DeepLedger MCP lets a small business use Claude or ChatGPT to work in QuickBooks Online while drawing on the receipts, invoices and explanations stored in its other connected apps. Your AI agent can gather evidence from an accounting folder or email thread, check the books, and carry out supported accounting work. When the facts do not support a decision, it can create a task for you in the DeepLedger portal.
The useful starting point is one repeatable workflow: review new purchase documents each morning, compare them with QuickBooks, and bring you the exceptions. Expand to transaction recording after you have checked the results and defined what the agent may do. The goal is practical autonomous accounting: run the agreed routine, move well-supported work forward and bring you the exceptions without another reminder.
Give each connection a clear job
| Connection | Its role in your accounting workflow |
|---|---|
| DeepLedger MCP | Connect the AI agent to QuickBooks Online, accounting reports, company context and shared portal tasks. |
| Gmail or Outlook | Find vendor messages, invoice references and explanations of purchases in the mailbox you authorize. |
| Google Drive, OneDrive or SharePoint | Retrieve readable receipts, supplier invoices, contracts and accounting policies from the folders you specify. |
| Claude or ChatGPT | Bring those sources together, follow your instructions and call the connected tools. |
| A schedule in the AI client | Start the saved workflow at the chosen time, using the tools available to that scheduled run. |
Connecting DeepLedger does not also connect your email or drive. Authorize those services separately in the AI client, and test whether it can read the actual source file, not just its filename.
For Claude, Google Workspace connectors cover Gmail and Drive. Its Gmail connector exposes attachment metadata rather than attachment contents: save an invoice to a readable Drive location or upload it when needed. For Outlook, OneDrive and SharePoint, the Microsoft 365 connector requires an eligible work account and administrator setup; a personal Outlook address does not qualify for that route.
In ChatGPT, use Plugins to install and authorize the available email and file tools. OpenAI documents Gmail and Google Drive plugins. If you use Outlook or Microsoft files, check the relevant connection offered in your workspace and test its reading capabilities before relying on it in a run.
What you can do through DeepLedger
With a connected QuickBooks Online company, you can ask your AI agent to:
- Record purchases: bills, expenses, bill payments and vendor credits.
- Manage sales records: estimates, invoices, customer payments, sales receipts, customer credits and refund receipts.
- Record other transactions: bank deposits, transfers between accounts and journal entries.
- Run reports: profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, accounts receivable and payable aging, general ledger and trial balance.
- Prepare month-end close: track checks, flag issues, assemble statements and propose adjustments in DeepLedger's Close Sheet. You review the work and sign off in the portal.
- Work through tasks: raise questions, request missing documents, hand work between you and the AI agent, and track resolution in DeepLedger's Tasks.
- Find supporting information: look up customers, vendors, accounts, transactions, connected bank-feed entries and uploaded documents.
Available actions still depend on the connection's permissions. Bank-feed workflows also need a separately connected or imported DeepLedger bank feed; connecting QuickBooks alone does not populate it.
1. Connect the books and verify one result
In DeepLedger, open Settings → Company and QBO Connect → Companies → Connect QB and authorize the intended QuickBooks Online company. Then follow the illustrated Claude connection guide or ChatGPT connection guide. Both use https://mcp.deepledger.ai/mcp.
Ask for a read-only check before you begin:
Use DeepLedger to list the companies I can access. Select [company name] and confirm its QuickBooks company name. Show the profit and loss for [start date] through [end date] on an [accrual/cash] basis. Include the company, dates and currency. Do not record anything.
Compare the result with the same report in QuickBooks. This verifies the company and reporting context; the prompt itself does not change the connection's permissions.
2. Point the agent at your accounting sources
Choose one mailbox or label and one folder, such as your business's Accounting / Incoming invoices folder. Give the agent the exact location, the company it belongs to and the dates to review. Include a readable policy document explaining recurring vendors, approved expense treatment and who resolves questions.
Start with this manual run:
For [company name], review purchase messages in [mailbox and label/folder] and readable invoices in [accounting folder] from [start date] through [end date]. Use DeepLedger to confirm the company, inspect relevant QuickBooks records and check for duplicates or existing unpaid bills. Return a list of already-recorded items, proposed entries and missing information. For each unresolved accounting question, create a DeepLedger task with the source reference, what is known and the exact decision I need to make. Do not record transactions or send email during this first run.
Keep source references with the findings. Reading a file through a drive connector does not automatically upload it to DeepLedger or attach it to a QuickBooks transaction.
3. Set the boundaries for autonomous accounting
A recurring software subscription with a readable invoice, a known vendor and consistent QuickBooks history is a different case from a new supplier's unexplained charge. Define the recurring work the agent may handle and the conditions that must send an item to review.
DeepLedger's instructions tell the agent to inspect the evidence and duplicates before recording. The basis for a write can be an exact user instruction, an approved portal task or sufficiently consistent QuickBooks history under the workflow rules. Missing or conflicting evidence should become a task. Some authorized work can proceed without a separate portal approval; uncertain items need your review.
For a first recording, use a narrow instruction:
For [company name], review [invoice reference] from [vendor] for [amount and currency], dated [date]. Confirm whether it is unpaid or already paid, check for an existing bill or duplicate, and propose the correct transaction and accounts. Ask me to confirm before recording. After confirmation, return the QuickBooks transaction ID and read back the result.
An email or document supplies evidence; it does not authorize new payment instructions or expand the agent's allowed actions. Keep outbound messages as drafts unless you have explicitly authorized sending them.
4. Schedule the workflow in Claude or ChatGPT
Both platforms document recurring work with connected tools. In Claude, use Scheduled or ask for a recurring task, then review the saved instructions and schedule. Its scheduling guide distinguishes remote runs from work needing local files or apps. In ChatGPT, scheduled tasks can use the connected tools and plugins available to the chat when scheduling is enabled for the workspace. Web runs cannot directly access a folder on your computer.
After the manual run succeeds, adapt this schedule request:
Every weekday at 8:30 AM [time zone], run the accounting intake workflow for [company name] using [named mailbox] and [named drive folder]. Review the last two days so a missed run can catch up, but check QuickBooks and existing DeepLedger tasks before creating anything. Apply only the standing recording instructions I approved in this chat. Send missing evidence, ambiguous categories, suspected duplicates and exceptions to DeepLedger Tasks. Return completed work, transaction IDs, open task numbers and any source you could not read. If an approval is required, report that the item is waiting; do not claim it was recorded. Do not send email or sign off a close.
Confirm that DeepLedger and each source connector are available to the scheduled run. A working chat connection is not proof that an unattended run has all required permissions. If the client pauses for an approval, review that request or keep that action supervised. If DeepLedger is unavailable, the run cannot create a portal task and must report the failure in the AI client.
These schedules run in Claude or ChatGPT. DeepLedger's own hosted-agent routines are separate: their routine credentials permit reading, reporting and task creation, but block QuickBooks writes. They do not inherit your Claude or ChatGPT email and drive connections.
5. Use portal tasks as your daily review queue
Suppose an invoice says only “project services,” with no explanation of which project or type of work it covers. The agent should create a task with the amount, supplier, document reference and missing question rather than choose an account from the supplier's name.
You review that task in DeepLedger and supply the answer or approve the proposed treatment. For a categorization task, approval hands the work back to the agent for recording; it does not itself post the transaction. The agent needs another active session or an eligible later run to pick up the work. The completed task should include the QuickBooks transaction ID.
Keep a small cadence that you can review:
| When | Work to delegate | What you review |
|---|---|---|
| Weekday morning | Invoice and receipt intake; supported recurring bookkeeping | Unclear items, failed connections and proposed entries |
| Weekly | Dated cash, receivables and payables reports | Overdue balances and changes needing action |
| Month-end | Prepare the Close Sheet and supporting reports | Exceptions, adjustments and final human sign-off |
Measure progress by fewer unprocessed documents, clearer exception tasks and less repeated data entry. A scheduled run is successful when its recorded work is verified and its unresolved items are visible, not merely because it returned a confident summary.
Connect your AI platform to start with one company and one workflow. If you manage books for multiple clients, use the accounting-firm guide for client separation and review handoffs.
Platform documentation and DeepLedger workflow behavior checked September 19, 2026. Connector availability and scheduling controls can vary by account and workspace.