How to give Claude real-time access to your business finances with MCP

What is MCP?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets AI assistants call external tools. Instead of pasting data into a prompt, you give the model direct access to an API. It decides when to call which tool based on your question. FlowCheck ships an MCP server that exposes your financial data as tools Claude can call in real time.

What you need

• A FlowCheck API key (get one here, free trial included)
• At least one data source connected (Stripe, Shopify, or a bank account)
• Claude Code (CLI) or Claude Desktop, depending on which setup you prefer

Option 1: Claude Code (stdio transport)

This is the fastest setup. One command adds FlowCheck as an MCP server that runs locally via stdio:

claude mcp add flowcheck \
  --transport stdio \
  --env FLOWCHECK_API_KEY=fc_live_your_key \
  -- npx -y @flowcheck/mcp-server

That is it. Claude Code now has access to your FlowCheck data. Start a conversation and ask a question:

> How much revenue did we make this month?

Claude will call the FlowCheck cashflow tool and respond:

"Based on your FlowCheck data, your total inflow for March 2026
is $12,847.00 across 23 Stripe payouts and 8 Shopify payouts.
After $4,230.00 in outflows, your net cash flow is $8,617.00."

Option 2: Claude Desktop (JSON config)

If you use Claude Desktop, add the server to your MCP configuration file. On macOS this is ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. On Windows, it is in %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "flowcheck": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@flowcheck/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "FLOWCHECK_API_KEY": "fc_live_your_key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. You will see FlowCheck listed in the MCP tools panel.

Option 3: Remote MCP endpoint

For clients that support remote MCP servers (Glama, Smithery, custom agents), point to the hosted endpoint:

https://developer.usepopup.com/api/mcp

Pass your API key as a Bearer token. The remote server exposes the same tools as the stdio version but runs on FlowCheck infrastructure instead of your local machine.

Available tools

The MCP server exposes these tools to the AI model. Claude picks the right one based on your question:

Example prompts

Once connected, you can ask Claude natural questions about your finances. Here are some that work well:

• "What is our current cash position?"
  Claude calls get_balance and returns Stripe available, Stripe pending, and bank balance with a total.
• "Are there any unmatched payouts this month?"
  Claude calls get_reconciliation and lists any payouts that have not been matched to a bank deposit, with amounts and dates.
• "Compare last week's revenue to the week before."
  Claude calls get_cashflow with a 30-day window and computes the week-over-week change from the daily breakdown.
• "Summarize our financial health for the board meeting."
  Claude calls get_position and formats the response as a brief executive summary with revenue, expenses, net, and any open issues.

Sandbox mode

If you want to test without touching production data, use a sandbox key (prefixed fc_test_). Sandbox calls return realistic test data and do not consume credits. This is useful for building agents or testing prompts before going live.

claude mcp add flowcheck-sandbox \
  --transport stdio \
  --env FLOWCHECK_API_KEY=fc_test_your_key \
  -- npx -y @flowcheck/mcp-server

Get started

Get an API key, connect at least one data source from the dashboard, and run the claude mcp add command above. The whole setup takes under five minutes. Once connected, ask Claude anything about your business finances and it will pull the answer from your live data.