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Overview

The Rules Engine lets you define conditions and actions that fire automatically — no code required. Rules can trigger on document events, case status changes, or a recurring schedule. Navigate to Rules Engine in the sidebar to manage your rules.

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Trigger Types

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📥 Document Event

Fires immediately after a document is processed and reaches Ready status. Available events:
  • document_ready — fires after every successful AI extraction
Use case: Flag low-confidence documents, create cases for review, move documents to folders, notify your team.

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📋 Case Event

Fires when a case changes to a specific status. Available events:
EventWhen it fires
case_resolvedCase marked as Resolved
case_closedCase marked as Closed
case_readyCase marked as Ready
case_in_progressCase marked as In Progress
case_newNew case created
case_backlogCase moved to Backlog
Use case: Auto-approve documents when their linked case is resolved. Trigger webhooks to external systems on case completion.

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⏰ Schedule (Heartbeat)

Scans all documents on a recurring timer. Configure the interval in minutes (e.g. every 60 minutes). The rule evaluates every document that matches its conditions on each scan. Use case: Alert on documents stalled in Needs Review for more than 3 days. Weekly compliance checks.

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Conditions

Each rule supports up to 5 conditions combined with AND logic.
FieldAvailable Operators
confidence_scoregreater than, less than, equal to
total_amountgreater than, less than, equal to
statusequals, contains
doc_typeequals, contains
vendor_nameis empty, is not empty, contains
days_in_statusgreater than (heartbeat only)
Any custom fieldequals, contains, is empty

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Actions

ActionWhat it does
set_statusChanges the document status
create_caseCreates a new case linked to the document
move_folderMoves the document to a specified folder
notifyCreates an in-app notification
webhookPOSTs a payload to an external URL
flag_reviewSets status to Needs Review

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Multi-Step Approval Workflows

Case-event rules enable chained automation across documents and cases. Example: Low confidence → human review → auto-approve 
Rule 1 (Document Event):
  Trigger: document_ready
  Condition: confidence_score < 70
  Action: create_case (priority: High)

Rule 2 (Case Event):
  Trigger: case_resolved
  Action: set_status → Approved

Rule 3 (Document Event):
  Trigger: document_ready (status = Approved)
  Action: webhook → QuickBooks endpoint
When a document extracts at 65% confidence, Rule 1 creates a High-priority case. An accountant reviews the document, resolves the case. Rule 2 fires and auto-approves the document. Rule 3 fires and exports to QuickBooks.

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Loop Protection

The Rules Engine includes automatic loop detection. If a rule chain triggers itself recursively, execution stops after 5 levels of depth. Example of a loop that would be caught: 
case_resolved → set_status Approved → document event → create_case → case_resolved → ...
The system logs a warning and stops execution at depth 5. No infinite loops are possible.

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Default Rules

Every fresh RecordEngine deployment seeds 3 default rules:
RuleConditionAction
Low Confidence Extractionconfidence_score < 70create_case (High)
Invoice Missing Vendor Namedoc_type contains invoice AND vendor_name is emptycreate_case (Medium)
Large Invoice Requires Approvaltotal_amount > 10000create_case (High)
These can be edited, disabled, or deleted from the Rules Engine page.

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Execution Log

Every rule firing is recorded in the Rule Execution Log at the bottom of the Rules Engine page. Each entry shows:
  • 📥 Document event / 📋 Case event / ⏰ Heartbeat icon
  • Rule name and document/case it fired on
  • Action taken and whether it succeeded
  • Timestamp
The Automation Flow graph in each document’s detail view shows the visual chain of events for that specific document.

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API

Rules can also be managed via the REST API. See API Reference → Rules for full endpoint documentation.