How to Use Finzite MCP with AI Assistants

1. A simple formula for better questions

A strong MCP question usually contains four things:

• Metric or topic - what you want to understand (for example, contribution, COGS, advertising spend, revenue).
• Time period - such as the last 3 months, this month, or a specific date range.
• Scope - such as a specific store, online sales, POS sales, or an advertising channel.
• Analysis request - what you want the AI to do with the data: compare, explain, identify trends, rank, or summarise.

2. Understanding expenses and costs

Use MCP to investigate where money is being spent and which cost categories are contributing most to your variable costs.

Example: Find the biggest expense

More specific versions can give you a more actionable answer:

• What are my 5 biggest expense categories over the last 3 months, and what percentage of total variable costs does each represent?
• Which cost category increased the most over the last 3 months?
• Break down my total variable costs for the last 3 months into COGS, fulfilment fees, transaction and platform fees, and advertising spend.
• Which expense is growing fastest month over month?

3. Finding negative trends in contribution

For trend questions, always state the period and the scope you care about. This is especially useful when you need to isolate online sales from POS or a particular store.

Example: Contribution trend for online sales

Useful follow-up questions:

• Show me the monthly contribution and contribution margin for all online sales for the last 3 months.
• What changed most over the period that could explain the decline in contribution?
• Which cost category contributed most to the change in contribution for online sales?
• Compare online contribution this month with the previous month and explain the main drivers of the change.

4. Comparing periods

MCP is especially useful when you ask it to compare two clearly defined periods.

5. Channel and store-specific questions

Use scope words such as “online sales”, “POS”, “all stores”, or a specific store name to prevent mixing different parts of the business.

• What is my contribution for online sales only this month?
• Compare POS and online contribution for the last 90 days.
• Which store had the highest contribution last month?
• Which store had the largest increase in COGS over the last 3 months?
• Show me advertising spend for all stores, broken down by channel.

6. Questions about advertising efficiency

• How much did I spend on Meta, Google, and TikTok ads over the last 30 days?
• Which advertising channel had the highest spend last month?
• How did advertising spend affect contribution over the last 3 months?
• Compare advertising spend and sales revenue by month for the last 6 months.

7. Questions about sales performance

• What were my gross sales, discounts, returns, net sales, and total sales last month?
• Which month had the highest revenue over the last 12 months?
• What is my average order value for the last 30 days?
• How have orders and revenue changed over the last 3 months?

8. Questions about profitability

• What was my gross profit for the last 3 months?
• What is driving changes in my contribution?
• Break down my contribution for the last month into COGS, fulfilment fees, transaction and platform fees, and advertising spend.
• Which month had the highest contribution margin over the last 6 months?

9. Ask follow-up questions

You do not need to ask one perfect question. Start broad, then drill into the answer with follow-up questions.

10. Avoid vague questions

A vague question can produce a less useful answer because the scope is unclear. Add the missing context.

11. Prompt checklist

• What metric am I asking about?
• What time period should be analysed?
• What store, channel, or sales scope should be included?
• Do I need a comparison?
• Do I want a trend, ranking, breakdown, or explanation?
• Should the answer identify the main drivers behind the result?

12. Getting more useful answers

• Use exact periods when precision matters: “1 July to 30 September” is clearer than “recently.”
• Specify scope: “online sales only”, “all stores”, or a named store.
• Ask for both the result and the reason: “What changed?” followed by “Why did it change?”
• Use follow-up questions to move from summary → trend → driver → action.
• When validating an important number, ask MCP to show the supporting breakdown or comparison used in the answer.