Admin automations

Admin work that stops forgetting things

Electronic invoices, mileage claims, the month's documents for your accountant and a guardian that tells you when something stops. These are the automations from our own back office, free in the official n8n gallery: install them yourself, or let us set them up for you.

Let us set them up on your tools See what they do

Gaetano Castaldo is an n8n verified creator See the profile (opens in a new tab)

Why they exist

They don't save time. They stop you forgetting.

Logging an invoice, noting a trip, putting a bank statement in the right folder: minutes each. The trouble is that those minutes are scattered across the days, and with more suppliers the documents arrive from more places: email, certified email (PEC) and different devices. So something slips through.

While Gaetano was building them, what he calls “the thing that worried me” was being able to watch the runs and get warned about errors. That is why the fourth automation is a guardian: the automations and programs connected to it send it their errors and a periodic heartbeat, and it tells you when something stops.

And the accountant? They saw the flow of documents and their accuracy go up, and paid Gaetano a compliment.

How they came about: read the article

“Before, there were at least 2-3 invoices a month that I completely forgot, so they never made it into the books. With these automations nothing is left to chance any more.”

Gaetano Castaldo, founder of Castaldo Solutions (translated from Italian)

“Now I no longer read them myself, the automation does, and the guardian steps in when the automation fails.”

Gaetano Castaldo, founder of Castaldo Solutions (translated from Italian)

The four automations

What changes in your admin

Each one does a single job and checks it before handing it over. Anything meant for your accountant stays a Gmail draft: you read it and you send it.

Electronic invoices received through Aruba

Every invoice you receive makes it into your accountant's report

  • It reads every invoice notice Aruba sends to your mailbox, usually your certified email (PEC), and logs it in its own table.
  • It warns you straight away if the same invoice arrives twice, if an amount is far above that supplier's average or if the supplier is new to you.
  • For each new supplier the AI picks the expense category from your own list, once: correct it and every report follows your choice.
  • On the 1st of the month a draft for your accountant is ready, with last month's Excel: totals by category, what to check, new suppliers.
Template in the n8n gallery (opens in a new tab)
Mileage reimbursement

Your mileage claim builds itself from the calendar

  • You note your trips in a Google Calendar. The AI also understands the ones written in plain words, like “Client visit in Bergamo”, and never makes up a starting point.
  • OpenStreetMap works out the kilometres along the driving route, free and with no keys to request.
  • Three checks come first: kilometres written far from the real route, the same trip noted twice on the same day, too many kilometres in one day.
  • On the 1st of the month you get the Excel with the total and the draft for your accountant. A month already claimed never gets a second draft.
Template in the n8n gallery (opens in a new tab)
Month-end close

Your accountant finds the month's documents in order, and you know what is missing

  • Every morning it copies your Dropbox archive into the Google Drive folder you share with your accountant. It only adds: nothing is ever overwritten or deleted.
  • The AI reads each document once and recognises what it is, which month it refers to and who issued it.
  • The checks flag a document from the wrong month, a file saved twice, an empty file and a broken PDF.
  • On the 5th it tells you what is missing, and again on the 12th if something is still open. When the month is complete, it prepares the draft for your accountant with the folder link and an index of the documents.
Template in the n8n gallery (opens in a new tab)
The guardian

You know straight away when an automation stops

  • It watches the automations and programs that send it a heartbeat: when one fails it warns you, at once if it is urgent; when one goes quiet for too long it tells you in the morning, and when it comes back it lets you know.
  • The AI explains the likely cause in plain words, and the first thing to check.
  • The same error does not flood your inbox: if it keeps repeating, you get one extra warning only.
  • Passwords and keys are masked before any email and before anything reaches the AI. On top of that, a summary every day or once a week.
Template in the n8n gallery (opens in a new tab)

Two ways to go, your choice

Free

You can install them yourself, even without knowing n8n

Every automation is in the official n8n gallery, published after review by the n8n team. Inside you find the instructions to set it up step by step:

A yellow note with the full description

What it is for, what you need and how to prepare it, all in one place.

A note for every step

Next to the blocks it describes, so you always know what you are looking at.

One block with all the settings

It is called Settings: you write your email, your accountant's and your folders there. The month-end close also asks for the list of expected documents, the guardian for the list of programs to watch.

A warning if it stops

If an automation gets stuck, you get an email. And the tables where it keeps its records are created with one click or on the first run.

Open the template in the gallery, import the automation into your n8n and follow the notes. You need an n8n installation and the accounts listed in the technical details below.

The notes are in English, as the n8n gallery requires. Emails and Excel files are in Italian, as an Italian accountant expects them.

Go to the technical details All his templates in the gallery (opens in a new tab)

Gaetano Castaldo is an n8n verified creator: the status n8n gives after three templates approved by its team.

If you'd rather not spend time on it

Let us set them up

We connect them to your email, your archive and your calendar for you. The cost is agreed once we have seen your tools.

Let us set them up

For whoever installs them

The technical details

For you or for whoever looks after your IT. Every automation needs an n8n version with data tables.

Aruba electronic invoices (opens in a new tab)

What you need: The mailbox that receives Aruba's notices over IMAP (for an Aruba PEC: imaps.pec.aruba.it, port 993, SSL), OpenAI, Dropbox, Gmail.

Dropbox can be swapped for Google Drive or OneDrive, OpenAI for another model.

Mileage reimbursement (opens in a new tab)

What you need: A Google Calendar used for trips (OAuth2), OpenAI, Dropbox, Gmail.

OpenStreetMap (Nominatim and OSRM) needs no keys, within its usage policies. You choose the rate per kilometre: in Italy, the ACI table for your car.

Month-end close (opens in a new tab)

What you need: Dropbox, Google Drive, Gmail, OpenAI.

Without the AI the check goes by file name. A test mode runs it on a past month with no drafts and no copies.

The guardian (opens in a new tab)

What you need: Gmail and, if you want the AI's explanations, OpenAI.

Each app sends its errors and a periodic heartbeat to a single webhook, with its own token: a cron job with curl is enough.

Access keys

They live in n8n's credentials, which n8n stores encrypted, not inside the workflows: the published templates contain none. We also keep ours in an encrypted vault, and we recommend it to every business.

One more, but it is not admin

The AI pre-assessment for small businesses

A 14-question form, about five minutes, that scores five areas and sends a report written by the AI. The report is checked before it goes out: no figures the respondent never gave, no promise words. It is for consultants and agencies who want to offer it to their clients, and for owners who want an honest snapshot of where they stand.

Template in the n8n gallery (opens in a new tab)

Frequently asked questions

Yes. Every automation has a yellow note with the full description, a note for every step and a single Settings block where you write your own settings: your email, your accountant's, your folders. The month-end close and the guardian need one more step: the list of expected documents and the list of programs to watch. The notes are in English, as the n8n gallery requires. You need an n8n installation with data tables and the accounts listed in each template. If you would rather not spend time on it, we set them up for you.
n8n, plus the accounts each automation uses. For invoices: the mailbox that receives Aruba's notices, OpenAI, Dropbox and Gmail. For mileage: Google Calendar, OpenAI, Dropbox and Gmail. For the month-end close: Dropbox, Google Drive, Gmail and OpenAI. For the guardian: Gmail and, if you want the AI's explanations, OpenAI. OpenStreetMap works out the kilometres and needs no keys.
On your n8n and your own accounts: documents stay in your Dropbox, your Drive and your mailbox, records in tables on your n8n. Keys live in n8n's credentials, which n8n stores encrypted, and the published templates contain none. The AI only receives what it needs to decide: the name of a new supplier with the invoice type and total, a trip written in plain words, the text of a document's first pages, an error with passwords and keys already masked.
If an automation fails, it emails you. To also catch the ones that go quiet, there is the guardian: the automations and programs connected to it send it a periodic heartbeat, and if one stays quiet beyond the threshold you chose it tells you in the morning, and it lets you know when it is back.
No. Anything meant for your accountant stays a Gmail draft, with the Excel or the index of documents: you read it and you send it. Warnings and summaries come to you.
The automations are free: you download them from the n8n gallery and you pay us nothing. What remains is the cost of the tools they use, if any: OpenAI, for example, is pay as you go. If you want us to set them up for you, the cost is agreed once we have seen your tools: write to us from the form at the bottom of the page.

Let us set them up on your tools

Tell us which automations you are interested in and what you use today for email, archive and calendar: we will get back to you to work out how to set them up.

Response guaranteed within 24 business hours