How I Manage 40+ Make.com Workflows Without Losing My Mind

The Scale Problem: When 1-2 Scenarios Becomes 40+

When I built my first Make scenario, organization didn't matter. It was one thing. Then I built a second. A third. By the time I had 10, I realized I was spending more time finding scenarios than building them. By 40, I knew I'd fail without a system.

The problem with unorganized Make scenarios is that they become invisible. You build them, they run, and months later you forget what they do or where they live. Then something breaks, and you waste hours hunting through your account trying to remember which scenario runs which part of your business.

I have 7 live tools (Shadow Hound, Social Spark, KPI Dashboard, Blog Post Generator, Voice ToDo, Kid-Friendly Story Book, Tailored Social Post), and each one has 4-8 supporting scenarios. I also have utility scenarios for data migration, backup, and maintenance. Without organization, I'd be completely lost.

Naming Conventions: Instant Clarity

This is the single most important thing you can do. Good naming saves hours.

I use this format: Project_Action_Trigger

Examples:

• ShadowHound_ProcessResume_Webhook — When someone submits a resume via webhook, process it
• SocialSpark_GeneratePost_Manual — Generate a social post when manually triggered
• KPIDashboard_UpdateSheet_Daily — Update the KPI sheet every day at 9am
• BlogPostGen_PublishToSocial_Trigger — When a blog post is published, share it to social
• Utility_BackupAirtable_Weekly — Backup all Airtable data weekly

This naming tells me instantly:

• What project it belongs to (ShadowHound, Utility, etc.)
• What action it performs (ProcessResume, GeneratePost, UpdateSheet)
• When/how it triggers (Webhook, Manual, Daily, Trigger, Weekly)

When I have 40 scenarios and I need to find "the one that updates the KPI sheet," I can scan the list and find KPIDashboard_UpdateSheet_Daily instantly. Without this, I'd be clicking through scenarios trying to remember what each one does.

Scenario Documentation: The Knowledge That Lasts

Names help you find a scenario. Documentation helps you understand it months later.

I use Make's built-in description field. When I open a scenario, the description immediately tells me why it exists and what it does. Here's what I include:

• What data does it consume? (emails, webhooks, schedules, etc.)
• What does it do? (one sentence summary of the transformation)
• Where does the result go? (Airtable, Slack, email, webhook response, etc.)
• Any special notes? (API rate limits, known issues, dependencies)

Example for ShadowHound_ProcessResume_Webhook:

"Receives PDF resume via webhook. Extracts text, sends to OpenAI for optimization, stores result in Airtable 'Optimized Resumes' table. Returns optimized resume via webhook. Depends on OpenAI API. Rate limited to 3 requests/minute."

I also keep an external operations doc. A simple Google Sheet with columns for:

• Scenario Name
• Project
• Input Source
• Output Destination
• Trigger
• Approximate Monthly Operations
• Critical Dependencies
• Last Updated

This sheet takes 10 minutes per month to maintain, but it's invaluable. When I change a database connection or API key, I can scan this sheet and see which scenarios will be affected. When I want to optimize operations, I sort by "Monthly Operations" and target the expensive ones.

The Monitoring Stack: Knowing Your System Is Healthy

You can't manage what you can't see. My monitoring setup gives me visibility into the health of all 40+ scenarios.

Make's built-in execution history is my primary tool. But I supplement it with:

• A "Daily Report" scenario that runs every morning. It checks the execution logs of all critical scenarios and sends me a summary. Which ones ran successfully? Which ones failed? How many operations were used yesterday?
• Slack alerts for critical failures. If Shadow Hound can't reach the OpenAI API, I get a Slack notification immediately. Not for minor errors, just the ones that indicate a real problem.
• A spreadsheet that tracks operation usage over time. I log daily operations usage so I can see trends. If suddenly a scenario is using 10x more operations, I know something changed.

The Daily Report scenario is simple: it queries the execution log, counts successes and failures for each critical scenario, calculates total operations used, and sends me a formatted message. Takes 5 minutes to build, but I'd be lost without it.

Operations Budget: Making Your Free Plan Last

Make.com charges by the operation. Every API call, every module execution, every action costs operations. You start with 1,000/month on the free plan, which sounds like a lot until you realize a scenario with 5 API calls costs 5 operations per run.

I track every scenario's operation cost carefully. Here's how:

• Estimate during design. Before building a scenario, I count the modules and API calls. ShadowHound makes 1 API call to OpenAI + 1 to store in Airtable = 2 operations per resume. If 100 people use it daily, that's 200 operations/day or 6,000/month just for this one scenario.
• Track actual usage. After a scenario runs for a week, I check the actual operation count. Sometimes it's less than estimated (good), sometimes more (red flag). If it's more, I investigate why.
• Optimize heavy scenarios. If a scenario is burning operations, I look for ways to reduce it. Can I batch requests? Can I cache data? Can I run it less frequently? Small optimizations add up fast.
• Deprecate old scenarios. Every few months I look at scenarios nobody uses and ask: should this still run? I've shut down a few that seemed important but turned out to be dead weight. One less scenario = lower operations costs.

My personal operation budget across all 7 tools is currently around 25,000-30,000 operations/month, which keeps me in the paid tier but well-managed. I could optimize further if needed, but the current level feels sustainable.

Deprecating Old Scenarios: Knowing When to Kill Something

Not every scenario lasts forever. Some become obsolete. Others are replaced by better versions. Keeping dead scenarios around creates clutter and confusion.

I have a clear deprecation process:

• When a scenario hasn't had a successful run in 30 days, I mark it as "Under Review" in the description
• If it's still inactive after another 30 days, I archive it (disable it, move to an archive folder)
• After 3 months of being archived, I delete it

This gives me time to realize I made a mistake without permanently losing the scenario, but keeps my active account clean.

I've found that being willing to delete old scenarios forces me to be intentional about what I build. Every scenario has to serve a purpose. The ones that don't get cleaned up quickly.

The Complete Management System

Organizing folder structure:

• Folder 1: ShadowHound (contains all 5 ShadowHound scenarios)
• Folder 2: SocialSpark (contains all 6 SocialSpark scenarios)
• Folder 3: KPI Dashboard (contains 4 scenarios)
• Folder 4: Blog Post Generator (contains 3 scenarios)
• Folder 5: Voice ToDo (contains 3 scenarios)
• Folder 6: Kid-Friendly Story Book (contains 2 scenarios)
• Folder 7: Tailored Social Post (contains 2 scenarios)
• Folder 8: Utilities (data sync, backups, maintenance scripts)
• Folder 9: Archive (disabled scenarios)

Daily workflow:

• Every morning: Check the Daily Report email. Any failures? Unusual operation counts?
• Once a week: Review the operations spreadsheet. Are any scenarios trending upward in cost?
• Once a month: Update the operations doc. Add any new scenarios, remove archived ones, note any important changes.
• Every quarter: Deprecation review. Are there scenarios that should be archived?

This system takes maybe 1-2 hours per month to maintain, and it saves me 10+ hours of confusion and firefighting. It's a trade-off I'm happy to make.

Lessons From Managing at Scale

Lesson 1: Naming is everything. Spend 30 seconds getting the name right. It pays dividends for months.

Lesson 2: Document as you build. It's fresh in your mind now. Six months from now, you'll appreciate past you.

Lesson 3: Monitoring isn't optional. If you can't see what's happening, you're flying blind. Set up basic monitoring from day one.

Lesson 4: Operations budget matters. Track it, optimize it, don't ignore it. Small inefficiencies compound into big bills.

Lesson 5: Be willing to delete things. The confidence to deprecate a scenario or rewrite an old one is what separates amateur from professional automation systems.

Managing 40+ scenarios isn't magic. It's just discipline. Good naming, documentation, folder organization, and monitoring make all the difference. Invest in these systems now, and scaling becomes painless.