Obligations and debts

Clatri has two separate systems for handling debt: credit cards and obligations. They work differently, show up in different parts of the dashboard, and serve different purposes. It's worth understanding both.

Credit card debt

When you record an expense with a credit card -- by chat, statement, or banking integration -- the card's debt goes up automatically. You don't have to do anything extra. If the card is used in multiple currencies, the system tracks debt per currency separately.

The full flow:

• You record an expense with the card -> debt goes up by the expense amount, in the corresponding currency
• You import a CC statement -> transactions are recorded as expenses and the system can also sync the actual debt balance from the statement per currency
• You pay the card -> tell the agent from which account and how much ("pague 2 millones de la Visa desde Bancolombia" -- paid 2 million on the Visa from Bancolombia). The system deducts from your account and reduces the card's debt
• You update debt manually -> from the card detail or by chat ("mi tarjeta ahora debe X" -- my card now owes X) you can correct the balance when you want to align it with reality

On the card detail screen you see: total debt broken down by currency, a utilization bar against the credit limit, a 6-month evolution chart, the transaction history, and a separate debt history.

Credit card debt history

Credit card debt has its own event system, separate from obligations.

Today that history includes:

• Statement updates -- store previous and new balance, interest, fees, minimum payment, and period dates
• Payments -- store how much the debt dropped when you paid from an account
• Manual adjustments -- store the correction when you sync the balance manually

This means you can review not just individual purchases, but also how the card's balance evolved as a consolidated debt.

In net worth, credit card debt shows as a separate liability.

Obligations

An obligation is a debt between two parties that isn't tied to a payment instrument. Bank loans, money you owe someone, financing plans, pending invoices -- or the reverse: money someone owes you.

Payable and receivable

• Payable -- you owe someone. A bank loan, appliance financing, money a friend lent you.
• Receivable -- someone owes you. You lent money to a family member, a client hasn't paid you, a friend owes you their share.

In net worth: payable debts subtract, receivable debts add. They're separate categories from credit card debt.

Payments

Each payment involves an account:

• You pay a debt -> "abone 500 mil a la deuda con Bancolombia desde mi cuenta principal" (paid 500k toward the Bancolombia debt from my main account). Your account goes down, the debt goes down.
• You collect a debt -> "Maria me pago 200 mil de lo que me debia, a mi cuenta de Nequi" (Maria paid me 200k of what she owed, to my Nequi account). Your account goes up, the debt goes down.

You can make partial or full payments. When the balance reaches zero, the obligation moves to paid status.

Event history

Obligations also have their own event history. The difference is that this model is designed for loans, personal debts, receivables, and debt transfers -- not for cards.

If you update the balance because a statement arrived, the event stores:

• Previous and new balance
• Interest charged
• Fees
• Minimum payment
• Period dates (start, end, payment date)

After months of paying a loan, you can review exactly how much went to principal, how much to interest, and how much to fees.

Interest

Obligations support simple and compound interest. You can enter the rate in monthly or annual format -- the system converts automatically between both.

If you enable auto-interest, Clatri calculates and applies interest automatically based on the closing date and configured frequency. You can also set a grace period (days after closing where no interest is charged).

Debt transfer

When you transfer a debt from one bank to another because they offer better terms. In Clatri:

1. The original obligation is closed
2. A new one is created with the new bank, linked to the previous one for traceability
3. The new one records the terms: original rate, new rate, number of installments, monthly payment

Each month you record the installment payment. The system tracks how many are done and how many remain. When all are completed, it's marked as paid.

Statuses

• Active -- has outstanding balance
• Paid -- balance at zero or installments completed
• Overdue -- past due or in default

From the app

Obligations can be created and edited from both the chat and the UI (form screen in the Money dashboard). The detail screen shows the balance, progress, interest rates, and a timeline with all events.

Summary

	Credit cards	Obligations
What they track	Debt from a payment instrument	Debt between people or entities
Updates	Automatic with each expense	Manual or via recorded payments
History	Individual transactions + card debt events	Events with interest, fees, periods
Interest	Doesn't calculate (comes from the statement)	Calculates (simple/compound, auto or manual)
Payment	By chat ("pague la Visa")	By chat or UI ("abone al prestamo")
In the dashboard	Accounts and cards section	Financial summary section
In net worth	Liability (card debt)	Liability (payable) or asset (receivable)