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Orvanta.

Install guide

From installer to first answer

Five steps, usually about half an hour including the QuickBooks approval prompt. You do not need to change anything about how your team uses QuickBooks.

  1. 1

    Install on the QuickBooks computer

    Run the Orvanta QBD installer on the Windows machine where your company file lives. You will need administrator rights for this step only.

    The installer sets up two things: a background service that talks to QuickBooks, and a small admin application you use to configure it.

    • Install on the machine that hosts the company file, not on a workstation that opens it over the network
    • If you run several company files, install one instance per file
  2. 2

    Point it at your company file and approve it in QuickBooks

    Open the Orvanta QBD Gateway admin application, select your company file, and start the service.

    The first time it connects, QuickBooks will ask whether to allow “Orvanta QBD Gateway” access. Approve it, and choose to allow access even when QuickBooks is not running if you want questions answered outside office hours.

    • Sign in to QuickBooks as the Admin user to approve the request
    • Leave the mode set to read-only for now — you can change it later
  3. 3

    Create access for the people and apps that need it

    In the admin application, add a user or an application key for each person or system that will connect, and choose what each one is allowed to see.

    If the AI side will run on a different computer, this is also where you set which addresses are allowed to connect.

    • Give each person their own credential rather than sharing one
    • Grant the narrowest access that still answers the questions you care about
  4. 4

    Connect your AI assistant

    Install the Orvanta QBD MCP component — on the same machine to start with, or on another one if you prefer — and enter the connection details you just created.

    Then add it to Claude Desktop's configuration file and restart Claude. Your QuickBooks tools will appear in the conversation.

    • On Windows, Claude's config lives at %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
    • Restart Claude Desktop completely after editing the file
    claude_desktop_config.json
    {
  "mcpServers": {
    "quickbooks-desktop": {
      "command": "C:\\Program Files\\Orvanta\\Qbd MCP\\Orvanta.Qbd.Mcp.Server.exe"
    }
  }
}

    Adjust the path if you installed somewhere other than the default location.

  5. 5

    Ask your first question

    Try something you already know the answer to — “what is our total A/R right now?” — so you can confirm the numbers line up with QuickBooks.

    Then check the admin application: the request you just made should be sitting in the audit log.

    • If nothing appears, confirm QuickBooks is open on the host machine and the service is running
    • The admin application's status view shows the connection health at a glance

If something is not working

The three things it usually is

The assistant does not see any QuickBooks tools
Claude Desktop reads its configuration at startup. Quit it completely — including from the system tray — and open it again.
Requests fail with a connection error
Check that QuickBooks is open on the host machine and that the Orvanta service is running. The admin application's status view tells you which one is missing.
QuickBooks keeps asking to approve access
Approve the request while signed in to QuickBooks as the Admin user, in single-user mode, and choose the option to allow access when QuickBooks is not running.

Still stuck? Email support@orvantahq.com with what you tried and we will help you through it.

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We will get on a call and set it up together, including the parts your IT contact needs to approve.

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