How to connect QuickBooks Desktop to Claude Cowork (MCP server setup)
Add Conductor as a custom connector so Claude Cowork tasks can read and write QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Enterprise company files. The guide also covers the Owner setting that lets Team and Enterprise members skip per-task approvals, and a read-only URL for your accountant.
To connect QuickBooks Desktop to Claude Cowork, add Conductor's MCP server at https://mcp.conductor.is/ as a custom connector under Customize > Connectors in Claude, then sign in to Conductor in the browser. Once connected, Claude Cowork reads and writes QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Enterprise company files through Conductor. There is no API key to copy.
You need a Windows computer running QuickBooks Desktop and the QuickBooks Web Connector, a Conductor account, and a paid Claude plan that includes Cowork. Setup takes five steps.
Before you start
Claude Cowork needs four things before it can reach a QuickBooks company file through Conductor:
A Windows computer running QuickBooks and the QuickBooks Web Connector, with the company file connected to a Conductor project. The QuickBooks user connects it once in the Web Connector (QWC file guide).
A supported edition: QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions in any version or year, or QuickBooks Premier (Plus), QuickBooks Desktop Pro (Plus), or QuickBooks Accountant Desktop (Plus) 2018 or later. The Mac version of QuickBooks has no Web Connector and is not supported.
A Conductor account from the Conductor Dashboard.
A paid Claude plan, because Anthropic offers Cowork only on paid plans.
Anthropic describes Cowork as bringing "Claude Code's agentic capabilities to knowledge work beyond coding." You give Cowork a goal and the folders and connectors it may use, and it returns a document or spreadsheet for you to review. To start a task, select Cowork in the message box. If your message box shows no Chat and Cowork options, your account combines chat and Cowork, so start the task in any conversation.
Conductor costs $49 per company file per month, and the free Trial tier covers one connection for testing and development.
Add the Conductor MCP server to Claude Cowork
To add the Conductor MCP server to Claude Cowork, create a custom connector once in Claude, then turn it on in each Cowork task. QuickBooks Desktop and the Web Connector must be running on the computer you connected to Conductor.
On a Claude Team or Enterprise plan, an Owner adds the connector in Organization settings > Connectors instead of Customize > Connectors, and members click Connect on it to sign in.
In Claude, open Customize > Connectors, click Add, then click Add custom connector. Anthropic's custom connector guide describes this page.
Name it
Conductor, pastehttps://mcp.conductor.is/(the URL in Conductor's MCP setup guide), and click Continue.Leave Sign in now and Use Claude's published identity selected, click Add, then click Connect.
Sign in to Conductor, pick your project, and click Allow. This adds an "MCP (Claude)" key to your Conductor project's API Keys page. If you ever need to revoke access, delete that key.
In the message box where you start the Cowork task, turn on Conductor under + > Connectors. When Claude asks, choose Always allow. In Cowork's approval dialog, that option is Allow for all tasks.
Approve Conductor in Cowork tasks on Team and Enterprise plans
On Claude Team and Enterprise plans, Cowork members approve Conductor in each task until an Owner turns on Organization settings > Cowork > Permissions > Allow "Always allow" for connector tools, which is off by default. While that setting is off, Anthropic's guide to Cowork on Team and Enterprise plans says the Allow for all tasks option stays grayed out in Cowork's approval dialog.
The Owner should also leave execute at Always allow under Tool permissions. Otherwise members can't choose Always allow in step 5, and Claude asks them before each call.
Check that it works
To check that Claude Cowork reaches QuickBooks, start a Cowork task with the Conductor connector on and send this prompt: Show the 5 most recent invoices using my most recently successful QuickBooks Desktop connection. If Cowork returns real invoices from your company file, the setup works. Conductor checks the key on first use, so a "connected" label on the connector proves only that the sign-in finished.
Tasks to give Claude Cowork once QuickBooks is connected
Claude Cowork handles QuickBooks work that takes several steps and ends in a document or spreadsheet you review. Tasks that write to the company file need the full-access connector.
To chase overdue invoices, ask
List unpaid invoices more than 30 days past due, grouped by customer with each customer's email and open balance, and draft a short reminder for each. Cowork returns the drafts for you to review.To reconcile a bank statement, open Cowork in the Claude Desktop app, give it the folder that holds the bank's export, and ask it to match each line to the deposits, checks, credit card charges, and transfers in QuickBooks. Cowork lists the lines with no match on either side, and you finish the reconciliation in QuickBooks.
To prepare a monthly report, ask
Pull last month's profit and loss and the A/R aging summary from QuickBooks into a spreadsheet with a one-paragraph summary. Type/schedulein the task to repeat it each month; QuickBooks and the Web Connector still have to be running on the connected computer when the scheduled task runs.To record a payment, ask
Record a $1,200 payment from Acme Supply against invoice 1042. This task writes to the company file.
What this does and does not do
The Conductor connector lets Claude Cowork read and write QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Enterprise company files on Windows, and it does not connect to QuickBooks Online, which is a separate product. Intuit's own QuickBooks connector for Claude covers QuickBooks Online and Intuit Enterprise Suite.
Hosted QuickBooks on Rightworks works only while someone is connected to the Rightworks remote desktop session with QuickBooks open, because Rightworks stops background programs when you disconnect.
Read-only mode blocks creates, updates, and deletes before they reach QuickBooks. Use it for a trial, an accountant, or co-workers who should only read. To add a read-only connector, follow the five steps with the name Conductor read-only and the URL https://mcp.conductor.is/read-only; its key appears as "MCP (Claude, read-only connection)" on the project's API Keys page.
Setting | Full access | Read-only |
|---|---|---|
URL |
|
|
Connector name |
|
|
Key on the API Keys page | "MCP (Claude)" | "MCP (Claude, read-only connection)" |
Use it for | Tasks that create or change records | A trial, an accountant, or co-workers who should only read |
To test read-only mode, ask Cowork to create a test customer; if it can't, read-only mode is on. Conductor's docs warn: "Read-only mode is a guardrail, not a security boundary: anyone with the Conductor key can still write through the Conductor API."
Cowork reaches every company file in the Conductor project you picked at sign-in, so to limit it to certain files, connect it to a project that holds only those files' connections.
How this works
MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is an open standard that lets an AI app call tools on an outside server, and a custom connector in Claude is an MCP server added by URL. Conductor's hosted MCP server at https://mcp.conductor.is/ connects QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Enterprise to Claude Cowork.
The Conductor server exposes two tools. execute runs code written against Conductor's TypeScript SDK in an isolated sandbox, which is how Cowork lists invoices or records a payment. search_docs searches Conductor's API documentation, so Cowork can look up a field before it writes that code.
Conductor passes each request to the QuickBooks Web Connector, which ships with every version of QuickBooks Desktop and runs on the Windows computer that holds the company file. The Web Connector hands the request to QuickBooks and returns the response. Conductor has no cache layer, so every call is live and that computer has to be on with QuickBooks and the Web Connector running.
The company file was linked to Conductor once, when the QuickBooks user opened Conductor's config file in the Web Connector, and adding the Cowork connector changes nothing there.
If it does not work
When a Cowork task can't reach QuickBooks through Conductor, match the message Claude shows to an entry below; each fix comes from Conductor's MCP troubleshooting section.
Claude shows Conductor as connected, but every request fails
The Conductor key behind the connector was usually deleted, and Claude doesn't ask you to sign in again on its own. Open Customize > Connectors, disconnect Conductor, click Connect on it again, then sign in, pick your project, and click Allow. If the error mentions QuickBooks Desktop or the Web Connector, the fix is under "Requests to QuickBooks fail" instead.
Couldn't reach the MCP server
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 URL from step 2.
Authorization with the MCP server failed
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
Claude Desktop usually still has the old local conductor-node-mcp entry: in Claude Desktop, open Settings > Developer > Edit Config, remove the conductor entry, then fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop. On a Claude Team or Enterprise plan, an Owner may also have set execute to Needs approval under Tool permissions. In Cowork on a Team or Enterprise plan, an approval prompt in every task is expected until an Owner turns on Allow "Always allow" for connector tools.
Requests to QuickBooks fail
QuickBooks Desktop or the Web Connector is usually not running on the computer you connected to Conductor. Start both there and run the Cowork task again; connecting an AI tool needs no Web Connector changes.
Frequently asked questions
Does Claude Cowork work with QuickBooks Enterprise?
Claude Cowork works with QuickBooks Enterprise through the same five steps, because Enterprise is a tier of QuickBooks Desktop on the same Web Connector. Conductor supports QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions in any version or year.
Does QuickBooks Desktop need to be open for Claude Cowork?
QuickBooks and the Web Connector must be running on the computer connected to Conductor whenever a Cowork task reads or writes the company file. Claude Cowork itself can run anywhere.
Can I give Claude Cowork read-only access to QuickBooks?
Claude Cowork gets read-only access when you add the connector with the name Conductor read-only and the URL https://mcp.conductor.is/read-only. Conductor then blocks creates, updates, and deletes before they reach QuickBooks. Anyone holding the Conductor key can still write through the Conductor API.
What does Conductor cost for Claude Cowork?
Conductor charges $49 per month for each established company file connection in use, with no platform fee and no monthly minimum. The free Trial tier covers one connection for testing and development.
Can co-workers use Conductor in their own Cowork tasks?
Co-workers who are members of your Conductor organization can click Connect on the connector and sign in with their own account. Each sign-in creates a separate key. Pricing is per company file, so more co-workers cost nothing extra.
Connect QuickBooks Desktop to other AI tools
Conductor has a guide for each of these AI tools, plus a comparison and a list of use cases:
QuickBooks Desktop MCP server compares the ways to connect an AI tool.
Claude covers claude.ai, Claude Desktop, and the mobile apps.
ChatGPT covers the ChatGPT apps.
Claude Code covers the terminal setup.
Codex CLI covers OpenAI's Codex in the terminal.
Cursor covers the agent in Cursor.
VS Code covers the chat in VS Code.
Microsoft Copilot Studio covers agents that connect with an API key.
QuickBooks Desktop AI agent use cases lists work AI agents do in a company file.
