Track W-9s and 1099 contractor payments with Google Sheets, Gmail, and Drive

Quick overview

This workflow uses n8n Forms with Google Sheets, Gmail, and Google Drive to log contractor/vendor payments, request and store W-9s, track year-to-date 1099-reportable totals, send W-9 reminders and warnings, and generate an on-demand (or January) 1099 list emailed to you.

How it works

1. Triggers when someone submits one of the n8n Forms (log a payment, send a W-9, or build a 1099 list) or when the daily schedule runs.
2. Loads your configuration values and reads the Payees and Payments tabs from a Google Sheets spreadsheet.
3. When a payment is logged, it appends the payment to Google Sheets, updates/creates the payee record, and uses Gmail to request a W-9 or warn you as the payee approaches or exceeds the reporting threshold.
4. When a W-9 is submitted, it matches the payee, uploads the signed W-9 file to Google Drive, updates the payee’s W-9 status and Drive link in Google Sheets, and emails you a confirmation via Gmail.
5. When a 1099 list is requested, it calculates eligible payees and totals (including splitting 1099-NEC vs rent), writes rows to the “1099 list” tab in Google Sheets, and emails you the formatted list via Gmail.
6. Every morning, it chases outstanding W-9s via Gmail on your cadence, updates chase/warning fields in Google Sheets, and on your chosen January day also generates last year’s 1099 list.

Setup

1. Connect credentials for Google Sheets, Gmail, and Google Drive.
2. Run the manual “Create my spreadsheet” path once to generate the Payees, Payments, and 1099 list tabs, then copy the new spreadsheet ID into the workflow settings.
3. Fill in the settings for owner_email, n8n_url (used to build the W-9 form link), and an optional Google Drive folder ID to store W-9 uploads, then adjust thresholds and reminder cadence as needed.
4. Activate the workflow and share the n8n Form URLs (log-payment and send-w9) with your team and payees as appropriate.