How to connect QuickBooks Desktop to Claude (MCP server setup)

To connect QuickBooks Desktop to Claude, add Conductor's MCP server https://mcp.conductor.is/ as a custom connector in Customize > Connectors. Claude then opens a browser page where you sign in to Conductor and pick your project, so there is no API key to copy. You need QuickBooks Enterprise or another QuickBooks Desktop edition running with the Web Connector on a Windows computer, plus a Conductor account and a Claude account. The five steps work in claude.ai and Claude Desktop.

Before you start

Before you add Conductor to Claude, have these in place:

• A Windows computer running QuickBooks and the QuickBooks Web Connector. Conductor supports QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions in any version or year, plus QuickBooks Premier (Plus), QuickBooks Desktop Pro (Plus), and QuickBooks Accountant Desktop (Plus) 2018 or later.

• A Conductor account, which you create in the Conductor Dashboard.

• A Conductor project with your QuickBooks company file connected. In the Conductor Dashboard, open your project, click Create end user, and save the form. The dashboard then shows a secure link. On the Windows computer, visit that link in a browser, and Conductor's authentication flow has you download a config file and open it in the Web Connector.

• A Claude account. Claude Free allows one custom connector, and on a Team or Enterprise plan an Owner adds the connector for the whole organization.

Conductor costs $49 per company file per month in production. The Trial tier is free with 1 connection for testing and development.

Add the Conductor MCP server to Claude

Adding Conductor to Claude takes five steps in claude.ai or Claude Desktop. The company file must already be connected to a Conductor project, with QuickBooks and the Web Connector running on its Windows computer.

1. In Claude, open Customize > Connectors, click Add, then click Add custom connector. Anthropic's custom connector guide describes this screen.

2. Name the connector Conductor, paste https://mcp.conductor.is/ from Conductor's MCP setup guide as the URL, and click Continue.

3. Leave Sign in now and Use Claude's published identity selected, click Add, then click Connect.

4. Sign in to Conductor, pick your project, and click Allow. Conductor adds an "MCP (Claude)" key to that project's API Keys page. Deleting that key revokes Claude's access.

5. In a Claude chat, turn on Conductor under + > Connectors, and choose Always allow when Claude asks.

Set up Conductor for a Claude Team or Enterprise organization

On a Claude Team or Enterprise plan, an Owner adds the Conductor connector once in Organization settings > Connectors, with the name Conductor and the URL https://mcp.conductor.is/, and members click Connect on it to sign in. Each member signs in with their own Conductor account and picks the project, which creates a separate "MCP (Claude)" key for that person. Every member who connects must belong to your Conductor organization; add anyone missing on the Conductor Dashboard's Members page.

The Owner should leave execute at Always allow under Tool permissions. If the Owner sets it to Needs approval, members can't choose Always allow in step 5, and Claude asks them before each call.

In Claude Cowork, members approve each task until the Owner turns on Organization settings > Cowork > Permissions > Allow "Always allow" for connector tools, which is off by default.

When someone leaves, remove them on the Members page, then delete their "MCP (Claude)" key on the project's API Keys page, where the "Created by" column shows whose each key is. Removing a member doesn't delete their keys.

Check that it works

To check that Claude can read your company file, start a new Claude chat with Conductor turned on under + > Connectors and send this prompt: Show the 5 most recent invoices using my most recently successful QuickBooks Desktop connection.

If Claude lists real invoices from your company file, the setup is complete. A "connected" label on the connector proves only that the sign-in worked, since Conductor checks the key on the first request.

What this does and does not do

The Conductor connector lets Claude read and write data in a QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Enterprise company file on Windows. Claude can answer questions such as which customers have overdue invoices, and with full access it can create, update, and delete records.

• Conductor does not connect to QuickBooks Online. Intuit's own QuickBooks connector for Claude covers QuickBooks Online and Intuit Enterprise Suite.

• QuickBooks Desktop for Mac is not supported, because it has no QuickBooks Web Connector.

• QuickBooks hosted on Rightworks works only while someone is connected to the Rightworks remote desktop session with QuickBooks open, because Rightworks stops background programs on disconnect. Conductor's Rightworks guide covers that setup.

• Claude can reach every company file connected to the Conductor project you picked at sign-in. To limit Claude to certain company files, connect it to a project that holds only those files' connections.

A read-only connector, named Conductor read-only with the URL https://mcp.conductor.is/read-only, blocks creates, updates, and deletes before they reach QuickBooks. Its key appears as "MCP (Claude, read-only connection)" on the API Keys page. Read-only access suits a trial, an accountant, or co-workers who should only read. On Claude Free, remove the full-access connector before adding the read-only one, because Free allows only one custom connector.

Read-only mode is a guardrail, not a security boundary: anyone with the Conductor key can still write through the Conductor API. To test read-only mode, ask Claude to create a test customer in QuickBooks. If Claude can't, read-only mode is on; if it can, the connector still has full access, so check its URL.

How this works

Claude reaches the company file in two hops: first Conductor's MCP server, then the QuickBooks Web Connector on the Windows computer. MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is an open standard that lets an AI app such as Claude call tools that another service hosts. Conductor's hosted MCP server at https://mcp.conductor.is/ connects QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Enterprise to Claude. Claude opens that connection from Anthropic's cloud in every client, including the mobile apps, so the phone or laptop running Claude never talks to the QuickBooks computer.

The server exposes two tools. search_docs searches Conductor's API documentation, so Claude can look up an object's fields before using them. execute runs code that Claude writes against Conductor's TypeScript SDK in an isolated sandbox with no web or filesystem access, and returns whatever that code prints or returns. A question such as "which invoices are overdue?" becomes a short program that fetches and filters the invoices before anything goes back to Claude.

The SDK calls go to Conductor's API. On the Windows computer that holds the company file, the QuickBooks Web Connector, which ships with every version of QuickBooks Desktop, polls Conductor for new work and runs each request in QuickBooks. The result goes back to Claude the same way. An idle Web Connector checks in every 10 seconds, then every 3 seconds for the 10 minutes after a request arrives. Nothing reaches the company file unless QuickBooks and the Web Connector are both running.

If it does not work

If the Claude connector does not work, find the message or symptom Claude shows below; each comes from Conductor's MCP troubleshooting guide.

Claude shows Conductor as connected, but every request fails

A deleted Conductor key behind the connector usually causes this, and Claude doesn't ask you to sign in again on its own. In Claude, open Customize > Connectors, disconnect Conductor, click Connect again, then sign in, pick your project, and click Allow. If the error mentions QuickBooks Desktop or the Web Connector, signing in again won't help; see "Requests to QuickBooks fail" below.

Couldn't reach the MCP server

Claude shows "Couldn't reach the MCP server" when the connector URL isn't https://mcp.conductor.is/ or https://mcp.conductor.is/read-only. Remove the connector in Claude and add it again with the exact URL from step 2.

Authorization with the MCP server failed

"Authorization with the MCP server failed" means the Conductor sign-in didn't finish. Sign in with the email your company uses for Conductor (click Use a different account on the Conductor page that opens), or ask a teammate to add you on the Members page. Then connect again.

Claude asks permission on every call

Permission prompts on every call usually mean Claude Desktop still has the old local conductor-node-mcp entry. Open Settings > Developer > Edit Config in Claude Desktop, remove the conductor entry, then fully quit and reopen the app. On a Claude Team or Enterprise plan, the other cause is an Owner who set execute to Needs approval under Tool permissions.

Requests to QuickBooks fail

Failed QuickBooks requests usually mean QuickBooks or the Web Connector isn't running on the computer connected to Conductor. Start both on that computer and ask Claude again. Connecting Claude needs no Web Connector changes.

Frequently asked questions

Does this work with QuickBooks Enterprise?

Conductor connects Claude to QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions in any version or year and in every edition, such as Accountant, Contractor, Manufacturing and Wholesale, or Retail. QuickBooks Enterprise uses the same Desktop SDK and Web Connector as the other editions, so the Claude steps are identical.

Does QuickBooks Desktop need to be open?

QuickBooks and the Web Connector must be running on the Windows computer connected to Conductor whenever Claude sends a request. If the QuickBooks seat is needed elsewhere, leave QuickBooks at the "No Company Open" screen, and it signs in to the company file automatically during each sync. Claude itself can run on any computer or phone.

Can I give Claude read-only access?

Claude gets read-only access when you add the connector as Conductor read-only with the URL https://mcp.conductor.is/read-only. Read-only mode blocks creates, updates, and deletes before they reach QuickBooks.

Can I use Conductor on the Claude Free plan?

Conductor works on the Claude Free plan, which allows one custom connector. A Free account therefore holds either the full-access connector or the read-only one.

What does it cost?

Conductor costs $49 per company file per month in production, with no platform fee and no monthly minimum. The Trial tier is free and includes 1 connection for testing and development. More co-workers, keys, or AI tools on the same company file cost nothing extra.

How do I know Claude is connected to the right Conductor?

Conductor's MCP server is at conductor.is and has only the execute and search_docs tools. If Claude lists tools like ai_brand_insights, the connector points at conductor.com, an unrelated SEO company. Remove that connector and add https://mcp.conductor.is/ instead.

Connect QuickBooks Desktop to other AI tools

Conductor's MCP server also works with these AI tools, each with its own setup post:

• ChatGPT adds Conductor as a plugin.

• Claude Code adds Conductor with a terminal command and signs in from /mcp inside Claude Code.

• Codex CLI adds Conductor with a terminal command and signs in through your browser.

• Cursor reads Conductor from its ~/.cursor/mcp.json file.

• VS Code reads Conductor from its user mcp.json file.

• Microsoft Copilot Studio connects with a Conductor API key.

• Claude Cowork runs tasks through the same Claude connector.

The QuickBooks Desktop MCP server guide compares Conductor with the other options, and the AI agent use cases post lists tasks to try in Claude.