n8n for Architecture and Construction Firms: 24 Templates Mapped to the Work

n8n is a workflow automation tool. You connect a trigger (a new email, a form submission, a feed item, a schedule) to steps (filter, transform, create a record, notify a person). Its public template library holds hundreds of working workflows that anyone can copy into their own account.

There is no architecture or construction category in that library. That is not because the jobs are unusual. Most AEC office work is the same shape as everyone else’s office work: a document arrives, someone has to file it, someone has to act on it, and someone has to be told. The templates below were picked because an AEC firm can adopt each one with small changes. For each, the entry says what the template does as published, which nodes it uses, and what a firm would change.

Each template links to its page on n8n.io. Read the page before you import it. The descriptions here are ours; the node lists are the template author’s.

Fit score is our estimate of how little must change: 5 means the workflow works as published with different inputs; 3 means the structure is right but a source, a field set, or a recipient list needs rebuilding.

Find and route opportunities

Smart RSS feed monitoring with AI filtering, Baserow storage, and Slack alerts

Fit 4 of 5. Polls a set of RSS feeds, uses an AI agent to filter out items already seen or off-topic, and posts only the new qualifying items to a Slack channel while logging them in Baserow.

Nodes: HTTP Request, XML, Baserow, Code, AI Agent (OpenAI Chat Model), Simple Memory, Structured Output Parser, Slack.

What an AEC firm changes: Swap the RSS sources for AEC opportunity feeds (SAM.gov, state e-procurement RSS, association bid boards), change the AI filter prompt to score by discipline/geography/project size, and route the Slack alert to the BD channel; Baserow can stay or be replaced with the firm’s CRM contact/deal log.

Generate RFP proposal drafts from Google Drive with Groq AI, Salesforce and Slack

Fit 3 of 5. Watches a Google Drive folder for new RFP documents, extracts the requirements with an LLM, drafts a proposal in Google Docs, opens a matching Salesforce opportunity, and notifies the team in Slack.

Nodes: HTTP Request, Merge, Edit Fields (Set), Google Drive trigger, Groq AI, Google Docs, Salesforce, Slack.

What an AEC firm changes: Point the Drive watch at the folder where downloaded RFP/RFQ PDFs land, tune the extraction prompt to pull scope/fee-type/submission-deadline fields relevant to AEC procurement, and swap Salesforce for HubSpot/Pipedrive/Zoho to open the opportunity record.

Automate Your RFP Process with OpenAI Assistants

Fit 3 of 5. Pulls questions out of an incoming RFP form and answers each one automatically using an OpenAI Assistant trained on the company’s own knowledge base.

Nodes: Edit Fields (Set), Loop Over Items (Split in Batches), OpenAI Assistant, Slack.

What an AEC firm changes: Load the assistant’s knowledge base with the firm’s qualifications, past-project boilerplate, and standard SF330/SOQ answers so it can auto-draft responses to owner questionnaires; route the draft to a principal for review via Slack before submission.

Turn inquiries into CRM records

Capture leads in HubSpot from Typeform

Fit 4 of 5. Fires on a Typeform submission, creates the contact in HubSpot, filters for interested prospects, moves qualified ones to an opportunity stage, and emails them via Gmail.

Nodes: Typeform Trigger, Set (Edit Fields), HubSpot, If, Gmail, No Operation (NoOp).

What an AEC firm changes: Swap Typeform for the firm’s website inquiry/contact form (Jotform or a Webflow form), map fields to project type/budget/timeline instead of generic lead data, and adjust the HubSpot pipeline stage names to match the firm’s BD stages.

Typeform Lead Capture to HubSpot with Scoring and Slack Alerts

Fit 4 of 5. Captures a Typeform submission, dedupes/updates the contact in HubSpot, scores the lead with custom logic, and alerts sales in Slack with the priority tier.

Nodes: Typeform Trigger, If, HubSpot (Search/Create/Update Contact), Function (Lead Scoring), Slack.

What an AEC firm changes: Replace the scoring function with criteria that matter for AEC intake (project budget range, delivery method, is it an RFP vs. direct hire, geography), and route the Slack alert to whichever principal covers that market sector.

Qualify High-Budget Leads: Typeform to HubSpot, Google Sheets & Slack Alerts

Fit 4 of 5. Checks each new form lead’s stated budget against a threshold, and for anything above it, updates HubSpot and logs to Sheets, then pings the sales team in Slack.

Nodes: Typeform, If, HubSpot, Google Sheets, Slack.

What an AEC firm changes: Replace the budget field with the firm’s minimum-viable-project-fee filter so only leads worth a principal’s time get flagged, and route to whichever team owns that project type.

Smart Lead Qualification & Routing from Typeform to HubSpot with Data Enrichment

Fit 3 of 5. Takes a form submission, enriches the contact/company via Hunter.io and Abstract API, scores it, and routes hot leads to HubSpot as Qualified while cold ones get logged for a later nurture re-check.

Nodes: Typeform Webhook, Function, Google Sheets, HTTP Request, Hunter.io, Abstract API, HubSpot, Slack, Wait.

What an AEC firm changes: Drop the consumer-lead enrichment APIs (or swap for a firmographic source relevant to owners/developers) and adjust the qualification thresholds to distinguish direct-hire inquiries from unsolicited RFP notices; keep the Wait+re-check loop for slow-moving public-sector leads.

Follow up without relying on memory

Send HubSpot deal follow-ups with Gmail, Slack, and Google Sheets

Fit 4 of 5. Sends a timed sequence of follow-up emails to new HubSpot deal contacts, watches for replies, alerts Slack on engagement, and logs outcomes to Sheets while updating the deal stage.

Nodes: HubSpot, Gmail, Slack, Google Sheets, If, Wait.

What an AEC firm changes: Re-time the sequence to match AEC sales cycles (weeks, not days), swap the email copy for proposal-follow-up language, and map the deal-stage updates to the firm’s pipeline (e.g., Proposal Sent → No Response → Interview Scheduled).

Automated lead follow-up system with Gmail, Google Calendar & Sheets sync

Fit 3 of 5. Runs hourly to find leads that haven’t booked a meeting or haven’t replied in 24 hours, sends a booking-link follow-up email, and holds a placeholder calendar slot.

Nodes: Google Sheets, If, Edit Fields (Set), Gmail, Google Calendar, Schedule Trigger, Delay.

What an AEC firm changes: Point the Sheet (or swap for a CRM query) at open proposals/RFP submissions instead of raw leads, and change the no-reply window to days rather than hours to match how slowly owners/agencies respond.

Generate & send quotation PDFs from Pipedrive to DottedSign for e-signature

Fit 3 of 5. When a Pipedrive deal reaches a chosen stage, builds a PDF quote from an HTML template, attaches it back to the deal, and sends it out through DottedSign for signature.

Nodes: HTTP Request, If, Merge.

What an AEC firm changes: Trigger on a stage like ‘Fee Proposal Approved,’ swap the HTML template for the firm’s standard AIA-style agreement/fee proposal, and keep or replace DottedSign with whichever e-sign tool the firm already uses.

File RFIs, submittals, and drawings

Organize Gmail attachments in Google Drive folders based on sender’s email

Fit 5 of 5. Watches an inbox, pulls out attachments from incoming mail, and files them into a per-sender Google Drive folder, creating the folder if it doesn’t exist yet.

Nodes: Gmail, IF, Merge, Edit Fields (Set), Google Drive, Execute Workflow.

What an AEC firm changes: Route by sender domain (consultant/contractor/owner’s rep) or by subject-line keyword (RFI, submittal, addendum) instead of raw sender email, and point the destination folders at the project’s Drive structure.

Gmail attachment manager with Google Drive upload and smart filtering

Fit 5 of 5. Pulls attachments off incoming emails one at a time, uploads them to a Drive destination with optional type/size filtering, and posts a Slack notification when done.

Nodes: HTTP Request, Loop Over Items (Split in Batches), Gmail, Google Drive, Slack.

What an AEC firm changes: Filter for drawing/spec file types (DWG, RVT exports, PDF sets) and post the Slack notification to a project-specific channel so the PM knows new drawings landed.

Extract & classify invoices & receipts with Gmail, OpenAI and Google Drive

Fit 4 of 5. Scans a date range of inbox mail for PDF attachments, uses OpenAI to classify each as an invoice or receipt, and uploads the sorted files into the matching Drive folder.

Nodes: Webhook, Google Drive, Gmail, If, Merge, No Operation, OpenAI.

What an AEC firm changes: Retrain the classification prompt to sort submittals vs. RFIs vs. shop drawings vs. addenda instead of invoice/receipt, and route the sorted files into the project’s document-control folder structure or a Notion/ClickUp intake board.

Turn meeting notes into owned tasks

Fireflies transcripts to meeting summaries & task extractor to Slack & ClickUp

Fit 5 of 5. Fires when Fireflies finishes transcribing a call, summarizes it and extracts action items with an LLM, then posts the summary to Slack and creates the action items as ClickUp tasks.

Nodes: Webhook, Fireflies, Code, Google Gemini, Code, Slack, ClickUp.

What an AEC firm changes: Keep as-is for weekly OAC/coordination calls recorded via Fireflies/Zoom; just relabel the ClickUp list per project and route the Slack summary to the project channel.

Transform Meeting Notes into Asana Tasks & Slack Summaries with GPT-4o

Fit 4 of 5. Takes pasted meeting notes through a form, has GPT-4o pull out action items/decisions, creates an Asana task per action item, and posts a Slack summary.

Nodes: Form Trigger, OpenAI/GPT-4o, Asana, Slack.

What an AEC firm changes: Swap the Asana node for ClickUp (or the firm’s PM tool) and change the intake form to accept OAC/design-coordination meeting notes so action items map to punch-list-style tasks with the responsible discipline as assignee.

Summarize Zoom meetings and create tasks with Claude, ClickUp, Calendar, Slack, and Sheets

Fit 4 of 5. Runs daily, pulls every Zoom recording from the last 24 hours, transcribes/summarizes each with Claude, emails participants the summary, creates ClickUp tasks for action items, books follow-up meetings, and logs everything to Sheets.

Nodes: Schedule Trigger, Manual Trigger, Zoom (Get Meetings), Filter, HTTP (Get Recording), Code (Extract Transcript URL), HTTP (Download Transcript), Code (Parse Transcript), HTTP (Get Participants), Claude 3.7 Sonnet, Code (Format Email), Gmail, Code (Extract Action Items), If, Code (Split Tasks), HTTP (Create ClickUp Task), Code (Extract Follow-Up), If, Google Calendar, Slack, Google Sheets.

What an AEC firm changes: This is the most complete version of the meeting-to-tasks job , point it at the firm’s Zoom account, keep ClickUp as the task destination, and use the Sheets log as a lightweight meeting-minutes archive per project.

Site observations and photo reports

Manage construction projects with tasks, photo reports, Telegram & Google Sheets

Fit 5 of 5. Lets field workers submit task updates and photo reports through Telegram, which get logged into a Google Sheet with timestamps and completion status.

Nodes: Cron, Google Sheets, If, Telegram.

What an AEC firm changes: Explicitly construction-tagged already , works close to as-is for site-observation logging; consider swapping Telegram for a Jotform-based site-report form if field staff prefer a structured form to a chat bot, and route the Sheet rows into a punch-list or field-report record instead of a generic task list.

Automate vehicle inspections & maintenance workflows with OpenAI & Jotform

Fit 4 of 5. Captures a photo-and-checklist inspection form submission, uses GPT-4 to flag critical vs. routine issues, logs everything to Sheets, and emails the maintenance team and driver.

Nodes: Google Sheets, If, Edit Fields (Set), Jotform, OpenAI, Gmail.

What an AEC firm changes: Replace the vehicle checklist with a site-observation/punch-list form (photo + location + trade + severity), keep the AI triage step to flag safety-critical items for immediate escalation, and route the Gmail alert to the super/PM instead of a driver.

Time and billing to invoice

Client billing detail collection & invoice generation with Gmail and QuickBooks

Fit 4 of 5. Emails a client to collect missing billing details through a hosted form, then finds or creates them in QuickBooks and generates and sends the invoice.

Nodes: Gmail, QuickBooks Online, Form Trigger (Enter Client Details), Form Trigger (Collect Info), QuickBooks (Find/Create Client), QuickBooks (Create Invoice).

What an AEC firm changes: Trigger the intake form from an approved fee milestone or time-and-materials cutoff instead of a manual request, and map the invoice line items to the firm’s phase-based billing (SD/DD/CD/CA) structure.

Automate QuickBooks invoicing & customer creation from Airtable sales orders

Fit 4 of 5. Triggers when a sales order in Airtable is marked ready, creates the customer in QuickBooks if needed, generates the invoice via the QuickBooks API, and writes the result back to Airtable.

Nodes: Webhook, Airtable, HTTP Request, If, Code.

What an AEC firm changes: Replace the Airtable sales-order base with a project-fee/milestone tracker (or the firm’s PM tool export), and trigger on ‘milestone approved’ instead of ‘order confirmed.’

Publish portfolio and news

Automate newsletter creation & client delivery with GPT-4O, Google Sheets

Fit 2 of 5. Generates newsletter content from a topic queue in Sheets with GPT-4o, saves it to Drive, and emails the approved version to a client distribution list on a schedule.

Nodes: Manual Trigger, Google Sheets, OpenAI (GPT-4o), Google Drive, Gmail, Schedule Trigger, Loop Over Items (Split in Batches).

What an AEC firm changes: Weakest fit of the set , no CMS/portfolio-publish step (no Webflow/Framer node) so it only covers the ‘newsletter delivery’ half of job 8; would need a Webflow/Framer publish trigger bolted on to close the loop from portfolio update to newsletter/social post.

Construction and real-estate specific

Estimate construction costs from text with Telegram, OpenAI and DDC CWICR

Fit 3 of 5. Lets someone describe a scope of work in plain language via Telegram, then parses it with AI and looks it up against a 55,000-item open construction cost database to return a labor/material/equipment cost breakdown.

Nodes: HTTP Request, If, Edit Fields (Set), OpenAI, Telegram (implied).

What an AEC firm changes: Explicitly construction-tagged; useful as-is for quick budgetary/order-of-magnitude estimates during early design or pre-RFP conversations , swap the Telegram front end for a Slack command if that’s the firm’s chat tool.

Automate real estate open house follow-ups with SignSnapHome, HubSpot, and Twilio

Fit 3 of 5. Captures open-house sign-ins, scores the visitor, syncs the contact to HubSpot and a Monday.com board, and runs a scripted email+SMS follow-up sequence over the following week.

Nodes: Webhook, Code, HubSpot, HTTP Request (Follow Up Boss), Monday.com, Google Sheets, Send Email, Twilio, Wait, If.

What an AEC firm changes: Real-estate-tagged and adaptable to an AEC ‘site visit / walkthrough’ sign-in sheet (e.g., a prospective client tour) , swap SignSnapHome for a Jotform sign-in and drop the Twilio SMS step if the firm doesn’t text prospects.

Qualify and route real estate leads with Anthropic Claude, MLS/CRM, and Google Sheets

Fit 3 of 5. Periodically pulls prospects from MLS/CRM/email sources, has Claude assess buying intent and priority, and routes high-value leads to the right agent while logging engagement to Sheets.

Nodes: Google Sheets, HTTP Request, If, Schedule Trigger, Anthropic Claude (AI Agent), Structured Output Parser, Merge/Aggregate, Batch Processing.

What an AEC firm changes: Repoint the HTTP pull at a public-notice or opportunity source (permits, DOB filings, bid boards) instead of MLS, and change the AI’s scoring criteria from buyer intent to fit against the firm’s target project types.

By workflow area

Two shorter pages group these templates by the part of the practice they serve: n8n for architecture business development and n8n for project coordination and site work.

How to use this list

Pick the job that costs you the most time each week, not the template that looks most impressive. Open the template page, read the node list, and check which accounts it needs. Import it into a test workspace first. Replace the source (feed, form, mailbox) with yours, rename the fields to the words your office already uses, and send the notifications to the one person who owns that job. Run it beside the manual process for two weeks before you switch it off.

The walk-throughs in this series take one template each and do exactly that, step by step, for a specific AEC scenario.

Common questions

Do these templates need a paid n8n plan?

The template library is public and importing a template is free. Running workflows needs an n8n account: n8n Cloud (paid, hosted) or the self-hosted Community Edition. Some templates also need accounts on the connected services (HubSpot, ClickUp, QuickBooks, Google Workspace).

Many templates use an AI node. Is that required?

Ten of the 24 include an OpenAI, Claude, or Groq node, usually to classify or summarize. That adds an API key and a per-call cost. For filing, routing, and notification jobs the AI step is often optional; the templates with a fit score of 5 above work without one.

Why is there no construction category on n8n.io?

The library is organized by tool and by general business function (CRM, project management, sales), not by industry. “Construction” and “real estate” appear only in individual template titles. That gap is why this page exists.

Can these connect to DataDrivenAEC’s Opportunity Radar?

Not today. Radar is a report and a map for a person to read. It has no public RSS, CSV, JSON export, or automation endpoint. Use it as the human step, and automate from a source that exposes a feed.

Disclosure: DataDrivenAEC may earn a commission if you subscribe to n8n through links in this guide. Template behaviour is described from each template’s published page; we have not run these workflows.