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Using Snapbooks with AI Assistants

Overview

Snapbooks supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which allows AI assistants like Claude to help you with your accounting tasks using natural language.

With MCP enabled, you can ask Claude to:

  • Search and analyze journal entries
  • Look up business partners and customers
  • Generate accounting reports
  • Query bank transactions
  • And much more - all through conversation!

What Can You Do?

Once connected, you can ask Claude to help with tasks like:

  • “Show me all journal entries from January for my company”
  • “Find my customer named ABC Corp”
  • “Generate a trial balance report for this month”
  • “What bank transactions do I have over 10,000 NOK?”
  • “Create a journal entry for…“

Claude will interact with your Snapbooks data securely and only show information you have permission to access.

Claude Desktop Configuration

Snapbooks MCP uses OAuth 2.1 with automatic client registration — Claude Desktop handles the whole flow for you, including token refresh.

Configure Claude Desktop:

Edit your Claude Desktop configuration file:

  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
  • Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Add this configuration (or add to an existing mcpServers section):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "snapbooks": {
      "url": "https://api.snapbooks.com/mcp",
      "transport": "streamable-http",
      "oauth": {
        "authorizationUrl": "https://api.snapbooks.com/v2/oauth/authorize",
        "tokenUrl": "https://api.snapbooks.com/v2/oauth/token",
        "clientRegistrationUrl": "https://api.snapbooks.com/v2/oauth/register",
        "scopes": ["read", "write"]
      }
    }
  }
}

Request only read if you want the assistant to be read-only — it will be able to search and report but not create or change anything. See Authentication for the scope model.

First Connection:

  1. Restart Claude Desktop (close it completely, not just the window)
  2. Claude will automatically register as an OAuth client
  3. You’ll be redirected to Snapbooks to log in and authorize access
  4. Once authorized, Claude can securely access your Snapbooks data

Security Benefits:

  • Tokens are automatically refreshed
  • Tokens are bound to the MCP endpoint (can’t be reused elsewhere)
  • You can revoke access anytime by deleting the client under API access in your profile menu in the Snapbooks web app
  • No need to manually manage long-lived tokens

Usage Examples

Once configured, you can interact with Snapbooks through Claude Desktop using natural language:

Example 1: Search Journal Entries

You: Show me all journal entries from January 2025 for my company

Claude: I'll search for those journal entries. I found 15 entries from January 2025.
Here are the highlights:
- 5 sales transactions totaling 125,000 NOK
- 3 expense entries for office supplies
- 7 bank reconciliation entries
Would you like me to show you the details of any specific entry?

Example 2: Create Journal Entry

You: Create a journal entry:
- Debit account 1920 (bank) 1000 NOK
- Credit account 3000 (sales) 1000 NOK
- Description: "Customer payment"

Claude: I've created the journal entry for you. The entry has been recorded with:
- Debit to Bank (1920): 1,000.00 NOK
- Credit to Sales (3000): 1,000.00 NOK
- Description: Customer payment
Would you like to review the entry details?

Example 3: Find Customers

You: Find all my active customers

Claude: I found 23 active customers in your system. Here are some of them:
- ABC Corporation
- Nordic Supplies AS
- Bergen Consulting
- ...
Would you like me to show more details about any specific customer?

Security & Privacy

  • Claude can only access data that you have permission to view
  • All operations respect your account’s access controls
  • A read-only connection (read scope) cannot create or change anything
  • Your conversations with Claude are private

Troubleshooting

OAuth Authorization Issues

Problem: OAuth authorization flow doesn’t start or fails

Solutions:

  1. Verify all OAuth URLs in your configuration are correct
  2. Check that the clientRegistrationUrl endpoint is reachable
  3. Make sure you’re using HTTPS (not HTTP) for the server URL
  4. Clear Claude Desktop’s cache and restart

Problem: “Token audience validation failed” error

Solutions:

  1. This means the token wasn’t issued for the MCP endpoint
  2. Make sure you’re using OAuth 2.1 with the resource parameter
  3. The MCP endpoint URL in the token must match your server’s MCP endpoint
  4. Try disconnecting and reconnecting to trigger a new OAuth flow

Connection Issues

Problem: Claude Desktop shows “Connection failed” or similar error

Solutions:

  1. Make sure you’ve completed the authorization flow
  2. Verify the server URL is correct (include https://)
  3. Make sure Claude Desktop has been restarted after configuration

Claude Can’t Find Tools

Problem: Claude says it doesn’t have access to Snapbooks tools

Solutions:

  1. Make sure the mcpServers section is in the correct configuration file for your OS
  2. Restart Claude Desktop completely (not just closing the window)
  3. Check that your JSON configuration is valid (no missing commas or brackets)
  4. Verify you granted the required scopes during authorization

Authentication Errors

Problem: Getting “Unauthorized” or “403” errors

Solutions:

  1. Your tokens are refreshed automatically, but you may need to re-authorize
  2. A 403 with insufficient_scope means the connection is read-only — re-authorize with the write scope to make changes
  3. Ensure your Snapbooks account has the necessary permissions
  4. Check that your user has access to the client accounts you’re trying to query

Need More Help?

If you’re still having issues:

  • Contact your Snapbooks administrator
  • Reach out to Snapbooks support at hei@snapbooks.no

Learn More