HISAB 360 Documentation

Everything you need to install HISAB, run your first chat, author skills, integrate ERP systems, and ship financial work faster.

What HISAB 360 is

HISAB 360 is a Microsoft Excel add-in (a VSTO add-in built in C# on .NET Framework 4.8) with a WebView2 chat panel docked beside your spreadsheet. You describe what you want in plain language and HISAB does the work — reading and writing ranges, building formulas, running Python, and talking to your ERP — all inside the workbook you already have open.

The AI itself is your choice of two modes. HISAB AI is built in and works out of the box — pick a model, chat, and usage is metered in simple credits (your trial includes 50). Or switch to Own AI and HISAB drives your own AI account — Anthropic's Claude Code or OpenAI's Codex — through a local MCP server on your machine, with usage billed to you directly by Anthropic or OpenAI at their rates, no markup. Flip between the two any time in Settings.

Everything the engines need ships with the installer: the Claude Code and Codex CLIs are set up automatically during installation, and Node.js 22 and Python are bundled — there is nothing separate to download.

How the pieces fit together

The Excel add-in hosts the chat panel and a local MCP (Model Context Protocol) server on localhost.
Your AI CLI (Claude Code or Codex) connects to that MCP server as a client. The MCP pill at the top of the chat tab goes amber while it waits for a client and green once your AI engine is connected and exchanging traffic.
MCP tools let the AI read and write ranges, write formulas, run Python in a sandbox, list and run skills, and reach ERP connectors.
Approvals keep you in control: HISAB has operating modes (such as Ask and Action), and in Action mode write or destructive tool calls are queued for your explicit approval before they run. See Approvals & safety.

Installing HISAB

HISAB ships as a signed installer — HISAB-360-Setup-64bit.exe (or -32bit.exe), alongside an MSI. It is Authenticode code-signed by the publisher's own certificate and installs per-machine to C:\Program Files\HISAB, so it needs administrator rights once. It is not a .vsto double-click and not a per-user ClickOnce install.

Requirements:

Windows 10 or 11
Excel 2016 or later, or Microsoft 365 desktop
.NET Framework 4.8
WebView2 (Evergreen runtime)

To uninstall, use Settings > Apps (or Add/Remove Programs). The uninstaller runs a cleanup that removes the add-in's runtime artifacts — the HISAB folders under %APPDATA% and %LOCALAPPDATA%, its HKCU registry entries, the PATH entries it added, and the HISAB MCP entries it wrote into your AI CLIs' configs. Full walkthrough on the Installation page.

Connecting your AI

Using HISAB AI? There is nothing to connect — it's built in and ready as soon as you sign in to your HISAB account. The rest of this section is only for Own-AI mode.

For Own AI, the Claude Code and Codex engines are installed automatically when HISAB installs — no commands to run. Setup lives in the panel's card-based Settings; all that's left is signing in to your AI account:

Sign in — from the card, click Sign in and complete the browser OAuth; the button runs the right command for each engine (handling Claude's PATH and Codex's isolated home). Authenticate with a subscription (a Claude or ChatGPT plan — recommended, far more usage per dollar) or a pay-as-you-go API key. See Sign in for the full flow and login gotchas.
Verify — click Verify any time to confirm an engine is present and signed in. Detection is restart-free: HISAB reads the live PATH and the bundled-Node location.
Install (self-heal) — the "Install Claude" / "Install Codex" card is only needed if an engine is ever missing (e.g. it was removed or blocked by endpoint security). It re-installs the engine with one click or a one-line command.

Choosing a provider

Settings has a Claude / Codex radio toggle — the provider picker. You can install and keep both engines and flip between them whenever you like; the switch takes effect on your next message.

Talking and listening

HISAB supports voice as well as typing. Voice input ("talk" to HISAB) uses the operating-system speech engine — click the microphone in the chat box and grant microphone permission once; no API key and no network are needed. Voice output reads replies aloud using your built-in Windows TTS voices by default (no key); for premium ChatGPT-quality (OpenAI) or Google voices, paste an API key under Settings > Voice and pick the provider and voice. Each reply also has a Speak button to read just that reply.

Licensing

Your HISAB license is account-based and server-validated. You can sign in on as many devices as you like, but only one is active at a time — signing in on another machine takes over, and the previous one returns to its login screen on its next check-in. A short offline grace window keeps you working without a connection.

The 15-day free trial is once per machine and tracked server-side — reinstalling or wiping local files does not reset it. The license is validated securely with our server. See the Security model for details.

Need help?

Stuck on something the docs don't cover? Email support@hisab360.net — we answer within one business day. Or book a demo call if you want a human walk-through.