⚡ Track expenses from Telegram to Google Sheets with GPT-4.1 Mini

⚡ 2,768 views · ⚡ Personal Productivity

Description

📒 Telegram Expense Tracker to Google Sheets with GPT-4.1

> A lightweight automation that lets users log daily expenses via a Telegram bot and instantly saves them into Google Sheets—perfect for anyone looking to manage spending on the go with AI-powered structure and ease.

👤 Who’s it for

This workflow is for anyone who wants to log their daily expenses by simply chatting with a Telegram bot. Ideal for:

Individuals who want a quick way to track spending
Freelancers who log receipts and purchases on the go
Teams or small business owners who want lightweight expense capture

⚙️ How it works / What it does

User sends a text message on Telegram describing an expense
(e.g., “Bought coffee for 50k at Highlands”)
Message format is validated
- If the message is text, it proceeds to GPT-4.1 Mini for processing.
- If it’s not text (e.g. image or file), the bot sends a fallback message.
OpenAI GPT-4.1 Mini parses the message and returns:
- relevant: true/false
- expense_record: structured fields (date, amount, currency, category, description, source)
- message: a friendly confirmation or fallback
If valid:
- The bot replies with a fun acknowledgment
- The data is saved to a connected Google Sheet
If invalid:
- A fallback message is sent to encourage proper input

🛠️ How to set up

1. Telegram Bot Setup

Create a bot using BotFather on Telegram
Copy the bot token and paste it into the Telegram Trigger node

2. Google Sheet Setup

Create a Google Sheet with these columns:

Date | Amount | Currency | Category | Description | SourceMessage

Share the sheet with your n8n service account email

3. OpenAI Configuration

Connect the OpenAI Chat Model node using your OpenAI API key
Use GPT-4.1 Mini as the model
Apply a system prompt that extracts structured JSON with:
- relevant, expense_record, and message

4. Add Parser

Use the Structured Output Parser node to safely parse the JSON response

5. Conditional Logic Nodes

Is text message?
- Checks if the message is in text format
Supported scenario?
- Checks if relevant = true in the LLM response

6. Final Actions

If relevant:
- Send confirmation via Telegram
- Append row to Google Sheet
If not relevant:
- Send fallback message via Telegram

✅ Requirements

Telegram bot token
OpenAI GPT-4.1 Mini API access
n8n instance (self-hosted or cloud)
Google Sheet with access granted to n8n
Basic understanding of n8n node configuration

🧩 How to customize the workflow

Feature	How to Customize
Add multi-currency support	Update system prompt to detect and extract different currencies
Add more categories	Modify the list of categories in the system prompt
Track multiple users	Add `username` or `chat ID` column to the Google Sheet
Trigger alerts	Add Slack, Email, or Telegram alerts for specific expense types
Weekly summaries	Use a cron node + Google Sheet query + Telegram message
Visual dashboards	Connect the sheet to Looker Studio or Google Data Studio

Built with 💬 Telegram + 🧠 GPT-4.1 Mini + 📊 Google Sheets + ⚡ n8n

🔗 Nodes Used

Google Sheets, Telegram, Telegram Trigger, AI Agent, OpenAI Chat Model, Structured Output Parser

📥 Import

Download workflow.json and import into n8n: Workflow menu → Import from File

📖 Importing guide · 🔑 Credential setup