted data is prepared for output.
      • If Rejected: (Implicitly, the rejected data is not processed further in the current flow, or could be routed for re-processing/manual handling).
  5. Aggregating Approved Data: Collects all approved timesheet data into a single dataset.
  6. Generating Spreadsheet: Converts the aggregated data into a spreadsheet file (e.g., CSV or Excel).
  7. Uploading to Google Drive: Uploads the generated spreadsheet file containing the extracted timesheet data back to Google Drive.

Prerequisites/Requirements

To use this workflow, you will need:

  • n8n Instance: A running n8n instance.
  • Google Drive Account: Configured n8n credentials for Google Drive to access and store files.
  • Gmail Account: Configured n8n credentials for Gmail to send human verification emails.
  • Mistral AI Account/API Key: Configured n8n credentials for Mistral Cloud Chat Model to enable AI-powered OCR and data extraction.

Setup/Usage

  1. Import the Workflow: Import the provided JSON into your n8n instance.
  2. Configure Credentials:
    • Set up your Google Drive credentials.
    • Set up your Gmail credentials.
    • Set up your Mistral Cloud Chat Model credentials (API Key).
  3. Customize Nodes:
    • Google Drive (Read): Specify the folder ID where your timesheet PDF files are located.
    • Gmail: Configure the recipient email address for human verification and customize the email content/approval form as needed.
    • Google Drive (Write): Specify the target folder ID and file name for the output spreadsheet.
  4. Activate and Execute:
    • Activate the workflow.
    • Click "Execute Workflow" on the "When clicking ‘Execute workflow’" node to start the process manually.

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