Invoice Automation MCP Server & Excel Ledger Sync

An automated invoice processing pipeline built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP). This system allows multimodal AI models (such as Claude Desktop) to discover, inspect, and extract key metadata from invoice files—including PDFs, Word documents (.docx), Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx), and smartphone scan images—and automatically synchronize and enrich the extracted data with a master vendor directory in an Excel ledger.

🌟 Key Features

1. Multimodal MCP Server (server.py):

   • Supported Formats: Scanned & digital PDFs (.pdf), Word documents (.docx), Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx), and images (.png, .jpg, .jpeg).

   • Large File Optimization (>1MB): Automatically downscales and compresses high-resolution photos and scanned PDF pages to high-quality JPEG under 900 KB, preventing MCP timeouts and buffer drops.

   • Multi-Page Invoice Handling: Reads and extracts individual pages from multi-page PDFs, safely retaining the inbox file until all pages are processed.

   • Safe File Deletion: Automatically deletes processed files from the inbox once extraction is complete.

2. Excel Synchronization Engine (sync_json_to_excel.py):

   • Master Vendor Lookup: Matches invoices by GSTIN or PAN against Sheet1 to enrich records with Supplier ID, vendor names, site names, TDS terms, and email addresses.

   • Fallback to PAN: If GSTIN is absent or unregistered on an invoice, automatically falls back to matching via PAN.

   • Conditional Red Row Styling: Highlights rows in red (#FFD9D9 fill with #9C0006 text) if:

     • The invoice comes from a multi-page PDF.

     • The GST number is missing.

     • Any AI-extracted column (invoice no.(Ai), invoice date(AI), AMOUNT(AI)) is missing or unreadable.

   • Descriptive Remarks: Records explanatory notes in the Remarks column (e.g. Multi-page PDF (Page 1 of 2); Missing in invoice: invoice no.(Ai)).

   • Zero Gap Compaction & Atomic Saving: Prevents and removes blank gap rows, and saves atomically with rolling .bak backups to prevent file corruption.

Related MCP server: Excel MCP Server

📁 Repository Structure

.
├── invoices/
│   ├── inbox/                # Input folder for incoming invoices (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, JPG, PNG)
│   ├── failed/               # Fallback folder for failed files
│   ├── processed/            # Compatibility directory
│   └── invoice_ledger.xlsx   # Main Excel workbook (Invoices, Sheet1 master, SyncLog)
├── extracted_invoices.json   # Intermediate JSON store populated by the MCP server
├── requirements.txt          # Python dependencies
├── server.py                 # MCP Server for invoice reading and extraction storage
└── sync_json_to_excel.py     # Background watcher syncing JSON records into Excel

🚀 Setup & Installation

1. Install Dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Configure Claude Desktop (MCP)

Add the server to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "invoice-server": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": [
        "D:\\User profile\\89162\\Downloads\\Invoice automation\\invoice-mcp-server\\server.py"
      ]
    }
  }
}

3. Run the Excel Sync Watcher

Run the background synchronizer in a separate terminal:

python sync_json_to_excel.py

🛠️ MCP Tools Exposed

• list_inbox_invoices(): Lists all pending invoice documents in invoices/inbox.

• read_invoice_content(filename, page_number=1): Reads text from Word/Excel/digital PDFs, or returns optimized visual image content for scanned pages/photos.

• save_extracted_data_to_json(...): Stores extracted metadata (invoice no.(Ai), invoice date(AI), AMOUNT(AI), GST NUMBER, PAN NUMBER, page information) and safely unlinks the source file when finished.

• get_extracted_invoices(): Retrieves all stored JSON records. "# Invoice-automation"