Connect Claude to PennyFinch

What it does

Connecting PennyFinch lets Claude read your own PennyFinch data (accounts, balances, transactions, budgets, recurring charges, goals and debts) so you can ask about your money in plain language, including what things cost in hours of your working life.

It is read-only. Claude can look things up; it can't move money, change a category, or edit anything in your account.

What you need

A PennyFinch account with at least one bank connected (sign up — 14 days free, no card).

A Claude account. Custom connectors work on every plan; the Free plan allows one. On Team and Enterprise plans an organization owner adds the connector first (Organization settings → Connectors), then each member connects with their own PennyFinch account.

Connect in Claude

1. In Claude, open Customize → Connectors and choose Add custom connector. PennyFinch is also listed in Claude's connector directory: search for it there and click Connect.

2. Name it PennyFinch and enter the server URL https://www.pennyfinch.com/api/mcp. Keep authentication on Sign in now; no client ID, secret or headers are needed.

3. Click Add, then Connect. Claude opens PennyFinch: sign in, read what will be shared, tick the box and choose Allow read-only access.

4. You're back in Claude. In a chat, turn PennyFinch on from the + menu under Connectors, and ask away.

Things to ask

“What did I spend by category last month?”

“Find every Amazon order in September and total them.”

“Am I over budget anywhere this month?”

“Which subscriptions renew in the next 30 days, and what do they cost a year?”

“If I put an extra $200 a month on my cards, when would I be debt-free?”

“How many hours of my life did dining out cost me last month?”

Tools

Search transactions — individual transactions filtered by merchant, category, text, dates and amount.

Spending summary — totals by category, month or merchant, excluding transfers and card payments.

List accounts — accounts, balances, and whether each bank connection is healthy.

Cost in hours of life — converts a dollar amount into hours of your working life, using your hourly wage.

Budget status — planned vs actual for each budget this month (or any month), as on the Plan screen.

Recurring charges — subscriptions and other recurring charges, what they cost a month, and what renews next.

Savings goals — each goal's target, how much is saved and what's left.

Net worth — net worth month by month, with assets and liabilities.

Debt payoff — balances, rates and minimums, and when you'd be debt-free, with or without paying extra.

Worth-it ratings — how you rated your own purchases in “Worth it?”, by category and merchant.

All ten are read-only. Every result also says what the data can't see — history limits, accounts you haven't connected, any bank connection that is currently broken, and purchases that post days later.

Hours of your life

PennyFinch works out your hourly wage from the income in your transactions over the past year, every time you ask — or uses a rate you set with the $ / ⏱ Hours toggle, or one you state in the conversation. If the income it can see is too low to be believable (for example, your pay lands in an account you haven't connected), it says so instead of guessing.

Privacy and control

Connecting is optional. When Claude uses PennyFinch, what it reads — your transactions, balances and categories — is sent to Anthropic, which runs Claude, and is handled under Anthropic's privacy policy. PennyFinch can't retrieve or delete data once it has been sent.

Disconnect at any time in PennyFinch under Settings → Connect an AI assistant (or remove it in Claude). Access stops on the very next request. See also our Privacy Policy.

Claude Code and other MCP clients

For Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http pennyfinch https://www.pennyfinch.com/api/mcp, then sign in when prompted. Clients without OAuth sign-in can use an API key from PennyFinch → Settings → Connect an AI assistant.

Other assistants

The same address works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and any app that supports remote MCP servers with OAuth sign-in. All the guides.

Troubleshooting

Answers come in dollars, not hours — PennyFinch can't see enough income to estimate your wage. Tell Claude your hourly rate, or set one with the Hours toggle in PennyFinch.

A figure looks low — check whether Claude mentioned a broken bank connection; reconnect that bank in PennyFinch.

“This app isn't registered” or a failed sign-in — remove the connector in Claude and add it again.

Anything else: admin@pennyfinch.com.