YNAB
YNAB (You Need A Budget) is a budgeting tool helping users track expenses, plan finances, and gain control over spending to reduce debt
Verdict
Common use cases
- Compare actual spend to budget mid-month
- Pull transaction lists for expense reports
- Check category balances before approving purchases
- Generate monthly spending summaries for leadership
- Flag overspending categories during planning calls
Integration
- Vendor
- YNAB
- Category
- finance
- Auth
- OAUTH2
- Composio slug
ynab
Tools
Setup
Setup guide
- 11. In Switchy, open your workspace settings and navigate to the Integrations tab. 2. Search for YNAB and click Connect. 3. You'll be redirected to YNAB's OAuth consent screen—log in with your YNAB credentials. 4. Grant read access to your budgets, accounts, categories, and transactions. 5. Choose which budget you want Switchy to default to if you manage multiple. 6. Once redirected back, open any Space and type '@YNAB show me this month's spending by category' to confirm the connection works. 7. If the MCP returns data, you're ready—invite teammates to the Space and start querying your budget together.
What teammates see: by default, memories from YNAB are scoped to the Space (PROJECT visibility) - you can mark any memory PRIVATE or share it ORG-wide.
Works well with
Top models
Compatibility data appears once enough Spaces have used this MCP together with a given model.
How Switchy teams use it
Starter prompts
Monthly Spend Summary
@YNAB show me total spending for each category this month, sorted from highest to lowest.Open in a Space →
Category Balance Check
@YNAB what's the current available balance in the Marketing category?Open in a Space →
Recent Transactions
@YNAB show me the ten most recent transactions in my budget with amounts and payees.Open in a Space →
Overspending Alert
@YNAB which categories are overspent this month and by how much?Open in a Space →
Account Balances
@YNAB list all my account balances as of today, including checking, savings, and credit cards.Open in a Space →
Example outputs
Illustrative - representative of the model's voice and quality, not literal recordings.
@ynab show me my current budget status for groceries and dining out this month
Based on your YNAB budget for January 2025: Groceries has $340 remaining of $600 budgeted (57% left), with $260 spent across 8 transactions. Dining Out has $85 remaining of $200 budgeted (43% left), with $115 spent across 5 transactions. You're on track for groceries but slightly ahead of pace for dining out given 18 days left in the month.
This read-only example shows category balance retrieval. Requires OAuth scope for budget read access. YNAB's API returns real-time data, but the MCP can only see budgets you've authorized — if you have multiple budgets, specify which one or the MCP will default to the last-used budget in your account.
@ynab move $50 from my clothing category to car maintenance, I have an unexpected oil change
Budget adjustment completed. Moved $50.00 from 'Clothing' to 'Car Maintenance' in your January 2025 budget. Clothing now has $120 available (down from $170), and Car Maintenance now has $130 available (up from $80). This reallocation follows YNAB's envelope method — you're covering a true expense without creating new money.
This write example demonstrates category reallocation, a core YNAB workflow. Requires OAuth scope for budget modification. The MCP performs the move immediately — there's no undo via API, though you can manually reverse it in YNAB's interface. Be explicit about dollar amounts and category names to avoid misallocation.
@ynab analyze my spending patterns over the last three months and suggest where I could cut back to save an extra $200 monthly
Reviewing October–December 2024 transactions: Your top discretionary categories averaged $580/month (Dining Out $215, Entertainment $180, Shopping $185). To save $200/month, consider: (1) Reduce dining out by 40% to $130/month — you averaged 12 restaurant visits monthly, cutting to 7 would hit this target. (2) Set a firm $120 cap on entertainment subscriptions and one-time purchases. (3) Defer non-essential shopping to quarterly rather than monthly. These three adjustments total $215 in monthly savings while preserving grocery and transportation budgets that are already lean.
This synthesis example pairs YNAB transaction history with AI reasoning to generate actionable recommendations. The MCP fetches raw spending data; the AI performs the trend analysis and suggestion logic. Accuracy depends on consistent category assignment in YNAB — miscategorized transactions will skew the analysis. This is advisory only; no budget changes are made automatically.
Use-case deep-dives
When YNAB MCP helps solo operators close the books
A freelance designer wraps each month by reconciling YNAB categories against invoices and expenses. The MCP pulls transaction lists and budget snapshots into Switchy, so the designer can ask "how much did I spend on software in Q1" or "show uncleared transactions" without opening the YNAB app. This works when your budget has under 50 categories and you're checking it weekly or monthly. If you're running payroll or need multi-entity accounting, YNAB isn't built for that — you want QuickBooks or Xero. For solo ops and small partnerships doing zero-based budgeting, the MCP saves 15 minutes per review session by keeping budget context in the same workspace as client work.
Why couples use this MCP for weekly money talks
A two-income household runs a 20-minute Sunday check-in to review spending against their YNAB budget. The MCP lets them pull category balances and recent transactions into a Switchy thread, so both partners see the same numbers without screen-sharing or passing a phone. They ask "what's left in dining out" or "list this week's grocery trips" and get answers in seconds. This beats the YNAB mobile app when you want a shared conversation log that persists across weeks. The trade-off: YNAB's OAuth token expires every 90 days, so you'll re-auth quarterly. If you're comfortable with that friction, the MCP turns budget review from a chore into a 5-message exchange.
When YNAB MCP falls short for board-level finance
A volunteer treasurer for a 12-person nonprofit uses YNAB to track donations and program spending. They want to generate a monthly summary for the board without exporting CSVs. The MCP can pull transaction data and category totals, but YNAB doesn't support fund accounting or grant tracking — so the treasurer still builds the board deck in Google Sheets. The MCP saves 10 minutes on data gathering, but it won't replace a real nonprofit accounting system. If your org has multiple funds, restricted grants, or audit requirements, skip YNAB entirely and use QuickBooks Nonprofit. For tiny nonprofits with simple budgets and no compliance overhead, the MCP is a decent stopgap until you outgrow YNAB's consumer-grade feature set.
Frequently asked
What does the YNAB MCP let me do in Switchy?
It connects your YNAB budget data to Switchy's AI workspace so your team can query balances, transaction histories, and category spending without opening the YNAB app. You can ask questions like "what did we spend on software last month" and get answers pulled directly from your budget. The MCP reads your YNAB data; it doesn't create transactions or move money.
Do I need admin access to my YNAB account to connect it?
You need a YNAB account with OAuth API access, which typically requires a paid YNAB subscription. During setup, YNAB will ask you to authorise Switchy to read your budget data. You don't need to be an account owner, but you'll only see budgets you personally have access to in YNAB. The OAuth flow handles permissions; no API keys to copy-paste.
Can the YNAB MCP create transactions or move money between categories?
No. The MCP is read-only. It pulls budget data so your team can analyse spending, check balances, and review transaction history. If you need to log a transaction or adjust a category, you still do that in YNAB itself. This keeps your financial data safe while letting your team ask budget questions in Switchy.
How is this different from just logging into YNAB directly?
You can ask natural-language questions in Switchy and get answers without navigating YNAB's interface. If your team needs to reference budget data alongside other tools — say, comparing ad spend in YNAB to campaign performance in another MCP — Switchy pulls it all into one conversation. For one-off checks, opening YNAB is faster.
Who on my team should connect the YNAB account?
Whoever owns or has full access to the YNAB budget you want to query. Once connected, anyone in your Switchy workspace can ask questions about that budget data. If you have multiple YNAB budgets, connect the one your team references most. The connection doesn't consume extra YNAB seats or count against Switchy's MCP limits.