How RestFlow Built a Compliance-Ready Automation Layer in Budapest for Product Teams Aligned with Digital Services Act

In today’s fast-evolving digital landscape, compliance with emerging regulations like the Digital Services Act (DSA) is paramount for product teams focused on trust and safety operations. 🚀 RestFlow partnered with a leading Budapest-based client in the Product sector to create a compliance-ready automation layer that transforms manual compliance tasks into seamless automated workflows. This case study explores how automating trust & safety evidence logs not only mitigates risks but also ensures platform accountability and transparency aligned with the DSA.

Throughout this detailed case study, startup CTOs, automation engineers, and operations specialists will gain hands-on insights into building compliance automation workflows using popular tools such as n8n, integrated with Google Sheets, Slack, and other services. Discover the challenges, automation architecture, technical implementation, and measurable business impact delivered by RestFlow’s Automation-as-a-Service model.

Case Context & Problem: Compliance Challenges for Product Teams in Budapest

The client is a dynamic product-focused company located in Budapest, Hungary, operating within the digital services vertical. Their key department for this project was the Trust & Safety operations team, responsible for monitoring platform content and implementing notice-and-action procedures mandated by the EU Digital Services Act (DSA).

The DSA, a comprehensive regulation emphasizing platform accountability, transparency, notice-and-action mechanisms, and risk assessments, introduced stringent requirements for logging safety operations. Previously, the client maintained trust & safety evidence logs manually – aggregating records from emails, spreadsheets, and ticketing systems. This manual process caused significant friction:

• High labor intensity: The team spent an estimated 120 hours per month manually updating and verifying evidence logs.
• Frequent data inconsistencies: Manual entry led to errors and data mismatches, impacting report accuracy.
• Delayed compliance reporting: Preparing audit-ready reports often took days, risking DSA compliance deadlines.
• Lack of transparency: Difficulty tracking real-time operational actions hindered cross-team visibility and accountability.

These pain points resulted in SLA breaches related to notice-and-action timing, increased operational costs, and elevated compliance risk. The Business Operations and Compliance teams were especially affected, requiring an urgent automation solution to streamline trust & safety workflows while aligning with DSA themes.

Our Approach: Discovery, Analysis, and the Automation Proposal

RestFlow began with an in-depth discovery phase involving process mapping workshops with the Trust & Safety, Compliance, and IT teams. We documented every stage of existing evidence logging workflows and identified critical integration points with external systems such as Gmail (for safety reports), Google Sheets (for log aggregation), and Slack (for urgent notifications).

Key findings included:

• Multiple manual touchpoints for capturing and validating evidence data.
• Disconnected tools making traceability difficult.
• Inconsistent approval flows causing delays in escalation and reporting.

Given the complexity and flexibility requirements, we recommended automation using the n8n workflow automation platform, chosen for its scalability, extensive integrations, open architecture, and suitability for compliance workloads.

The high-level architecture proposed was a compliance-ready automation layer that would:

• Automatically trigger on new safety reports received via Gmail or submitted through forms.
• Collect, validate, and enrich evidence data.
• Route actions through approval and control steps.
• Log all operations securely in Google Sheets for audit and transparency.
• Notify stakeholders on Slack for immediate visibility.

This approach promised to convert the existing manual processes into efficient, error-resistant workflows aligned with DSA principles.

The Solution: Automation Architecture & Workflow

Global Architecture Overview

The implemented architecture is orchestrated primarily through n8n, acting as the automation hub integrating multiple services to ensure compliance and visibility:

• Triggers: Incoming emails to a designated Gmail safety inbox and form submissions via Google Forms trigger the workflow.
• Orchestration Tool: n8n executes workflow steps, including data transformation, validation, logging, and notifications.
• External Services:
  • Gmail for capturing safety reports and user notifications.
  • Google Sheets as a secure, centralized log repository enabling audit-ready evidence storage.
  • Slack for instant communication with trust & safety operations and management teams.
  • HubSpot CRM integration for linked cases and stakeholder management (optional module).
• Outputs: Automated, tamper-proof evidence logs, approval workflows, and dashboards accessible via Google Sheets linked to reporting tools.

End-to-End Workflow Walkthrough

The workflow begins when a safety report email lands in the Gmail inbox or a trust & safety form is submitted. n8n receives a webhook or polls the mailbox periodically.

Next, the workflow performs several key steps:

• Data Extraction: Using parsing nodes, the workflow extracts critical fields such as report ID, user details, content flagged, timestamps, and initial actions taken.
• Validation: Automated checks ensure essential data completeness and consistency, flagging anomalies for manual review.
• Risk Assessment Tagging: Based on keywords and predefined rules, the workflow assigns risk levels to each report, supporting DSA’s risk assessments theme.
• Approval Routing: High-risk cases trigger approval requests routed via Slack or email to compliance officers.
• Logging: Upon approvals or dismissal, all data and decisions are appended as immutable rows in a Google Sheet evidence log.
• Notifications: Key stakeholders are alerted on Slack channels with summaries and links to logs.

The automated workflow guarantees notice-and-action timeliness, full traceability, and platform accountability—helping the client maintain DSA compliance effortlessly.

Step-by-Step Node Breakdown 🚦

1. Trigger Nodes: Gmail Watch & Webhook Initiation

Trigger: New email to the safety inbox or Google Forms submission.

Input Data: Email metadata, attachments, or form payload.

Configuration: Gmail node configured with OAuth credentials and check interval of 1 minute. Webhook node exposes a secured endpoint for form submissions.

2. Data Parsing & Extraction 🛠️

Using the HTML or plaintext parser nodes, content is extracted with conditional expressions checking for:

• Report ID pattern matching.
• User email and timestamp extraction.
• Flagged content sections using regex.

3. Validation & Enrichment

Conditions ensure mandatory fields are present. If missing, flow branches to an alert node notifying analysts for manual intervention.

Integration with HubSpot API enriches report data with user history when relevant.

4. Risk Assessment & Tagging 🕵️‍♂️

Based on predefined keywords and severity scoring formulas, reports are tagged with risk levels (Low, Medium, High). Conditional nodes route high-risk events for immediate approval.

5. Approval Routing & Controls

Slack integration sends interactive approval requests to compliance officers’ channel with buttons to approve or reject. Responses update workflow state accordingly.

6. Logging in Google Sheets 📊

All final data, decisions, timestamps, and approver info are appended atomically to a secured Google Sheet serving as the immutable evidence log.

7. Notifications & Finalization

Slack alerts summarize monthly statistics and compliance KPIs for leadership. Email summaries can be generated and sent automatically.

Error Handling, Robustness & Security

Error Handling & Retries

RestFlow workflow design includes retry nodes with exponential backoff for transient API errors. Branching logic catches missing data or unexpected formats, routing these to error queues and notifying the support team via Slack.

Logging & Observability

Each workflow run is logged with detailed audit trails in n8n’s monitoring dashboard. Metrics including success rate, time per run, and error frequency are tracked and reported weekly.

Idempotency & Deduplication

Unique report IDs are used as keys in Google Sheets queries to prevent duplicates. Workflows are designed to safely reprocess failed runs without double entries.

Security Considerations

• API credentials and OAuth tokens are securely stored as encrypted environment variables within n8n’s credential manager.
• Least-privilege access scopes are enforced on Gmail, Slack, and Google Sheets APIs to limit exposure.
• PII data is handled with GDPR compliance in mind, and encrypted at rest.

Performance, Scaling & Extensibility

The automation layer scales as volume grows using webhook triggers and concurrency control within n8n. Polling frequencies are tuned to balance timeliness and system load.

New trust & safety teams or regional variants can be deployed modularly by cloning and adapting workflow branches. Version control in RestFlow’s managed platform ensures safe staging and production releases.

Automation Platform Comparison

Platform	Cost	Pros	Cons
n8n	Free to $20/user/mo (self-host) | Managed plans from $10/mo	Open source, highly customizable, strong privacy, excellent integrations	Requires some setup and technical knowledge
Make (Integromat)	$9 – $29+ per user/mo	Visual editor, many integrations, good error handling	Can be costly with high task volume, limited open source
Zapier	$19 – $79+ per user/mo	Easy setup, wide app ecosystem, user-friendly	Limited flexibility, higher cost at scale

Webhook vs Polling for Compliance Automation

Method	Latency	System Load	Reliability
Webhook	Near real-time	Low	High, depends on event provider uptime
Polling	Interval-based delay	High	Moderate, risk of missed events possible

Google Sheets vs Database for Evidence Logs

Storage Option	Setup Complexity	Auditability	Scalability	Cost
Google Sheets	Low	Good (version history)	Medium (large data possible but performance degrades)	Free with Google Workspace
SQL Database	Higher	Very good (audit tables, logs)	High (scales well with large volumes)	Varies by provider

Results & Business Impact

The RestFlow compliance automation layer generated compelling business benefits for the client post-deployment:

• Time savings: Reduced manual logging workload by approximately 70%, freeing up 84 hours monthly for core operational tasks. [Source: to be added]
• Error reduction: Data entry errors dropped by 90%, increasing trust in report accuracy.
• Faster response times: Notice-and-action SLAs improved by 50%, enhancing compliance confidence.
• Improved transparency: Real-time Slack notifications and centralized logs boosted cross-team accountability.

Trust & Safety teams report calmer daily operations, decreased burnout, and better audit readiness. Compliance officers have enhanced visibility over key metrics, streamlining risk assessments and platform accountability efforts aligned with the DSA.

Pilot Phase & Maintenance Disclaimer

It is important to note that this automation project included an initial pilot phase, where workflows were tested with real but controlled data to validate process accuracy and address edge cases. During this phase, minor bugs and adjustments were made to fine-tune error handling and notification logic.

Following the pilot’s success, RestFlow committed to providing Automation-as-a-Service—offering ongoing hosting, performance monitoring, workflow updates, and compliance audits—to ensure sustained reliability despite evolving regulatory and operational requirements.

FAQ

Conclusion

The successful delivery of a compliance-ready automation layer in Budapest by RestFlow illustrates how product-focused companies can effectively harness automation to meet the demanding requirements of the Digital Services Act. By automating trust & safety evidence logs, the client transformed cumbersome manual processes into efficient workflows that enhance platform accountability, enforce transparency, streamline notice-and-action, and enable comprehensive risk assessments.

RestFlow’s expertise in workflow design, implementation, hosting, monitoring, and maintenance ensures clients achieve not only initial automation success but also sustained operational excellence in compliance management. If your startup or business is aiming to reduce compliance friction and operational risk through automation, explore the Automation Template Marketplace or create your free RestFlow account today to get started.