Partner flags

When something about a partner's sales looks off, Apex flags them. You'll see the flag next to the partner, with one plain line saying what Apex noticed. What happens next is up to you.

The nightly conversion check

Every night Apex looks at each partner's links and asks one question: do these clicks turn into sales far more often than they should?

It compares the last 30 days with the partner's own earlier history. A creator who has always converted around 9% and suddenly converts 42% gets flagged, even if their all-time numbers still look normal. The flag reads like this:

Converted 42% of clicks in the last 30 days, versus 9% before (12 sales from 28 clicks).

Apex also flags a partner when the rate is very high no matter what came before:

More than half of their recent clicks turned into sales.
More than 50 recent sales, at over 15% of clicks.
Sales came through their links, and those links have never had a click.

A jump against their own history only counts once there's enough to compare: at least 10 recent sales, and at least 100 earlier clicks with at least one earlier sale.

Coupon sales don't count

The check only counts sales that came through one of the partner's links. A sale from a coupon code has no click behind it, so it's left out. A creator who mostly sells with a coupon won't look like they're turning clicks into impossible numbers of sales.

Your first 30 days

Apex counts clicks day by day from the day your workspace starts sending them. Until that history covers a full 30 days, there's nothing earlier to compare against. During that time the check reads each partner's all-time clicks and sales instead, and only uses the very-high-rate rules above.

Other flags you might see

Not every flag is about fraud. Each one says which kind it is.

Flagged by Apex. Something about this partner's sales looks unusual. On a single sale (the same device behind several accounts, a buyer who looks like the partner, traffic that looks automated), Apex holds that one sale for review, so it stays out of your payout queue until it's settled.
Payout check (not fraud). A payout to this partner started sending, and Apex never recorded whether the money landed. Apex pauses that payout and won't send it again until someone confirms in Stripe. Nothing is wrong with the partner.
Balance short (not fraud). Your Stripe balance was too low to pay this partner for about a week. Apex stops retrying that payout and our team reaches out about your balance.

Where you see flags

Partners. In your active partners list, under the partner's name.
A program's roster. On each program's members page, next to the partner.
Payout queue. On every payout row for a flagged partner, with a note at the top saying how many partners with payouts are flagged.

Hover the flag to see what Apex is doing about the payout and any other reasons on the same flag. A partner with no flag shows nothing extra. If Apex can't load flags, the page says so instead of showing an empty list.

When Apex last checked

Under the flags, one line says how fresh they are:

"No flags from Apex's last check on Oct 30." The nightly check finished on that date and flagged no one on this page.
"Apex last checked your partners on Oct 30." The check finished on that date, and the flags you see come from it.
"Apex's nightly partner check is overdue." The last finished check is more than 2 days old, so flags may be out of date. If nothing is flagged, the line adds that no flags here doesn't mean all clear.
"Apex's last partner check didn't finish." The most recent run stopped partway, so flags may be out of date.
"Apex hasn't run its nightly partner check for this workspace yet." Nothing has been checked, so an empty list tells you nothing.

If Apex can't tell when the check last ran, the line doesn't show at all.

You decide

A conversion-rate flag doesn't hold or cancel anything. The partner's approved sales stay in your payout queue and go out with the next payout, unless you reject them first. Apex holds a payout only in these cases: the single sales and paused payouts described above, and any partner Apex's team has frozen or banned. Those payout rows say "Held: partner frozen" or "Held: partner banned" and nothing goes out to that partner.

Apex's team also reviews flags. When a review closes, the flag drops off your pages.