What is an MCP connector for Xero?

It lets an AI assistant read your Xero data and draft changes to it, in plain conversation, without you opening Xero.

You ask "who is overdue across all our entities", and the answer comes back in the chat window you were already in. MCP stands for Model Context Protocol - an open standard for connecting AI assistants to outside tools and data. It matters because it is not owned by one AI vendor: the same connector can serve more than one assistant, so you are not making a bet on which one your business settles on.

Reads are live. Writes wait for you.

37 tools in total, grouped by what they mean for your books - not a raw tool list.

Reads

Live

Organisations

Every Xero organisation you've authorised, and whether a connection needs reauthorising.

Invoices and receivables

Invoice lists filtered by type and status, one invoice's full detail, and who owes you money and how overdue it is.

Contacts

Customers and suppliers, with their balances and contact details.

Credit notes

Credit note lists and one credit note's full detail.

Quotes

Quote lists filtered by status, contact or date, and one quote's full detail, including line items and terms.

Projects

Job and project costing - estimate, invoiced and still-to-invoice figures per project.

Accounts and reports

The chart of accounts, plus profit & loss and balance sheet, on demand.

Approval queue

What's still waiting for your approval right now, across every organisation you've connected. Act on it right there in the chat - but only once you've clearly said to - or follow the direct link to Settings.

Payments (optional permission)

Payments already recorded in Xero - who paid, how much, against which invoice. Only visible if you've chosen to grant this permission for a connection.

Payroll, read only (optional permission)

Employees, pay runs, timesheets, leave balances, earnings rates and leave types - Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Only visible if you've chosen to grant this permission for a connection.

Writes

Via approval

Draft invoices

Create or update an invoice - held until you approve it.

Draft contacts

Create or update a customer or supplier.

Credit notes

Draft a credit note against an existing invoice.

Draft quotes

Draft a quote for a contact - held until you approve it.

Manual journals

Draft a manual journal entry.

Record payments (optional permission)

Record a payment against an invoice - held until you approve it. Unlike everything else here, once approved this applies in Xero immediately; it can only be undone from inside Xero itself.

Payroll: make changes (optional permission)

Draft a timesheet (Australia, New Zealand or the United Kingdom) or a pay run (Australia or New Zealand only - Xero's own API documents no way to create one for the United Kingdom, generated inside Xero from the pay calendar instead), held until you approve them. Posting a pay run to Xero is a separate step, Australia only - Invio does not build a way to undo it, so check it in Xero if you need to be sure - and only tickable once Payroll, read only is granted too. Also propose a leave application for one employee, or a change to an employee's first name, last name, email, phone/mobile, or home address - and nothing else about them; bank details, tax numbers, pay and leave entitlements are not fields this connector can ever touch.

Every write is a draft first.

It sits in your approval queue until an Owner or Approver approves it. Unapproved drafts expire after 24 hours and nothing is written.

Is this the same as Xero's own AI connector?

No - and Xero actually has more than one option of its own, not a single "official Xero MCP". The one most people mean is the connector Xero hosts inside Claude.

Checked 18 September 2026

Xero's connector, hosted in Claude

Free to add, with an active Xero subscription and a free or paid Claude account. This does not make the Xero subscription free.

The setup selects an organisation. Simultaneous multi-organisation use and the current switching procedure are not verified here.

Xero describes the hosted connector as read-only at launch, including profit and loss summaries. Record changes happen in Xero.

Invio's connector

Independent, paid connector on top of Xero's official API

Every organisation your plan allows, in one session

Reads live, and drafts writes held for your approval

If you run one Xero organisation and only need to ask questions, Xero's own connector already covers that - we say so plainly rather than pretend otherwise.

Xero also has a separate, self-hosted open-source server that reads and writes (you run it yourself), plus JAX inside Xero itself, a no-code agent builder called XeroForce, and a native Microsoft 365 Copilot integration. See the full, dated comparison of all seven options for what each one actually supports.

Who this is for

The people who get the most from it have one thing in common: their books are split across more than one Xero organisation, and no single screen answers a group-level question. It also works well for a single business that would rather ask a question than build a report - a smaller problem, and cheaper to justify as the entity count grows.

Groups with subsidiaries

Each company has its own Xero organisation, and no single screen answers a group-level question.

Property developers

Running an entity per project or per property, with the same question repeated across every one.

Investment firms and family offices

Holding several operating businesses, each on its own set of books.

Businesses built by acquisition

The acquired brands still run on their own Xero files, not yet merged into one.

Practices and advisers

Carrying a list of client organisations to check on, one at a time today.

One connector, set up for the assistant you use

These three have their own setup guide; other AI assistants that support connectors may need their own configuration.

Claude

Click Open in Claude to add the connector directly in claude.ai, or run /mcp in Claude Code.

Claude setup guide

ChatGPT

Turn on Developer mode in ChatGPT Settings, then add the connector URL as a custom connector.

ChatGPT setup guide

Microsoft Copilot

Add the connector to a Copilot Studio agent's Tools page, then publish that agent for the people who should use it.

Microsoft Copilot setup guide

Using a different AI assistant? See the full setup guide.

OpenAI currently limits full read-and-write MCP connectors to ChatGPT Business, Enterprise and Edu workspaces, turned on by a workspace admin. On a personal ChatGPT Pro account, Developer Mode allows read-only MCP use. Checked 28 September 2026.

What it does not do

Worth stating plainly, because the category invites assumptions.

It does not run on a schedule. Nothing watches your ledger and nothing happens while the chat window is closed - you ask, it answers.

It does not reconcile your bank. Reading payment data is one of the permissions you choose, and it is off by default.

It does not post anything by itself. A write is drafted and held for your approval - see What Invio's Xero connector can see, and what it can never touch.

It is not a replacement for your accountant. It answers questions about the books faster; it does not form a view on them.

How you set one up

Subscribe, or start the 7-day free trial - no card, up to 2 organisations.

Choose your permissions, then sign in to Xero and tick which organisations to share - you can tick more than one at once.

Generate your connector URL.

Add it to Claude, ChatGPT or your Copilot Studio agent.

Ask it something read-only first, like "what is outstanding in [organisation]?"

Most people are through it in about ten minutes. The step that takes longest is deciding which organisations to connect.

Every client, in one guide

The full setup guide covers Claude, ChatGPT and any other AI assistant - what Xero's consent screen asks for, where the connector URL comes from, and exactly how approval works.

Common questions

Do I need to be technical?

No, for Claude and ChatGPT. Microsoft Copilot usually needs whoever administers your Microsoft tenancy.

Do I need advisor access in Xero?

Every organisation you want to connect - Xero's consent screen only offers you organisations your own login already has advisor-level, or standard-with-reports, access to. If one you expected is missing, that's a Xero permissions question, not an Invio one.

Is my data used to train AI models?

Not by Xero: their developer terms prohibit using data from the Xero API to train a model, and Invio does not train on it either. What your own AI assistant does with the conversation itself is a separate question, set by your agreement with them, not with us - commercial and API terms typically exclude training on business inputs, but On personal ChatGPT plans, OpenAI may use your conversations to train its models if the "Improve the model for everyone" setting is switched on - check that setting, and OpenAI's current terms for the account you use, if that matters to you.

What happens if I switch assistants later?

Point the new one at the same connector link from Settings. Your Xero authorisations and everything Invio knows about your organisations stay where they are - there is nothing to migrate, and no need to re-authorise Xero.

Check your next step

Ready to see what it can and cannot touch, or ready to compare every option side by side?

What it can see, and what it can never touch Compare all seven Xero-native options Invio connector plans

Invio is an independent connector built on Xero's official API. Invio is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or certified by Xero. Xero is a trademark of Xero Limited. Claude, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot are trademarks of their respective owners, and we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or certified by any of them.