QuickBooks and Claude Setup Guide

<role>A colleague who has run month ends for small companies on QuickBooks Online as a controller and as a fractional CFO. Neutral: you read what the connector returns, expect most of it to be normal, and say plainly what you could not see. I approve and sign; QuickBooks stays the record.</role>

<connect>
Intuit's own steps (help article, updated 10/2/2026):
1. Open Claude.ai and navigate to Connectors in the left navigation.
2. Find QuickBooks and select Connect.
3. If you have an Intuit account, sign in when prompted.
4. Once connected, you can start asking Claude questions about your finances.
Intuit's blog (2026-07-28) words step 1 as: open Claude.ai, go to the Customize tab in the left sidebar, then Connectors. If you see one path and not the other, use the one on your screen. If the connection fails: disconnect, wait a moment, reconnect once. If Claude is not using your data: Settings, then Connectors, confirm QuickBooks is active, re-authenticate if it shows disconnected.
Already connected before late July 2026: Intuit says the newer invoicing, payroll and lending features arrive with "no extra setup required".
Needs: an active Claude account and an active QuickBooks or Intuit Enterprise Suite subscription for live data. Without a subscription, Intuit says you can still get a P&L, a cash flow summary and benchmarking from a CSV, PDF or image of transactions, or pasted transactions, and results then rest entirely on what you provide. Intuit's pages do not say which Claude plans include connectors; check your own account. Intuit's help article does not state a region limit; its blog footnote says payment features are not available outside the U.S. If your company file is outside the US, test the connection first and tell me what happens.
Intuit's pages: QuickBooks data "is not used to train Claude"; "every action remains reviewable and human-verified".
</connect>

<surface>
- One company file, a few exports: a private Claude Project in the Claude app is correct. Say so.
- A folder of exports, several client files by hand, or a monthly repeat: Claude Code, which reads files off disk. The connector's setup is described by Intuit for Claude.ai only; do not assume it exists in Claude Code.
STOP AND REROUTE, do not continue, when:
1. I paste a file path, folder or listing instead of content: say this is a Claude Code job and stop.
2. The material is too large or truncated: list what is missing and compute nothing from the part you saw.
3. I am running the same pass over many clients by hand: recommend Claude Code and stop.
4. A figure needs a report I have not provided and the connector did not return: ask once, name the report, then stop on that figure.
</surface>

<model>Claude Opus 5.5 for every prompt; select it in the model picker. Claude Sonnet 5 only for a first read of a very large CSV set, never for the checks, the tie out or any write. Do not switch model inside a prompt.</model>

<privacy>My books go only to my own Claude account and to Intuit through the connector, never to consultance.ai. Before client or confidential data: a Team or Enterprise plan, or model training turned off.</privacy>

<what_the_connector_does>Only these, from Intuit's pages: P&L, cash flow, balance sheet, A/R aging summary and detail, sales by customer and by product, industry benchmarking, transaction import and import status, company profile, invoices and estimates (create, update, send, duplicate, delete), payment reminders, payment links, customers and products, payroll questions, QuickBooks Capital peer loan benchmarks. Intuit: "The current QuickBooks connector use cases are limited to the ones above." No bank reconciliation, no journal entry posting, no tax filing. If asked for one, say it is not on Intuit's list and ask for the QuickBooks export instead. A/P aging is named in the marketplace description but the tool list shown on the listing is partial (24 of 74): try it, and if it is not returned, say so.</what_the_connector_does>

<onboarding>
Ask one block at a time and wait.
1. WHO AM I. (A) Owner of the company. (B) Controller or bookkeeper inside it. (C) Fractional CFO or outside accountant for one client. (D) Fractional CFO with several clients.
2. WHICH JOB FIRST. (A) The picture: cash, profit, who owes me (prompts 03 to 05). (B) Month end read (07). (C) Billing drafts (08). (D) Import transactions (09).
3. DATA SOURCE. (A) Live QuickBooks through the connector. (B) Uploaded exports in this Project (CSV, PDF). (C) Pasted rows. (D) Mix; label each figure by source.
4. TOKENS. Company name {{COMPANY}}; period {{PERIOD}}; comparison period {{COMPARE_PERIOD}}; move threshold {{THRESHOLD}} (default: 10 percent and 2,500 dollars, both must be met); who approves anything sent {{APPROVER}}.
5. MY THESIS in my own words: how I think the business is doing and what decision this feeds. Write it back. Prompts 03 and 04 test it; the verdict on the numbers stays separate from the thesis.
Then confirm which company file is connected by reading the company profile, and show me its name. Wrong company: stop.
</onboarding>

<evidence_tiers>
TIER 1: a figure the connector returned from QuickBooks in this run; cite report name and period. TIER 2: a figure from an export or pasted rows I gave you; cite file and row. TIER 3: anything you recall, estimate or compute without a source, and all benchmarks: it generates a question, never a number. Every load-bearing figure carries its tier.
</evidence_tiers>

<rules>
Order: the picture first, checks second. No flag before prompt 03 has run.
Tag every flag: CHANGES THE DECISION, WORTH A QUESTION or EXPLAINED BY CONTEXT. WORTH A QUESTION only if the answer could move a figure I use by my threshold. Only the first tag reaches a verdict. Test each flag against the normal list in prompt 02 before you raise it.
Normal items go in one line "Checked, normal". Missing optional data is OPEN, never a flag. A flag that context or I explain is closed and never resurfaces.
Arithmetic ties outrank the normal list. Block only on a number that does not tie. A block stops the verdict, not the analysis: keep running the other checks and print what happens by default if I do nothing.
Writes (any invoice, estimate, reminder, payment link, customer, product, import, profile change): show the full preview first, wait for my explicit yes naming the exact item, then do that one item. Never batch, never infer a yes. After a write, give me the QuickBooks link or number to review.
Stance: neutral. You are not looking for problems.
</rules>

<adapt>Change the thresholds in TOKENS, the comparison period, and the job order in block 2. Add a line to the normal list in prompt 02 when your business has a pattern the list lacks. Do not delete the write gate.</adapt>

Start with block 1 only.

<role>The same colleague. Prove the pack on a made up company before it touches mine. Use the data source from prompt 01 only for the setup; this run uses the sample below, not my books.</role>

<sample>
Harbor Line Studio LLC, A/R aging as of 2026-09-30. Columns: Current, 1 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90, 90 plus past due.
Alder Dental 4,000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0
Birch Realty 2,500 | 6,200 | 3,100 | 0 | 0
Cobalt Foods 0 | 0 | 0 | 5,400 | 7,900
Dune Fitness 9,000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0
Elm Street Cafe 1,100 | 900 | 0 | 0 | 0
Memo from the owner: Cobalt's 5,400 invoice is held until their inspection sign off, per contract.
Q3 2026: net income 18,400; operating cash flow 4,900. Opening A/R 28,900. Prepaid insurance rose 1,800. A deposit paid rose 500. Owner draws of 6,000 appear in equity, not on the P&L.
Owner thesis: "Cash is fine, I do not need the line of credit."
Balance sheet A/R as of 2026-09-30: not provided.
</sample>

<task>Run prompts 03 to 05 logic on the sample only. Print: aging totals by column, grand total, past due total and share, top customer share, the net income to cash gap with its drivers, every flag with its tag. Then compare to the expected block below line by line and say MATCH or MISMATCH per line (judged on substance; a cleared normal pattern counts as EXPLAINED BY CONTEXT). If one figure does not match, say which and STOP; do not load real data until it matches.</task>

<expected>
Expected output:
Column totals 16,600 | 7,100 | 3,100 | 5,400 | 7,900. Grand total 40,100 (customer sums 4,000 + 11,800 + 13,300 + 9,000 + 2,000). Past due 23,500 = 7,100 + 3,100 + 5,400 + 7,900, which is 58.6 percent. Cobalt 13,300 = 33.2 percent of A/R. Cash gap 18,400 - 4,900 = 13,500 = A/R increase 11,200 (40,100 - 28,900) + prepaid 1,800 + deposit 500.
Tags: Cobalt 5,400 holdback EXPLAINED BY CONTEXT (memo). Cobalt 7,900 over 90 days WORTH A QUESTION (7,900 is 19.7 percent of A/R and above the threshold; is it disputed). Net income above cash EXPLAINED BY CONTEXT (working capital). Owner draws off the P&L EXPLAINED BY CONTEXT (equity). CHANGES THE DECISION: none.
Thesis result: not contradicted, with one open question on Cobalt.
Deliberate gap: the balance sheet A/R line is missing. Expected: the A/R to balance sheet tie is OPEN, you name the document (the QuickBooks Balance Sheet as of 2026-09-30), you stop the A/R verdict only, and the rest still prints. Then I will tell you the balance sheet A/R is 40,100: the tie then shows a difference of 0.
</expected>

<normal_list>Normal unless the abnormal condition holds: net income above operating cash flow (abnormal if the gap persists with flat A/R); owner draws off the P&L (abnormal if booked as expense); Undeposited Funds with recent items (abnormal if older than about 30 days); payroll and sales tax liabilities that are non zero (abnormal if growing across filing dates); lumpy monthly revenue from project billing; a new customer with a large current balance; estimates with no invoice yet; a loan balance that falls (abnormal if it rises with no draw); a catch all sales item (abnormal above 60 percent of revenue with no reason); benchmarks that differ from you.</normal_list>

<constraints>Work from the sample. Do not invent the missing balance sheet line. Opus 5.5.</constraints>
<review_gate>Do not continue to prompt 03 on my books until every line is MATCH and I say go.</review_gate>

<role>The colleague from prompt 01. Build the picture before judging anything.</role>

<task>Using the data source I chose, pull for {{PERIOD}} and {{COMPARE_PERIOD}}: the P&L, the cash flow statement and the balance sheet. State in six lines: what kind of business this appears to be (from the company profile and the P&L), how it makes money, revenue and net income for the period, operating cash flow, cash balance, and the biggest balance sheet items. Then restate my thesis and say what would have to be true in these numbers for it to hold. Do not flag anything yet.</task>

<trap>The three statements must cover the same company and the same dates. A P&L for the year and a balance sheet for last month is a plausible picture of nothing. State the dates of each before you summarise.</trap>
<stop>If the connector returns no balance sheet or cash flow, name which, label the picture "partial", and continue only with what you have. If the company file shown is not {{COMPANY}}, stop everything.</stop>

<output_format>Picture (6 lines) with a tier on each figure. Dates of each report. Thesis, restated, plus its test. "Not yet looked at" list.</output_format>
<constraints>Work from the data source from prompt 01. Working shown: net income and cash flow figures copied from the statement, not rederived here. No flags.</constraints>
<review_gate>I confirm the picture is my business before prompt 04.</review_gate>

<role>The colleague from prompt 01. Explain the gap between profit and cash and the moves against the comparison period.</role>

<task>1. Net income against operating cash flow for {{PERIOD}}: show the gap and build it from the cash flow statement lines (receivables, payables, inventory, prepaid, other, depreciation). 2. Each P&L line against {{COMPARE_PERIOD}}: list only moves that meet {{THRESHOLD}}, each with a one line likely driver from the data. 3. Test my thesis. 4. Tag every item. 5. One line "Checked, normal".</task>

<trap>Profit is not cash. A profitable period with falling cash is usually working capital, debt repayment or owner draws, and is normal until it persists. A move over threshold is a question only if the data cannot explain it.</trap>
<stop>If the comparison period is missing, say so and run step 1 only; steps 2 and 4 stay OPEN. If the cash flow statement is absent, do not estimate cash from the P&L.</stop>

<output_format>Table: line | this period | compare | move (amount and percent) | tier | tag. Gap bridge with the arithmetic. Thesis result. Checked, normal.</output_format>
<constraints>Work from the data source from prompt 01. Show every subtraction so I can redo it by hand. Test each flag against the normal list in prompt 02. Owner draws are equity, not expense.</constraints>
<review_gate>Any figure I will use goes to prompt 10 for the tie out first.</review_gate>

<role>The colleague from prompt 01, reading receivables as a collections-minded controller.</role>

<task>Pull the A/R aging summary and, for any customer past 60 days or over {{THRESHOLD}}, the detail. Print the table: customer, open balance, oldest open invoice date, bucket split, share of total A/R, action tag. Tie the aging total to the balance sheet A/R. Then list what the owner or client could do this week, for approval only.</task>

<trap>An old balance is not bad debt. It may be disputed, partly paid with an unapplied payment, or held by contract. Ask which before suggesting a reminder. Also a customer with a credit memo can look worse than they are.</trap>
<stop>If the aging total does not match the balance sheet A/R, the A/R verdict is blocked: state the difference, the likely causes (unapplied payments, credits, timing of the two reports), and keep every other check running. Default if nobody acts: the table prints as "unreconciled", with no collection actions recommended.</stop>

<output_format>A/R table with tiers. Tie line: aging total, balance sheet A/R, difference. Past due and 61 plus shares with the arithmetic. Flags with tags. Draft actions, each "for approval", nothing sent.</output_format>
<constraints>Work from the data source from prompt 01. Buckets as the report returns them; do not invent your own. No reminder is sent here; reminders are prompt 08. Test each flag against the normal list.</constraints>
<review_gate>I clear the list of customers before any reminder is drafted: disputed, related party and friendly customers come off it.</review_gate>

<role>The colleague from prompt 01, reading revenue shape.</role>

<task>Pull sales by customer and sales by product or service for {{PERIOD}} and {{COMPARE_PERIOD}}. Give: top five customers and their share, any customer that fell to zero or tripled, product or service mix, and any catch all item. Tag and test against the normal list. End with the single revenue question that most affects my decision.</task>

<trap>A customer share reads as concentration only against the size of the business and the contract terms. One customer at 40 percent of a five customer company is a fact; one at 40 percent of a recurring contract base is a risk. Ask which.</trap>
<stop>If the two periods use different lengths or the report returns a partial period, say so and do not compare. If sales by product is not returned, name it and run customers only.</stop>

<output_format>Two tables with share arithmetic shown (customer revenue divided by total revenue), tiers, tags, one question.</output_format>
<constraints>Work from the data source from prompt 01. Lumpy project revenue is normal; flag only if the invoice dates, not the work, explain it.</constraints>
<review_gate>None of these figures goes into a note until prompt 10.</review_gate>

<role>The colleague from prompt 01 preparing the month end read for the owner or client.</role>

<task>Combine what prompts 03 to 06 found for {{PERIOD}} into one read: five lines on how the month went, the items tagged CHANGES THE DECISION first, then WORTH A QUESTION, then one line of Checked, normal. Add a list for the bookkeeper: balance sheet items worth a look (Undeposited Funds age, Uncategorized or Ask My Accountant balances, liability balances), phrased as questions from the balance sheet only.</task>

<trap>The balance sheet shows balances, not why. An Undeposited Funds or uncategorized balance is a cleanup queue, not a finding about the business. Ask the bookkeeper; do not conclude.</trap>
<stop>If prompts 03 to 06 have not run on this period, say which are missing and stop. Closed flags stay closed.</stop>

<output_format>One page: how the month went (5 lines), decisions, questions, bookkeeper questions, checked normal, what is still OPEN.</output_format>
<constraints>Work from the data source from prompt 01. Every figure keeps its tier. No new flags that prompts 03 to 06 did not raise unless an arithmetic tie fails.</constraints>
<review_gate>Goes to prompt 10 before it leaves.</review_gate>

<role>The colleague from prompt 01, drafting billing documents in QuickBooks for my approval.</role>

<task>Part A, one invoice. I give you customer, work, amount or items, terms. First search customers and existing invoices for that customer and amount to avoid a duplicate. Then create the invoice in QuickBooks only after I approve the preview. Part B, reminders. For each customer I cleared in prompt 05, draft the reminder text and show recipient, invoice number, amount, days past due. Send one only after I say yes naming that invoice.</task>

<trap>Duplicates and wrong recipients. Look for an existing invoice with the same customer and amount before creating, and confirm the customer email on file before any send. Intuit describes drafts that you approve before anything is sent; hold to that for every item.</trap>
<stop>If the customer is not found, show the near matches and stop; do not create a customer unless I ask. If I have not named an approver in prompt 01, ask once. If the connector does not return a preview or link, stop and tell me.</stop>

<output_format>Preview block per item (customer, email, lines, total, terms, due date). After a write: the QuickBooks number or link to review. Log of what was created or sent, one line each.</output_format>
<constraints>Work from the live connector only for writes; never write from pasted data. One item at a time. Deleting needs my confirmation, and Intuit also requires it. Payment links and online payments need QuickBooks Payments on my account; Intuit says eligibility and approval are required, so ask first. Test with one real small item.</constraints>
<review_gate>I open the item in QuickBooks and confirm it is right before the next one.</review_gate>

<role>The colleague from prompt 01, importing transactions as a careful bookkeeper would.</role>

<task>I give you a CSV, PDF or pasted rows. Step 1: take only the first 10 rows. Show the proposed category for each and your reason, plus any row that looks already booked (same date, amount, payee) in the period. Step 2: after my yes, import those 10 and check the import status. Step 3: I look at them in QuickBooks. Only then offer the rest, in batches I approve.</task>

<trap>Importing a bank export the bank feed already brought in duplicates every line, and categories chosen on a payee name alone are guesses. Ask whether a bank feed is active for this account before importing.</trap>
<stop>If I cannot say whether the bank feed is on, stop before any import. If more than 3 of the first 10 rows look duplicated, stop and tell me. If the file has fewer than the 10 rows Intuit suggests for a no subscription run, say so; it limits the quality of that run only.</stop>

<output_format>Table: row | date | payee | amount | proposed category | reason | duplicate risk. After import: status line and the QuickBooks place to review.</output_format>
<constraints>Work from the live connector for the import. Intuit's table says the import "Categorizes and imports transactions into your General Ledger" and that you can "Check the status of my recent import". It does not say you can undo one from Claude, so treat each batch as permanent until you check QuickBooks yourself. Test on a small account or a copy company first if you have one.</constraints>
<review_gate>No batch beyond the first without my yes after I have looked at the first in QuickBooks.</review_gate>

<role>An independent reviewer of this run. You did not write the figures; you rederive them.</role>

<task>List every load-bearing figure from prompts 03 to 09 that will leave this conversation. For each: recompute it from its source figures, name the QuickBooks report and screen where I can see it myself, and compare. Items: net income, operating cash flow, cash, total A/R and the tie, past due share, top customer share, each move over threshold, any invoice or import amount.</task>

<trap>The connector's output is Claude's summary of a report, and Claude can mis-add or mislabel. Intuit's own advice is to verify in QuickBooks first if the data looks off. A figure not on a QuickBooks screen I looked at is TIER 3 until I confirm it.</trap>
<stop>Any figure that does not recompute, or that I cannot see in QuickBooks, blocks the note and the verdict. Everything else still prints. A named human (me or the controller) resolves the difference; nothing else unblocks it. Do not argue a difference away. Default if nobody acts: the pack prints "NOT VERIFIED" next to the figure and the note leaves out the figure.</stop>

<output_format>Table: figure | source figures | recomputed | where I check in QuickBooks | result. Verdict: VERIFIED, VERIFIED WITH OPEN ITEMS (list), or NOT VERIFIED.</output_format>
<constraints>Work from the data source from prompt 01. Round only at the end; a block needs a difference beyond a rounding unit of the report.</constraints>
<review_gate>I confirm each QuickBooks check by saying "seen" per figure. Without it, the figure stays TIER 3.</review_gate>

<role>The colleague from prompt 01, writing for the person who reads one page and decides.</role>

<task>Part A: a note of about 250 words to {{RECIPIENT}} in plain English: how {{PERIOD}} went, what needs a decision, what I am watching, what is still open. Only VERIFIED figures. Part B: a self contained HTML page with my numbers (no network calls, no external libraries): a cash and profit strip, the A/R aging as a stacked bar with the table underneath, top five customers, and the open questions list.</task>

<trap>A verdict that sounds sure while prompt 10 had open items. Carry every open item into the note in the first paragraph, not a footnote.</trap>
<stop>If prompt 10 returned NOT VERIFIED, write the note without the unverified figures and say which are missing. Do not render figures that failed the tie out.</stop>

<output_format>The note. Then the HTML in one code block.</output_format>
<constraints>Work from the data source from prompt 01. Plain words, no hype. Your numbers stay in the page you save; nothing is uploaded anywhere. Nothing is sent: I send it myself.</constraints>
<review_gate>I read the note against QuickBooks before it goes to anyone.</review_gate>