Weekly Overtime Compliance Automation (Google Sheets, Gmail, GPT-4o)

Automate weekly overtime compliance: summarize Google Sheets timesheets, generate GPT-4o escalation notes, and email Payroll/HR via Gmail

This n8n workflow runs every Sunday to total weekly employee hours from Google Sheets, classify overtime compliance against 40- and 45-hour thresholds, and—when needed—draft an escalation note with OpenAI (GPT-4o) and send an HTML email to Payroll/HR through Gmail. Every outcome is logged back to a dedicated Overtime Log sheet.

What this workflow does

• Weekly scheduled run: Executes every week on Sunday at 6:00 PM.
• Reads timesheets from Google Sheets: Pulls the latest entries from the Timesheet Entries tab.
• Groups and totals hours: Groups records by employee and calculates total weekly hours worked.
• Checks overtime thresholds: Determines compliance status (e.g., compliant, approaching, or violation) based on 40- and 45-hour thresholds.
• OpenAI-assisted escalation (over 40 hours): For employees over 40 hours, uses OpenAI to generate a short Payroll/HR note.
• Sends HTML escalation email: Sends the email via Gmail, CC’ing the manager, using your configured Payroll/HR recipient logic.
• Logs results: Appends each employee’s record (hours, status, timestamp, and department) to the Overtime Log sheet—email sent only when employees are over 40 hours.

Use cases

• Payroll/HR teams need consistent weekly overtime review without manual spreadsheet checks.
• Automation engineers want a reliable Google Sheets + Gmail + GPT-4o compliance workflow with auditable logging.
• SaaS operators managing distributed workforces want standardized escalation notes for >40-hour cases.

Technical details

• Scheduled trigger (Sunday 6:00 PM)
• Google Sheets (source: “Timesheet Entries”; destination: “Overtime Log”)
• OpenAI (Chat model, e.g., GPT-4o) to draft Payroll/HR notes for over-40 employees
• Gmail to send HTML escalation emails and CC managers
• Logic nodes such as if, set, and summarize, plus a sticky note for workflow guidance

Required columns in “Timesheet Entries”: EmployeeName, EmployeeEmail, ManagerEmail, Depa… (and the fields needed for weekly hour calculation).