Regional restaurant chain. 12 locations. Each sends menu updates as Word docs via email. Operations manager spent 2.5 hours every Monday entering menu items into their POS system manually.
Built n8n workflow. Now: 23 minutes automated processing. $200/month recurring client.
THE MANUAL PROCESS BEFORE:
Every Monday morning:
– Download 12 Word docs from email
– Open each document manually
– Type menu items into POS system
– Copy prices and descriptions
– Verify formatting consistency
– 2.5 hours of pure data entry
– $6,500 annual labor cost
THE AUTOMATED N8N WORKFLOW:
8 NODES HANDLING EVERYTHING:
1. GMAIL TRIGGER
– Label: “menu-updates”
– Runs Monday 6 AM
– Grabs all .docx attachments from week
2. SPLIT IN BATCHES
– Process 3 menus at once
– Prevents memory issues
– Maintains API rate limits
3. DOCUMENT PARSER
– Extracts text from Word docs
– Handles their formatting quirks
– Returns clean structured data
4. EXTRACT STRUCTURED DATA
– Item name, price, description, category
– Dietary flags (vegan, gluten-free)
– JSON schema defines exact structure
– Confidence scoring included
5. IF NODE – QUALITY CHECK
– Confidence above 90%: proceed
– Below 90%: flag for review
– Prevents bad data in POS
6. HTTP REQUEST – POST TO POS API
– Creates menu items automatically
– Updates existing items
– Archives discontinued items
7. AGGREGATE RESULTS
– Count: items processed per location
– Track: success vs flagged items
– Generate: processing summary
8. SEND EMAIL SUMMARY
– Report to operations manager
– Shows what processed automatically
– Lists items needing review
– Professional HTML format
THE RESULTS:
Time reduction: 2.5 hours → 23 minutes (91% faster)
Labor savings: $6,500 annually
My setup fee: $1,400
Monthly maintenance: $200
Client ROI: Positive in 3 months
Accuracy: 97.3% auto-processed
Items flagged for review: 2.7%
Manager reviews flagged items: 23 minutes weekly
Zero errors in POS system since deployment
THE LESSON
Document processing isn’t just about PDFs. Word docs, spreadsheets, images – same proven pattern applies. Find the repetitive document workflow. Automate it. Charge for the time saved.
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