Skip to main content

Budgets and savings

Budgets​

A budget in Clatri is a spending limit per category. You tell the agent "my monthly food budget is 800k pesos" and from that moment on you can see how much you've spent in that category against the limit you defined.

Each budget has:

  • Category — the expense category you want to control (food, transport, entertainment, housing, etc.)
  • Amount — how much you're willing to spend in that category per period
  • Currency — what currency the limit is defined in
  • Period — weekly, monthly, or annual

You can only have one budget per category + currency + period combination. If you already have a monthly food budget in pesos, you can't create another — you edit it.

Budget vs actual​

The system automatically compares your budget against what you've actually spent in the current period. The result has three states:

  • 🟢 Under control — you're below 80% of the limit
  • 🟡 Near the limit — you're between 80% and 100%
  • 🔴 Exceeded — you spent more than budgeted, and you see exactly by how much

You don't need to do anything for this to work — every expense you record (by chat, statement, or bank integration) updates the count automatically.

Savings pockets​

Savings pockets are separate portions of an account's balance. They're not new accounts — they're divisions inside an existing account.

If your Nequi account has 10 million, you can create a "Vacation" pocket with 2 million and another "Emergency" with 1 million. Your available balance becomes 7 million, but the total in bank is still 10. The money doesn't move anywhere — you simply mark it as reserved for a purpose.

Goals​

Each pocket can have a target amount. If your vacation goal is 5 million and you've saved 2, you see the progress. You can tell the agent "transfer 500k to the vacation pocket" and the available balance drops while the pocket rises.

Interest​

If your savings account generates interest, you can configure the rate on the pocket — monthly or annual, simple or compound. Clatri calculates and applies interest automatically per the configured frequency, just like with investments.

Transfers​

Moving money between the available balance and a pocket is an internal transfer. It doesn't affect the total in bank, just redistributes between available and savings. You can do it from chat:

  • "Move 300k to the emergency pocket"
  • "Take 100k out of vacation savings"