Automated Transaction

An automated transaction is a rule that generates additional postings whenever a real transaction matches a pattern. It’s defined with a = sign followed by a matching expression:

= /Grocery/
    (Budget:Food)    -1

This rule adds a virtual posting to Budget:Food for the negative of the matched amount on every transaction whose payee matches “Grocery.” Automated transactions are useful for budget tracking, tax categorization, and allocation — they apply consistently without manual intervention. They run at report time, not at data entry time, so they don’t modify the source file.