How does the FreshBooks connector in Claude work?

The FreshBooks connector in Claude is a tool that lets Claude access information about your FreshBooks account. The FreshBooks connector is built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard from Anthropic for connecting AI assistants to external data and tools.

The FreshBooks connector in Claude gives you answers based on your live FreshBooks data, providing a secure, read-only way to use Claude for finance questions. You can use the connector to check in on your profit, cash, invoices, clients, and more in plain language, without leaving Claude. 

To get started, open Claude and connect your FreshBooks account to it, then you can begin asking Claude questions, or use any of the suggested prompts below. Claude will only provide information based on your role in the FreshBooks account.

 

Note: The FreshBooks connector for Claude is only available to specific users currently. Our product team is working on making this available to all users with free and paid Claude accounts in the near future.

 

 

Connect FreshBooks to Claude

Connecting Claude to your FreshBooks account will connect it to all active businesses associated with your login. To set up the FreshBooks connector in your Claude account, you can use a free or paid Claude account through the desktop app or on a web browser with these steps:

  1. In your Claude account, go directly to the Connectors Directory, or select your name in the bottom left corner, then select Settings
    1. Under Customize, select Connectors
  2. Search for FreshBooks in the list of connectors
  3. Next to FreshBooks, select the Connect button
  4. Enter your FreshBooks login credentials if prompted to
  5. In the list of permissions, if needed, check off the boxes next to each optional permission
  6. Then select Allow Access to authorize Claude to access your FreshBooks account
  7. In your Claude account, FreshBooks will now appear as a connected app in your list of connectors. If needed, select the FreshBooks connector to review its tool permissions.

 

Once connected, try a prompt from the Prompt Library section to get started. When you start a chat with Claude, you’ll be asked to grant Claude access to your data, you can choose between Allow to have Claude ask each time before accessing your FreshBooks account’s data, or Always Allow so Claude doesn’t ask again after the first time.
 

Prompt Library

With your FreshBooks account connected in Claude, you can begin asking plain-language questions or prompts, similar to how you would ask your bookkeeper, business partner, or a friend.

To help you get started, you can use the prompt library, organized by use case. Each use case lists prompts you can ask, exactly as written or in your own words, along with the insights you can expect in return. Claude will pull data from your FreshBooks account to answer with numbers grounded in your actual business.

 

Heads Up: Claude can only provide information based on your role in the FreshBooks account. Review What permissions can I assign to my team member? to review what each team member can access from within Claude.

 

Use Case

Example Prompt

What You'll Learn

Billing and Receivables

Invoices, payments, credits - what's paid, what's overdue, what needs a follow-up.

  • What invoices are overdue right now?
  • Who owes me money right now?
  • How much am I currently owed in total, across all unpaid invoices?
  • How old is my oldest unpaid invoice?
  • Which invoices are aging beyond my typical payment terms?
Total outstanding receivables, which clients are behind, and urgency of follow-ups needed.
  • Can you pull up [a client]'s most recent invoice for me?
Specific invoice details (amount, date, status) for a single client.
  • Has [a client] paid off their invoice?
  • Tell me about [a client]'s payment history - are they reliable?
  • What's my client’s average time to pay?
  • How quickly do my clients typically pay invoices?
Whether a specific client has paid, payment patterns, and reliability as a customer.
  • Does [a client] have any credit on file?
Available refunds or credit balances for a client.
  • Do I have any draft invoices sitting around that I should send?
Unsent or incomplete invoices waiting to go out.

Estimates and Recurring Revenue

Pipeline, what's waiting on a decision, what's on autopilot.

  • What estimates are waiting on a decision from a client?
  • Do I have any accepted estimates I haven't converted to an invoice yet?
Pending sales in your pipeline and revenue that's approved but not yet billed.
  • What recurring invoices do I have set up - are they all running smoothly?
Status of recurring revenue; whether automations are active or encountering issues.
  • What's my income pipeline looking like?
Overall view of all pending and recurring revenue combined.

Expenses and Cash Tracking

Spending patterns, duplicates, what's billable back to a client.

  • Am I missing any receipts I should track down for taxes?
Expenses without supporting documentation that could affect tax preparation.
  • Did I get charged twice for anything?
  • Are there any expenses I haven't billed back to clients yet?
Duplicate or erroneous charges, and reimbursable expenses not yet invoiced to clients.
  • Where is most of my money going?
  • What are my biggest spending categories?
Expense breakdown to understand spending patterns and identify cost reduction opportunities.

Clients and Sales

Who you work with and what's selling.

  • Who are my top clients?
  • Which clients bring in the most revenue?
  • Beyond revenue, which clients actually make me the most money after expenses?
Your highest-value customers by revenue.
  • What's selling - which services are bringing in revenue?
Which products or services generate the most income.
  • Is my income too dependent on one client?
Revenue concentration risk; whether business viability rests on too few customers.

Profit and Loss

Revenue, expenses, and profit trends over time.

  • How did my revenue change from last month to this month?
  • How am I doing compared to this same month last year?
Month-over-month and year-over-year revenue growth or decline.
  • How do my expenses this quarter compare to last quarter?
  • What's going on with my expenses lately?
Quarter-over-quarter and period-over-period spending patterns.
  • What's my net profit trend been over the last few months?
  • How much profit did I make last month?
Profitability trajectory and specific monthly profit figures.
  • Did I have any unusual expenses this month?
Spending anomalies or outliers worth investigating.
  • Am I spending more than I'm making?
  • Is my business growing?
Overall business health; whether revenue is outpacing expenses and growth direction.

What You Owe and Cash Flow

Money moving in and out.

  • What's my net cash movement been this month?
Cash inflows vs. outflows; overall liquidity trend for the period.

Business Overview and Health

Financial stability, priorities, and overall business status - what to focus on and how you're doing.

  • What needs my attention today?
  • Anything I should be worried about right now?
  • What should I be paying attention to this week?
High-priority action items, overdue invoices, low cash balances, or other business risks.
  • Do I have seasonal patterns in my revenue?
  • When is my busiest season?
  • Which months bring in the most revenue?
Revenue seasonality - helps with cash flow planning and staffing decisions.
  • How's my business doing?
  • Give me a quick rundown of my business
  • What's my overall financial standing right now?
Snapshot overview of key metrics (revenue, profit, cash, top clients, problem areas).
  • Is my revenue trending up or down over the past year?
  • What's my growth trajectory looking like?
Long-term business trajectory beyond single months or quarters.

 

AI Best Practices and Tips to Get Started

Prompting Best Practices

When using the FreshBooks connector in Claude, use detailed, structured prompts for best results. Being specific about the data you want to analyze and the insights you’re seeking will help you get more actionable results. When prompting, keep the following in mind: 

  • Always reference FreshBooks - If you’re not using a Claude project or skill to help Claude always referencing your FreshBooks account, you may need to add “in FreshBooks” or “FreshBooks data” to your prompts to ensure Claude is pulling data from your FreshBooks account
  • Be explicit, not vague - Be specific about your desired output, including timelines - the more precisely you explain what you want, the better result
    • Prompts should include a clear business question, a time period, and/or a client’s name (e.g., “Who are my top clients this financial year?” is more specific than “Who matters most?”)
  • Use separate chats for each business - If you have multiple businesses in your FreshBooks account, create a separate chat for each business to prevent Claude from getting mixed up between businesses
  • Ask follow-up questions - Dig deeper into initial findings rather than accepting the first answer, or treat it as a conversation, not a simple prompt
  • Context first, question last - Provide the context upfront and then ask your question at the end

For additional resources, review Claude Prompting Best Practices. 

 

Claude Tips

If you’re not familiar with Claude, use these resources to make the most of using Claude and FreshBooks together: 

  • Add other connectors - Get more out of the FreshBooks connector and Claude by using other Claude Connectors to get additional insights
  • Create a Claude project for FreshBooks - Create a project to have focused chats with Claude about your FreshBooks account, eliminating the need to provide context or account information in every new chat
  • Set up personal instructions in Claude - Save your preferences in Claude so it remembers them in future chats, e.g., “I prefer responses in bullet points”, or “Use tables to present my data”
  • Ask Claude to teach you how to use it - Request Claude to walk you through its features, and review these resources: 

 

Manage the FreshBooks Connector

Claude Troubleshooting

If you’re having trouble using the FreshBooks connector in Claude, try any of the following troubleshooting options: 

  • Account Details - Make sure you’re signed into the correct FreshBooks account and referencing the correct business if you have multiple businesses
  • Active Connection - Confirm your FreshBooks connector is still active, and if needed, disconnect and reconnect again
  • Ask Claude - If your data looks off, ask Claude what its logic is, and where the data was pulled from for you to cross-reference in your FreshBooks account
    • If you’ve noticed a discrepancy between your FreshBooks account and what Claude is reporting, reach out to our Support team
  • Financial Data - Claude pulls live data from FreshBooks, if something doesn’t look right, verify the data directly in your FreshBooks account before contacting our Support team
  • Connector Limitations - The current FreshBooks connector use cases are limited to what’s  listed in Tool Permissions

 

Tool Permissions

The FreshBooks connector currently utilizes these permissions: 

  • Access to all businesses associated with this account - Lists all active businesses associated with your login
  • View and search information from your FreshBooks account - View basic information, from users on your account, revenue and payables, and connected bank accounts, apps, and integrations, including the following:
    • Core accounting reports - Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, General Ledger, Trial Balance, and Revenue by Client reports
    • Client management
    • Estimates
    • Expenses
    • Invoicing and payments
    • Recurring invoices
    • Sales and item reporting

Any other permissions not listed above are not available through the FreshBooks connector currently. For additional use cases you would like to see built, share your feedback directly.

 

You can also opt into these additional permissions coming soon, to save you time from having to disconnect and reconnect in the near future:  

  • Manage your revenue (money in) - Create, edit, and delete invoices, estimates, credit notes, payments, and recurring templates
  • Manage your payables (money out) - Create, edit, and delete expenses and bills
  • Manage your operations - Create, edit, and delete clients, projects, team members, time entries, and billable items
  • Manage Books and Uploads - Create, edit, and delete journal entries

 

Disconnect the FreshBooks Connector

If you no longer want to use the FreshBooks connector, you need to disconnect and reconnect it again for troubleshooting, or you want to connect it to a FreshBooks account under a different email login, use these steps: 

  1. In your Claude account, select your name in the bottom left corner, then select Settings
  2. Under Customize, select Connectors
  3. Select the FreshBooks connector
  4. Then select the Disconnect button. Select Disconnect again to confirm. Claude will no longer be able to access new data from your FreshBooks account moving forward.

 

FAQs

Is my FreshBooks data safe, and is it used to train AI models? 

Your FreshBooks data is never used to train FreshBooks AI models. The FreshBooks-Claude connection is currently read-only and can only read your live data to answer questions, not change data in your account. Your FreshBooks account remains as the source of truth and you stay in control of your data. For more details on Anthropic’s AI safety and security practices for Claude, review the Anthropic Trust Center.


Which model of Claude should I use to ask questions about my FreshBooks account? 

We recommend testing different models in Claude and comparing the results to find the one you like the best. Review Claude’s Model Overview to learn more about different models and their capabilities.

FreshBooks