Google Workspace Integration and Automation

At a glance

Google Workspace integration

Gmail: users.watch to a Cloud Pub/Sub topic, then history.list for changes
Sheets: spreadsheets.values.append and values.batchUpdate
Calendar: events.watch channels; X-Goog-Resource-State sync, exists, not_exists
Drive: Files shared with a service account, or OAuth on a named user
Auth: OAuth client in your Google Cloud project, or a service account
Connects to: Desk, Fint, WhatsApp CRM, OCR pipelines, n8n

What a Google Workspace integration does

Gmail, Sheets, Calendar and Drive each have an API. The work is deciding what should move, and when.

Your team keeps working in Gmail and Sheets. The integration reads bills, writes leads, sends reminders and files documents for them.

Read more about What a Google Workspace integration does

A Google Workspace integration turns the everyday tools into inputs and outputs of your other systems. A supplier bill that arrives in a Gmail inbox is read and proposed as an expense. A lead from a web form is written into your CRM and into the shared Sheet the sales head still likes to look at. A booking on a Google Calendar sends the customer a WhatsApp reminder the day before. A signed document is filed in the right Drive folder under the right client name.

None of that needs a new tool for your team. They keep working in Gmail and Sheets; the integration does the copying they used to do. For the bigger picture of which process to automate first, see AI workflow automation.

Typical flows we build

Gmail bills and documents into records

Attachments from a watched mailbox go to OCR and become expense proposals to confirm.

Read more about Gmail bills and documents into records

A watch on a mailbox or label (for example bills@ or a Bills label) sends a Pub/Sub notification with an emailAddress and historyId; we call history.list, fetch new messages and pass PDF or image attachments to an OCR pipeline. Expenses are proposed for a person to confirm. See Gmail's push notifications guide.

Sheets that stay in sync

New rows appended without overwriting, and status columns updated in place.

Read more about Sheets that stay in sync

New leads, orders or payments appended as rows with spreadsheets.values.append, using INSERT_ROWS so nothing is overwritten. Status columns updated in place with values.batchUpdate. See read and write cell values.

Calendar bookings and reminders

A calendar change creates a Desk meeting or schedules a WhatsApp reminder.

Read more about Calendar bookings and reminders

A channel on events.watch tells us a calendar changed; the notification has no body, so we fetch the changed events, then create a meeting in Desk or schedule a WhatsApp reminder. See Calendar push notifications.

Drive filing by client

Documents from WhatsApp or email renamed and filed in one folder per client.

Google Forms through their Sheet

New form rows become leads or tickets, with duplicate checks on phone and email.

Read more about Google Forms through their Sheet

Form responses land in a linked Sheet; we pick up new rows and create leads or tickets, with a duplicate check on phone number and email.

Limits and Google's rules

Watches expire

Gmail watches need renewing within 7 days, so we schedule renewals and alert on failures.

Notifications can be missed

Push notifications can be delayed or dropped, so a periodic catch-up sync runs too.

Read more about Notifications can be missed

Google says push notifications can be delayed or dropped, and Gmail sends at most one notification per second per user. Every flow also runs a periodic catch up sync, so a missed push does not mean a missed bill.

Scopes and verification

Internal apps skip Google's extra review; external apps need verification. We ask for the narrowest scope.

Service accounts are not users

A service account sees only shared files, so we share folders rather than grant domain access.

Read more about Service accounts are not users

A service account sees only files shared with it, unless a Super Admin grants domain wide delegation in the Admin console. We prefer sharing specific folders over domain wide access.

Where it connects to our products

Mailbox bills become Fint proposals, form and email leads land in Desk with their source, and bookings trigger WhatsApp CRM reminders.

Read more about Where it connects to our products

If your books are in Fint, bills read from a mailbox can be handed to Fint as expense proposals that a person confirms in its Inbox; Fint never records money without that step. For Desk, we write form and email leads in as clients and contacts with their source filled in, so Desk's source report counts them alongside every other channel. For WhatsApp CRM users we can connect a Google Calendar so that a booking schedules a reminder message on WhatsApp. For workflows across several of these, we usually run the logic on n8n.

What we need from you

A Google Cloud project in your company's name, the mailboxes and folders in scope, and an admin to approve access. Every scope is documented.

Questions

Do we need a paid Google Workspace plan?

The APIs here also work with personal Gmail accounts, but a Workspace account gives you admin control over the apps and scopes, which matters once several staff mailboxes are involved.

Can you read every email in our company?

We design against that. Most flows watch one mailbox or one label, such as a bills address, and read only new messages there.

Is a Google Sheet a good place to keep our customer data?

As a view, often yes. As the system of record for many staff, it breaks easily. We usually keep the record in a CRM such as Desk and mirror the columns people want to see into a Sheet.

What happens when a token expires or someone leaves?

Integrations run on credentials tied to a role mailbox or service account rather than an employee, and a failed authentication sends an alert to your admin.