Track Excel 365 changes and approvals with Telegram and Google Sheets logging

Description

Track changes and approvals in Excel 365

📌 Overview

This workflow monitors an Excel 365 sheet every minute and detects new, updated, and deleted rows using a unique ID column. It compares the current dataset with the previous snapshot and identifies field-level differences.

When changes are detected, the workflow filters rows that require approval (Status = “Waiting Approval”), sends structured notifications, and optionally logs every field-level change into an audit sheet (Excel or Google Sheets).

The configuration layer allows you to define the ID column, ignored fields, and audit logging behavior without modifying the comparison logic.

This template is suitable for approval tracking, operational monitoring, and lightweight compliance logging.

How it works
Runs every minute using a schedule trigger
Reads rows from Excel 365
Normalizes and stores a snapshot
Compares with the previous state
Detects new, updated, and deleted rows
Filters rows with “Waiting Approval” status
Sends structured notifications
Logs changes if audit logging is enabled

Setup steps
Configure Microsoft Excel credentials
Ensure your sheet contains a unique ID column
Update the Environment Config node
4.(Optional) Configure Google Sheets credentials for audit logging
Activate the workflow

🚀 Features

⏱ Scheduled Monitoring
Runs automatically every 1 minute
Near real-time Excel monitoring
Prevents unnecessary execution when no changes are detected

🔍 Row-Level Change Detection

Detects:
✅ New rows
✏️ Updated rows
❌ Deleted rows

Uses a unique ID field per row for accurate tracking.

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🧠 Field-Level Comparison
Compares previous vs current values
Identifies exactly which fields changed
Outputs structured change data
Prevents false positives via data normalization

⸻

⚙️ Environment Configuration Layer

Centralized configuration node allows easy customization without modifying core logic.

Configurable options include:
idField
ignoreFields
monitorOnly
firstRunSilent
enableAuditLog

No hardcoded logic required.

⸻

🛑 Approval Validation Layer
Filters rows where Status = "Waiting Approval"
Sends notifications only for relevant approval cases
Prevents unnecessary alerts

⸻

🔔 Smart Notification System
Sends formatted change notifications
Includes:
Change Type (NEW / UPDATED / DELETED)
Row ID
Field-level old → new values

Fully customizable message formatting.
⸻
📊 Optional Audit Logging

If enabled in the Environment Config:
Converts each field-level change into structured audit rows
Appends logs to:
Excel 365 (Audit Sheet)
Google Sheets (External Log)

Audit Log Structure

| Timestamp | ChangeType | RowID | Field | OldValue | New Value |
|-------------|--------------|--------|------|----------|------------|

Designed for compliance and tracking purposes.

📦 Use Cases
Internal approval tracking
Financial data monitoring
Sales pipeline control
Procurement workflows
Excel-based compliance systems
SME automation systems

🧩 Requirements
Microsoft 365 (Excel Online – Business)
n8n (Cloud or Self-hosted)
Microsoft credentials configured in n8n
Telegram Bot
(Optional) Google Sheets credentials for audit logging

🔧 Configuration Guide
All system behavior is controlled from the Environment Config node.

Example configuration structure:

{
CONFIG: {
idField: "ID",
ignoreFields: ["UpdatedAt", "LastModified"],
monitorOnly: null,
firstRunSilent: true,
enableAuditLog: true
}
}

You can customize:
Which column acts as unique ID
Which fields to ignore
Which fields to monitor exclusively
Whether to enable audit logging
Whether first run should be silent

🟢 First Run Behavior
On first execution:
The workflow initializes internal snapshot storage
No mass notification is sent (if firstRunSilent = true)

This prevents false “NEW row” alerts during setup.
🏢 Who Is This For?
Operations teams
Finance departments
SMEs using Excel as core system
Automation consultants
Businesses requiring lightweight audit tracking

⸻

💡 Why This Workflow?

Unlike simple Excel polling workflows, this solution:
Tracks changes at field level
Supports approval-based filtering
Includes structured audit logging
Avoids duplicate alerts
Is fully configurable
Designed for production usage

This is not just an Excel notifier — it is a structured Change Tracking & Approval Monitoring System built on n8n.