Claude Desktop and connectors: hooking Claude up to your email, files and Xero.

What is Claude Desktop?

Claude Desktop is Anthropic's free app for Mac and Windows (Linux is in beta). It does everything the website does, plus it can work with files and apps on your own computer. On a paid plan it also runs Cowork and Claude Code. Connecting it to your business tools happens through connectors.

You download it from claude.com/download and sign in with the same account you use on the web. According to Anthropic's install guide, it needs macOS 13 or later, or Windows 10 or later.

For most owners the app matters for one reason: it is where Claude stops being a chat box in a browser tab and starts working inside your business. It can read the folder of quotes on your laptop, search your inbox, or check a calendar, as long as you have connected those things and given it permission.

If you have not picked a plan yet, our Claude pricing guide for Australia covers what each one costs and which one a team should be on before connecting anything.

What are Claude connectors and MCP?

A connector is a link between Claude and another app, like Gmail, Outlook, Google Drive or HubSpot, so Claude can look things up and take actions there. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the open standard most connectors are built on. You do not need to understand MCP to use connectors.

The official MCP site describes it as a USB-C port for AI applications: one standard plug, so any app that builds an MCP server can be used by Claude, ChatGPT and other AI tools. When people say "Claude MCP", they usually mean one of three things:

• Directory connectors. Ready-made links listed in Claude's connector directory, such as Gmail, Google Drive, Microsoft 365, Slack, Notion, HubSpot, Box and Canva. You click connect and sign in. These run from Anthropic's cloud.
• Desktop extensions. Small add-ons that run on your own computer, installed from inside Claude Desktop. Good for things that live on your machine, like local folders.
• Custom connectors. A link to an MCP server that is not in the directory, often one a software vendor or a developer has published. You paste in an address and sign in.

The important part for an owner: Claude only sees what the person who connected it can already see. Anthropic's connector guide is explicit that Claude inherits each person's permissions from the connected service. If your bookkeeper cannot open the directors' folder in SharePoint, neither can Claude when your bookkeeper is using it.

Which business apps can Claude connect to?

The common ones for an Australian small business are all covered: Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams through the Microsoft 365 connector, Gmail, Calendar and Drive through Google's, plus Dropbox, HubSpot, Slack and Notion. Xero works through an MCP server Xero publishes, which takes more setup than a one-click connector.

Software without any public API, and a few industry tools we see on sales calls, cannot be connected at all yet. If your job management or estimating app is not in the directory, check whether the vendor has published an MCP server or an API before you assume it is a dead end. That is usually where a custom AI integration comes in.

How do you connect Claude to Outlook and SharePoint?

Through the Microsoft 365 connector. A Global Administrator in your Microsoft Entra tenant approves it once for the business, a Claude Team owner switches it on, then each person signs in with their work account. It is read only by default. Personal Outlook.com or Hotmail addresses cannot be connected.

Per Anthropic's Microsoft 365 setup guide, the connector can search across SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook and Teams, including calendar events, chats and meeting transcripts, limited to what each person can already see. Write tools, which let Claude send email, manage calendar events, update SharePoint and OneDrive files or post in Teams, need a separate admin approval.

Two details matter for small businesses:

• You cannot limit it to certain SharePoint sites. Your admin can block SharePoint entirely, or limit which staff can use the connector, but not hand over two sites and hide the rest. If your permissions in SharePoint are messy, fix them first, because Claude will find what your staff can already open.
• Your IT provider usually has to do the approval. In most small businesses the Global Administrator is the outside IT company, not the owner. Book that in early, it is the most common reason a setup stalls.

If your business runs entirely on Microsoft and your compliance rules say data stays in the tenant, Claude may not be the right tool at all. Building inside Copilot Studio and Power Automate is often the cleaner path, which we cover on our Microsoft AI page.

Can Claude connect to Xero?

Yes, but not with a one-click directory connector at the time of writing. Xero publishes its own MCP server that you add to Claude Desktop with a Xero developer connection. Once it is set up, Claude can pull reports and work with your Xero data inside the access that connection allows.

The setup lives on Xero's MCP server page and involves creating a connection in your Xero developer account and adding a few lines to Claude Desktop's settings. It is not hard, but it is the step where most owners on our workshops want someone beside them. Our Xero MCP guide walks through it and covers what to let Claude do in your books and what to keep away from it.

What should you check with IT before connecting Claude?

Settle five things first: which Claude account staff will use, who approves each connector, whether Claude can only read or also send and edit, which staff get access, and whether any client data has rules about where it can go. An hour on this avoids weeks of rework.

1. Business accounts, not personal ones. Connect company systems only to a Team or Enterprise account. On Team, Anthropic's pricing page lists single sign-on, admin controls for remote and local connectors, and no model training on your content by default.
2. Who switches connectors on. On Team and Enterprise, an owner enables each connector for the organisation and each person still signs in separately. Turning one on does not give anyone access to anything by itself.
3. Read or write. Owners can set each type of action to always allow, needs approval or blocked, and staff cannot override that. Start with read only. Let Claude draft emails before you let it send them.
4. Who is allowed. In Microsoft, your admin can restrict the connector to named staff or groups. Start with the one or two people building, not the whole office.
5. Regulated data. Health, legal, NDIS or defence work may have rules about which tools can touch it at all. That decides the setup before features do.

Are Claude connectors safe for business data?

They are as safe as the account and permissions behind them. Claude can only reach what the signed-in person can already see, Team accounts are not used for model training by default, and Anthropic says it does not train on Gmail, Drive or Calendar connector data. The bigger risk is usually loose permissions and personal accounts.

Some honest limits. Connected services handle data under their own terms, so read the vendor's side too. A connector with write access can send an email or move a file, which is why approval settings matter. And Claude will search everything a person has access to, so a shared drive where everyone can open everything becomes very visible very quickly.

Our security page sets out how we handle accounts, access and client data on every build. A good real-world example of keeping control in-house is AustAsia Group, where a tax advisor built a client onboarding form after our workshop and the firm's IT manager runs it on their own server.