What if managing your business billing was as simple as having a conversation? With PayRequest's integration for Claude Desktop, that's exactly what you get—an AI billing agent that understands natural language and handles invoices, payments, and customer data on your behalf.
This guide walks you through setting up Claude Desktop as your billing assistant, from initial configuration to advanced automation workflows. Whether you're a freelancer tired of manual invoicing or a business owner looking to streamline accounts receivable, you'll learn how to leverage AI to transform your billing operations.
What Is Claude Desktop and Why Use It for Billing?
Claude Desktop is Anthropic's desktop application that brings Claude's AI capabilities directly to your computer. Unlike browser-based chat, Claude Desktop can connect to external tools and services through the Model Context Protocol (MCP)—including your PayRequest billing system.
This connection transforms Claude from a general assistant into a specialized AI billing agent. Instead of switching between apps to check invoice status, send reminders, or create new invoices, you simply tell Claude what you need in plain English.
Traditional billing software requires you to learn its interface, navigate menus, and click through workflows. With Claude as your billing agent, the interface is conversation. Consider these examples:
- "Create an invoice for Acme Corp for 10 hours of consulting at €150/hour"
- "Show me all overdue invoices from the last 30 days"
- "Send a payment reminder to customers who haven't paid within 14 days"
- "What's my total revenue this quarter compared to last quarter?"
Claude understands context, remembers your preferences, and can handle complex multi-step requests. This isn't just convenience—it fundamentally changes how you interact with your financial data.
Setting Up PayRequest MCP in Claude Desktop
Getting started takes about 2 minutes. Here's how to connect PayRequest to Claude Desktop.
If you haven't already, download Claude Desktop from claude.ai/download. The app is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Install it and sign in with your Anthropic account.
Claude Desktop stores MCP server configurations in a JSON file. The location depends on your operating system:
- macOS: `~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`
- Windows: `%APPDATA%\\Claude\\claude_desktop_config.json`
- Linux: `~/.config/claude/claude_desktop_config.json`
Open this file in a text editor. If the file doesn't exist, create it.
Add the PayRequest MCP server to your configuration:
```json { "mcpServers": { "payrequest": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@anthropic-ai/payrequest-mcp"], "env": { "PAYREQUEST_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here" } } } } ```
Replace `your-api-key-here` with your PayRequest API key, which you can generate from your PayRequest dashboard under Settings → API Keys.
Close and reopen Claude Desktop. The PayRequest integration should now be available. You can verify by asking Claude: "What billing tools do you have access to?"
What Your AI Billing Agent Can Do
Once connected, Claude becomes a powerful billing assistant. Here are the core capabilities available through the integration.
Creating and managing invoices becomes conversational. You can:
- Create invoices from simple descriptions
- Add line items with quantities and rates
- Set payment terms and due dates
- Apply discounts or taxes
- Send invoices directly to customers
- Mark invoices as paid or void
Example: "Create an invoice for Sarah Johnson. She bought 3 website templates at €49 each and 2 hours of customization support at €75/hour. Payment due in 14 days."
Stay on top of your cash flow without checking dashboards:
- View payment status across all invoices
- Find overdue payments instantly
- Track partial payments
- See payment history by customer
- Monitor failed payment attempts
Example: "Which invoices from December are still unpaid? And what's the total outstanding amount?"
Your billing data tells a story about your customers:
- View customer payment history
- Identify your best customers by revenue
- Find customers with payment issues
- See purchasing patterns over time
Example: "Who are my top 5 customers by revenue this year? And do any of them have overdue invoices?"
Chasing payments manually is tedious. Claude can handle it:
- Send payment reminders to overdue accounts
- Customize reminder messages
- Schedule reminder sequences
- Track reminder effectiveness
Example: "Send a friendly payment reminder to everyone with invoices overdue by more than 7 days. Mention that we accept bank transfers for their convenience."
Get instant insights without building reports:
- Calculate revenue for any time period
- Compare periods (month-over-month, year-over-year)
- Break down revenue by customer, product, or category
- Identify trends and anomalies
Example: "What was my revenue in Q4 2025 compared to Q4 2024? Break it down by month."
Real-World Billing Workflows
Let's walk through some common scenarios where Claude shines as your billing agent.
You finish a consulting call and want to invoice the client immediately:
You: "I just finished a 2-hour strategy session with TechStart Inc at my €200/hour rate. Create and send the invoice."
Claude: "I've created invoice #2024-089 for TechStart Inc: 2 hours of Strategy Consulting at €200/hour, totaling €400. Payment terms are Net 14 as per your default settings. Should I send this to their billing contact at [email protected]?"
You: "Yes, send it. And add a note thanking them for the productive session."
Claude: "Done. Invoice sent to [email protected] with your personal note. I've set a reminder to follow up if unpaid after 10 days."
It's Monday morning and you want to review outstanding payments:
You: "Give me a collections summary. What's overdue and by how much?"
Claude: "You have 4 overdue invoices totaling €3,240:
- DesignHub Ltd: €1,200 (18 days overdue) - second reminder sent last week
- FreshBake Co: €840 (12 days overdue) - no reminders sent yet
- Martin Schmidt: €750 (8 days overdue) - first reminder sent 3 days ago
- CloudSync Inc: €450 (5 days overdue) - just passed due date
Would you like me to send reminders to any of these?"
You: "Send a reminder to FreshBake and a final notice to DesignHub. They've been slow before."
A customer claims they never received an invoice:
You: "Pull up everything about the invoice dispute with Greenfield Consulting. They say they never got invoice #2024-056."
Claude: "Invoice #2024-056 for Greenfield Consulting was created on November 15th for €2,800. Here's the timeline:
- Nov 15: Invoice created and sent to [email protected]
- Nov 15: Email delivered successfully (confirmed by delivery receipt)
- Nov 29: First reminder sent - no response
- Dec 10: Second reminder sent - no response
- Today: Invoice is 45 days overdue
The email delivery was confirmed, so it reached their server. Would you like me to resend the invoice to a different contact or generate a PDF you can attach to an email?"
Advanced Tips for Power Users
Once you're comfortable with basic billing tasks, these advanced techniques can save even more time.
Ask Claude to remember your preferences:
"From now on, when I create invoices for design work, automatically add a 'Design Services' category, apply 21% VAT, and set payment terms to Net 30."
Claude remembers this context within your conversation, making future invoices faster to create.
Handle multiple items at once:
"Send payment reminders to all invoices overdue by more than 14 days, but skip anyone I've marked as 'payment plan' in the notes."
Set up recurring reports:
"Every Monday morning, prepare a summary of: new invoices created last week, payments received, current overdue total, and any failed payment attempts."
If you use other MCP-enabled tools alongside PayRequest, Claude can coordinate between them:
"Check my calendar for client meetings this week and create draft invoices for any consulting sessions."
Security and Privacy Considerations
Connecting AI to your billing data raises legitimate security questions. Here's how PayRequest handles them.
The MCP integration uses OAuth 2.0, the same authentication standard used by major platforms like Google and Microsoft. Your PayRequest credentials are never stored in Claude—only a secure access token that can be revoked at any time.
You control exactly what Claude can access. The PayRequest MCP server requests specific permission scopes:
- `invoices:read` - View invoice data
- `invoices:write` - Create and modify invoices
- `customers:read` - View customer information
- `payments:read` - View payment status
- `reminders:send` - Send payment reminders
You can grant or revoke specific scopes from your PayRequest dashboard.
Conversation data with Claude is subject to Anthropic's privacy policy. PayRequest data accessed through MCP is processed according to PayRequest's privacy terms. Neither service stores the other's data beyond what's needed for the integration to function.
Every action Claude takes through PayRequest is logged in your activity log. You can review what invoices were created, reminders sent, or data accessed at any time.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
If something isn't working, here are the most common issues and solutions.
Make sure you've restarted Claude Desktop after adding the configuration. Also verify your API key is correct and hasn't expired.
Check that your API key has the necessary scopes. Generate a new key with full permissions if needed.
This usually means the PayRequest servers are temporarily unavailable. Check status.payrequest.io for any ongoing issues.
Large data requests (like "show me all invoices from the last 3 years") may take longer. Try narrowing your queries to specific time periods or customers.
Getting Started Today
Transforming Claude into your AI billing agent takes just a few minutes but can save hours every week. Here's your action plan:
- Generate your API key from PayRequest dashboard → Settings → API Keys
- Configure Claude Desktop with the MCP server settings above
- Start with simple queries like "Show me my recent invoices" to verify the connection
- Gradually expand to invoice creation, reminders, and analytics
- Build your workflow by teaching Claude your preferences and routines
The future of billing isn't more software—it's smarter software that speaks your language. With Claude as your AI billing agent, you're already there.