Zoho Books Automation

Zoho Books Automation

Automate Zoho Books accounting workflows -- create and manage invoices, track bills and payments, look up contacts, export PDFs, and handle multi-organization setups -- all through natural language.

Toolkit docs: claude-skills.ai/toolkits/zoho_books

Setup

1. Add the Rube MCP server to your environment: https://rube.app/mcp
2. Connect your Zoho Books account when prompted (OAuth flow via Claude Skill)
3. Start issuing natural language commands for Zoho Books automation

Core Workflows

1. Discover Organizations

Retrieve all organizations for the authenticated user. This is a prerequisite since organization_id is required by nearly every other endpoint.

Tool: ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_ORGANIZATIONS

No parameters required. Returns organization IDs, names, and metadata.

Always call this first to obtain the organization_id needed by all other Zoho Books tools.

Example prompt:

"List my Zoho Books organizations"

2. Create and Manage Invoices

Create invoices with line items, manage existing invoices, and export them as PDFs.

Create: ZOHO_BOOKS_CREATE_INVOICE

Key parameters:

• organization_id -- target organization (required)
• customer_id -- customer to bill (required)
• line_items -- array of line items (required), each with:
  • item_id or name -- reference existing item or create ad-hoc line
  • quantity, rate -- amount details
  • description, tax_id, discount -- optional details
• date / due_date -- dates in YYYY-MM-DD format
• invoice_number -- custom number (set ignore_auto_number_generation=true)
• discount / discount_type -- invoice-level discount (entity_level or item_level)
• notes / terms -- printed on the invoice
• send -- email the invoice immediately after creation
• payment_terms -- number of days for payment

List: ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_INVOICES

Key parameters:

• organization_id (required)
• status -- sent, draft, overdue, paid, void, unpaid, partially_paid, viewed
• customer_id / customer_name -- filter by customer
• date_start / date_end -- date range filter (YYYY-MM-DD)
• search_text -- search invoice number, reference, or customer name
• sort_column / sort_order -- sort by date, due_date, total, balance, etc.
• page / per_page -- pagination (max 200 per page)

Get details: ZOHO_BOOKS_GET_INVOICE -- fetch by invoice_id with accept format: json, pdf, or html

Delete: ZOHO_BOOKS_DELETE_INVOICE -- remove by invoice_id

Bulk export: ZOHO_BOOKS_BULK_EXPORT_INVOICES_PDF -- merge up to 25 invoices into a single PDF

Bulk print: ZOHO_BOOKS_BULK_PRINT_INVOICES -- generate a combined print-ready PDF for up to 25 invoices

Example prompt:

"Create an invoice for customer 1234567890 with 2 line items: 10 units of Widget A at $25 each, and 5 units of Widget B at $50 each, due in 30 days"

3. Track and Manage Bills

List, view, and update vendor bills with comprehensive filtering.

List: ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_BILLS

Key parameters:

• organization_id (required)
• status -- paid, open, overdue, void, partially_paid
• vendor_id / vendor_name_contains -- filter by vendor
• bill_number / bill_number_contains -- filter by bill number
• date_start / date_end -- date range filter
• total_greater_than / total_less_than -- amount range filters
• sort_column / sort_order -- sort by vendor_name, bill_number, date, due_date, total, etc.
• page / per_page -- pagination (max 200)

Get details: ZOHO_BOOKS_GET_BILL -- fetch full bill by bill_id and organization_id

Update: ZOHO_BOOKS_UPDATE_BILL -- modify existing bill (requires bill_id, organization_id, vendor_id, bill_number)

Example prompt:

"List all overdue bills for my organization, sorted by due date"

4. Look Up Contacts

Search and filter contacts (customers and vendors) for use in invoices and bills.

Tool: ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_CONTACTS

Key parameters:

• organization_id (required)
• contact_type -- customer or vendor
• contact_name_contains / contact_name_startswith -- name filters
• email_contains / email_startswith -- email filters
• company_name_contains -- company name filter
• filter_by -- status filter: Status.Active, Status.Inactive, Status.Duplicate, etc.
• search_text -- search by contact name or notes (max 100 chars)
• sort_column -- sort by contact_name, email, outstanding_receivable_amount, created_time, etc.
• page / per_page -- pagination (max 200)

Example prompt:

"Find all active customers whose company name contains 'Acme'"

5. Track Invoice Payments

List all payments recorded against a specific invoice.

Tool: ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_INVOICE_PAYMENTS

Key parameters:

• invoice_id -- the invoice to check (required)
• organization_id -- the organization (required)

Returns all payment transactions applied to the invoice including amounts, dates, and payment methods.

Example prompt:

"Show all payments recorded against invoice 451025000000123045"

6. Full Invoicing Workflow

Combine tools for end-to-end invoice management:

1. Organization: ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_ORGANIZATIONS -- get organization_id
2. Contacts: ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_CONTACTS -- find or verify customer_id
3. Create: ZOHO_BOOKS_CREATE_INVOICE -- create invoice with line items
4. Review: ZOHO_BOOKS_GET_INVOICE -- fetch invoice details or PDF
5. Track: ZOHO_BOOKS_LIST_INVOICE_PAYMENTS -- monitor payment status
6. Export: ZOHO_BOOKS_BULK_EXPORT_INVOICES_PDF -- batch export for records

Example prompt:

"Find the customer ID for 'Acme Corp', create an invoice for them with consulting services, and then get the PDF"

Known Pitfalls

Quick Reference

Part of the Claude Skills Hub