Automated Trip Expense Claim Form With OpenAI Agent & Google Drive

Description

🧾 Automated Trip Expense Claim Form With OpenAI Agent & Google Drive
Watch the demo video below:

> This workflow is designed for employees who need to submit expense claims for business trips. It automates the process of extracting data from receipts/invoices, logging it to a Google Sheet, and notifying the finance team via email.
👤 Who’s it for
Ideal users:
Employees submitting business trip expense claims
HR or Admins reviewing travel-related reimbursements
Finance teams responsible for processing claims

⚙️ How it works / What it does

Employee submits a form with trip information (name, department, purpose, dates) and uploads one or more receipts/invoices (PDF).
Uploaded files are saved to Google Drive for record-keeping.
Each PDF is passed to a DocClaim Assistant agent, which uses GPT-4o and a structured parser to extract structured invoice data.
The data is transformed and formatted into a standard JSON structure.
Two parallel paths are followed:
Invoice records are appended to a Google Sheet for centralized tracking.
A detailed HTML email summarizing the trip and expenses is generated and sent to the finance department for claim processing.

🛠 How to set up

Create a form to capture:
Employee Name
Department
Trip Purpose
From Date / To Date
Receipt/Invoice File Upload (multiple PDFs)

Configure file upload node to store files in a specific Google Drive folder.

Set up DocClaim Agent using:
GPT-4o or any LLM with document analysis capability
Output parser for standardizing extracted receipt data (e.g., vendor, total, tax, date)

Transform extracted data into a structured claim record (Code Node).

Path 1: Save records to a Google Sheet (one row per expense).

Path 2:
Format the employee + claim data into a dynamic HTML email
Use Send Email node to notify the finance department (e.g., [email protected])

✅ Requirements

n8n running with access to:
Google Drive API (for file uploads)
Google Sheets API (for logging expenses)
Email node (SMTP or Gmail for sending)
GPT-4o or equivalent LLM with document parsing ability
PDF invoices with clear formatting
Shared Google Sheet for claim tracking
Optional: Shared inbox for finance team

🧩 How to customize the workflow

Add approval steps**: route the email to a manager before finance
Attach original PDFs**: include uploaded files in the email as attachments
Localize for other languages**: adapt form labels, email content, or parser prompts
Sync to ERP or accounting system**: replace Google Sheet with QuickBooks, Xero, etc.
Set limits/validation**: enforce max claim per trip or required fields before submission
Auto-tag expenses**: add categories (e.g., travel, accommodation) for better reporting