Employee Request Form Workflow

Overview

Employees fill out a single Google Form to request a title change, pay change, equipment, or schedule change. The request is logged in a Google Sheet and the manager receives an email with Approve and Reject links. The decision is written back to the same row along with who decided and when.

What it does

• Triggers automatically when the Employee Request form is submitted
• Validates the request and writes it to a Google Sheet as Pending
• Sends the manager an approval email with Approve and Reject links
• Updates the same row to Approved or Rejected with a decision timestamp and the manager's email
• Notifies the employee of the decision
• Logs validation and step failures to a dedicated Error Log sheet

Prerequisites

• A Google Workspace user account (no admin access required)
• An n8n instance (self-hosted or cloud)

What is included

• Production-ready n8n workflow (import and run)
• Google Apps Script (connects Google Forms to n8n securely)
• HMAC-SHA256 webhook authentication
• Automatic retry logic for failed requests
• Error logging to a Google Sheets tab
• Configuration tool (no JSON editing required)
• Step-by-step setup guide

How to set it up

Setup takes around 30-45 minutes. Here's what's involved:

1. 1 Copy the Google Form and Google Sheet

   Visit tl-hr.com and enter your license key to access the configurator. Download your pre-configured workflow and copy the Google Form and Google Sheet templates provided.

   Important: copying does not carry over the connection between the form and sheet. You will need to reconnect them in Google Forms (Responses tab → Link to Sheets → Select the copied sheet).
2. 2 Create/Setup Google Cloud Project

   Enable the Gmail API and Google Sheets API in your Google Cloud Project. Google's official documentation covers how to enable APIs.

3. 3 Connect your credentials in n8n

   Add two credentials to your n8n instance: Gmail OAuth2 and Google Sheets OAuth2. Our setup guides walk you through each one step by step.

4. 4 Configure and download your workflow

   Enter your company details, webhook URL, sheet ID, and credential IDs into the configurator. Download your pre-configured workflow JSON and Apps Script files.

5. 5 Link the form to the sheet, add the Apps Script, and run setup

   Link your Google Form to the copied Google Sheet (Responses tab → Link to Sheets → Select existing spreadsheet). Then paste the Apps Script into the Sheet's script editor (Extensions → Apps Script) and run the setup() function once. The Apps Script setup function creates an Error Log tab and adds the Status, Decision timestamp, Decided by, and row_number columns.

6. 6 Test the workflow

   Submit a test employee request form and confirm the manager notification is sent with Approve and Reject links. Click Approve (and then submit another and click Reject) and confirm the Sheet row updates to Approved or Rejected with a decision timestamp and the manager's email, and the employee receives a notification email.

For the full walkthrough, see the setup guide.