Getting Started with Pfynn: A Practical Walkthrough
You've downloaded Pfynn. Here's how to set up your financial foundation—at your own pace.
So you downloaded Pfynn. Maybe you read why I stopped tracking every transaction and were curious what a different approach might look like. Or maybe someone recommended the app and you're coming in fresh.
Either way—welcome. This post is a practical companion to that first one. Less philosophy, more "here's how this works."
The Core Idea (Quick Refresher)
Pfynn helps you answer two questions each week:
- Am I okay this month? (Your Leftover after covering everything)
- How will I be next month? (Your projection based on what's ahead)
That's the heart of it. Rather than categorizing every transaction, you're simply checking in with where you stand.
To give you those answers, Pfynn needs to understand your financial picture. That happens during onboarding—and it's probably the part that asks the most of you. Maybe 15 minutes if you take your time.
Let's walk through it together.
Step 1: Define Your Obligations
This is where Pfynn takes a different approach.
Rather than automatically detecting your recurring expenses and telling you what they are, we ask you to define them. Because ultimately, only you know what belongs in your financial foundation.
Obligations are the things you've consciously decided need to be covered each month. Not what some algorithm thinks you spend money on—what you have committed to.
For most people, this is somewhere between 15 and 25 items:
- The expected ones: Rent or mortgage, utilities, phone bill, insurance, childcare
- The intentional ones: Emergency fund contribution, vacation savings, extra mortgage principal
- The lifestyle ones: Gym membership, streaming services, subscriptions you value
The key word is committed. These aren't suggestions or aspirations. They're the expenses you've consciously decided are part of your financial core.
Take your time here. This can be a helpful moment to actually think through what your financial foundation looks like. Many people have never listed it all out in one place.
A note on categories: Pfynn lets you mark obligations as "core" (non-negotiable) or "optional" (nice-to-have). This becomes useful during your weekly check-in when you might need some flexibility.
Step 2: Add Your Income
This one's straightforward—though the details matter.
Enter your take-home pay. Not your salary. Not your gross income. The actual amount that arrives in your bank account after taxes, 401(k) contributions, health insurance, and whatever else gets deducted.
Why? Because we're trying to give you real numbers. Using gross income would mean adjusting for all those deductions, which adds complexity. And simplicity is what we're going for.
If you're part of a multi-person household, you might add your combined take-home. One number that represents what's actually coming in each month.
What about one-time income?
You can leave that out of this step. This should reflect your recurring monthly income—the baseline you can count on.
Have a bonus coming? Expecting a tax refund? You'll be able to add those during your weekly check-in for that specific month. Or when looking ahead to next month, you can factor in expected income that's outside your normal flow.
Keeping the baseline simple tends to work well. You can add the exceptions when they happen.
Step 3: Connect Your Accounts
This is where you might consider using Plaid.
I know—another app asking to connect your bank accounts. It's a reasonable thing to pause on.
Pfynn can work without Plaid. You can enter all your numbers manually. But the value of connecting is that Pfynn can pull your current balances automatically, making your weekly check-in a few-minute practice rather than a data-entry session.
It also sets the foundation for features we're building—like being able to ask questions about your finances in plain English.
What accounts might you connect?
Just the ones that are actually part of your financial workflow. For me, that's:
- My checking account
- My savings account
- My credit cards
That's it. I don't add my Roth IRA. I don't add my 401(k). I don't add investment accounts. Those are long-term instruments that don't factor into my monthly cash flow.
This is intentional. Many apps want you to connect everything—which can make setup take longer and clutter your view with accounts you don't think about week-to-week.
Pfynn is about the accounts you actually use to move money around. The ones you check. The ones that matter for "am I okay this month?"
If you're in a multi-person household:
You can connect your accounts for now. Once you finish onboarding, you can invite your partner, and they'll connect theirs. Everyone's accounts roll up into your shared household view.
Step 4: Finalize Your Setup
Almost there.
After connecting accounts, you'll see everything pulled in—but you might have more accounts than you need. Maybe your Chase login brought in six credit cards when you only actively use two.
This is where you select which accounts are "active." Only active accounts factor into your calculations. The rest are there if you need them later, but they won't clutter your weekly view.
Once that's set, you'll land on your home screen with everything rolled up:
- Your total obligations
- Your expected income
- Your connected accounts and current balances
Take a moment to look at it all together. For many people, this is the first time they've seen their complete financial picture in one place. Not in an overwhelming way—just... clear.
Step 5: Your First Weekly Check-In
The setup is complete. Now the actual practice begins.
When you're ready, tap into your first weekly check-in. The app walks you through what each step means—pay attention to those explanations at the top, as they only appear once.
At a high level, the check-in is your moment to:
- Confirm your account balances are current (Plaid helps here)
- Note any adjustments for this specific month
- See your Leftover number
- Look ahead at next month's projection
Even with Plaid handling the data, this still involves you. The weekly check-in is your few minutes of intentional financial awareness. It's the practice that makes the whole thing work.
No app can do your thinking for you. But Pfynn can help make sure that thinking stays focused on what matters.
That's It
The onboarding is the biggest ask. Once it's done, Pfynn becomes a weekly habit—a small practice rather than a daily task.
You'll spend more time setting up than you will in any given month of using it. That's by design. We front-load the thinking so the ongoing practice stays light.
If you have questions as you go through it, feel free to reach out. I read every message at jason.anderson@pfynn.com.
And if something feels clunky or confusing—I'd genuinely like to know. We're actively making the onboarding smoother, and your feedback shapes what we build next.
Already using Pfynn? I'd love to hear how your first few weekly check-ins went. What clicked? What felt off? Drop me a note.