Blog
Tips, use cases and real-world insights on using Claude and Dust for finance teams with Spendesk MCP.
Featured
The Spendesk MCP by role: where to start, depending on your job
A library of 79 skills sorted by tool does not tell a Controller where to begin. Five new pages do: one per finance role, with five skills to start with, the articles worth reading and the limits to know first.
What the Spendesk MCP cannot do — and what to do instead
No budgets, no approvals, no payments, no alerts, no travel budgets. The limits of the Spendesk MCP, stated plainly, with the workaround for each one — so you know before you promise it to your team.
Write tools are in Beta: the Spendesk MCP can now act, not just read
26 write tools are now available in Beta: purchase orders, accounting exports, chart of accounts, suppliers, payables, analytical fields. What they do, how to turn them on, which actions cannot be undone — with three examples run on a demo account.
All articles
Invoices stuck in approval: who is holding them, and since when
From the invoice inbox to approval, an AP Manager can now follow a supplier invoice before it is approved: what was received, which invoices are waiting, and which approver each one is waiting on.
Your monthly management report on one page: four figures, four bases
Available cash, committed spend, cash out and overdue invoices come from four different tools and are measured on four different bases. Here is how to get them on one page each month without mixing them up.
Accounting export: why you should preview before you commit
An accounting export leaves out every expense that has not been prepared, and says nothing about it. Here is how to check what will be missing, preview the journal without changing anything, and only then commit.
Where the money goes: spend by category and by analytical axis, without a pivot table
Asked for spend "by analytical code", the assistant gets one list that mixes expense categories, regions and every other axis. Here is how to isolate one axis, check that the total reconciles, and find the share of spend that is not coded.
Purchase orders: create, cancel, close — and what cannot be undone
With write tools in Beta, an assistant can now open and cancel purchase orders from the conversation. Here is what that looks like, what is irreversible, and why a purchase order's amount is not the budget you approved.
MCP to MCP: automating an end-to-end accounting export between Spendesk and an ERP
Two ways to connect Spendesk to an accounting system with an agent: when both sides speak MCP (Spendesk ↔ Rillet), and when the other system doesn't have one yet (Spendesk ↔ NetSuite). Closing with a real look at which Spendesk customer ERPs already have an MCP in 2026.
Build your own custom skill: the monthly PO accrual example
65 skills will never cover every need. An end-to-end walkthrough: install Skill Builder, use it to create a monthly PO accrual skill, call it on real data, and schedule it as a routine.
Coming soon: the first write tools for the Spendesk MCP
Archived article describing the situation in July 2026, when the first write tools existed only in demo. Write tools have since been released in Beta: read the up-to-date article instead.
New skill: the Spendesk MCP product tour, on your real data
Just connected the Spendesk MCP and not sure where to start? A new skill takes the tour for you — Claude or Dust, your choice — with real calls on your account, in under two minutes.
Recurring SaaS, duplicates, and shadow IT: the audit Procurement never runs often enough
The same vendor can be paid under 3 or 4 different supplier names, by teams that never talk to each other. Claude spots these duplicates and scattered AI spend in one prompt.
Track an Invoice's Full Payment Lifecycle with Claude
"Where's the Salesforce invoice?" — a simple question that takes 5 minutes today. With Spendesk MCP, Claude answers in 10 seconds with the full payment history.
Suppliers Without Bank Details in Spendesk: Spot Silent Payment Blockers Before Month-End
A supplier without an IBAN in Spendesk means a blocked payment with no warning. Claude identifies every affected supplier in 10 seconds before it becomes a month-end crisis.
Consolidating Multi-Entity Spend at Quarter-End with Claude
Groups with 3+ entities spend hours consolidating their Spendesk data every quarter-end. With the MCP, Claude does it in a single question.
Supplier Concentration Audit: Detecting Dependencies Before They Become Costly
30% of spend with a single supplier is an invisible risk — until that supplier raises prices or disappears. Claude detects it in 30 seconds.
Validating GL Mapping Before Accounting Export — A 2-Minute Check
Invoices with missing or invalid GL codes silently block ERP exports. Claude identifies them in bulk and suggests corrections before the problem hits at month-end close.
VAT Audit Before Accounting Export: 20 Hours Saved Per Close
Manually checking VAT on every invoice before export takes 20 hours per month according to our beta clients. Claude audits the full month's invoices for VAT consistency in seconds.
Budget vs. actual — analyzing spend variances in natural language with a Dust agent
Budget vs. actual analysis by cost center typically takes a morning in Excel. With a Dust agent connected to the Spendesk MCP, pulling the data, calculating variances, and identifying significant overruns takes 30 seconds — shared with the whole FP&A team.
Analysing Cost Center Spend Trends with a Dust Agent
Cost center overruns are spotted too late with monthly exports. A Dust agent connected to the Spendesk MCP answers in one question — and can be shared with the whole FP&A team.
Validating GL Mapping Before Accounting Export with a Dust Agent — A 2-Minute Check
Invoices with missing or invalid GL codes silently block ERP exports. A Dust agent connected to the Spendesk MCP identifies them in bulk and suggests corrections before the problem hits at month-end close.
How to track supplier invoices with a Dust agent
With the Spendesk MCP connected to a Dust agent, tracking the invoice payment lifecycle becomes conversational — in Dust's chat or right inside Slack. Here's how AP teams use this approach every day.
Tracking an invoice's payment cycle end to end with a Dust agent
"Where's the Doctolib invoice at?" — with a Dust agent connected to the Spendesk MCP, the answer lands right in Slack, full history included.
Invoice-PO Matching: A Dust Agent That Finds Invoices Without a Purchase Order in 30 Seconds
Invoices without an associated purchase order are the leading cause of supplier disputes and payment delays. A Dust agent shared across the procurement team identifies them automatically and prioritises the most urgent cases.
Prioritizing supplier payments at month-end with a Dust agent
The 25th of the month arrives, you have 47 approved unpaid invoices and 3 business days before close. A Dust agent, usable in the web chat or directly in Slack, analyzes due dates and amounts to give you a clear priority order.
Automated month-end close — the Controller checklist with a Dust agent
Month-end close still runs through the same manual checks in Spendesk. A Dust agent published for the whole accounting team runs the checklist with a single question.
Consolidating Multi-Entity Spend at Quarter-End with a Dust Agent
Groups with 3+ entities spend hours consolidating their Spendesk data every quarter-end. A Dust agent, shared across the whole Finance team, does it in a single question — in the web chat or in Slack.
Ageing Card Requests: A Shared Dust Agent Finds the Bottlenecks
Card requests sit blocked in approval queues without the procurement team knowing. A Dust agent published for the whole procurement team maps every pending request in a single question.
How a CFO forecasts cash outflows with a Dust agent
No more exporting an Excel report for every treasury question. A Dust agent connected to the Spendesk MCP accesses scheduled payments directly and projects the cash flow impact — in the web chat or directly in Slack.
Controlling SaaS Spend Growth with a Dust Agent
SaaS spend grows 15%+ per year without anyone really deciding it. A Dust agent identifies in one prompt which tools doubled in cost and which are no longer being used.
Native Slack alerts on your supplier invoices with Dust
A Dust agent works directly in Slack — no separate connector to set up. Combined with a scheduled Trigger, it can post a regular summary of at-risk invoices.
Supplier Concentration Audit with a Dust Agent: Detecting Dependencies Before They Become Costly
30% of spend with a single supplier is an invisible risk — until that supplier raises prices or disappears. A Dust agent connected to the Spendesk MCP detects it in 30 seconds, and shares it with the whole leadership team.
Suppliers Without Bank Details in Spendesk: A Dust Agent to Spot Blockers Before Month-End
A supplier without an IBAN in Spendesk means a blocked payment with no warning. A Dust agent shared across the whole AP team identifies affected suppliers in one question, in the web chat or in Slack.
Tail spend analysis — identifying off-contract purchases with a Dust agent
80% of your spend flows through 20% of your suppliers. The rest — tail spend — is procurement's grey zone. A Dust agent, usable by the whole team, analyzes it in seconds and identifies rationalization opportunities.
VAT Audit Before Accounting Export with a Dust Agent: 20 Hours Saved Per Close
Manually checking VAT on every invoice before export takes 20 hours per month according to our beta clients. A Dust agent connected to the Spendesk MCP audits the full month's invoices for VAT consistency in seconds.
Analysing Cost Center Spend Trends: Catch Budget Overruns Before They Stick
Cost center overruns are spotted too late with monthly exports. With Claude + MCP, one question shows who is spending faster than expected — in real time.
Controlling SaaS Spend Growth: The Quarterly Analysis Every FP&A Team Should Run
SaaS spend grows 15%+ per year without anyone really deciding it. Claude identifies in one prompt which tools doubled in cost and which are no longer being used.
How to track supplier invoices with Claude in real time
With the Spendesk MCP connected to Claude Code, tracking the invoice payment lifecycle becomes conversational. Here's how AP teams use this approach every day.
Invoice-PO Matching: Identify Invoices Without a Purchase Order in 30 Seconds
Invoices without an associated purchase order are the leading cause of supplier disputes and payment delays. Claude identifies them automatically and prioritises the most urgent cases.
Ageing Card Requests: Find the Approval Bottlenecks
Card requests sit blocked in approval queues without the procurement team knowing. Claude maps every pending request by department and approver in a single question.
How a CFO forecasts cash outflows with Claude
No more exporting an Excel report for every question from the CFO. With the Spendesk MCP, Claude accesses scheduled payments directly and projects the cash flow impact — with a single question.
Prioritizing supplier payments at month-end with Claude
The 25th of the month arrives, you have 47 approved unpaid invoices and 3 business days before close. Claude analyzes due dates, days overdue, and amounts to give you a clear priority order in 30 seconds.
Automated monthly close — the Controller checklist with Claude
Month-end close always means the same list of manual checks in Spendesk. With the MCP, Claude runs the checklist in a single command and immediately surfaces any blocking anomalies.
Budget vs. actual — analyzing spend variances in natural language
Budget vs. actual analysis by cost center typically takes a morning in Excel. Give Claude your budget figures: with the Spendesk MCP it pulls the actuals, calculates variances, and identifies significant overruns — in 30 seconds.
Tail spend analysis — identifying off-contract purchases with Claude
80% of your spend flows through 20% of your suppliers. The rest — tail spend — is procurement's grey zone. Claude analyzes it in seconds and identifies rationalization opportunities.