How We Use N8N, a Low-Code Automation Platform, to Connect Our Business Data

Augusto relies on multiple systems to manage projects, finances, and sales, and we realized that we we faced a significant challenge: our data was siloed. This wasn’t due to poor planning—we'd rather pick the best tool for each job rather than relying on an all-in-one platform that does everything just “okay.” However, this approach created a challenge: we needed to seamlessly connect information from Harvest, Forecast, QuickBooks, and HubSpot to get real-time insights into our revenue, budget, and forecast. Enter N8N, a low-code automation tool that helped us build an integrated dashboard without relying on manual spreadsheets.

Unlike many low-code tools focusing on user-friendly UI implementations, N8N provides a more flexible backend integration approach, allowing us to connect multiple systems and create automated workflows with minimal coding effort. This made it an ideal solution for integrating disparate tools while maintaining complete control over our data connections.

The Problem: Disconnected Data and Manual Processes

Before setting up N8N, our workflow was clunky and time-consuming:

• Revenue forecasts for the next 30-90 days required manually pulling data from four different systems and consolidating it into spreadsheets.

• Managing the spreadsheets was a nightmare, with data scattered across multiple files, making it difficult to track and consolidate information effectively.

• Tracking whether projects stayed on budget was possible, but the information wasn’t transparent to the entire team.

• Identifying past-due invoices required separate logins and manual data entry into spreadsheets.

Our accounting team relied on manual exports from various tools, and no single source of truth provided a company-wide view of financial and operational health.

Why We Chose N8N

We knew that a low-code backend automation tool like N8N or Zapier could help, but we already had the infrastructure to deploy N8N, which was free. That allowed us to experiment without upfront costs and quickly test its capabilities in a skunkworks project before scaling.

Step 1: Automating Revenue Recognition with Harvest

We started by integrating Harvest because its API was easy to connect, and we needed reports for revenue recognition. Since we bill clients based on logged time, we built an automation that pulled time-tracking data and calculated how much revenue we should bill for each project. This eliminated manual reporting and made our invoicing process far more efficient.

Step 2: Predicting Future Revenue with Forecast

Next, we focused on forecasting future revenue. We pulled in data from Harvest Forecast to predict revenue for the next 30-90 days. This gave us a clearer picture of expected cash flow and allowed us to identify potential resourcing gaps before they became an issue.

Step 3: Tracking Financial Health with QuickBooks

We integrated QuickBooks to track past-due invoices and client account balances to gain better financial visibility. Our engagement leads needed to monitor overdue payments as part of their status reporting process. We provided financial transparency by adding past-due invoice data to our project dashboards and an operations dashboard.

Step 4: Enhancing Sales Insights with HubSpot

Finally, we connected HubSpot to bring sales pipeline data into our forecasting. By incorporating our win rate and average time from sale to revenue, we improved our ability to predict incoming revenue and gave leadership a more complete financial picture.

The Impact: A Company-Wide Dashboard for Smarter Decisions

With all these integrations, we built a centralized dashboard that:

• Provides real-time revenue insights for leadership decision-making.

• Allows project managers to track budgets and invoices effortlessly.

• Helps sales and finance teams align on future revenue expectations.

• Serves as the foundation for both our status reporting and leadership scorecard.

Key Takeaways

If you're considering integrating multiple systems using a low-code tool like N8N, here’s what we learned:

• Data relationships are key: You can create meaningful reports if you understand how your data connects across systems.

• Start small and iterate: Begin with a single integration that provides value, then expand from there.

• Low-code doesn’t mean limited: While many low-code tools focus on UI, N8N allows backend flexibility to create powerful system connections.

• Automation unlocks insights: By eliminating manual exports and spreadsheets, we gained visibility into business performance we never had before.

  
  

By leveraging N8N, we transformed scattered data into actionable insights, enabling better financial planning and strategic decision-making across our company. If you’re dealing with siloed data, it’s worth exploring how a low-code automation solution can bring it all together.