Invoice
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Run your invoicing from Claude: a step-by-step walkthrough.

Five minutes to connect, then your books answer in plain language

IMW Invoice exposes your company to AI assistants through the Model Context Protocol, the open standard Claude, ChatGPT, Grok and Gemini all speak. Connected, the assistant becomes a user of your books with exactly the access you grant: it can look things up, and if you say so, create invoices and record payments through the same validation the app uses. This guide walks through the setup with Claude and shows what a working day with it looks like. The AI connector page covers the security model in depth.

Step 1: have both accounts ready

You need an IMW Invoice account with at least one company, and your own Claude account on a plan that supports connectors. IMW Invoice adds no charge for the connector; it is included with every account, trial included.

Step 2: add the connector

In Claude, open Settings, then Connectors, and choose to add a custom connector. Paste this address:

https://invoice.independent.management/mcp

ChatGPT has the same option under its connector settings; Grok and Gemini take a remote MCP server address in their apps and command-line tools. The address is the same everywhere.

Step 3: sign in and pick a company

Claude opens an IMW Invoice sign-in window. Use the email and password you use in the app. Then choose which company the assistant may reach. One connection covers one company; to work with a second company, add the connector again and pick it.

Step 4: choose read-only or read-and-write

Leave the write box unticked and the assistant can only look things up. Tick it and it can also create and send invoices, add customers, record payments and post journal entries. Start read-only for a few days if you want to get a feel for it; you can add write access later by adding the connector again with the box ticked.

Step 5: ask

Questions that work on day one, in your own words:

  • “What is my outstanding balance?”
  • “Which invoices are overdue, and by how much?”
  • “How much did I invoice last quarter, by customer?”
  • “What unbilled time do I have for Acme?”
  • “Show me the trial balance as of the end of last month.”

With write access, instructions become actions:

  • “Create an invoice for Acme for 3 hours of consulting at my usual rate and send it.”
  • “Record a $500 check against invoice 1042.”
  • “Add a customer called Northwind with the billing email [email protected].”
  • “Record a $1,200 owner contribution to Cash.”

The books are reachable whether or not you have switched on Accounting: the chart of accounts with balances, the balance sheet as of any date, the profit and loss for a period, and the journal entries behind a customer or an account. Closing or reopening a period stays with a company owner in the app; the assistant cannot do it.

How a week with it goes

Monday morning: “who owes me money and for how long?” gives the aging picture that the invoicing guide says to look at weekly. After a client call: “log 1.5 hours for Acme, discovery call about the redesign.” End of month: “invoice all unbilled time for each customer and show me the drafts before sending.” A draft never sends itself; you mark it ready, or tell the assistant to.

What the guardrails do

  • Your login, one company. The assistant sees only the company you authorized, with your permissions, nothing more.
  • Writes are explicit. Read-only until you tick the box, and every change is validated the same way the app validates it.
  • Everything is logged. The company’s activity log records what the assistant changed and when, separately per connected user, so your accountant can connect their own assistant and the trail stays clear.
  • Sends are capped. No arbitrary recipients, a cap on recipients per send, and a cooldown against duplicate sends.
  • Revocable from either side. Remove the connector in the assistant, or revoke the authorization in IMW Invoice.

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