Digits lets AI change your books. A closed month gets a different rule.

The launch describes write tools for transactions, bills, invoices and the chart of accounts. Examples include recategorizing transactions, correcting bill details, drafting invoices and adding accounts. MCP is the connection that lets an assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT use those tools; you do not need to understand the protocol to understand the permission you are granting.

According to Digits, the assistant operates under the signed-in user's permissions. Admins and managers can lock or unlock periods and approve proposed edits. When a period is locked, changes enter a review queue. When it is open, they apply automatically. These are the company's descriptions of the product, not controls we have independently tested.

The MCP connection is free for Digits customers. That does not establish that the accounting subscription or the AI service used alongside it is free.

Imagine asking the assistant to recategorize a set of payment-processing fees. Some fall in a locked month; others fall in the current, open month. Based on Digits' published rules, the older changes would wait for review while permitted changes in the open month could take effect. A review queue is not necessarily a list of everything the assistant changed.

That matters to the person answering the owner's next question about costs. They need to know which figures already changed and which changes are still proposals. Otherwise two people can look at the same business on the same afternoon and assume they are discussing the same numbers.

Before using write access, ask the bookkeeper to demonstrate both cases with a narrow, agreed task: one permitted change in an open period and one proposed change in a locked period. Agree how the team will identify the affected records and compare the relevant report before and after. This is a suggested buying test, not a claim that Digits supplies a particular comparison screen.

There is a practical setup wrinkle. When checked for this article, Digits' linked MCP help page still said the server was read-only and could not create, update or delete records. It also said direct bill and invoice lookups were not yet available as MCP tools. The new launch article describes write capabilities across those areas.

That discrepancy does not prove the announced tools are unavailable. It does mean a person following the setup documentation cannot use that page alone to establish the current capability. Ask Digits to confirm what is enabled for your account and role before planning a client close around it.

The launch also includes a customer account of faster work on two clients' quarterly closes. It is a useful example of what one practice says it achieved, not an independent study or a forecast for your own month-end. Your account structure, missing documents and review requirements may be different.

I would begin with one bounded correction the bookkeeper can describe without asking the AI to invent an accounting policy. Name the client, dates, records and intended category. Keep the first task away from questions that need professional judgment, such as whether an expense belongs in a different accounting period.

Then ask whether the work actually got smaller. Include the time spent checking the affected records, reviewing proposals and explaining the result to whoever uses the report. A faster edit is useful; an unexplained change that sends the owner back to the bookkeeper is more work wearing a shorter completion time.

A good first outcome is modest: a known correction is finished, the closed month stays unchanged unless someone approves a proposal, and the person responsible for the books can explain the result without reconstructing a chat. That is enough reason to try the next task.