n8n is an open-source workflow automation tool that's taking the business world by storm. Unlike Zapier or Make, n8n can be self-hosted, giving you complete control over your data and unlimited workflows at a fraction of the cost.
After building hundreds of automations for our clients, we've identified the 10 most impactful workflows that consistently deliver massive ROI. Let's dive in.
Lead Capture to CRM Pipeline
Automatically capture leads from multiple sources (website forms, social media, email) and route them to your CRM with enriched data, scoring, and assignment rules.
Invoice Processing & QuickBooks Sync
Extract data from incoming invoices (email or uploads), validate against purchase orders, and automatically create entries in QuickBooks or your accounting software.
Customer Onboarding Sequence
When a new customer signs up, automatically create accounts, send welcome emails, schedule kickoff calls, provision access, and notify relevant team members.
Social Media Content Distribution
Create content once, then automatically adapt and publish to multiple platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) with platform-specific formatting and optimal timing.
Support Ticket Triage & Routing
Analyze incoming support tickets using AI, categorize by urgency and type, route to the right team member, and send acknowledgment with estimated response time.
Inventory Low Stock Alerts
Monitor inventory levels across all locations, automatically generate purchase orders when stock falls below thresholds, and alert relevant managers.
Meeting Notes & Action Items
Record meetings, transcribe with AI, extract action items, create tasks in your project management tool, and distribute meeting notes to attendees.
Employee Offboarding
When an employee leaves, automatically revoke access to all systems, notify IT, schedule exit interview, transfer documents, and update org charts.
Competitor Price Monitoring
Automatically scrape competitor websites for pricing changes, compare against your prices, alert sales teams, and optionally trigger price adjustments.
Report Generation & Distribution
Pull data from multiple sources, generate formatted reports (sales, performance, inventory), convert to PDF, and distribute to stakeholders on schedule.
Getting Started with n8n
Ready to implement these workflows? Here's how to get started:
- Install n8n: Self-host on your server or use n8n Cloud
- Map Your Process: Document the manual steps you want to automate
- Start Simple: Begin with one workflow and expand from there
- Test Thoroughly: Run with real data before going live
- Monitor & Iterate: Track execution and optimize over time
💡 Pro Tip
Start with the workflow that causes the most pain or wastes the most time. Quick wins build momentum and justify further automation investment.
Conclusion
These 10 workflows represent the highest-ROI automations we've built for clients across industries. Each one eliminates hours of manual work, reduces errors, and frees your team to focus on high-value activities.
The best part? With n8n's visual builder, you don't need to be a developer to implement these. And if you need help, we're here to build custom solutions tailored to your specific needs.