# Understanding business rules > Business rules can help you manage common automations and improve your teams processes by automatically performing actions when conversations are created or Source: https://help.kustomer.com/en_us/understanding-business-rules-BJ9ru6qFm Last updated: 2026-05-22T19:10:45.377Z Business rules can help you manage common automations and improve your team's processes by automatically performing actions when conversations are created or updated. Business rules allow you to trigger changes based on Company, Customer, Conversation, and Message attributes. With business rules, you can: * Add or remove tags from a conversation. * Assign conversations to specific users or teams. * Remove assigned users from a conversation. * Update customer attributes based on conversation attributes. * Change the priority of a conversation. **Who can access this feature?** **User types** Admins can access the Business rules page. ### In this article: * [Overview](#Overview) * [When do business rules run?](#run) * [Migrate from a workflow](#migrate) ### Overview Business rules are simple and perfect for small changes and updates you want to make and manage in real-time. They are designed for the more common automations you might want to create and manage without requiring developers. Business rules allow you to change attributes on objects like conversations and customers. You can use these rules to create simple automations for conversation assignments, such as adding tags and changing priorities. ### **When to use a business rule vs. a workflow** Both business rules and workflows automate actions in Kustomer, but they are suited to different types of tasks. Use the following guide to determine which tool fits your use case. ****Use a business rule when you want to:**** * Assign conversations to a team or user based on attributes (such as channel, tags, or email address). * Add or remove tags automatically. * Change conversation priority or status. * Send a simple auto-response email or SMS when a conversation is created. * Update custom attributes on a conversation, customer, or company. * Re-queue or re-route conversations when an attribute changes. ****Use a workflow when you need to:**** * React to shortcut usage (for example, notify a team when a specific shortcut is applied). * Use conditional branching logic (if/else paths based on multiple conditions). * Call external APIs or integrate with third-party systems. * Count or evaluate related objects (for example, the number of open conversations on a customer timeline). * Add or remove customer-level flags based on calculated data. * Send notifications to internal teams (workflows offer more flexible notification actions). * Control AI Agent assignment (use the AI Agent deploy rules or a workflow rather than a business rule). ****Key differences:**** **Business rules** **Workflows** Complexity Simple if/then logic Advanced branching and multi-step logic Trigger types Conversation events (inbound, assigned, updated, etc.) Any Kustomer event or connected app event Execution order Runs after workflows Runs first External calls Not supported Supported (HTTP actions, webhooks) Configuration Admin UI, no code required May require developer or implementation support ****Tip:**** If your automation only needs to update a single attribute based on a straightforward condition, a business rule is typically the right choice. If your automation involves multiple steps, external systems, or complex decision logic, use a workflow. **Important business rule facts:** * Business rules are created from conditions and actions. Conditions set the criteria needed for the action to fire and actions represent what will be performed when those criteria are met. * Business rules will run after an object (such as a conversation, customer, or message) is created or updated.  * Business rules will trigger after workflows. It is possible for workflows (which can run asynchronously) to finish before a business rule is executed.   * Business rules will only fire, or apply their actions, if the conversation meets the rule's set conditions. * Actions applied by one rule can affect other rules. * Actions in one rule can affect the conditions in another. * Business rules can fire on conversations marked _done_. Rules can fire even when the status of an object does not change.  Kustomer also comes with a workflow feature that is frequently used along with business rules. Workflows are a more advanced automation feature that allows you to automate processes or add custom business logic to take full advantage of the [Kustomer platform](https://help.kustomer.com/platform-overview-H1pn5E3zG). Workflows allow you to create automations triggered when events occur in Kustomer or any connected app, then use conditional branching to add tags, assign users, create customers, or even make calls to external systems. In contrast to business rules, configuring workflows usually requires assistance from your implementation team or developer administrators. For more information, see [Workflows overview](https://help.kustomer.com/workflows-overview-HJFVTZhzz). ### When do business rules run? The great thing about both of these tools is that they work together. Conversations in Kustomer will always run workflows first, so you can create integrations and update anything. Once your workflows have been completed, business rules will run using available data or changes made via workflows. New and updated conversations will start at the top of the rule list, looking for a match, and conversations that match all of the criteria defined will have those business rules applied. ![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/7949a06648449a8bf3691bdb973afc06.png) **Note:** If you have queues & routing configured, they'll run last so that both workflows and business rules can apply changes to help you move conversations through your process. Learn more about [Queue rules](https://support.kustomer.com/queues-and-rules-HyLuJ1KHX). ### **Business rule limits** Business rules are subject to the following limits: ****Plan-based rule limits**** The number of business rules you can create depends on your Kustomer plan: **Plan** **Maximum business rules** Enterprise 100 Ultimate 200 ****Per-trigger limits**** You can create a maximum of ****200 event-based business rules per trigger type****. For example, you can have up to 200 rules using the `kustomer.conversation.update` trigger. This limit includes both active and inactive rules. If you reach this limit, you will see the error: __"too many eventBased business rules created for trigger \[trigger name\] - max 200."__ To resolve this error, review your existing rules for the affected trigger and consolidate or delete any that are no longer needed. Inactive rules count toward this limit, so deleting unused inactive rules can free up capacity. ****Object update limits**** Business rules do not have a direct execution rate limit. However, the objects they update are subject to update frequency limits: * A single conversation or customer record can be updated ****100 times per 10 minutes****. * Customer records updated via the API allow ****600 updates per 10 minutes****. When business rules process a large volume of conversations (for example, during a bulk queue reassignment), these object-level limits may apply. If you plan to process a high volume of conversations through a business rule, we recommend testing with a smaller batch first to confirm the expected behavior. ****Timed rule limits**** Business rules using the ****Every hour**** trigger have additional limits: * They can only return records with a maximum range of ****30 days****. * They can match and return up to ****1,000 records**** per execution. * They cannot run on conversations marked as ****Done****. ### **Avoid conflicts between business rules** Because business rules are evaluated from top to bottom, and because one rule's actions can change the data that subsequent rules evaluate, it is possible for rules to interact in unintended ways. This is sometimes referred to as a "race condition." ****Common causes:**** * ****Rule A assigns a tag, Rule B removes it:**** If both rules match the same conversation, the end result depends on their order in the rule list. * ****A workflow and a business rule act on the same attribute:**** Workflows run first, but they can run asynchronously. If a workflow updates an attribute at roughly the same time a business rule evaluates that attribute, the outcome may be inconsistent. * ****Multiple rules update the same field:**** If two rules both set the Assigned Team on the same conversation, the last rule to run wins. ****Best practices:**** * ****Use rule ordering intentionally.**** Place higher-priority rules above lower-priority ones. Rules higher in the list are evaluated first. * ****Avoid overlapping conditions.**** If two rules can match the same conversation, ensure their conditions are mutually exclusive or that their actions do not conflict. * ****Use Match All conditions to narrow scope.**** Adding a status or tag check (for example, __Conversation Status Does Not Equal Done__) prevents a rule from firing on conversations that another rule has already processed. * ****Test changes carefully.**** When reordering or modifying rules, test with a scoped condition first. ### Migrate from a workflow You may find that you have a few workflows that already exist and can be moved over to business rules. We recommend that you create the new business rule first, activate it, and then turn off the workflow. Do not delete the workflow just yet. Ensure the business rule and its order work the way you expect before deleting the workflow. ### **Manage business rules via the API** You can create, update, and manage business rules programmatically using the Kustomer API. For endpoint details, request formats, and examples, see the [Business Rules API reference](https://developer.kustomer.com/) in the Kustomer developer documentation. ### **Export business rules using the API** Kustomer does not include a native export option for business rules in the UI. To export a list of your active business rules, use the Business Rules API endpoint. To retrieve all business rules: 1. Send a GET request to `https://{orgname}.api.kustomerapp.com/v1/business-rules` 2. The response returns all business rules, including their names, conditions, actions, and active/inactive status. 3. Parse or save the JSON response to the format you need (for example, CSV or spreadsheet). ****Note:**** You need an API token with `org.admin.businessrule.read` permission. ### ****Business Rule Limits and Bulk Operations**** Business rules are not subject to Kustomer's standard API rate limits. However, the following limits apply: * ****Plan-based rule limits:**** Enterprise supports up to 100 business rules; Ultimate supports up to 200. * ****Workflow execution limits:**** If a business rule triggers a workflow, that workflow is subject to the standard limit of 1,000 requests per 30 seconds per event type. * ****Object update limits:**** Conversations can be updated 100 times in 10 minutes. Customer records via the API allow 600 updates in 10 minutes. For large-scale bulk operations, contact Kustomer Support to discuss the best approach.