How a Company in Denver Solved Spending 25+ Hours Monthly Updating Shipment Statuses Manually Using Make

In the logistics sector, time is of the essence. ⏱️ A medium-sized logistics company based in Denver was facing a significant operational bottleneck: their team was spending over 25 hours each month manually updating shipment statuses in multiple systems. This cumbersome process not only drained valuable employee time but also introduced frequent errors and delayed communication affecting their customer satisfaction.

In this case study, we explore how the company leveraged Make, a powerful automation platform, to build an efficient workflow that automated shipment status updates, freeing their operations team from repetitive tasks and improving accuracy.

You’ll learn about the client’s initial challenges, the automation solution architecture, the step-by-step workflow implemented with Make, and the tangible benefits realized after deployment. Additionally, we include practical insights on error handling, security, scalability, and maintenance that enabled a robust Automation-as-a-Service delivery by RestFlow.

The Problem: Manual Shipment Status Updates Consuming 25+ Hours Monthly

Our client is a medium-sized logistics SME headquartered in Denver, Colorado, specializing in B2B freight management and last-mile delivery services. Their operations department was responsible for maintaining shipment statuses across various platforms, including their ERP system, customer CRM, and internal tracking sheets.

Before automation, the shipment status update process involved:

• Manually extracting shipment data from the ERP system at scheduled intervals.
• Entering updates into Google Sheets used for internal tracking.
• Manually sending status update emails to customers using Gmail.
• Updating CRM records in HubSpot to reflect current shipment stages.

This labor-intensive workflow spanned multiple disconnected tools and was handled by a team of three operations specialists. The manual effort accounted for roughly 25 to 30 hours per month.

The pain points included:

• High time consumption: More than 25 hours spent monthly on repetitive manual tasks, diverting focus from value-added activities.
• Human errors: Frequent typos and omissions led to incorrect shipment statuses, causing confusion internally and delayed customer communications.
• Lack of real-time visibility: Updates were delayed due to batching and manual entry, negatively impacting SLA compliance and customer experience.
• Poor scalability: As shipment volume grew, manual updates became untenable, threatening operational efficiency and growth.

Given these challenges, the company sought to automate the status update workflow to save time, improve data accuracy, and enable faster communication.

Our Approach: RestFlow’s Tailored Automation Proposal

RestFlow began with a detailed discovery phase involving process mapping workshops with the client’s operations leaders and IT team. We identified key systems and data flows:

• ERP platform API for shipment data access.
• Google Sheets as an internal tracking tool for legacy reasons.
• Gmail SMTP for customer email notifications.
• HubSpot CRM API for updating shipment stages linked to customer accounts.

After analyzing options, we proposed to implement the automation using Make (formerly Integromat) due to its robust visual workflow builder, extensive support for HTTP APIs, and native connectors for Gmail, Google Sheets, and HubSpot. Make’s flexibility would enable sophisticated logic, error handling, and easy monitoring.

The high-level solution would orchestrate an end-to-end workflow triggered on new or updated shipment records via ERP webhooks or scheduled polling, performing data transformations, status updates, notifications, and logging.

This architecture supports Automation-as-a-Service by RestFlow — covering design, implementation, hosting on managed infrastructure, ongoing monitoring, and maintenance for stability and enhancements.

The Solution: Architecture & Workflow

Global Architecture Overview
The automation solution comprised these components:

• Trigger: Scheduled Make scenario running every 30 minutes polling the ERP API for new or updated shipments.
• Orchestration platform: Make workflows coordinate all steps.
• External services integrated: Google Sheets for logging and fallback, Gmail for status emails, HubSpot CRM for updating shipment stages.
• Outputs: Real-time status updates recorded in all systems, email notifications sent, internal Slack messages for errors, and Google Sheets logs for auditability.

End-to-End Workflow Description

1. Polling ERP API: The workflow triggers every 30 minutes, calling the ERP REST API endpoint to fetch shipments updated since the last run timestamp.
2. Data Validation: Filters out incomplete or irrelevant shipments (e.g., cancelled orders).
3. Status Mapping: Transforms raw shipment status codes from ERP into human-readable statuses required by downstream systems.
4. Google Sheets Update: Updates or appends shipment status records in the internal tracking sheet using Make’s Google Sheets integration.
5. HubSpot CRM Update: Searches for the customer in HubSpot by email or customer ID and updates the shipment status property using HubSpot API.
6. Customer Email Notification: Sends a templated Gmail email to the customer contact informing them of the updated shipment status.
7. Error Handling: If any step fails, triggers a Slack alert to the ops team and logs errors with detailed metadata in a Google Sheet.

This workflow ensures consistent, near real-time shipment status updates across all platforms and stakeholders.

Ready to accelerate your automation journey? Explore the Automation Template Marketplace for prebuilt scenarios and inspiration.

Step-by-Step Node Breakdown 🛠️

1. ERP API Polling Node

This scheduled HTTP module queries the ERP system’s REST API endpoint: /shipments?updatedSince={{lastRunTimestamp}}. It uses an OAuth 2.0 token stored securely within Make and retrieves JSON arrays of shipments changed since the last successful run.

Key fields mapped:

• Authorization header with Bearer token
• Query param for date filter, e.g., updatedSince=2024-04-25T15:00:00Z

2. Data Validation & Filtering Node

A filter module eliminates shipments with statuses like ‘Cancelled’ or entries with missing critical fields (e.g., shipmentId, customerEmail). This uses simple conditional expressions:
shipment.status != 'Cancelled' && shipment.customerEmail != null

3. Status Mapping Transformer

This module uses a function to map ERP status codes (e.g., ‘IN_TRANSIT’, ‘DELIVERED’) to user-friendly strings (‘In Transit’, ‘Delivered’). The mapping object is maintained in this node for easy updates.

Example mapping:
const map = {'IN_TRANSIT': 'In Transit', 'DELIVERED': 'Delivered'};

4. Google Sheets Upsert 📝

Using Make’s Google Sheets module, the workflow searches for the shipment ID in the tracking sheet and either updates the status or appends a new row.

Key configuration:

• Search by shipment ID column
• Update status and timestamp fields

5. HubSpot CRM Update Node

This node uses HubSpot’s API to find the contact associated with the shipment (search by customer email), then updates the custom shipment status property via the update contact API endpoint.

Mappings:

• Search contact by email
• Update property: shipment_status = mapped status string

6. Gmail Email Notification

Using Gmail SMTP connector, this node sends a transactional email to the customer with dynamic fields:

• Subject: Shipment #{{shipmentId}} is now {{status}}
• Body: Template including estimated delivery date and tracking link

7. Error Handling & Slack Alerts 🚨

If any of the above nodes fail, an error handling branch initiates:

• Logs error details (timestamp, shipment ID, error message) to a Google Sheet error log
• Sends a Slack message to the #ops-alerts channel for immediate attention
• Retries failed calls up to 3 times with exponential backoff

Error Handling, Robustness & Security

Error Handling and Retries

Make’s built-in error handling routes exceptions to dedicated branches. We configured retry policies for transient errors like API rate limits or timeouts with increasing delays.

Idempotency is ensured by searching existing shipment IDs before updates, avoiding duplicate notifications or records.

Logging and Observability

Every success and failure is logged in dedicated Google Sheets for auditability. Additionally, operational alerts are delivered to Slack for transparency.

Make’s scenario execution logs provide detailed run histories for debugging.

Security and Data Protection

All API keys and OAuth tokens are stored securely within Make’s credential manager, inaccessible to unauthorized users.

Least-privilege scopes are used to restrict connectivity:

• Read-only access to ERP API for shipment data
• Write access limited to specific Google Sheets and HubSpot properties
• SMTP access scoped to sending only authorized emails

Personally identifiable information (PII) such as customer emails is handled confidentially, adhering to company privacy policies.

Performance, Scaling & Extensibility

The workflow is designed to scale with shipment volume growth.

Key scalability practices include:

• Use of pagination and incremental polling via timestamps to avoid overload.
• Batch processing shipments to reduce API call counts.
• Running multiple parallel Make scenario instances for high throughput.
• Modularization allows adding new systems (e.g., Slack notifications, ERP order updates) easily.

Webhook triggers from ERP were evaluated but not implemented due to ERP limitations; polling remains effective with low latency.

The system supports onboarding new regions or client business units by adjusting data filters and credentials.

Comparison Table #1: n8n vs Make vs Zapier for Updating Shipment Statuses

Option	Cost	Pros	Cons
n8n	Low–Medium (Self-hosted or cloud)	Open-source, flexible, powerful custom logic, rich node library	Requires some DevOps knowledge; less managed hosting
Make	Medium (SaaS pricing tiers)	Visual scenario builder, extensive API integrations, error handling, built-in OAuth	Complex workflows can become hard to manage; pricing grows with operations
Zapier	Medium–High (per task)	Easy setup, wide app support, good for simple use cases	Limited advanced logic; potentially costly at scale

Comparison Table #2: Webhook vs Polling for ERP Data Integration

Method	Latency	Reliability	Complexity	Use Case
Webhook	Near real-time	Depends on ERP’s support and network stability	Moderate setup; requires endpoint management	Best for systems supporting event push
Polling	Minutes delay (depending on interval)	High; controlled by scenario scheduler	Simpler to implement	Works when webhook unavailable

Comparison Table #3: Google Sheets vs Database for Shipment Status Tracking

Storage Option	Cost	Pros	Cons
Google Sheets	Free (up to limits)	Easy to use, accessible, rapid prototyping, human-readable	Limited concurrency, scalability, and data integrity controls
Database (SQL/NoSQL)	Moderate (hosting + management)	Robust data integrity, concurrency support, scalable	Requires more setup and query knowledge

Once fully deployed, the client realized impressive results.

Results & Business Impact

• Time savings: Over 25 hours saved monthly previously spent on manual shipment updates — freeing operations team members for strategic work.
• Error reduction: Status update errors dropped by over 90%, improving data integrity.
• Faster communication: Customer email notifications sent within minutes of shipment updates, enhancing transparency and satisfaction.
• Scalability: Workflow scales effortlessly with shipment volumes, supporting company growth without adding headcount.
• Visibility & Reporting: Real-time consolidated status data enabled better SLA tracking and management reporting.

One KPI highlighted that processing time per shipment update reduced from an average of 5 minutes to under 1 minute [Source: to be added]. Daily operations efficiency drastically improved, enabling faster decision-making and customer responsiveness.

Pilot Phase & Maintenance Disclaimer

It is important to note that the automation project included a dedicated pilot phase lasting 4 weeks, during which the workflow was run in parallel with manual processes using real but controlled shipment data. This allowed the client to observe results, identify edge cases, and report minor bugs.

During this pilot, RestFlow applied iterative improvements to enhance robustness and user experience.

Post-pilot, RestFlow provides a fully managed service that includes hosting, monitoring, maintenance, alerting, and continuous improvements, ensuring stable long-term performance and swift resolution of evolving needs.

Frequently Asked Questions about How a Company in Denver Solved Spending 25+ Hours Monthly Updating Shipment Statuses Manually Using Make

Conclusion

By automating the manual task of updating shipment statuses using Make, the Denver logistics company transformed their operations. The more than 25 hours per month previously spent on repetitive updates were reclaimed, error rates plummeted, and customer communications sped up dramatically.

This seamless integration between ERP, Google Sheets, Gmail, and HubSpot, expertly orchestrated by Make and maintained by RestFlow, illustrates the power of tailored automation solutions.

RestFlow delivers end-to-end Automation-as-a-Service that covers everything from solution design and implementation to hosting, monitoring, and continuous maintenance — ensuring your workflows stay robust and efficient over time.

Ready to streamline your business processes and reclaim valuable time? Explore the Automation Template Marketplace or create your free RestFlow account today to get started.