Obligations and debts

Clatri has two separate systems for handling debt: the one for credit cards and the one for obligations. They work differently, appear in different parts of the dashboard, and serve different purposes. Worth understanding both.

Credit card debt

When you log an expense with a credit card — by chat, statement, or bank integration — that card's debt rises 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 log an expense with the card → debt rises by the amount of the expense, in the corresponding currency
• You import a credit card 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 → you tell the agent from which account and how much ("I paid 2 million off the Visa from Bancolombia"). The system subtracts from your account and subtracts from the card's debt
• You manually update the debt → from the card detail or by chat ("my card now owes X") you can correct the balance when you want to align it with reality

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

Card debt history

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

That means you can review not just individual purchases, but also the balance evolution of the card as consolidated debt.

In net worth, card debt appears as a separate liability.

Obligations

An obligation is a debt between two parties not tied to a payment instrument. Bank loans, money you owe someone, financings, pending invoices — or the other way around: money owed to you.

Payable and receivable

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

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

Payments

Every payment involves an account:

• You pay a debt → "I paid 500k toward the Bancolombia debt from my main account". Your account drops, the debt drops.
• You collect a debt → "María paid me 200k of what she owed, to my Nequi account". Your account rises, the debt drops.

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 the model here is designed for loans, personal debts, receivables, and debt buyouts, 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 due)

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 between them automatically.

If you enable auto-interest, Clatri calculates and applies interest automatically per the configured close day and frequency. You can also define a grace period (days after the close where no interest is charged).

Debt buyout

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 value

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

States

• Active — has a pending balance
• Paid — balance at zero or installments completed
• In default — overdue or non-compliant

From the app

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

In short

	Credit cards	Obligations
What they track	Debt on a payment instrument	Debt between people or entities
Update	Automatic with every expense	Manual or by registered payments
History	Individual transactions + card debt events	Events with interest, fees, periods
Interest	Doesn't calculate it (comes in the statement)	Calculates it (simple/compound, auto or manual)
Payment	By chat ("I paid the Visa")	By chat or UI ("paid toward the loan")
On the dashboard	Accounts and cards section	Financial summary section
In net worth	Liability (card debt)	Liability (payable) or asset (receivable)