Automate Attendance Extraction Pipeline with VLM Run & n8n

Imagine Never Taking Attendance Manually Again

Picture this: it is 9:00 AM, you have a room full of people, a coffee that is already going cold, and a crumpled attendance sheet that keeps disappearing under someone’s laptop. You squint at handwriting, misread names, and later spend way too much time typing it all into a spreadsheet. Again.

If that sounds familiar, this workflow is your new best friend.

In this guide, you will see how to build a fully automated Attendance Extraction Pipeline using VLM Run’s Execute Agent, Google Drive, Google Sheets, and n8n. Snap a photo or upload a scan of your attendance sheet, and the workflow quietly does the rest – extracts names, logs them in a spreadsheet, and emails you a tidy summary.

What This n8n Attendance Workflow Actually Does

Here is the big picture of the automation, from “photo on your phone” to “attendance neatly logged”:

• You upload attendee images or scans to a dedicated Google Drive folder.
• VLM Run’s Execute Agent processes each image, runs OCR, and extracts the attendance data.
• The agent sends the cleaned data as structured JSON to an n8n webhook.
• n8n takes that JSON and appends it as a new row in Google Sheets.
• Finally, n8n sends you an email via Gmail with a summary of who attended and when.

End result: your attendance is tracked, stored, and summarized while you focus on the actual event instead of chasing pens and paper.

Why Bother Automating Attendance?

Besides the obvious “I have better things to do” factor, there are some solid reasons to automate:

• Time-saving – No more manual data entry from photos or paper sheets. Upload, walk away, done.
• Accuracy – Fewer typos and missed names compared to rushed roll calls or messy spreadsheets.
• Seamless integration – Uses tools you probably already rely on: Google Drive, Google Sheets, Gmail, and n8n.

Where This Workflow Really Shines

• Workshops that need quick, reliable attendance tracking from sign-in sheets.
• Classrooms where teachers would rather teach than decode handwriting.
• Team standups or daily scrums where attendance needs to be logged but nobody wants to be the “attendance person.”

What You Need Before You Start

Before you spin up the n8n workflow, make sure you have these pieces ready:

• Valid VLM Run API credentials with access to the Execute Agent.
• Google Drive OAuth2 credentials so n8n can monitor and download files.
• Google Sheets OAuth2 credentials so n8n can append rows via the Sheets API.
• An exposed and reachable n8n webhook endpoint to receive JSON from VLM Run.

Once those are in place, the rest is mostly connecting the dots.

How the Automation Works, Step by Step

Step 1 – Watch Google Drive and Grab New Attendance Images

First up, we teach n8n to keep an eye on your attendance folder in Google Drive so you never have to manually “import” anything.

• Use a Google Drive Trigger node configured to watch for fileCreated events.
• Set it to check every minute and point it to your specific attendance images folder.
• When a new file appears, pass its file ID to a regular Google Drive node.
• Use that node to download the file as binary data.

At this point, each new image or scan in that folder is automatically pulled into the workflow and is ready for VLM Run to work its magic.

Step 2 – Use VLM Run Execute Agent to Extract Attendance Data

Now comes the brains of the operation. The VLM Run Execute Agent handles the OCR and converts your image into structured attendance data.

The agent is responsible for:

• Processing the downloaded attendance image from Google Drive.
• Extracting the attendance details and returning JSON in a strict format that Google Sheets will love:

{  "majorDimension": "ROWS",  "values": [["YYYY-MM-DD", "user_count", "name1", "name2", ...]]
}

• Posting that JSON payload to your configured n8n webhook, for example check-attendance.

This means every attendance image is turned into a single, clean row of data with the date, total count, and a list of all attendees.

Step 3 – Append to Google Sheets and Email a Summary

Once n8n receives the JSON from VLM Run, it handles the admin work you do not want to touch.

• Use an HTTP Request node to call the Google Sheets API values:append endpoint.
• Configure it with the following parameters:
• valueInputOption=RAW
• insertDataOption=INSERT_ROWS
• includeValuesInResponse=true
• Append the data to a range like Sheet1!A:Z, where:
  • Column A holds the date.
  • Column B stores the total attendee count.
  • Columns C onward list individual attendees, one per column.
• Then use a Gmail node to send an email that summarizes:
  • The attendance date.
  • The total number of attendees.
  • The list of names, nicely formatted so you do not have to open the spreadsheet unless you really want to.

End result: your Google Sheet stays up to date, and your inbox gets a friendly recap without any copy-paste marathons.

Making the Webhook Public: The Callback URL Trick

For VLM Run to send data back to n8n, it needs a URL it can actually reach. That means:

• Take your public production URL for the n8n webhook that receives attendance data.
• Paste that URL into the callback URL field in your VLM Run Execute Agent settings.

Localhost URLs will not work because VLM Run cannot see your local machine. Make sure the webhook is publicly accessible so the JSON can flow in without getting stuck.

Putting It All Together

With this pipeline in place, attendance tracking goes from “ugh, not again” to “oh, that just happened automatically.”

You upload a photo, VLM Run reads it, n8n updates your Google Sheet, and Gmail sends you a summary. No more deciphering handwriting, no more spreadsheet wrangling, and no more late-night data entry after a long event.

Automating attendance with VLM Run, Google Drive, Google Sheets, and n8n lets you focus on teaching, hosting, or leading, while the workflow quietly handles the boring bits in the background.

Ready to Try the n8n Attendance Template?

If you want to skip the “build it from scratch” phase, you can start directly from the ready-made template and customize from there. Grab your VLM Run API keys, set up your Google Drive and Sheets credentials, plug in your webhook URL, and you are on your way to a hands-off attendance system.