Overview

Ottimate MCP brings your Ottimate AP data into the AI assistant you already use, starting with Claude. Instead of logging into Ottimate to pull a report, you can leverage Claude’s interface directly, with queries like "Show me my top vendors this quarter", "Which invoices are pending approval over $5,000", or "Am I getting overcharged on any items". Claude pulls the answer from your Ottimate account and replies in seconds.

If you also connect your ERP (like Sage Intacct or NetSuite) to Claude, you can ask questions across both systems in a single conversation. You can learn more about budget vs. actuals, PO-to-invoice variance, AP reconciliation, cash flow planning, and more, all answered without switching tabs or building a spreadsheet.

Ottimate MCP is read-only today. It can look up and analyze your data, but it can't approve invoices, change anything, or send payments. You can access only the data you have permission to access in your Ottimate user permissions.

What is Ottimate MCP & How Does it Help Me?

Think of Ottimate MCP as a secure bridge that lets your AI assistant (Claude) read your Ottimate data.

Instead of:

• Logging into Ottimate, running a report, exporting to Excel, and rebuilding the same view every time you have a new question
  
  

• Switching between Ottimate, your ERP, and a spreadsheet to answer a single question
  
  

• Asking your AP team to pull data for you, then waiting hours or days for the answer
  
  

You can now:

• Open Claude, type a question, and get the answer pulled live from your Ottimate account
  
  

• Combine Ottimate data with your ERP, your own files (CSVs, PDFs), and anything else you've connected to Claude
  
  

• Drill down with follow-ups without re-pulling a report each time
  
  

• Export results straight to Excel, CSV, or Notion from inside Claude
  
  

How to Connect Ottimate MCP — Step by Step

Ottimate MCP is supported on Claude Desktop via the "Custom Connector" option.

Note: The 1-click install through the Claude marketplace, as well as support for additional AI tools like ChatGPT, and more are coming soon.

What you'll need:

• A Claude account (Pro, Team, or Enterprise)
  
  

• Your existing Ottimate login
  
  

Step 1: In Claude, open Settings and find the "Connectors" section. Click "Add custom connector".

Step 2: Fill in the two fields:

• Name: Ottimate
  
  

• URL: https://mcp.ottimate.com/mcp
  
  

You can ignore the "OAuth Client ID" and "OAuth Client Secret" fields under Advanced settings, leave them blank. Click Add.

Step 3: A browser tab will open asking you to log in to Ottimate. If you're already logged in, you'll go straight to a pop-up showing that Claude wants to access Ottimate. Click Allow Access.

Step 4: Head back to Claude and start a new conversation. Try a simple query to confirm it's working, like:

• "Using Ottimate, show me my top 5 vendors by spend this quarter."
  
  

Claude will pull the answer from your Ottimate account and return it in seconds. From here, you can ask follow-ups, request charts, export to CSV, or combine the data with anything else Claude has access to.

What Can I Ask?

Tip: Begin your question with "Using Ottimate, ..." to help Claude contextualize your query.

Example Queries:

Spend & Vendor

• What are my top 10 vendors by spend this quarter, and how does that compare to last quarter?
  
  

• Break my spend down by location for the last 6 months
  
  

• Which 5 vendors have raised prices the most in the last 3 months?
  
  

• Show me Sysco invoices over $1,000 from the last 30 days
  
  

Price Variance & Overcharges

• Show me every item where we were invoiced above the contracted price in the last 90 days, ranked by dollar impact
  
  

• Which vendors have the biggest gap between invoiced price and catalog price?
  
  

• Find any items where the price jumped more than 10% between invoices this month
  
  

Approval & Workflow Health

• Which invoices have been pending approval for more than 7 days, who's holding them up, and what's the total dollar exposure?
  
  

• Show me all invoices pending approval over $5,000
  
  

• Which approvers are the slowest this month?
  
  

• List all overdue invoices by due date for the last 30 days
  
  

Cash Flow & AP Planning

• If I approve all pending invoices, what's the total AP outflow and when does each payment hit?
  
  

• Show me a week-by-week AP outflow grid for the next 30 days. Which week has the biggest commitment?
  
  

• Which invoices can I defer to next week without going past terms?
  
  

GL Coding & Automation Health

• What's our GL auto-coding accuracy this month?
  
  

• Which vendors or categories have the most manual GL overrides, and what's the pattern?
  
  

• Find all invoices coded to GL 5001 (Food Cost) last quarter
  
  

• Where have we coded "olive oil" before?
  
  

Combining Ottimate with Your ERP

If you also connect your ERP (Sage Intacct, NetSuite, QuickBooks, or anything else that publishes a connector for Claude) to the same Claude account, you can ask questions across both systems in a single conversation. Each system is connected independently, log in once to each, and Claude reasons across both.

This is where Ottimate MCP becomes uniquely valuable, because no other AP platform lets you do this today.

Budget vs. Actuals

• Am I over budget on food cost this month across all locations?
  
  

• What's my budget utilization for GL account 5001?
  
  

AP Reconciliation

• Show me invoices approved in Ottimate that haven't posted to my ERP yet
  
  

• Are there any vendors where the Ottimate balance doesn't match the ERP AP aging?
  
  

PO-to-Invoice Variance

• Show me POs from the last 60 days where the invoiced total exceeded the PO total by more than 5%, sorted by dollar variance
  
  

• Did we actually pay what the PO said?
  
  

COGS & Variance Analysis

• Why did COGS jump 12% this quarter compared to last quarter?
  
  

• What's my AP commitment for the next 30 days, and how does that compare to my cash position?
  
  

Writing Great Prompts — Tips & Tricks

Be specific with time ranges:
Use: last week, July 2026, last 90 days, Q1 2026
Avoid: recently, a while ago, lately

Use exact vendor names:
Use: Sysco, US Foods, Performance Food Group
Avoid: that food vendor, the soda guys

Tell Claude which system to use when it matters:
"Pull spend from Ottimate and the food cost budget from Intacct..."
This avoids any confusion when you have both connected.

Stack conditions for sharper answers:
"Show me Sysco invoices over $1,000 pending approval from our Chicago location, sorted by oldest first."

Ask follow-ups, Claude remembers context within a conversation:

1. "Show me all food cost invoices from last month"
   
   

2. "Which ones are over $2,000?"
   
   

3. "Now export those to a CSV"
   
   

Common FAQs

Q. What's the difference between Ottimate MCP and Ottimate Copilot?
A. Copilot lives inside the Ottimate platform and is meant for day-to-day AP work. Ottimate MCP brings Ottimate into Claude so you can analyze your AP data alongside everything else you already do in Claude. Most customers benefit from both: AP teams use Copilot inside Ottimate, finance leaders use MCP from Claude.

Q. Do I need a Client ID or Secret to set this up?
A. No. The OAuth Client ID and Client Secret fields in Claude's "Add custom connector" dialog are optional and can be left blank. The only thing you need is the URL: https://mcp.ottimate.com/mcp. Once you click Add, Claude will redirect you to log in with your existing Ottimate credentials.

Q. Which AI tools does Ottimate MCP work with?
A. Ottimate currently supports Claude Desktop (via the Custom Connector option). The 1-click install via the Claude marketplace is going through Anthropic's review process. We plan to support ChatGPT, Cursor, and other AI tools soon.

Q. Can Ottimate MCP approve invoices, send payments, or change my data?
A. No. Ottimate MCP is read-only today. It can look up and analyze your data, but it can't approve, edit, delete, or pay anything.

Q. Can other people on my team use the connection I set up?
A. No, each user connects their own Claude account to their own Ottimate login. There's no shared connection. This means each person only sees the locations, invoices, and vendors they're already allowed to see inside Ottimate.

Q. Can I export results from Claude?
A. Yes. Ask Claude to export results to Excel, CSV, or Notion, and it'll handle the export for you.

Q. How current is the data?
A. There is a data lag of 15 mins between data uploaded in Ottimate and data accessible in your AI tool.

Q. Does my Ottimate data get used to train AI models?
A. No. Ottimate doesn't share your data with any AI provider for training. Conversations happen in your Claude account, and Anthropic (the company behind Claude) does not train on your business data when you're on a paid Claude plan.

Q. Can I disconnect?
A. Yes. Open Claude's Settings, find the Ottimate connector, and click disconnect. Claude will no longer have access until you reconnect.

Troubleshooting

"You are not connected to Ottimate yet" stays even after clicking Connect
Make sure your browser isn't blocking any pop-ups or redirects from Claude. Try opening Claude in a different browser, or check that you're not behind a corporate VPN that blocks mcp.ottimate.com. If the issue persists, contact support.

"This site can't be reached" / DNS error during login
This usually means a network or VPN setting is blocking access to mcp.ottimate.com. Try disconnecting from your VPN, switching networks, or contact your IT team. If you've confirmed your network is fine, contact support.

Claude says it can't find a tool / connector for Ottimate
Open Settings in Claude, confirm the Ottimate connector is listed and shows as "Connected". If it's not, click Reconnect. If the connector is missing, repeat the setup steps above.

Claude returned an empty result for a question I know should have data
Two common causes:

• You're connected to a different Ottimate account or location set than you expected. Ask Claude "Which Ottimate account am I connected to?" to check.
  
  

• Your question was too vague. Try adding a time range, vendor name, or location.
  
  

A question is taking a long time
Large or wide-open questions (like "show me every invoice from the last 3 years") take longer than focused ones. Narrow the time range or scope and the answer comes back faster.

Additional Information

User permissions in Ottimate are applicable to your MCP instance:
Ottimate MCP runs under your personal Ottimate login. You'll only see the locations, vendors, and invoices you'd see in the Ottimate web app. If you don't have access in Ottimate, Claude can't get it either.

Read-only by design:
Today, nothing in your Ottimate account can be created, edited, approved, or deleted through Ottimate MCP. It can only look things up.

No shared keys, no admin backdoor:
Each user logs in with their own credentials. There's no shared API key, no service account, and no way for one user's connection to give someone else access to their data.

Your data privacy for training AI models:
Ottimate doesn't use your data for training. Please read Anthropic documents to confirm on their end.

You can disconnect anytime:
Open Claude's Settings, find the Ottimate connector, and disconnect. Claude immediately loses access until you reconnect.

Pricing

Ottimate MCP is available to early adopters and beta users at no cost during the beta period. You'll need your own Claude account (the cost of which is separate and paid to Anthropic).

Quick Reference Card

Set up in 5 steps:

1. Claude → Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector
   
   

2. Name: Ottimate. URL: https://mcp.ottimate.com/mcp. Leave OAuth fields blank.
   
   

3. Click Add → Connect
   
   

4. Log in to Ottimate when prompted, then click "Allow Access"
   
   

5. Start asking questions in Claude
   
   

8 prompts to try:

1. "Using Ottimate, show me my top 10 vendors by spend this quarter"
   
   

2. "Which invoices have been pending approval for more than 7 days?"
   
   

3. "Show me every item where we were invoiced above the contracted price in the last 90 days, ranked by dollar impact"
   
   

4. "What's my GL auto-coding accuracy this month, and which vendors have the most overrides?"
   
   

5. "Break my spend down by location for the last 6 months"
   
   

6. "If I approve all pending invoices, what's the total AP outflow and when does each payment hit?"
   
   

7. "Show me a week-by-week AP outflow grid for the next 30 days"
   
   

8. "Trace invoice 12345 from upload to payment"
   
   

If you also have an ERP connected:

1. "Am I over budget on food cost this month across all locations?"
   
   

2. "Why did COGS jump this quarter?"
   
   

3. "Show me invoices approved in Ottimate that haven't hit my ERP yet"
   
   

4. "Show me POs from the last 60 days where the invoiced total exceeded the PO total by more than 5%"
   
   

For further assistance, contact Ottimate Support by emailing support@ottimate.com or click the link here and submit a support ticket.