Gmail Purchase Order Automation with Groq LLM, Airtable & Sheets

Turn “purchase request” emails into structured Purchase Orders—automatically

This n8n workflow scans your Gmail for unread purchase request emails, uses a Groq LLM to extract urgency and itemized line details into strict JSON, matches items to your Airtable catalog for pricing and vendors, and then logs approvals to Google Sheets while creating or flagging Purchase Orders in Airtable.

What this workflow does

• Pulls unread Gmail requests (up to five) filtered by the subject “purchase request,” and normalizes each email into request text plus the requester’s address.
• Extracts structured PO data with Groq using n8n’s LangChain integration, parsing the output into a strict JSON schema that includes urgency and item quantities.
• Matches items to your Airtable catalog using fuzzy matching to assign SKUs, preferred vendors, and contract/standard pricing—then calculates the total PO cost.
• Routes requests intelligently based on match results and urgency:
  • If items match and are ready: appends/updates an approval/audit entry in Google Sheets and upserts an “Approved - Auto” purchase order in Airtable.
  • If matches fail or triage is required: creates/updates Airtable with “Pending Triage”.
  • If marked urgent: creates/updates Airtable with “Pending Urgent Review”.

Use cases

• Procurement teams converting frequent “purchase request” inbox emails into trackable PO records.
• SaaS operators who want faster approvals for urgent purchases while keeping an audit trail.
• Automation engineers standardizing PO creation logic using Groq + Airtable pricing catalogs.

Technical details

• Gmail (OAuth) to fetch unread messages and filter by subject.
• Groq LLM via n8n LangChain integration to generate strict JSON (urgency + itemized quantities).
• Airtable to load the approved item catalog, perform fuzzy SKU/vendor matching, and upsert PO records with statuses.
• Google Sheets to append/update approval/audit entries.
• Workflow nodes include: set, code, gmail, switch, airtable, and sticky note.