Claude for Small Business: The Cowork Plugin, Its 43 Workflows, and Where to Start
Claude for Small Business is Anthropic's Cowork plugin: 43 workflows for books, payroll, leads and marketing across QuickBooks, HubSpot, Shopify and more. You approve every send.
Claude for Small Business is Anthropic's Small Business plugin for Claude Cowork. It bundles ready-to-run workflows (skills) with connectors to the tools a small business already runs on: accounting, payments, CRM, design, contracts, email, files, and calendar. Anthropic launched it in May 2026 and, in its fall release post, says it now has 43 workflows and 27 new integrations, and has been installed more than 900,000 times. Every workflow starts in approval mode: Claude drafts and stages, and nothing sends, posts, or pays until you say so.
TL;DR: You need the Claude desktop app on Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise. In Cowork: Customize → Plugins → + → Small Business → Install. Run
/smb-onboard(or say "set me up"), connect one tool, then try/monday-brief. Anthropic recommends Pro for one person and Team for a business with more than one. Checked 2026-10-09 against Anthropic's solution page, plugin listing, Academy tutorial, and fall release post.
When to use it / when not
Use it when:
- You own or run a small business and spend hours on recurring admin: bills, invoices, payroll prep, month-end close, inbox, lead follow-up.
- Your stack includes supported tools (Intuit QuickBooks, Xero, Stripe, Square, PayPal, Shopify, HubSpot, Gusto, Gmail, Microsoft 365, Canva, Docusign, and others).
- You are happy to review a draft before it goes out.
Don't use it when:
- You want something that files taxes or submits payroll for you. Anthropic says payroll is set up for you to submit, bills wait for approval, and Claude doesn't file anything for you.
- You are on the Free plan. The Academy tutorial lists Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise.
- You need a decision maker. Pricing, signing, and what goes to your accountant stay with you and your professionals (Academy, "Things to note").
What it is: a plugin, not a separate product
A Cowork plugin bundles skills (instructions for a specific task) with the connectors they read from. You run a skill by typing / and picking it, or by describing the job in plain English so Claude picks the one that fits. Some skills chain others and ask for your decision between steps, so a bigger job is still one ask.
If you are new to skills and plugins in general, start with Claude marketing skills for how the skill model works, then come back.
Install in three clicks
Per the Academy tutorial (checked 2026-10-09):
- Open Cowork in the Claude desktop app and click Customize in the left sidebar.
- Under Plugins, click +.
- Find Small Business and click Install.
Then run smb-onboard. It asks what you do, who works with you, and what is hardest right now, helps you connect your tools, and saves that context so every other skill uses it. You can also go to Customize → Plugins → Claude for Small Business → Customize to have Claude rewrite the plugin's defaults for your business.
Which plan? Anthropic's solution page says: "Pro for one person, Team for a business with more than one; both are month to month." For current prices, see our Claude pricing guide. We don't repeat numbers here.
The workflows, grouped by job
Names below are copied from Anthropic's Academy table. The tools listed for each skill are defaults, and you can point a skill at the tools you actually use.
Run the business
| Command | What it does (Anthropic's wording, shortened) |
|---|---|
/monday-brief | One page: cash, sales, pipeline, your calendar, and the one thing that most needs you |
/close-month | Closes your books, updates the cash forecast, writes the close packet for your accountant |
/plan-payroll | Checks you'll have the cash, drafts reminders for overdue invoices, gets the run ready for you to submit |
/pay-the-bills | Codes bills, checks cash, lines up the payment run for your OK |
/restock | Works out reorders, drafts purchase orders and supplier emails |
/tax-prep | Prepares quarterly estimated taxes or a 1099 list for your accountant |
/report-pack | Runs saved reports on a schedule with a business snapshot |
Single skills behind these include cash-flow-snapshot (30/60/90-day forecast), invoice-chase, ap-processor, payroll-prep, inventory-planner, inbox-manager, ticket-deflector, hiring-screener, contract-review, and job-post-builder.
Grow the business
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/speed-to-lead | Answers new inquiries on nights and weekends and updates your CRM |
/call-list | Picks today's top leads and writes a call card for each |
/grow-pipeline | Finds prospects like your best customers, writes outreach in your voice, logs it in the CRM |
/marketing-monday | What's working, what customers are saying, what competitors changed |
/reactivate | Finds customers who stopped buying and drafts win-back messages |
Growth skills also include proposal-builder, ad-manager, seo-ai-visibility, canva-creator, social-content-engine, review-reputation, crm-autopilot, content-strategy, and grant-rfp-writer. If marketing is your main job, our Claude for marketing and Claude for email marketing guides go deeper on prompts and review.
Extend it
build-connectorlinks a tool that has no official connector yet, through the Claude connector directory or Zapier.build-agentturns a task you do by hand every week into a workflow you can run by name or on a schedule.
A first week that works
- Day 1:
/smb-onboard, connect your accounting tool only. - Day 2: Ask a question you already know the answer to, like the Academy example: "Which invoices are overdue, and which ones should I follow up on first?" Check one line against your books.
- Day 3:
/monday-brief. Compare it with what you would have written. - Day 4–5: Add your CRM or inbox and try
/speed-to-leadin approval mode. - Later: Once a workflow has been right several times, let it run on a schedule (every Monday, month-end, or when a new lead comes in).
Anthropic's own habit to keep: describe the job, let Claude pick the skill, and check the result against something you know before you approve.
Data, permissions, and approvals
From the Academy tutorial and solution page (checked 2026-10-09):
- Approval by default. Skills draft, propose, and stage. Nothing sends, posts, or pays until you say so.
- Your permissions hold. Claude reads what your account in each tool can read. If an employee can't see something in QuickBooks today, they can't see it through Claude.
- Training. Anthropic says it doesn't train Claude on your business data, and points to its Trust Center for the full policy.
- Tool plan limits. Some features (generating designs, staging sends) may need a higher tier in the connected tool; the skill tells you and offers a workaround.
- No connector yet? Workflows also run from a spreadsheet or forwarded email (solution page).
Pitfalls
- Turning on schedules too early. Keep approval mode until you have checked several runs.
- Treating the close packet as final. It is for your accountant, not instead of one.
- Connecting everything on day one. Start with one tool; it is easier to spot a wrong number.
- Expecting this in the Claude web chat. The plugin lives in Cowork in the desktop app.
FAQ
Is Claude for Small Business free? The plugin is part of Claude on paid plans (Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise). Anthropic recommends Pro for one person and Team for more than one. See Claude pricing.
Which tools does it connect to? Anthropic names Intuit QuickBooks, HubSpot, Shopify, Stripe, Gusto, Canva "and 25 more" on its solution page; the fall release added Shopify, Salesforce, TikTok, Atlassian, Zoom, Xero, Gusto, Square, Stripe, and Zapier among 27 new integrations.
Will it pay my bills or run payroll by itself? No. Bills wait for approval and payroll is prepared for you to submit. Claude doesn't file anything for you.
Can I use it in Outlook? The plugin runs in Cowork and can read Microsoft 365. For working inside Outlook itself, see Claude for Outlook.