QuickBooks MCP Server

An MCP server for QuickBooks Online — built for bookkeepers, CFOs, and accountants who use AI assistants in their daily workflow.

Ask your AI assistant to pull a P&L report, create a journal entry, or investigate an account balance — using plain language, not API payloads.

Why This Server?

Intuit provides an official MCP server that's a solid starting point for developers exploring the QuickBooks API. This server takes a different approach: it's designed for financial professionals working in production books.

Use natural language, not internal IDs

Intuit's server requires QuickBooks internal IDs for every reference — you need to look up a vendor's ID before creating a bill. This server resolves names automatically:

"Create a bill for PG&E, $450 to Utilities, dated 2025-01-15"
→ Vendor, account, and department names are resolved automatically

Financial reports built in

This is the only QuickBooks MCP server with report tools. Pull a P&L, Balance Sheet, or Trial Balance — broken down by month, department, or class — without leaving your AI conversation.

Safe by default

Every create and edit operation defaults to draft/preview mode. You see exactly what will be written to your books before committing. No accidental journal entries or misclassified expenses.

One query tool instead of dozens

Instead of separate search tools for each entity type, a single SQL-like query tool works across all QuickBooks entities. AI assistants write SQL naturally, and QuickBooks validates it — no field whitelists to maintain.

"SELECT * FROM Purchase WHERE TxnDate >= '2025-01-01' AND TxnDate <= '2025-01-31'"

Production-ready credential management

Store credentials locally for personal use, or in AWS Secrets Manager for shared environments. OAuth tokens refresh automatically and persist across sessions.

At a glance

	Intuit Official	This Server
Audience	Developers exploring the API	Bookkeepers, CFOs, accountants
Name resolution	Requires internal QB IDs	Resolves names automatically
Financial reports	None	P&L, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance
Write safety	Executes immediately	Draft preview by default
Query approach	Entity-specific search tools	SQL-like queries across all entities
Credentials	Local .env file	Local file or AWS Secrets Manager
Distribution	Clone from GitHub	npx quickbooks-mcp

Prerequisites

• QuickBooks Developer Account: Register at developer.intuit.com
• Node.js 18+

Installation Options

Choose the setup that fits your use case:

Setup	Best For
NPM Install	Quick setup, using your own QuickBooks app
Local Checkout	Development, customization
AWS Mode	Shared/production environments

---

Option 1: NPM Install

The simplest way to get started. Credentials are stored locally on your machine.

1. Create a QuickBooks App

1. Go to developer.intuit.com and sign in
2. Create a new app (or select an existing one)
3. Go to "Keys & credentials"
4. Note your Client ID and Client Secret
5. Under "Redirect URIs", add: https://developer.intuit.com/v2/OAuth2Playground/RedirectUrl

2. Add to Claude Code

Add to your project's .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "quickbooks": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "quickbooks-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

3. Configure Credentials

Create ~/.quickbooks-mcp/credentials.json:

{
  "client_id": "your_client_id",
  "client_secret": "your_client_secret"
}

4. Authenticate

Once Claude Code is running, use the qbo_authenticate tool:

1. Call qbo_authenticate with no arguments to get an authorization URL
2. Open the URL in your browser and authorize the app
3. Copy the code and realmId from the redirect URL
4. Call qbo_authenticate again with the authorization code and realm ID

Your OAuth tokens will be saved and automatically refreshed.

---

Option 2: Local Checkout

For development or customization.

1. Create a QuickBooks App

Follow the same steps as Option 1 above.

2. Clone and Build

git clone https://github.com/laf-rge/quickbooks-mcp.git
cd quickbooks-mcp
npm install
npm run build

3. Add to Claude Code

Add to your project's .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "quickbooks": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/quickbooks-mcp/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

4. Configure Credentials

Create ~/.quickbooks-mcp/credentials.json with your client credentials (same as Option 1), then run qbo_authenticate to complete the OAuth flow.

---

Option 3: AWS Mode

For shared or production environments. Stores credentials in AWS Secrets Manager.

1. Create AWS Resources

Create the secret in Secrets Manager:

aws secretsmanager create-secret \
  --name prod/qbo \
  --secret-string '{
    "client_id": "your_client_id",
    "client_secret": "your_client_secret",
    "access_token": "your_access_token",
    "refresh_token": "your_refresh_token",
    "redirect_url": "https://developer.intuit.com/v2/OAuth2Playground/RedirectUrl"
  }'

Store Company ID in SSM Parameter Store:

aws ssm put-parameter \
  --name /prod/qbo/company_id \
  --value "your_company_id" \
  --type SecureString

2. Configure the Server

Create a .env file in the quickbooks-mcp directory:

QBO_CREDENTIAL_MODE=aws
AWS_REGION=us-east-2
QBO_SECRET_NAME=prod/qbo
QBO_COMPANY_ID_PARAM=/prod/qbo/company_id

Note: Due to a known Claude Code bug, environment variables from .mcp.json are not reliably passed to MCP servers. The .env file workaround is required.

3. Add to Claude Code

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "quickbooks": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/quickbooks-mcp/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

4. IAM Permissions

The server needs these AWS permissions:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "secretsmanager:GetSecretValue",
        "secretsmanager:PutSecretValue"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:secretsmanager:*:*:secret:prod/qbo*"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["ssm:GetParameter"],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:ssm:*:*:parameter/prod/qbo/*"
    }
  ]
}

---

Inline Output Mode

By default, large responses (reports, query results) are written to /tmp files and the server returns a file path. This works well for Claude Code in terminal environments but breaks in Claude Desktop and plugin environments where the model cannot read from /tmp.

Set QBO_INLINE_OUTPUT=true to return all responses inline instead.

Option A — via .env file (recommended for local checkout):

Create a .env file in the quickbooks-mcp directory:

QBO_INLINE_OUTPUT=true

Option B — via .mcp.json env block (recommended for NPM install):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "quickbooks": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "quickbooks-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "QBO_CREDENTIAL_MODE": "local",
        "QBO_INLINE_OUTPUT": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

Note: Due to a known Claude Code bug, environment variables from .mcp.json are not reliably passed to MCP servers in some configurations. If Option B doesn't work, use the .env file workaround.

---

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
QBO_CREDENTIAL_MODE	local	Credential storage: local or aws
QBO_CLIENT_ID	-	QuickBooks app Client ID (local mode)
QBO_CLIENT_SECRET	-	QuickBooks app Client Secret (local mode)
QBO_CREDENTIAL_FILE	~/.quickbooks-mcp/credentials.json	Custom credential file path. A leading ~ is expanded to your home directory, so it works in an MCP client's JSON env block where no shell is present to expand it.
QBO_INLINE_OUTPUT	false	Return responses inline instead of writing to /tmp files. Required when using Claude Desktop or plugin environments where file-based output is not accessible to the model.
QBO_SANDBOX	false	Use QuickBooks sandbox environment. Also switches the "View in QuickBooks" deep links to app.sandbox.qbo.intuit.com so they cannot open the production company.
AWS_REGION	us-east-2	AWS region (aws mode)
QBO_SECRET_NAME	prod/qbo	Secrets Manager secret name (aws mode)
QBO_COMPANY_ID_PARAM	/prod/qbo/company_id	SSM parameter path (aws mode)

---

Available Tools

Tool	Description
Setup
qbo_authenticate	Set up OAuth credentials (local mode only)
get_company_info	Get connected company information
Query & Reports
query	Run SQL-like queries against any QuickBooks entity
list_accounts	List chart of accounts with filtering
get_profit_loss	Profit & Loss report (by month, department, class, etc.)
get_balance_sheet	Balance Sheet report
get_trial_balance	Trial Balance report (flags: true adds a close-review pass for wrong-side and uncategorized/suspense balances)
get_report	Any of 24 other QuickBooks reports — A/R and A/P aging, customer and vendor balances, transaction lists, general ledger, journal, sales by customer/item/class/department, cash flow, and the detail variants
query_account_transactions	All transactions affecting a specific account (13 posting entity types, paginated, optional sub-account rollup; see docs/entity-coverage.md for limits)
account_period_summary	Period summary for an account (opening/closing balance, debits, credits, count)
Journal Entries
create_journal_entry	Create a journal entry (validates debits = credits; lines take entity_name/entity_type)
get_journal_entry	Fetch a journal entry by ID
edit_journal_entry	Modify an existing journal entry
Bills
create_bill	Create a vendor bill (lines take customer_name)
get_bill	Fetch a bill by ID
edit_bill	Modify an existing bill
Expenses
create_expense	Create an expense (Cash, Check, or Credit Card; payee may be a vendor, customer, or employee)
get_expense	Fetch an expense by ID
edit_expense	Modify an existing expense
Sales Receipts
create_sales_receipt	Create a sales receipt with item lines
get_sales_receipt	Fetch a sales receipt by ID
edit_sales_receipt	Modify an existing sales receipt
Invoices
create_invoice	Create an invoice with item lines (customer required)
get_invoice	Fetch an invoice by ID
edit_invoice	Modify an existing invoice
Deposits
create_deposit	Create a bank deposit (lines take entity_name/entity_type)
get_deposit	Fetch a deposit by ID
edit_deposit	Modify an existing deposit (lines take entity_name/entity_type)
Vendor Credits
create_vendor_credit	Create a vendor credit (lines take customer_name)
get_vendor_credit	Fetch a vendor credit by ID
edit_vendor_credit	Modify an existing vendor credit
Bill Payments
create_bill_payment	Pay bills and apply vendor credits (the QBO "check" / pay-bills flow)
receive_payment	Record a customer payment against open invoices (A/R counterpart to create_bill_payment); each line defaults to the invoice's open balance
create_transfer	Move money between two of the company's own accounts (bank↔bank, credit-card paydown)
get_bill_payment	Fetch a bill payment by ID; flags unapplied amounts
Delete
delete_entity	Delete any transaction (journal entry, bill, invoice, deposit, sales receipt, expense, vendor credit, bill payment)

Naming Vendors, Customers, and Employees

Every write tool that can attribute a line or a header to a name list accepts a name and resolves it to an ID, the same way account_name and department_name do. Which parameter you get depends on what QuickBooks will actually store there:

Parameter	Where it applies	Accepts
entity_name + entity_type	create_deposit / edit_deposit lines, create_journal_entry / edit_journal_entry lines, create_expense / edit_expense header payee	Vendor, Customer, or Employee. entity_type defaults to Vendor.
customer_name	create_bill / edit_bill, create_expense / edit_expense, create_vendor_credit / edit_vendor_credit lines	Customer only — QuickBooks stores a CustomerRef on these lines and has no vendor or employee option.
vendor_name	create_bill, create_vendor_credit, create_bill_payment headers	Vendor only.
customer_name (header)	create_invoice, create_sales_receipt	Customer only. Their item lines have no per-line entity.

Each also has an _id form (entity_id, customer_id) if you already know the internal ID. On edit tools, the rule for line parameters is:

• omit the parameter and a line addressed by line_id keeps the entity it already has;
• name one and it is set or replaced;
• pass an empty string (entity_name: "") and it is cleared.

See docs/quickbooks-api-limitations.md for the underlying QBO field shapes, which are not uniform.

Parameter Names Are Enforced

Arguments are checked against the schema each tool advertises, before anything runs. An unknown parameter is an error that names the closest valid one, a missing required parameter is an error, and an edit_* call with no field to change is an error rather than a write that reports success.

The alternative is silence. A handler reads the parameters it knows about, so a misspelled one is simply absent: a create call that puts the date under the wrong key posts on today's date, an as-of report asked for a date range returns today's balances, and an edit whose fields are all misspelled comes back "updated successfully" having changed nothing. None of those raise anything for the caller to notice.

Relatedly, when QuickBooks accepts an update without advancing the record's SyncToken — meaning the payload matched what was already stored — the edit tools report no change instead of success.

---

Token Refresh

The server automatically refreshes OAuth tokens on each request and persists them back to your credential store (local file or AWS Secrets Manager).

---

Development

npm run dev      # Run in development mode
npm run build    # Build
npm run typecheck # Type check
npm test         # Run the test suite

Tests live in tests/, mirroring src/. They are TypeScript, compiled by tsconfig.test.json into dist-test/ and run by Node's built-in test runner — no test framework dependency. Type errors in a test are build failures, so a test referencing a renamed export fails loudly rather than silently skipping. Anything needing a QuickBooks client passes a hand-written stand-in covering just the calls under test, so the suite runs offline with no credentials.

---

Troubleshooting

"QuickBooks credentials not configured"

Run the qbo_authenticate tool to set up OAuth credentials (local mode only).

"Authorization code expired"

Authorization codes are only valid for a few minutes. Start the OAuth flow again.

Token refresh fails

• Check that your refresh token hasn't expired (~100 days)
• Verify your client credentials are correct
• Try re-authenticating with qbo_authenticate

AWS credential errors

• Ensure .env file has QBO_CREDENTIAL_MODE=aws
• Check your AWS credentials and permissions
• Verify the secret and parameter names match your configuration