You can ask Microsoft Copilot about your QuickBooks Online books, in Teams or in Microsoft 365 Copilot, once someone in your organization builds a small agent in Copilot Studio and adds Caribooks to it as a tool. The setup takes a few minutes for a person who is allowed to build agents. After that, the agent pulls reports, searches invoices and bills, and flags what looks off. Writing to your books stays off until you turn it on, and the judgment calls stay with you.
Microsoft Copilot reaches QuickBooks Online through Copilot Studio, Microsoft's tool for building agents. You create an agent, add Caribooks as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) tool at the address https://caribooks.com/api/mcp/compact, choose OAuth 2.0 with dynamic discovery, and sign in with your Caribooks account. You then publish the agent to the Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot channel, and it shows up in Microsoft 365 Copilot and in Teams. Copilot Studio accepts at most 128 tools per agent and recommends 25 to 30, so this address groups the same QuickBooks operations into 23 tools instead of the 220 that Claude and ChatGPT use. You need a Microsoft 365 work account that can build agents in Copilot Studio, and your Power Platform data policies must allow custom connectors. Access rules are the same as elsewhere: read-only until you enable writes.
What you need before you start
| You need | Why |
|---|---|
| A Caribooks account with at least one QuickBooks Online company connected | The agent signs in with it. The 14-day trial is enough to try this. |
| A Microsoft 365 work or school account | Copilot Studio does not accept personal Microsoft accounts. |
| Permission to build agents in Copilot Studio | Usually the IT lead, or someone the admin has given a Copilot Studio license. |
| Data policies that allow custom connectors | Copilot Studio creates one behind the scenes for every MCP server. |
If you are not the person who manages Microsoft 365 in your firm, send this page to whoever is. Most of the steps below are theirs.
How to connect QuickBooks to Microsoft Copilot
As of September 2026, the steps in Copilot Studio are the following. Microsoft's own walkthrough is on its MCP page for Copilot Studio, and the menu names below match it.
| Step | Where | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Copilot Studio | Open an agent, or create one. MCP needs generative orchestration, which is on by default for new agents. |
| 2 | The agent's Tools page | Select Add a tool, then New tool, then Model Context Protocol. |
| 3 | The MCP wizard | Give it a name (Caribooks) and a description, and paste https://caribooks.com/api/mcp/compact as the server address. |
| 4 | Authentication | Choose OAuth 2.0, then Dynamic discovery. There is no key to paste: Copilot Studio registers itself with our sign-in server. |
| 5 | Connection | Create the connection. The Caribooks consent page opens; sign in with your Caribooks account and approve. |
| 6 | Test pane | Ask something small to check the link works, for example the prompt below. |
| 7 | Channels | Publish the agent, then connect the Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot channel with Make agent available in Microsoft 365 Copilot selected. |
"List the connected QuickBooks companies, then show this year's profit and loss for the first one."
Step 7 is where your administrator may come in. You can install the agent for yourself or share it with named people. To make it available to the whole firm in the Built for your org section of the Teams app store, the agent goes to an admin for approval in the Teams admin center.
Why Copilot uses a different address
Claude and ChatGPT connect to https://caribooks.com/api/mcp, which brings 220 tools: one per QuickBooks operation and record type, like search_invoices or get_profit_and_loss. Copilot Studio documents a limit of 128 tools per agent and recommends no more than 25 to 30 for good results. It also reads some input formats of the 220-tool set poorly.
So Copilot gets its own address, with the same operations grouped by what they do. Instead of 37 separate search tools there is one, search_records, that takes the record type (Invoice, Bill, Vendor, and so on). Reports work the same way through run_report, with the report name (ProfitAndLoss, AgedPayables, and so on). The 23 tools are:
| Group | Tools |
|---|---|
| QuickBooks records | search_records, get_record, create_record, update_record, delete_record, void_record, send_record |
| Reports and changes | run_report, get_changes |
| Help for the assistant | explain_type, which returns the fields a record type or report needs |
| Companies and documents | list_connected_companies, list_receipt_inbox, attach_file, attach_receipt, discard_inbox_file, find_expenses_without_attachments |
| Rules and loops | remember_rule, list_rules, retire_rule, create_task, list_loops, activate_loop, list_proposals |
Nothing is lost in the grouping. Every one of the 220 tools maps to one of these, and the checks on each record type are the same ones the full set runs.
What the agent can and cannot do
The rules are the same as in Claude or ChatGPT, because they live on our side, not in the assistant.
- Every company starts read-only. The agent can search and run reports. Creating, updating or deleting anything fails until the account owner switches that company to full access in the Caribooks portal. There is more on this choice in read-only or write access for client books.
- Delete, void and send need a confirmation. The agent has to pass
confirm: true, and it is told to do so only after you have confirmed that specific action in the conversation. - Updates need the current record. The agent reads a record before changing it, because QuickBooks rejects an update without its latest version number.
A few prompts that work well once it is connected:
"Which invoices are more than 60 days overdue, grouped by customer?"
"Trial balance as of 31 August 2026."
"List the expenses from last month that have no receipt attached."
Licenses and Copilot Credits
This part depends on your Microsoft plan, not on Caribooks. Your Caribooks subscription is the same whichever assistant you use.
As of September 2026, Microsoft's billing rates page lists an agent action at 5 Copilot Credits, with "No charge" when the user has a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. A call to a Caribooks tool is an action the agent takes, so for licensed users it should cost nothing extra. For people who only have Copilot Chat, each tool call most likely draws Copilot Credits from your organization's prepaid packs or pay-as-you-go billing. Check with your administrator before rolling the agent out to people without a license, because a month-end close can involve a lot of tool calls.
When your administrator blocks it
Copilot Studio connects to MCP servers through Power Platform connectors, and Microsoft's data policy documentation says it plainly: "Blocking Power Platform connectors also blocks access to tools in connected MCP servers." The same page notes that in many organizations, connectors in the "Non-business" group are blocked automatically.
If the tool saves but never answers, or the connection step fails with a policy error, the fix is on the admin side: allow the custom connector Copilot Studio created for Caribooks, in the Power Platform admin center.
Is my data safe with Microsoft Copilot?
Two parties handle your data in this setup, and each has its own terms.
On the Microsoft side, its enterprise data protection page says the use of Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Chat by organizations is covered by the Microsoft Products and Services Data Protection Addendum, with Microsoft acting as a data processor, and that "the prompts, responses, and data accessed through Microsoft Graph aren't used to train foundation models." Your firm's retention policies and admin settings apply. If your agent is built in Copilot Studio, ask your administrator to confirm how your tenant's settings apply to it.
On our side, Caribooks does not keep a copy of your ledger. The connector reads QuickBooks when the agent asks and passes the answer on. What we do store is listed on our privacy page, and the general question is covered in is a QuickBooks MCP safe.
Common questions
Does it work with the free Copilot app on Windows or a phone? This guide covers Microsoft 365 Copilot and Teams, through an agent built in Copilot Studio. Copilot Studio needs a work or school account, so a personal Microsoft account cannot follow these steps.
Can people with Copilot Chat but no Microsoft 365 Copilot license use it? They can use an agent your organization publishes, but their tool calls count against your Copilot Credits, as described above. Your administrator decides whether that is switched on.
Can I pick another model to get around the 128-tool limit? No. The limit belongs to Copilot Studio's orchestrator, not to the model, so changing models does not change it. That is why the compact address exists.
Can I use the 220-tool address in Copilot Studio anyway? It will not fit under the 128-tool limit, and several of its search tools use an input format Copilot Studio truncates. Use the compact address.
Has this been tested? We tested the compact address with a standard MCP client, against a fictional company, before publishing it. Copilot Studio support is new as of September 2026, so if a step does not match what you see, write to support@caribooks.com with the error message and we will look into it.
Where this is the wrong tool
- Your organization does not allow custom connectors and will not make an exception. Then Copilot is closed to Caribooks, and Claude or ChatGPT is the practical route. See connect QuickBooks to ChatGPT.
- Nobody in the firm can build agents in Copilot Studio. The setup needs that permission once. Without it, you are waiting on IT.
- Most users have Copilot Chat only and your credit budget is tight. A busy close runs many tool calls. Claude works on every plan, including Free.
- You want a person to review every entry before it lands. An assistant in chat acts when asked. Caribooks Autopilot, which proposes changes for approval in the portal, is the better fit there.
If nothing is connected yet, start with the setup page or connect QuickBooks to Claude, which takes one click from the portal.