Can Claude build a general ledger or bookkeeping records directly from raw bank and credit card statements when there's no QuickBooks file?

Yes. One approach used was giving Claude a prompt asking it to act like a general ledger builder: feed it bank statements and credit card statements and it constructs books for situations where a full QBO file isn't needed but something is required to prepare a tax return. The result is generated in seconds as a Claude 'artifact' - a reusable tool you can access again, drag and drop new statements into, and get financials instantly. If the output isn't right, you give feedback and Claude immediately revises the underlying code/logic. This can be kept entirely outside QuickBooks, or, using an MCP connector, whatever is built could be pushed into QuickBooks - that choice is up to the user. This is separate from getting bookkeepers more efficient on the QuickBooks side (e.g., automating bank statement pulls and reconciliations for staff who already work in QuickBooks), which was raised as an area of ongoing interest but not yet implemented by the person describing their current process.