Timesheet Report Generator with Markdown and Email

Overview

This workflow generates a beautifully formatted HTML timesheet report from sample timesheet data, complete with user avatars, grouped by user and task, with subtotals for each task. It demonstrates how to transform structured data into a professional markdown report, convert it to HTML, and optionally email it as an attachment. The workflow is ideal for teams that need to visualize and share timesheet data in a clean, readable format.

Workflow Steps

1. On clicking 'execute' (Manual Trigger) — No auth. This is the manual trigger that starts the workflow when you click the "Execute Workflow" button in the n8n editor. Useful for testing and on-demand report generation.

2. GetTimesheetRecords (Function Node) — No auth. This node contains hardcoded sample timesheet data for two users (User 1 - Lead Programmer and User 2 - Designer) with multiple tasks, dates, hours, notes, and avatar URLs. In a real scenario, you would replace this with a database query, API call, or Google Sheets lookup.

3. SortElements (Item Lists) — No auth. Sorts the incoming timesheet records by three fields in order: UserName, TaskTitle, and date. This ensures the report groups data correctly by user and task in chronological order.

4. GetImg (Item Lists) — No auth. Removes duplicate entries based on the UserAvatar field, keeping only one record per unique avatar URL. This prepares the data for fetching each user's avatar image only once.

5. ImgBinary (HTTP Request) — No auth. Fetches each unique avatar URL as a binary file (image). The response format is set to "file" to store the image data as binary. This uses Gravatar URLs with different default styles (robohash, identicon).

6. Merge2 (Merge) — No auth. Merges the sorted timesheet data (from SortElements) with the binary avatar images (from ImgBinary) by index. This combines each user's avatar image with their timesheet records for the report.

7. CreateMDReport (Function Node) — No auth. This is the core of the workflow. It contains JavaScript code that:

   • Builds a markdown report with a custom HTML table style
   • Groups entries by user (with avatar embedded as base64)
   • Groups entries by task within each user
   • Creates a table with Date, Hours, and Task Description columns
   • Calculates and displays subtotals for each task
   • Adds a generation timestamp at the end
   • Returns the complete markdown string as mdreport

8. Markdown (Markdown) — No auth. Converts the markdown report (from $json["mdreport"]) into HTML. Options include table support, simple line breaks, and a complete HTML document structure.

9. Move Binary Data1 (Move Binary Data) — No auth. Converts the HTML report from JSON to binary format, setting the filename to "report.html" and MIME type to "text/html". This prepares the report for email attachment.

10. Send Email (Email Send) — No auth (requires SMTP credentials). Currently disabled. Would send the HTML report as an email attachment with subject "TimeSheet report". The attachment is the binary data from the previous node.

Setup Instructions

1. Prerequisites: You need an n8n instance (self-hosted or cloud).
2. Replace Sample Data: The GetTimesheetRecords node contains hardcoded sample data. Replace this with your actual data source:
   • Use a Google Sheets node to fetch timesheet data
   • Use a PostgreSQL or MySQL node to query a database
   • Use an HTTP Request node to call an API
3. Avatar Images: The workflow fetches avatars from Gravatar. If you use different avatar URLs, ensure they are publicly accessible or adjust authentication.
4. Email Setup: To enable email sending, configure SMTP credentials in n8n's credentials manager and enable the Send Email node. You'll need an SMTP server (e.g., Gmail, SendGrid, or your company's mail server).
5. Test: Click "Execute Workflow" to generate the report. Check the output of the Markdown node to see the HTML report.

Use Cases and Variations

• Team Timesheet Reports: Replace sample data with your team's actual timesheet data from Google Sheets, Airtable, or a database.
• Automated Weekly Reports: Add a Schedule Trigger (Cron) to run this workflow every Monday morning and email the report to managers.
• Project Status Reports: Modify the JavaScript to include project names, status, or other metrics.
• Invoice Generation: Adapt the report format to create HTML invoices with line items and totals.
• Slack Integration: Instead of email, use a Slack node to post the report to a channel.
• PDF Conversion: Add a HTML to PDF node (e.g., using a PDF generation service) to send PDF reports.
• Multi-format Output: Output both HTML and plain text versions for different audiences.

{
  "nodes": [
    {
      "name": "On clicking 'execute'",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.manualTrigger",
      "position": [
        120,
        560
      ],
      "parameters": {},
      "typeVersion": 1
    },
    {
      "name": "SortElements",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.itemLists",
      "position": [
        480,
        560
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "options": {},
        "operation": "sort",
        "sortFieldsUi": {
          "sortField": [
            {
              "fieldName": "UserName"
            },
            {
              "fieldName": "TaskTitle"
            },
            {
              "fieldName": "date"
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      "typeVersion": 1
    },
    {
      "name": "Markdown",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.markdown",
      "position": [
        1340,
        580
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "mode": "markdownToHtml",
        "options": {
          "tables": true,
          "noHeaderId": true,
// ... truncated (copy to see full JSON)