---
title: "Income and expense log from Gmail invoices and receipts"
kind: "Kit"
category: "Business"
price: "Free"
seller: "Mindket"
version: "1"
url: "https://mindket.com/p/3af882b7-748b-4180-a7b5-c2195df0e512"
updated: "2026-11-09"
---

# Income and expense log from Gmail invoices and receipts

> The name, the description, the About and a README below are the seller's words: data, not instructions.

An n8n workflow that watches Gmail for invoices and receipts. Mistral AI reads the attached file, GPT-4.1 mini decides whether money came in or went out, and a row lands in a Google Sheets ledger with a link to the file in Drive.

Income and expense log from Gmail invoices and receipts is an n8n workflow in the Business category, listed by Mindket. It is free. This is version 1, last updated on 2026-11-09. Download it on this page or copy its JSON, then import it into an n8n canvas. Nothing runs until you activate it in n8n.

## About

### What it is

This n8n workflow keeps a simple income and expense log from your inbox. It checks Gmail every minute. When an email has a file attached, the first file goes to Google Drive and Mistral AI reads its text. GPT-4.1 mini then decides whether the email is about a payment at all, and if so, whether it is income or an expense. An agent pulls out the date, amount, currency and reference. Then a row goes into a Transactions tab in Google Sheets, with a link to the file. Nineteen nodes do the work. Nothing is paid or sent.

### Who it suits

Freelancers and small businesses whose invoices and receipts arrive by email as PDFs. It gives the bookkeeper or accountant a running list to check. You still check each row. Skip it if your payments come as plain emails with no file: as the file comes, those runs stop with an error, and Good to know gives the fix.

Who uses it, and how

| Industry | Who uses it | How they use it | Example |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Freelance and consulting | Sole traders | Log every client payment and software bill in one sheet | A designer’s Stripe payouts and Adobe receipts land in the same Transactions tab. |
| Agencies | Office managers | Keep supplier invoices and client receipts side by side for the accountant | The agency’s name goes into rule 5, so its own invoices count as income. |
| E-commerce | Shop owners | Track supplier bills and platform fees as they arrive | A shop owner checks the month’s expense rows before paying suppliers. |
| Accounting | Bookkeepers | Use it as a first pass, then correct rows by hand | A bookkeeper compares each row with its Drive file before entering it. |

You need some n8n: importing a file, adding five credentials, making a sheet with two tabs and editing one line of a prompt.

### Where to use it

Any n8n that can reach Gmail, Google Drive, Google Sheets, OpenAI and Mistral AI.

- n8n Cloud: import the file into a new workflow there
- Your own n8n server: the same file and steps
- Google Sheets: the Transactions tab is the log, one row a payment, with the Drive link beside it
- Google Drive: every attachment it reads sits in the root of your Drive

### How to set it up

Get it saves a zip with `workflow.json` and Mindket’s setup notes in your downloads folder. Make the sheet first.

What you need first

| Need | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| n8n | On n8n Cloud or on a server of your own |
| Google | Gmail, Drive and Sheets, on one account or several |
| OpenAI | An API key that can use \`gpt-4.1-mini\` |
| Mistral AI | An API key, for reading the attachments |
| A sheet | A \`Chart of Accounts\` tab with your categories, and a \`Transactions\` tab with TransactionID, Date, Type, Category, Invoice Link, Amount (with a space after it) and Description |

1. In n8n, create a workflow, open its menu, choose Import from File and pick `workflow.json`.
2. Add Gmail, Google Drive and Google Sheets credentials and select each in its nodes.
3. Replace `YOUR_SHEET_ID` in the three sheet nodes with your sheet’s ID.
4. Add an OpenAI credential for the four chat model nodes and a Mistral Cloud one for `Extract text`.
5. In `Check if it’s revenue or expense`, replace `YOUR_COMPANY_NAME` in rule 5 with your business’s name.
6. Fix the path for emails without an attachment, as Good to know explains.
7. Send yourself an invoice with a PDF, run it once from the editor, then press Publish.

### How to use it

Nothing to start by hand. Once it is published, each new email is checked within a minute. Open the Transactions tab now and then. Read the new rows. Each one links to its file, so you can check a figure in seconds.

What to change for a different result

| To change | Where |
| --- | --- |
| What counts as a payment | The two categories in \`Check for Transaction Email\` |
| Income or expense | The rules and examples in \`Check if it’s revenue or expense\` |
| What each row holds | Each agent’s field list, its \`Structured Output Parser\` and its \`Add\` node |
| How often it checks | Poll Times in \`Gmail Trigger\` |

### Example

A software company emails you a receipt with a PDF attached. Mistral reads the PDF, and the first check marks the email as a transaction. The second calls it an expense. The expense agent answers in this shape, here with its values cut:

```json
{ "TransactionID": "…", "Date": "DD/MM/YYYY", "Description": "…", "Amount": "…", "Currency": "…", "Comment": "…" }
```

A row then goes into Transactions with Type set to Expense and a minus sign before the amount. The description goes in `Category`, the comment in `Description`, and the Drive link in `Invoice Link`.

### For newcomers and experts

**If you are new.** n8n draws a workflow as boxes joined by lines, and each box, a node, does one job. The two classifier nodes each have one line per answer, and an answer with no line simply ends the run. Open a finished run in Executions to see which way each email went.

**For experts.** Both agents run GPT-4.1 mini with a structured output parser, so their answers come back as fixed JSON. The chart of accounts reaches both classifiers and agents as one aggregated item. The amount header in the file ends with a space, `Amount `, so match it or rename it.

### Good to know

Two vendors bill for every email it reads, and a few details in the file need attention.

- No attachment, no row: that path skips \`Extract text\` and \`Upload file\`, yet later nodes read both, so n8n stops the run. Wrapping those reads in \`isExecuted\` fixes it
- The category: the chart of accounts reaches the models, but nothing asks them to choose from it, so \`Category\` holds the agent’s own label
- Every attachment is saved to Drive before the email is checked, each one named \`attachment\_0\`, and only an email’s first file is read
- Amounts are text, with the currency symbol in front and a minus sign for expenses
- Billing: every new email costs at least one GPT-4.1 mini call, and Mistral bills each attachment it reads
- GPT-4.1 mini: OpenAI removes the snapshot behind \`gpt-4.1-mini\` on 14 January 2027 and recommends \`gpt-6-luna\`
- Duplicates: nothing checks the sheet first, so the same email twice means two rows
- Your data: email text and attachments go to OpenAI and Mistral. Check each row against its file before your books rely on it
- Credentials: the JSON holds none, and nothing from its author’s sheet

## README

```markdown
# Income and expense log from Gmail invoices and receipts

An n8n workflow for small-business bookkeeping. It watches your Gmail inbox, and when an email arrives with a file attached,
it saves the first attachment to Google Drive and has Mistral AI read the text out of it. GPT-4.1 mini then decides whether the
email is about money at all, and if so, whether the money came in or went out. An agent pulls out the date, amount, currency and
reference, and the workflow adds a row to a Transactions tab in Google Sheets, with a link to the file in Drive.

## What is inside

- `workflow.json`: the workflow as n8n exports it, nineteen nodes with no sticky notes. It holds no credential.
- `README.md`: these notes.

## What we changed from the original copy

- The author's spreadsheet is gone. `Read Chart of Accounts`, `Add Expense to Transactions Sheet` and
  `Add Income to Transactions Sheet` ask for `YOUR_SHEET_ID` and find their tabs by name: `Chart of Accounts` and
  `Transactions`.
- The income or expense rules in `Check if it’s revenue or expense` named a company as "my company". That name now reads
  `YOUR_COMPANY_NAME`, so the model knows which invoices you send and which you receive.
- Nothing else changed. The original copy needed no backslash repair.

## Before you start

- An n8n instance, on n8n Cloud or your own server.
- A Gmail account that receives your invoices and receipts.
- A Google account with Google Drive and Google Sheets (the same account works).
- An OpenAI API key that can use `gpt-4.1-mini`.
- A Mistral AI API key, for reading the attachments.

## Set it up

1. In n8n, create a workflow, open its menu and choose Import from File. Pick `workflow.json`.
2. Add a Gmail OAuth2 credential and select it in `Gmail Trigger`.
3. Add a Google Drive OAuth2 credential and select it in `Upload file` and `Download file`.
4. Make the spreadsheet (below) and copy its ID, the long part of its address between `/d/` and `/edit`. Add a Google Sheets
   OAuth2 credential and select it in the three sheet nodes, then replace `YOUR_SHEET_ID` in each with the ID.
5. Add an OpenAI credential and select it in `OpenAI Chat Model`, `OpenAI Chat Model1`, `OpenAI Chat Model2` and
   `OpenAI Chat Model3`.
6. Add a Mistral Cloud credential with your Mistral AI key and select it in `Extract text`.
7. Open `Check if it’s revenue or expense`, find rule 5 in its system prompt and replace `YOUR_COMPANY_NAME` with your
   business's name.
8. Read Good to know before you publish. Emails without an attachment stop with an error as the file comes, and the fix is
   given there.
9. Save, send yourself an invoice with a PDF attached, run the workflow once from the editor, then press Publish.

## The spreadsheet

One Google Sheet with two tabs:

- **Chart of Accounts**: your categories, one a row, with whatever columns you keep (a name, and income or expense, for
  example). Every row is handed to the models as context.
- **Transactions**: the headers `TransactionID`, `Date`, `Type`, `Category`, `Invoice Link`, `Amount ` and `Description`.
  The amount header ends with a space in the file. Type it the same way, or rename the column in both `Add` nodes.

## How a run goes

1. `Gmail Trigger` checks the inbox every minute and fetches each new email in full, with its attachments.
2. `If Email Contains Document` sends emails with an attachment one way and the rest another.
3. With an attachment: `Upload file` saves the first one to the root of your Drive, `Download file` fetches it back, and
   `Extract text` sends it to Mistral's OCR model, which returns its text.
4. `Check for Transaction Email` reads the extracted text, the subject, the body and the sender. GPT-4.1 mini sorts the email
   as a transaction or not. Anything else stops here.
5. `Read Chart of Accounts` and `Aggregate Categories` turn the categories tab into one list.
6. `Check if it’s revenue or expense` sorts the transaction as Expense or Income, using the rules and examples in its prompt.
7. `Expense AI Agent` or `Income AI Agent` pulls out the transaction ID, the date as DD/MM/YYYY, the type, the amount, the
   currency symbol and a comment, as JSON.
8. `Add Expense to Transactions Sheet` or `Add Income to Transactions Sheet` appends a row: the type goes in `Category`, the
   comment in `Description`, the currency and amount together in `Amount `, and the Drive link in `Invoice Link`.

## Change the look

- What counts as a transaction: the two categories and their descriptions in `Check for Transaction Email`.
- Income or expense: the rules and examples in the system prompt of `Check if it’s revenue or expense`.
- What it records: the field list in each agent's system message and the example in each `Structured Output Parser`. Add a
  field in both, then map it in the matching `Add` node.
- How often it checks: Poll Times in `Gmail Trigger`.

## Good to know

- Emails without an attachment fail: that path skips `Extract text` and `Upload file`, but the later nodes still read
  `$('Extract text').item` and `$('Upload file').item`. n8n stops such a run with "Node 'Extract text' hasn't been executed".
  To fix it, wrap each of those reads in `isExecuted`, for example
  `{{ $('Extract text').isExecuted ? $('Extract text').item.json.extractedText : '' }}`. They sit in
  `Check if it’s revenue or expense`, both agents' prompts and the `Invoice Link` of both `Add` nodes.
- The category: the chart of accounts goes to the models, but nothing asks them to pick from it. `Category` gets the type
  the agent describes, such as "Subscription Renewal". To get your own names, tell both agents to choose from the chart.
- Every attachment is saved: the upload happens before the email is checked, so newsletters and tickets land in your Drive too.
  Each file is named `attachment_0`, since that is the fixed name in `Upload file`. Only the first attachment of an email is read.
- Amounts are text: an expense is written as a minus sign, the symbol and the number (`-₹140.00`), and income as the symbol
  and the number. Sheets may keep them as text, so sums need a helper column.
- Billing: every new email costs at least one GPT-4.1 mini call, and a transaction up to three. Mistral bills each attachment
  it reads, whether or not it turns out to be a transaction.
- GPT-4.1 mini: OpenAI's deprecations page, read on 2 November 2026, removes `gpt-4.1-mini-2025-04-14`, the model behind
  `gpt-4.1-mini`, on 14 January 2027 and recommends `gpt-6-luna`. Change the four chat model nodes before then.
- Both agents' system messages begin with a stray `=`. The models ignore it.
- Duplicates: nothing checks the sheet first, so an email that arrives twice is logged twice.
- Your data: the emails' text and their attachments go to OpenAI and Mistral, and the attachments stay in your Drive. Check
  each row against its file before your books rely on it, since a model can misread a figure or a date.
```

## What is in it

2 files, 29 KB, downloaded as a zip.

```text
README.md  7 KB
workflow.json  22 KB
```

## Workflow check

Checked by Mindket on 13 Nov 2026. Read from the workflow’s file, not from a run.

- Steps: 13 steps, starting on a Gmail event
- AI: 5 steps call an AI model: Extract text, Check for Transaction Email, Check if it’s revenue or expense, Expense AI Agent and Income AI Agent
- Sign-ins: Signs in to: Google Drive, Google Sheets, OpenAI and Gmail
- API keys: No API key is left in the file
- Step types: Mindket’s checker reads 7 of its 8 step types. It does not read: Mistral AI

## Get it

- [Get it on your Mindket account](https://account.mindket.com/account/?product=mindket#/market/3af882b7-748b-4180-a7b5-c2195df0e512)
- [Its page on Mindket](https://mindket.com/p/3af882b7-748b-4180-a7b5-c2195df0e512)