Connect QuickBooks to Claude in 2 minutes

Pick the setup that matches the Claude you use. Both finish with you asking "What's my revenue this month?" and getting a real answer from your books.

Pick your Claude

Claude Desktop

Mac or Windows app · 90-second setup, no API key

Claude Code · Cursor

CLI / editor integrations · API key + MCP config

Before you start

A Kaizen plan — Starter is free. Pick one on the pricing page.
Admin access to the QuickBooks Online company you want to connect.

Track A — Claude Desktop

About 90 seconds. No API key ever shown — Claude Desktop and Kaizen handle OAuth behind the scenes.

1Open Claude Desktop

Go to Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector.

2Paste the Kaizen connector URL

In the Remote MCP server URL field, paste:

https://api.kaizencfo.com/mcp

Give it any Name you like (e.g. Kaizen QBO). Leave OAuth Client ID and OAuth Client Secret empty — Claude Desktop fills them in automatically via Dynamic Client Registration.

Connecting more than one QuickBooks company? Append any label to the URL to make each connector unique — for example https://api.kaizencfo.com/mcp/acme and https://api.kaizencfo.com/mcp/widgets-inc. The label is cosmetic (the server ignores it); it just lets Claude.ai treat each connector as distinct so you can keep both connected at once. You'll still do one OAuth sign-in per QuickBooks company.

Claude Desktop Add custom connector dialog showing Name, Remote MCP server URL, and (under Advanced settings) optional OAuth Client ID / Secret fields — Claude Desktop → Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector

3Click Add

A popup opens.

4Sign in to QuickBooks

Authorize Kaizen in the popup. This is the one step where you prove you own the books.

5You're connected

The popup closes on its own. Back in Claude Desktop, start a new chat, click the + menu, and toggle the Kaizen connector on for this chat. Then ask:

"What's my revenue this month?"
"Show me all unpaid invoices over $1,000."

Troubleshooting

"No Kaizen account found for this QuickBooks company." — you haven't signed up for a Kaizen plan yet. Start with Starter (free) or pick a paid plan on the pricing page, then try Claude Desktop again.
Popup blocked. — allow popups for claude.ai and desktop.anthropic.com.
Connector returns "tools not available." — make sure you toggled it on in this specific chat via the + menu.

Track B — Claude Code or Cursor

About 3 minutes. You'll get an API key you paste into your MCP config.

1Open the Kaizen connect page

Go to api.kaizencfo.com/oauth/connect and click Connect to QuickBooks.

2Authorize QuickBooks

3Copy the setup block

You'll land on a success page with a copy-paste block that contains your API key and the MCP config. Paste the whole block into a Claude Code prompt and hit enter — Claude writes the config file for you.

Your API key is shown once. If you lose it, reconnect at /oauth/connect and a new key is generated.

4Restart Claude Code

Close and reopen so Claude loads the new MCP server.

5Ask a question

"What's my revenue this month?"
"Pull the P&L for Q1 2026."

Using Cursor?

Same API key, same MCP config, different file path:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor/User/mcp.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Cursor\User\mcp.json

Troubleshooting

MCP server fails to start. — make sure Node.js 18+ is installed. The npx kaizen-qbo-mcp-server command needs it.
"Invalid or revoked key." — reconnect at /oauth/connect to generate a fresh key.
"Plan doesn't include this." — your tier doesn't allow that operation. Upgrade on the pricing page.

Try it

Analyze & report

"What's my revenue this month compared to last month?"
"Who are my top 10 customers by revenue?"
"Show me the A/R aging — anything over 90 days?"

Find & investigate

"Show me all unpaid invoices over $1,000."
"List all transactions from vendor ABC Services in March."
"Pull the balance sheet and flag anything unusual."

Create & record (Professional and Premium plans)

"Create an invoice for Acme Corp — 10 hours consulting at $150/hr."
"Record a journal entry: debit Office Supplies $500, credit Checking $500." (Premium)
"Post a payment of $2,400 from Smith & Associates against Invoice #1045."

Plans

Starter (free, 100 reads) · Essentials ($99) · Professional ($199, adds writes) · Premium ($399, adds journal entries + API-only QBO fields + bulk ops). Full comparison and signup on the pricing page.

What's protected

Tier scopes. Starter and Essentials are strictly read-only. Writes require Professional+. Journal entries and deletes require Premium.
Audit tags. Every write adds a [kaizen:<keyId>:<timestamp>] suffix to the PrivateNote in QuickBooks, so you can always trace a row back to the key that wrote it.
Usage & audit log. Every call is logged. Check your balance anytime by asking Claude: "Check my Kaizen API usage."
Inference-only. Your QuickBooks data is sent to Anthropic for inference. It's never used to train models.

Disconnecting

You can disconnect your QuickBooks company at any time from within QuickBooks itself: Settings → Manage apps → remove Kaizen. Or email support@kaizencfo.com and we'll handle it.

Support

Reach us at support@kaizencfo.com or +1 786 882 8169.