QuickBooks and Xero MCP servers: what they cover
Both accounting tools now ship an official MCP server, which is more than most finance apps can say. They are strong on books and weak on renewals. This page says where the line sits.
At a glance
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| QuickBooks Online | Official MCP server from Intuit, run locally, OAuth 2.0 |
| Xero | Official open-source MCP server, OAuth 2.0 |
| Good for | Invoices, bills, contacts, ledger accounts and reports |
| Not built for | Renewal dates, trial endings and unused seats |
| Setup effort | Developer work: your own app keys and a local server |
What you get from each one
Intuit publishes an open-source MCP server for QuickBooks Online that you run on your own machine. It signs in with OAuth and reaches a wide set of records and reports.
Xero lists its MCP server in the AI toolkit on its developer site. It also signs in with OAuth and can read and write accounting records such as contacts, invoices and the chart of accounts.
Where the gap shows up
Your books know what you were billed. They do not know what happens next. Nothing in a ledger says the plan renews on the 14th, the trial ends on Friday, or three of the five seats have not been opened since June.
So an assistant plugged into accounting can tell you last quarter cost £4,200. It cannot tell you which £4,200 to stop paying. That answer needs a record per subscription, with the renewal date and the owner on it.
- A yearly invoice hides eleven quiet months.
- A card charge often shows the payment processor, not the tool.
- Nothing in the ledger flags the day a refund window closes.
What LemSubs does instead
LemSubs holds the list of what you pay for, what it costs and when it renews. It runs a hosted MCP server, so Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor can read that list after you sign in once.
There is no bank login anywhere in it. You add subscriptions yourself, bring a CSV, or read a bank statement file on your own device. Your assistant gets the tidy list, not your bank.
- Reads and writes are separate, and writes start switched off.
- One key per assistant, so you can remove one without breaking the rest.
- Every call an assistant makes is written to your audit log.
Checked facts, with dates
| Vendor | Answer | Checked | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks Online | Yes. Intuit publishes its own MCP server for QuickBooks Online. The server is open source and you run it on your own machine. It signs in with OAuth 2.0 and covers a wide set of accounting records and reports. Intuit also has a hosted assistant, but that one is invitation only, so the local server is what most people can use today. | 2026-09-20 | https://github.com/intuit/quickbooks-online-mcp-server |
| Xero | Yes. Xero ships an official, open-source MCP server. Xero lists it in the AI toolkit on its developer site. It signs in with OAuth 2.0 and lets an assistant read and write accounting records such as contacts, invoices and the chart of accounts. You still run the server yourself and connect it to your own Xero app. | 2026-09-20 | https://developer.xero.com/ai |
Questions people ask
Is the QuickBooks MCP server official?
Yes. Intuit publishes an open-source MCP server for QuickBooks Online that you run locally and sign in to with OAuth 2.0. Its hosted assistant is separate and invitation only.
Does Xero have an MCP server?
Yes. Xero lists an official open-source MCP server in the AI toolkit on its developer site. It uses OAuth 2.0 and covers accounting records such as contacts, invoices and accounts.
Why add a subscription tracker on top of accounting?
Books record what you were billed. A tracker records what renews next, who owns it, and what nobody uses. Those are the facts you need before you cancel anything.