For QuickBooks, Xero and NetSuite

Financial analysis, done by Claude or ChatGPT

Ask “why did margin drop last month?” and get a real answer from your own books. Kipper connects your assistant to QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite, read-only.

Schedule a demo
Read-only by architecture
Kipper
Question:

Why did gross margin drop last month?

Answer:
  • Asking Kipper for the P&L, June through August…
  • Comparing the months…
  • Going back to the bills behind the cost line…

Revenue grew $33,000, but cost of sales grew faster, by $30,100. That took margin from 42.4% to 39.9%. The extra cost is two Meridian subcontractor bills, $13,380 together, that landed on 28 August. They normally fall in September.

Gross margin · July vs August
JulAugChange
Revenue$413,000$446,000+$33,000
Cost of sales$237,900$268,000+$30,100
Gross profit$175,100$178,000+$2,900
Gross margin42.4%39.9%-2.5 pts
Question:

Compare the last three months with the same months last year

Answer:
  • Kipper is pulling both periods…
  • Lining the periods up…
  • Working out the movement…

Revenue is up 13%. Cost of sales is up 10%. Sales grew faster than costs, so margin is up 1.8 points.

Last three months vs the same months last year
Last yearThis yearChange
Revenue$1,108,000$1,255,000+13%
Cost of sales$672,600$738,700+10%
Gross margin39.3%41.1%+1.8 pts
Question:

What are our biggest costs this year?

Answer:
  • Passing this to Kipper…
  • Reading the cost lines off the P&L…
  • Sorting by size…

Payroll is the biggest. Subcontractors come second. They sit in cost of sales, so they're the line that moves gross margin.

Biggest costs · year to date
LineSectionAmountvs last year
PayrollOperating$684,000+6%
SubcontractorsCost of sales$486,000+9%
Rent and facilitiesOperating$204,0000%
Software and toolsOperating$97,400+12%
Question:

Show me revenue by tracking category

Answer:
  • Kipper is reading the tracking categories…
  • Grouping revenue under each…
  • Adding them up…

Three categories. Projects brings in most of the revenue, 62% of it.

Revenue by tracking category · year to date
CategoryRevenueShare
Projects$1,908,00062%
Retainer$824,00027%
Support$339,00011%
Question:

What has gross margin done over the last six months?

Answer:
  • Kipper is returning the monthly P&L…
  • Taking revenue less cost of sales each month…
  • Working the percentage…

Margin rose from 39.4% in March to 42.4% in July. August dipped to 39.9%, and the two early bills explain it.

Gross margin · six months
MonthRevenueMargin
Mar$362,00039.4%
Apr$371,00040.1%
May$384,00039.8%
Jun$396,00041.2%
Jul$413,00042.4%
Aug$446,00039.9%
Reply to Claude…
Open the live demo

A recorded example. Open the interactive demo to ask your own questions.

How it works

From your books to the answer in four steps

Kipper connects Claude or ChatGPT to QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite, read-only. It returns the P&L and the records behind it. Your assistant does the analysis and shows its working.

  1. Read-only
    1

    Connect your accounting system

    One read-only connection to QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite. Your books stay exactly as they are.

  2. Claude ChatGPT
    2

    Add Kipper to Claude or ChatGPT

    Kipper shows up as a tool inside the assistant you already use. There's no new dashboard to learn.

  3. Your P&L · Aug

    Revenue$446,000
    Cost of sales$268,000
    2 bills behind cost of sales
    3

    Kipper returns the P&L and the bills

    The P&L for any months you name. It'll also return the invoices and bills behind any line.

  4. Jul 42.4% → Aug 39.9%

    Cause: 2 bills, $13,380

    4

    Your assistant explains what moved

    Claude or ChatGPT works out the margin, finds the line that moved, and names the bills behind it.

We can set it up with you

Book a free onboarding call. We'll connect your accounting system with you. Then you ask the first question.

Schedule free onboarding

What you get back

Get a chart or a written report back

Claude builds it as an Artifact. ChatGPT opens it in Canvas. Either way it lands in the tool you already use, and you can share it with whoever asked.

Claude · Artifact

Six months of margin. Last month's dip is in red, and the dashed line shows it without two early bills. The P&L figures come from Kipper. The percentages are Claude's.

Gross Margin · Six Months Open
Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug
August
39.9%
Without them
42.9%
Cause
2 early bills

ChatGPT · Canvas

The same answer, written up. Edit a line, add your own notes, then share it.

ChatGPT Canvas
Gross margin review

Why margin dipped in August

Six months · Xero · prepared by ChatGPT

Gross margin dipped from 42.4% in July to 39.9% in August. Revenue grew $33,000, but cost of sales grew faster, by $30,100.

The extra cost is two Meridian subcontractor bills dated 28 August, $13,380 together. They usually land in the first week of the next month, so this looks like timing. Without them, August's margin is 42.9%, the best of the six months.

July margin 42.4%
August margin 39.9%
Revenue movement +$33,000
Without the two bills 42.9%

Edited in Canvas · exportable

The full answer

See which lines moved, and the bills behind them

A chart shows that margin dipped. It doesn't say why. That's one level down, in the bills, and your assistant goes there for you.

  • From Kipper: the P&L for both months, and the bills under the line that moved.

  • From your assistant: the comparison, and a plain explanation of what's changed.

Claude Kipper MCP

Show me what changed in the P&L last month, and the bills behind it

  • Asking Kipper for the P&L, both months
  • Opening the bills behind cost of sales

Revenue grew $33,000, but cost of sales grew faster, by $30,100. Two Meridian bills that came early explain the dip.

P&L Jul Aug Change
Revenue $413,000 $446,000 +$33,000
Cost of sales $237,900 $268,000 +$30,100
Gross profit $175,100 $178,000 +$2,900
Gross margin 42.4% 39.9% -2.5 pts

Bills behind cost of sales

  • Meridian Subcontracting 28 Aug · $7,480
  • Meridian Subcontracting 28 Aug · $5,900

Meridian's bills usually land in the first week of the next month. These two came early.

P&L and bills from Xero, through Kipper · the comparison and the explanation are Claude's

What happens today

Why one simple question takes an hour

Reporting tools show you what happened. Working out why is still someone's job, and it takes them time.

Asking a person

Whoever owns the books

About an hour
  1. 9:00

    You see that margin dropped

  2. 9:05

    You message whoever owns the books

  3. 9:30

    They open the P&L, then the ledger, then the bills

  4. 10:00

    You get the answer

It's careful work, and it takes real time.

Asking your assistant

Claude or ChatGPT, with Kipper

About a minute
  1. 9:00

    You ask why margin dropped

  2. 9:01

    You get the answer, with the two bills behind it

The person who owns the books gets that hour back.

Side by side

Compared with financial analysis software

Financial analysis software is built for this job. It's a product you log into, with reports designed in advance. You get the same answers here without learning a new tool.

Getting a report

Financial analysis software

Pick from a library of reports and KPIs someone designed in advance.

Kipper with Claude or ChatGPT

Ask for what you want in your own words, and read it in the chat.

A one-off question

Financial analysis software

Build a custom report, or export to a spreadsheet and work it out there.

Kipper with Claude or ChatGPT

Ask the follow-up. The assistant goes back for the records it needs.

Where you do it

Financial analysis software

A dashboard you log into.

Kipper with Claude or ChatGPT

Claude or ChatGPT, and Slack, Teams or SMS for quick lookups.

Getting started

Financial analysis software

An implementation, then training on the tool.

Kipper with Claude or ChatGPT

Connect your accounting system once, read-only. Then ask.

Who can ask

Financial analysis software

People set up on the tool and trained to use it.

Kipper with Claude or ChatGPT

Anyone you give access to, scoped per person.

See it on your own numbers

Start a free trial, connect QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite, and ask why a number moved.

Ask your own books See pricing

Follow-up questions

Keep asking until you have the answer

Each answer leads to the next question. Here's one conversation, in the order it happened.

Why did margin drop last month?

Revenue grew $33,000, but cost of sales grew faster, by $30,100. That took margin from 42.4% to 39.9%. The extra cost is two Meridian bills, dated 28 August.

Is that one bad month or a trend?

One month. Margin rose from 39.4% in March to 42.4% in July.

What would margin have been without those two bills?

42.9%. Take out the $13,380 from those two bills, and last month is the best of the six.

Which part of the business is behind it?

Projects. Both Meridian bills are tagged to it in your tracking categories. Retainer and Support held steady.

Both assistants

Use Claude or ChatGPT, whichever you have

You only need one. Kipper connects to both and returns the same figures to either, so the answer doesn't change with the tool. Pick one to see it in the demo.

Kipper
Question:

Why did gross margin drop last month?

Answer:
  • Asking Kipper for the P&L, June through August…
  • Comparing the months…
  • Going back to the bills behind the cost line…

Revenue grew $33,000, but cost of sales grew faster, by $30,100. That took margin from 42.4% to 39.9%. The extra cost is two Meridian subcontractor bills, $13,380 together, that landed on 28 August. They normally fall in September.

Gross margin · July vs August
JulAugChange
Revenue$413,000$446,000+$33,000
Cost of sales$237,900$268,000+$30,100
Gross profit$175,100$178,000+$2,900
Gross margin42.4%39.9%-2.5 pts
Question:

Compare the last three months with the same months last year

Answer:
  • Kipper is pulling both periods…
  • Lining the periods up…
  • Working out the movement…

Revenue is up 13%. Cost of sales is up 10%. Sales grew faster than costs, so margin is up 1.8 points.

Last three months vs the same months last year
Last yearThis yearChange
Revenue$1,108,000$1,255,000+13%
Cost of sales$672,600$738,700+10%
Gross margin39.3%41.1%+1.8 pts
Question:

What are our biggest costs this year?

Answer:
  • Passing this to Kipper…
  • Reading the cost lines off the P&L…
  • Sorting by size…

Payroll is the biggest. Subcontractors come second. They sit in cost of sales, so they're the line that moves gross margin.

Biggest costs · year to date
LineSectionAmountvs last year
PayrollOperating$684,000+6%
SubcontractorsCost of sales$486,000+9%
Rent and facilitiesOperating$204,0000%
Software and toolsOperating$97,400+12%
Question:

Show me revenue by tracking category

Answer:
  • Kipper is reading the tracking categories…
  • Grouping revenue under each…
  • Adding them up…

Three categories. Projects brings in most of the revenue, 62% of it.

Revenue by tracking category · year to date
CategoryRevenueShare
Projects$1,908,00062%
Retainer$824,00027%
Support$339,00011%
Question:

What has gross margin done over the last six months?

Answer:
  • Kipper is returning the monthly P&L…
  • Taking revenue less cost of sales each month…
  • Working the percentage…

Margin rose from 39.4% in March to 42.4% in July. August dipped to 39.9%, and the two early bills explain it.

Gross margin · six months
MonthRevenueMargin
Mar$362,00039.4%
Apr$371,00040.1%
May$384,00039.8%
Jun$396,00041.2%
Jul$413,00042.4%
Aug$446,00039.9%
Reply to Claude…
Open the live demo

Connect once, then ask from either one

Read-only access to QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite, with the same permissions behind each.

Schedule a demo

Good to know

What to know before you connect it

Kipper is read-only by architecture

It returns records and reports. Creating, editing and approving stay in your finance system, where your team already does that work. Queries are logged, so you can see who asked what, and when.

You can check every number

Kipper supplies the figures. Claude or ChatGPT does the reasoning on top of them. You'll see both halves, so any number in an answer traces back to a record in your books.

You can ask for revenue by customer

That works today. Cost by customer depends on allocation rules you set, so that's handled in your finance system, with the rest of your accounting policy.

FAQ

Financial analysis with Claude or ChatGPT

What people ask before connecting an assistant to their accounts.

Yes, once it can see real numbers. On its own, an assistant is guessing. Connected to Kipper, it reads your real P&L, invoices and bills from QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite. Then it does the comparing and the reasoning.
It's the same job, by a different route. Financial analysis software is a product you log into, with reports someone designed in advance. Here, the analysis happens in the assistant you already use, and the questions are whatever you type.
A dashboard is built around the questions someone planned for, and it's good at those. This handles the next question, the one that follows from the answer. Your assistant can go back to the invoices and bills underneath the report.
QuickBooks, Xero and NetSuite. The Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet and Trial Balance come back from all three, along with the invoices, bills, payments and line items behind them.
That's your assistant's job. Kipper returns revenue and cost of sales. Claude or ChatGPT divides one by the other, and shows both figures so you can check the math.
Your assistant can. It compares the two periods and finds the line that moved. Then it asks Kipper for the records underneath and names what's in there. In the example on this page, that's two subcontractor bills.
Ask in the words you'd use with a colleague. The assistant works out which records it needs and requests them from Kipper.
Whoever you choose. Access is scoped per person, so someone can see revenue and expenses while the customer ledger stays with finance. They ask from Claude or ChatGPT, a tool they already know.
You need a plan that lets you connect external tools through Model Context Protocol. That's where Kipper appears. Check your assistant's current plan details, since both vendors change what's included from time to time.
Kipper is read-only by architecture, not by a setting someone could switch off. It returns records and reports. Creating, editing and approving stay in your finance system. Queries are logged, so you can see who asked what, and when.
The same whichever assistant you ask from. See the pricing page.

Start asking your own books

Connect QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite once, read-only. Then ask from Claude or ChatGPT. We'll help you set it up.

Ask your own books Schedule a demo
QuickBooks Xero NetSuite Read-only Audit-logged