How to use Rules in Gasti to stop organizing the same things over and over

Why automate repetitive financial decisions?

There is a particularly tedious part of organizing your finances: making the same decision over and over again.

Netflix always belongs under Subscriptions. Uber always belongs under Transportation. Starbucks always belongs under Coffee. Part of your freelance income may need to go toward a goal. A specific transfer may always belong to the same account or category.

Correcting it the first time makes sense. Maybe the second time too. By the tenth time, it no longer does.

The problem is not that categorizing a transaction is difficult. The problem is having to explain something to the system that you already know. If the pattern repeats, the decision should be able to repeat automatically.

That is what Gasti Rules are for.

What is a Gasti Rule?

A Rule is an automation that follows a simple instruction:

“If this happens, do that.”

For example:

• If the description contains “Netflix,” categorize the transaction as Subscriptions.
• If it contains “Starbucks,” categorize it as Coffee.
• If an expense exceeds a certain amount, add the Review tag.
• If freelance income comes in, allocate a percentage to a goal.
• If a description is unclear, replace it with a cleaner version.

The idea is not for Gasti to guess how you organize your money. The idea is to teach it your personal criteria once, so it can apply them whenever a matching transaction appears.

While other Gasti features can help you understand what is happening with your money, Rules automate decisions you have already made.

How does a Rule work?

A Rule has two main parts: conditions and actions.

A condition defines what must happen for the Rule to run. An action determines what Gasti should do when that happens.

In other words:

“If a transaction meets these conditions, Gasti performs these actions.”

In practice, you are turning a decision you would normally make manually into an automation:

• “When you see Uber, put it under Transportation.”
• “When you see Spotify, assign it to Subscriptions.”
• “When a large payment comes from this source, tag it for review.”

The difference is that you no longer need to repeat the correction every time.

What conditions can a Rule evaluate?

A Rule can check different transaction details, including its description, amount, transaction type, currency, source, account, or category.

This allows you to create simple automations or add more specific conditions when necessary.

Saying “if it contains Uber” is not the same as saying “if it contains Uber and it is also an expense in pesos.” A transaction recorded through WhatsApp may also need to be handled differently from one received through an integration.

Conditions let you represent these nuances while maintaining control over how your money is organized.

Text-based conditions

Text conditions detect words or patterns in a transaction description.

For example:

• Contains “Netflix.”
• Starts with “Transfer.”
• Ends with specific text.
• Exactly matches a description.
• Matches a more advanced pattern.

These conditions are useful for recognizing merchants, subscriptions, people, recurring concepts, or descriptions that usually arrive in a similar format.

They can also ignore differences in capitalization or accents, preventing minor spelling variations from breaking a match.

Amount-based conditions

Amount conditions are useful when the transaction’s value determines what should happen.

For example:

• If an expense exceeds a certain amount.
• If income is greater than a specific amount.
• If the value falls between two limits.

This allows you to handle an everyday expense differently from a major purchase or distinguish occasional income from a client payment.

Adding an amount condition also helps prevent a Rule from being too broad.

Source-based conditions

A transaction may come from WhatsApp, an email, an integration, an account, or another channel.

Its source lets you define different behavior depending on where the transaction came from. For example, a transaction recorded through WhatsApp may require different logic from an imported transaction.

A Rule can therefore consider not only what the transaction says, but also where it came from.

What actions can a Rule perform?

When a transaction matches its conditions, a Rule can automatically perform different actions:

• Change the category.
• Assign an account.
• Modify the description.
• Add tags.
• Record a contribution toward a goal.

Rules are not limited to categorizing expenses. They can also organize transactions, improve descriptions, add context, and turn certain income into progress toward your goals.

Change the category

This is one of the most common uses.

For example:

• If Netflix appears, assign Subscriptions.
• If Uber appears, assign Transportation.
• If Starbucks appears, assign Coffee.
• If a food delivery service appears, assign Delivery.

Whenever a new matching transaction arrives, Gasti can automatically send it to the selected category.

Assign an account

Sometimes the category is correct, but the transaction should belong to a different account.

A Rule can assign an account based on the transaction’s description, source, or other details. This is particularly useful when you record transactions through different channels and want to keep them organized in the right place.

Modify the description

Transaction descriptions are not always clear. Some include codes, long merchant names, or text that is difficult to recognize.

Rules can add text to the beginning or end of a description or replace it with a clearer version.

This allows you to review your transactions without having to interpret confusing descriptions every time.

Add tags

Tags provide additional context without changing the transaction’s main category.

For example:

• Review.
• Business.
• Taxes.
• Travel.
• Client.
• Shared.
• Deductible.

A category answers what kind of transaction it is. A tag can indicate why you may want to find or review it later.

Add contributions to a goal

A Rule can also turn certain transactions into progress toward a goal.

For example, when freelance income comes in, you can allocate a percentage to a savings or tax goal. You can also configure a fixed contribution whenever a specific type of income appears.

Automation can therefore do more than organize expenses: it can turn recurring income into progress toward an objective.

What happens when multiple Rules match?

Rules are evaluated according to their priority.

This matters because the same transaction can match more than one automation. For example, a general Rule could categorize any transaction containing “Uber” as Transportation, while a more specific Rule could add the Review tag when the expense exceeds a certain amount.

Setting priorities correctly lets you determine which Rule should take precedence and reduces potential conflicts between general and specific automations.

How are Rules created?

Gasti provides a visual editor for creating and configuring Rules.

You do not need to know how to code. You can start by choosing one condition and one action, then add more conditions, include additional actions, or adjust the logic as needed.

Each Rule also displays an understandable description of its behavior:

“If X happens, Gasti does Y.”

An automation should be easy to understand. Being able to review which conditions it checks and which actions it performs helps you stay in control of your transactions.

What happens when a transaction arrives?

When Gasti receives a new transaction:

1. It finds your active Rules.
2. It evaluates them according to their priority.
3. It checks whether their conditions match.
4. It performs the corresponding actions.
5. It saves the transaction with the applied changes.

A Rule does not work only as a suggestion. It is part of the transaction processing flow, helping each transaction arrive organized from the beginning.

Everyday examples of Gasti Rules

A Rule for subscriptions

If the description contains “Netflix” or “Spotify,” assign the Subscriptions category.

A Rule for transportation

If the description contains “Uber” or “Cabify,” assign the Transportation category.

A Rule for large expenses

If the amount exceeds the limit you defined, add the Review tag.

A Rule for freelance income

If a client payment arrives, allocate a percentage to a savings or tax goal.

A Rule for cleaning up descriptions

If a description contains long merchant text, replace it with a clearer version.

How can you start using Rules without making things complicated?

Rules reduce repetitive work, but you do not need to automate your entire financial life on the first day.

Start with two or three decisions you make frequently. It could be a recurring merchant, a subscription, a source of income, or a transfer that always belongs to the same category.

Once you confirm that those automations work as expected, you can add more specific conditions and actions.

The best place to start is usually the transaction you correct most often.

What do Rules not do?

Rules do not try to guess every decision or replace your review of exceptional situations.

They also cannot automatically fix a poorly defined condition. If a Rule is too broad, it could be applied to transactions you did not intend to modify. That is why it is best to begin with clear conditions and review their behavior.

Their purpose is more specific: to prevent repeated decisions from continuing to consume your attention.

Something that happens once may deserve a manual correction. Something that happens every month probably deserves a Rule.

Automate what you have already decided

Organizing your finances should not require repeating the same small decisions over and over again.

With Gasti Rules, you define the criteria and Gasti applies them whenever a matching transaction appears. It is not about losing control. It is about no longer doing manually something you have already decided.

To get started, find a transaction you have corrected more than once and create a simple automation.

You can find more examples and get started on the Gasti Rules