# Financial Cents MCP vs Shortcut

> Shortcut scores 60.2 (C) to Financial Cents MCP's 39.7 (E) for issues and tasks. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-shortcut
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-shortcut.md (~2,800 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-shortcut.min.md (~830 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-shortcut.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-10-27

Shortcut scores 60.2 (C) on agent readiness against Financial Cents MCP's 39.7 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Financial Cents MCP leads on security & auth. Both do issues and tasks.

- Financial Cents MCP: grade E, 39.7/100, rank #1093 of 1212. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/financial-cents-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/financial-cents-mcp.json
- Shortcut: grade C, 60.2/100, rank #595 of 1212. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/shortcut.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shortcut.json
- Best project and task management tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/project-management/index.md
- All 152 projects comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/project-management/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Financial Cents MCP (E)

Good for: Accounting, bookkeeping and tax firms on Financial Cents Scale who want an assistant to answer workload, billing and client questions and log time or create tasks.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 61 against 54

Watch for: One OAuth scope, `mcp:use`, covers reads and every write, including sending, charging and voiding invoices

### Shortcut (C)

Good for: Software teams already on Shortcut that want an agent to search, create and update stories, epics, iterations and docs, and coding agents that pick up assigned stories.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 64 against 23
- Schema & documentation, 75 against 40
- Agent ergonomics, 57 against 48
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 25
- Maintenance & community, 73 against 50
- Transparency & trust, 73 against 53

Watch for: The v3 docs still allow the API token as a `token` query parameter, marked deprecated with no removal date


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Financial Cents MCP | Shortcut | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 23 | 64 | Shortcut +41 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 40 | 75 | Shortcut +35 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 48 | 57 | Shortcut +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 61 | 54 | Financial Cents MCP +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 30 | Shortcut +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 73 | Shortcut +23 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 53 | 73 | Shortcut +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **39.7 · E** | **60.2 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Financial Cents MCP | Shortcut |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Financial Cents LLC | Shortcut Software Company |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://app.financial-cents.com/mcp` | `https://api.app.shortcut.com` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted service under Financial Cents' terms of use, which are hosted on iubenda and weren't read because iubenda's robots.txt disallows them. No source is public | Proprietary service under Shortcut's terms of service. The JavaScript client and the archived MCP server on GitHub are MIT |
| Tools exposed | 40 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-09-22 |
| Terms last updated |  | 2025-09-18 |
| Privacy policy last updated |  | 2025-07-11 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 142 stars, 103k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Financial Cents MCP.** The server gives assistants 40 tools over an accounting firm's Financial Cents data, under the user's own permissions and bound to one firm by OAuth. Tool descriptions are detailed and client chat is marked as untrusted. It can send and charge invoices with one undivided scope, and there's no status page, numeric MCP rate limit or readable tool schema.

**Shortcut.** REST API v3 and the hosted MCP server are included on the Free plan, with downloadable OpenAPI files and OAuth scopes down to story or comment writes on the MCP side. The API still accepts the token in a query string, and no idempotency keys, Retry-After header, uptime SLA or API changelog were found in the reviewed documentation.

## Before you call either

### Financial Cents MCP

1. Call `whoami` first and work out date windows from `user.timezone`, not `company.timezone`
2. Resolve clients and projects with `list_clients` or `list_projects` search, since `lookup` covers only reference data such as users, tags and service items
3. Check money units per tool. Invoices, payments, proposals and credit memos use integer cents, while time entries and service-item rates use dollars
4. Never retry a successful `invoice_actions`, `proposal_actions` or credit-memo create, since a second call can email or charge the client again
5. Get the person's approval before any write, and use `preview: true` before sending a proposal

### Shortcut

1. Send the v3 token in the `Shortcut-Token` header. v4 (alpha) takes `Authorization: Bearer` with `sct_ro_` or `sct_rw_` tokens, and v3 tokens don't work there.
2. Create a story with `name` and `workflow_state_id`. Sending both `workflow_state_id` and `project_id`, or neither, is rejected.
3. Use `GET /api/v3/search/stories` with `detail=slim`, `page_size` (1 to 250) and the `next` token. Many other v3 list endpoints return every record at once.
4. Stay under 200 requests a minute and add your own backoff on 429, because no Retry-After header is documented.
5. For MCP, connect to https://mcp.shortcut.com/mcp and request only the scopes needed, such as `read` or `story-write`.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Financial Cents MCP or Shortcut?

Shortcut scores 60.2 (C) on agent readiness against Financial Cents MCP's 39.7 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Financial Cents MCP leads on security & auth.

### Do Financial Cents MCP and Shortcut need an API key?

Financial Cents MCP uses an OAuth sign-in. Shortcut takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Financial Cents MCP and Shortcut without installing anything?

Yes. Financial Cents MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://app.financial-cents.com/mcp and Shortcut at https://api.app.shortcut.com.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-shortcut.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-shortcut.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "financial-cents-mcp", "b": "shortcut"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare financial-cents-mcp shortcut`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/financial-cents-mcp.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shortcut.json

## Other comparisons with Financial Cents MCP or Shortcut

- [Asana vs Financial Cents MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asana-vs-financial-cents-mcp.md)
- [Asana vs Shortcut](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asana-vs-shortcut.md)
- [Atlassian Rovo MCP Server vs Financial Cents MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlassian-rovo-mcp-vs-financial-cents-mcp.md)
- [Atlassian Rovo MCP Server vs Shortcut](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlassian-rovo-mcp-vs-shortcut.md)
- [Basecamp vs Financial Cents MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basecamp-vs-financial-cents-mcp.md)
- [Basecamp vs Shortcut](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basecamp-vs-shortcut.md)
- [ClickUp vs Financial Cents MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clickup-vs-financial-cents-mcp.md)
- [ClickUp vs Shortcut](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clickup-vs-shortcut.md)
- [Financial Cents MCP vs Linear MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-linear-mcp.md)
- [Financial Cents MCP vs monday.com](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-monday.md)
- [Financial Cents MCP vs OpenProject](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-openproject.md)
- [Financial Cents MCP vs Plane](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-plane.md)
- [Financial Cents MCP vs Redmine](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-redmine.md)
- [Financial Cents MCP vs Roma](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-roma.md)
- [Financial Cents MCP vs Taiga](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-taiga.md)
- [Financial Cents MCP vs Teamwork.com](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-teamwork.md)
- [Financial Cents MCP vs Todoist](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-todoist.md)
- [Financial Cents MCP vs Trello](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-trello.md)
- [Financial Cents MCP vs Wrike](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-wrike.md)
- [Financial Cents MCP vs YouTrack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-cents-mcp-vs-youtrack.md)
- [Linear MCP vs Shortcut](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linear-mcp-vs-shortcut.md)
- [monday.com vs Shortcut](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/monday-vs-shortcut.md)
- [OpenProject vs Shortcut](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openproject-vs-shortcut.md)
- [Plane vs Shortcut](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plane-vs-shortcut.md)
- [Redmine vs Shortcut](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/redmine-vs-shortcut.md)
- [Roma vs Shortcut](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/roma-vs-shortcut.md)
- [Shortcut vs Taiga](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-taiga.md)
- [Shortcut vs Teamwork.com](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-teamwork.md)
- [Shortcut vs Todoist](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-todoist.md)
- [Shortcut vs Trello](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-trello.md)
- [Shortcut vs Wrike](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-wrike.md)
- [Shortcut vs YouTrack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-youtrack.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp