Automatic Invoice Generation and Email with Airtable and CustomJS PDF Generator

This n8n workflow automates the process of generating invoices from Airtable data and emailing them as PDF attachments. It's designed to streamline your billing operations by fetching invoice details, creating a PDF, and sending it to the client, all without manual intervention.

What it does

1. Triggers Manually: The workflow is initiated manually, allowing you to control when the invoice generation process begins.
2. Fetches Invoice Data from Airtable: It connects to a specified Airtable base and table to retrieve the necessary data for invoice generation.
3. Loops Over Items: The workflow processes each invoice record retrieved from Airtable individually.
4. Edits Fields (Set): This step is a placeholder or an initial data manipulation step, likely used to prepare or transform the Airtable data before PDF generation.
5. Aggregates Data (Placeholder): This node is present in the workflow but not connected, suggesting it might be an unused or incomplete part of the original design.
6. Sends Email: After the invoice PDF is generated (implied by the workflow's purpose, though the PDF generation node is missing from the provided JSON), it sends an email with the invoice attached.

Prerequisites/Requirements

• n8n Instance: A running n8n instance to host and execute the workflow.
• Airtable Account: An Airtable account with a base and table containing your invoice data. You will need to configure the Airtable node with your API key and base/table details.
• Email Sending Service: An SMTP server or an email service (e.g., Gmail, SendGrid) configured in n8n for sending emails. You will need to set up the appropriate email credentials.
• Custom PDF Generation Logic (Missing from JSON): The workflow description implies "CustomJS PDF Generator," but the JSON provided does not contain a node for PDF generation (e.g., a Function node with custom JavaScript, an HTML to PDF node, or a dedicated PDF generation service node). This crucial component would need to be added or implemented for the workflow to fully function as described by its directory name.

Setup/Usage

1. Import the Workflow: Download the provided JSON and import it into your n8n instance.
2. Configure Airtable Credentials:
   • Click on the "Airtable" node.
   • Add or select your Airtable API credential.
   • Specify the "Base ID" and "Table Name" from which to fetch invoice data.
3. Configure Email Credentials:
   • Click on the "Send Email" node.
   • Add or select your email (SMTP) credential.
   • Configure the "To", "From", "Subject", and "Body" fields. You will likely use expressions to dynamically populate these fields with data from Airtable (e.g., {{ $json.email }}).
   • Crucially, you will need to attach the generated PDF here. This requires a PDF generation node to be present and connected before this step.
4. Implement PDF Generation (Critical Missing Step):
   • Before the "Send Email" node, you will need to add a node (e.g., a "Function" node with custom JavaScript, an "HTML to PDF" node, or an integration with a PDF generation API) that takes the invoice data and generates a PDF file.
   • Ensure this PDF generation node outputs the PDF file in a format that can be attached by the "Send Email" node.
5. Activate the Workflow: Once all credentials and configurations are set, activate the workflow.
6. Execute Manually: Click "Execute Workflow" on the "When clicking ‘Execute workflow’" node to run the process.

Note on PDF Generation: The provided JSON does not include a node for generating the PDF itself. The workflow's directory name ("9772-automatic-invoice-generation-and-email-with-airtable-and-customjs-pdf-generator") strongly suggests this functionality is intended. To make this workflow fully operational for invoice generation, you would need to add a node (likely a Function node with custom JavaScript or an external PDF service integration) between the "Loop Over Items" and "Send Email" nodes to create the PDF invoice based on the Airtable data.