Can I track emails that are already read?

Make's 'Watch emails' only processes unread emails by default. Switch to 'Search emails' with date range filters if you need to capture all vendor emails regardless of read status.

What happens if my Google Sheet reaches the row limit?

Google Sheets max out at 10 million cells total. Set up a monthly rotation by creating new sheets and updating your Make scenario to write to the current month's sheet, or archive old data regularly.

How do I handle emails from multiple addresses at the same vendor?

Use domain-based filtering instead of specific email addresses. Filter for 'vendor.com' catches emails from sales@vendor.com, support@vendor.com, and billing@vendor.com automatically.

Can I get the email body content in my tracking log?

Yes, map the 'Text' or 'HTML' field from Gmail to a column in your sheet. Be aware this uses more operations and Google Sheets cells — email bodies are much larger than subject lines.

Why are some vendor emails not being caught by my filter?

Check if emails are coming from subdomains or different domains entirely. Some vendors send from 'noreply.vendorname.com' or 'notifications.vendor.com' which won't match a filter for just 'vendor.com'.

Beginner~12 min setupEmail & ProductivityVerified April 2026

How to Track Vendor Emails to Google Sheets with Make

Automatically capture all emails from specific vendor domains to Gmail and log sender, subject, and date in a Google Sheets audit trail.

Steps and UI details are based on platform versions at time of writing — check each platform for the latest interface.

Make

Also on:Zapier N8n

Best for

Teams tracking communications from multiple vendors who need audit trails with custom filtering logic.

Not ideal for

Simple single-vendor tracking or teams that don't need automated logging of email communications.

Sync type

polling

Use case type

import

Real-World Example

💡

A 25-person manufacturing company uses this to track all emails from their 8 key suppliers for compliance audits. Before automation, their purchasing manager manually forwarded important vendor emails to a shared folder and often missed communications during busy periods. Now every vendor email automatically logs to their audit spreadsheet within 15 minutes, creating a complete communication trail for their ISO certification reviews.

What Will This Cost?

Drag the slider to your expected monthly volume.

Monthly workflow runs

/mo

505005K50K

Each platform counts differently — Zapier: 1 task per trigger. Make: 1 operation per module per record. n8n: 1 execution per run.

$30/mo if billed monthly

Pipedream

$29/mo

Basic plan

Prices shown for annual billing. Based on published pricing as of April 2026.

Estimated ROI

1000

min saved/mo

$583

labor value/mo

Free

no platform cost

Based on ~2 min manual effort per operation at $35/hr fully loaded labor cost.

Implementation

Skip the setup

Import this workflow directly into Make

Copy the pre-built Make blueprint and paste it straight into Make. All modules, filters, and field mappings are already configured — you just need to connect your accounts.

Before You Start

Make sure you have everything ready.

Gmail account with vendor emails you want to track

Google Sheets spreadsheet with column headers set up

List of vendor domains you want to monitor

Make account with available operations quota

Field Mapping

Map these fields between your apps.

Field	API Name	Description
Required
Email Date	`date`	Timestamp when the email was received, formatted as MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm
Sender Email	`from.address`	Full email address of the person who sent the message
Email Subject	`subject`	Subject line of the email message
Vendor Domain	`from.address`	Extracted domain name from sender email (e.g. vendor.com), requires text parsing

2 optional fields▸ show

Sender Name	`from.name`	Display name of the sender if available, otherwise blank
Message ID	`id`	Unique Gmail message identifier to prevent duplicate logging

Step-by-Step Setup

Scenarios > Create new > Gmail > Watch emails

Create new scenario in Make

Start a blank scenario to build your vendor email tracking workflow. This creates the foundation where you'll connect Gmail and Google Sheets.

1Log into Make and click 'Create a new scenario'
2Click the large '+' circle in the center
3Search for 'Gmail' in the app list
4Select 'Watch emails' from the trigger options

✓ What you should see: You should see a Gmail module on the canvas with 'Watch emails' as the selected trigger.

Gmail module > Connection > Add

Connect your Gmail account

Authorize Make to access your Gmail account. This connection lets Make monitor incoming emails in real-time.

1Click 'Add' next to the Connection field
2Choose 'Google' from the connection type dropdown
3Click 'Continue' and sign in with your Gmail account
4Grant Make permission to read your emails

✓ What you should see: The connection field shows your Gmail address with a green checkmark.

⚠

Common mistake — Make sure to use the same Google account that receives vendor emails — switching later breaks the filters.

Make settings

Connection

Choose a connection…Add

click Add

Gmail

Authorize Make

popup window

✓

Connected

green checkmark

Gmail module > Settings

Configure email watching settings

Set Make to monitor your inbox for new emails. Configure the polling interval and maximum email batch size for processing.

1Set 'Folder' to 'INBOX'
2Leave 'Mark as read' unchecked to preserve email status
3Set 'Maximum number of results' to 10
4Keep 'Criteria' dropdown as 'Unread emails only'

✓ What you should see: The Gmail module shows INBOX selected with a max of 10 unread emails per run.

⚠

Common mistake — Don't set maximum results above 25 — Gmail's API throttles heavy requests and you'll hit rate limits.

Make

click +

search apps

Gmail

Configure email watching set…

Gmail

module added

Between modules > Filter > Text operators

Add email domain filter

Create a filter to only process emails from your vendor domains. This prevents logging every email and focuses on vendor communications only.

1Click the wrench icon between Gmail and the next module
2Select 'Set up a filter' from the tools menu
3Set condition to 'Text operators' > 'Contains'
4In the first field, map 'From: Email' from Gmail data
5In the second field, enter your vendor domain like 'vendorname.com'

✓ What you should see: A small filter icon appears between modules showing your domain filter condition.

⚠

Common mistake — Use the base domain without @ symbol — '@vendorname.com' won't match, just 'vendorname.com' works correctly.

Gmail

trigger

filter

Condition

matches criteria?

yes — passes through

no — skipped

Google Sheets

notified

After filter > Google Sheets > Add a row

Add Google Sheets module

Connect Google Sheets to receive the filtered email data. This module will create new rows for each vendor email that passes your filter.

1Click the '+' button after your filter
2Search for and select 'Google Sheets'
3Choose 'Add a row' from the actions list
4Click 'Add' next to Connection and authorize your Google account

✓ What you should see: Google Sheets module appears connected after your Gmail filter, showing 'Add a row' action.

Google Sheets module > Spreadsheet selection

Select your tracking spreadsheet

Choose which Google Sheets file and worksheet will store your vendor email log. Make will add new rows here for each tracked email.

1Click 'Select from the list' for Spreadsheet
2Choose your vendor tracking spreadsheet
3Select the worksheet tab (usually 'Sheet1')
4Set 'Table contains headers' to Yes

✓ What you should see: The module shows your selected spreadsheet name and worksheet with headers enabled.

⚠

Common mistake — Create column headers in your sheet first: Date, Sender, Subject, Domain — Make needs existing headers to map fields correctly.

Google Sheets module > Column mapping

Map email data to spreadsheet columns

Configure which Gmail data goes into each spreadsheet column. This creates your vendor communication audit trail with all the key details.

1Click in the 'Date' column field and select 'Date' from Gmail data
2Map 'Sender' column to 'From: Email' from Gmail
3Map 'Subject' column to 'Subject' from Gmail data
4Map 'Domain' column to 'From: Email' then add a text parser to extract domain

✓ What you should see: Each column field shows the mapped Gmail data with blue variable tags.

⚠

Common mistake — Gmail's date comes in ISO format — add a formatDate() function if you want readable dates like MM/DD/YYYY.

Gmail fields

from

subject

snippet

body

date

available as variables:

1.props.from

1.props.subject

1.props.snippet

1.props.body

1.props.date

Bottom toolbar > Run once

Test the scenario with sample data

Run a test to verify your email tracking works correctly. Make will process recent emails and show you exactly what data gets logged.

1Click 'Run once' at the bottom of the screen
2Wait for the execution to complete
3Check each module for green checkmarks and data output
4Verify a new row appeared in your Google Sheets with correct data

✓ What you should see: All modules show green checkmarks and your spreadsheet has a new row with vendor email details.

⚠

Common mistake — If no emails show up, check that you have unread emails from your vendor domain — the test only processes emails matching your current filter.

Make

▶ Run once

executed

✓

Gmail

✓

Google Sheets

🔔 notification

received

Filter module > Edit conditions

Add multiple vendor domains

Expand your filter to track emails from multiple vendors. Use OR conditions to monitor communications from all your important suppliers and partners.

1Click on your existing filter module
2Change the condition from single 'Contains' to 'OR' logic
3Add each vendor domain as a separate condition
4Test that emails from any listed domain trigger the workflow

✓ What you should see: Filter shows multiple OR conditions, each containing a different vendor domain.

⚠

Common mistake — Make charges 1 operation per OR condition — 5 vendor domains costs 5 operations per email, not 1.

Right-click module > Add error handler

Configure error handling

Set up proper error handling so temporary Gmail or Sheets outages don't break your email tracking. This ensures reliable logging even when services have issues.

1Right-click each module and select 'Add error handler'
2Choose 'Ignore' for Gmail connection errors
3Choose 'Break' for Google Sheets write errors
4Set maximum retry attempts to 3 for both modules

✓ What you should see: Small error handler icons appear on each module with your selected handling method.

Bottom left > ON toggle > Clock icon

Schedule the scenario

Activate your vendor email tracking to run automatically. Choose how frequently Make checks for new vendor emails and processes them into your spreadsheet.

1Toggle the 'ON' switch in the bottom left corner
2Click on the clock icon next to the Gmail module
3Set scheduling to 'Every 15 minutes' for near real-time tracking
4Confirm the scenario is now active and scheduled

✓ What you should see: The scenario shows 'ON' status with a 15-minute schedule, and Make begins monitoring for vendor emails.

⚠

Common mistake — Don't set intervals under 5 minutes — Gmail's API has rate limits and you'll burn through operations quickly with minimal benefit.

Drop this into a Make custom function.

JavaScript — Custom Function{{formatDate(parseDate(1.date; "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.SSSZ"); "MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm")}}

▸ Show code

{{formatDate(parseDate(1.date; "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.SSSZ"); "MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm")}}

... expand to see full code

{{formatDate(parseDate(1.date; "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.SSSZ"); "MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm")}}

Scaling Beyond 200+ vendor emails per day+ Records

If your volume exceeds 200+ vendor emails per day records, apply these adjustments.

Batch processing setup

Switch from 'Watch emails' to 'Search emails' with date filters to process emails in larger batches. This reduces operation costs and avoids Gmail's per-request overhead when handling high volumes.

Multi-sheet organization

Route different vendor domains to separate worksheets using Make's router module. This prevents any single sheet from hitting Google's 10 million cell limit and makes audit reviews easier when tracking dozens of vendors.

Going live

Production Checklist

Before you turn this on for real, confirm each item.

Set Gmail module to ignore connection errors so temporary outages don't stop tracking

Applies when: Always

Configure Google Sheets error handler to 'Break' not 'Ignore' — failed writes need attention

Applies when: Always

Test with actual vendor emails, not sample data from Make's test panel

Applies when: Always

Add duplicate prevention using Message ID field to avoid logging the same email twice

Applies when: High volume

Set maximum results to 25 or lower to avoid Gmail API rate limits

Applies when: High volume

Create backup scenario that runs daily to catch any missed emails from API glitches

Applies when: Enterprise

Troubleshooting

Common errors and how to fix them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about this workflow.

Analysis

VerdictWhy Make for this workflow

Use Make for this if you need reliable email monitoring with complex filtering logic. Make's visual filters handle multiple vendor domains better than Zapier's limited filter options, and the error handling prevents missed emails during API outages. The Gmail API integration updates faster than most platforms — usually within 2-3 minutes of email arrival. Skip Make if you only track one vendor and don't need filtering — Zapier's single-trigger approach costs less for simple cases.

Cost

This workflow uses 3 operations per email: Gmail trigger, filter check, and Sheets write. At 100 vendor emails per month, that's 300 operations monthly. Make's free tier includes 1,000 operations, so you're covered until 300+ emails monthly. The $9 Core plan handles up to 10,000 operations (3,300+ emails). Zapier's free tier only allows 100 tasks total, so you'd hit limits at 100 emails and need their $20 Starter plan. Make saves you $11 monthly until very high volumes.

Tradeoffs

Zapier's Gmail integration includes better built-in parsing for email addresses and domains — you don't need manual text functions to extract domain names. N8N offers more advanced email processing with regex support and custom JavaScript transforms that Make requires paid add-ons to match. But Make's visual filter system beats both for readability when you're tracking 5+ vendor domains, and the error handling is more granular than Zapier's all-or-nothing approach.

Gmail's API paginates large inboxes and Make sometimes misses emails if you have 500+ unread messages when starting. Set a reasonable 'Maximum results' limit and process your backlog manually first. The filter logic gets expensive fast — each OR condition costs an operation, so 10 vendor domains means 10 operations per email just for filtering. Make's date formatting requires the formatDate function or your spreadsheet shows ugly ISO timestamps like '2024-01-15T14:30:22.000Z' instead of readable dates.

Ideas for what to build next

→
Add Slack notifications for urgent vendors — Create a second filter path that sends Slack messages when emails arrive from critical suppliers, so your team gets instant alerts for important communications.
→
Set up email sentiment analysis — Connect a text analysis service to automatically flag negative or urgent vendor emails based on language, helping prioritize responses to upset suppliers.
→
Create monthly vendor communication reports — Build a scheduled scenario that summarizes email volume by vendor and exports monthly reports, giving management visibility into supplier relationship activity.