Apex user manualBeta

Apex is an internal mergers-and-acquisitions and corporate development CRM. It runs a corp dev team's entire acquisition pipeline in one system, and replaces the usual sprawl of spreadsheets, email threads, and shared drives with one place where every target, deal, milestone, and interaction lives.

It is built for a corporate development team (an in-house acquirer), not a bank. The people who use it are deal leads, analysts, and the colleagues supporting them. Apex is in beta, live, and in daily use at apex.vibetribe.studio. It is a personal project by Adi Kumar and is not affiliated with any employer or product.

Targets versus deals: the mental model

Two words carry most of the system. Learn them first and the rest follows.

• A target is a company you are watching or evaluating.
• A deal is one active pursuit of a target.

Targets are the companies; deals live underneath them. A single target can carry many deals over time, for example a first acquisition attempt and, later, a bolt-on. As a worked example, the target Northwind Robotics (Manufacturing, DE) holds two deals: "2024 acquisition" (now Acquired) and "Bolt-on talks" (Active).

The gated lifecycle

Every deal moves through a linear, gated stage flow:

Qualification → Evaluation → Active → Acquired

Every advance is gated: the work for a stage has to be done before a deal can move to the next stage, and you cannot skip stages. A deal can also be marked Passed (you walked away) or On Hold (paused). Sections 5 through 7 explain exactly what the gates check.

How to send feedback or report a problem

There is no support email. Feedback, bug reports, and ideas all go through the app.

1. Open Settings › Suggestion.
2. Describe what you saw, what you expected, and where it happened.
3. Submit. This is the one channel for feedback, so use it freely.

Your first login opens a first-run welcome tour, a full-screen guided walkthrough that orients you before you touch anything. Take it. It is the fastest way to understand how Apex is put together.

What the first-run tour covers

The tour opens with a welcome and a note that Apex is in beta, and asks you to watch for broken features or unexpected behaviour and report it back through Settings › Suggestion. From there it walks the essentials in order:

• The targets and deals mental model.
• The gated pipeline.
• Qualification.
• Milestones.
• Notifications.
• Roles.
• The module map, reports, and AI search.

How to get through your first session

1. Sign in at apex.vibetribe.studio.
2. Let the first-run tour play. Read each step rather than clicking straight through.
3. When it ends, you land in the app with the left sidebar as your home base.

Finding your way around: the sidebar

The left sidebar groups every module into three groups, plus Settings on its own. This grouping is the map for the rest of this manual.

Overview

Dashboard, Reports, Tasks. Your daily starting point and your reporting and to-do surfaces.

Pipeline

Deal Pipeline, Milestones, Targets, Board deck. Everything about deals and the companies behind them.

Network & Intel

Contacts, Intermediaries, Intelligence. The people you know and the outside signal on your targets.

Settings

Your profile, notifications, and all firm configuration. Sits apart from the module groups.

How a super admin replays the tour

The tour is not only for first-timers. A super admin can replay it any time as a side-effect-free preview.

1. Open Settings › AI Spend.
2. Choose Trigger onboarding flow.
3. The full tour plays. Nothing is changed or reset by previewing it.

The Dashboard is your daily brief. It gathers the things most likely to need you today into one screen: deals at risk, how the team is loaded, and where the pipeline stands.

It lives under Overview › Dashboard and pulls together four things:

• At-risk deals, so slippage surfaces before it becomes a problem.
• An org-wide team workload panel, so you can see who is carrying what.
• A stage funnel with sub-stage drill-down, so the shape of the pipeline is visible at a glance.
• An All / My toggle and focus pins for the deals you care about.

How to work the Dashboard

1. Open Overview › Dashboard at the start of your day.
2. Scan the at-risk deals first. These are the ones drifting toward a missed date.
3. Use the All / My toggle to switch between the whole firm's picture and just your own deals.
4. Read the stage funnel to see how deals are distributed, then drill into a stage to see its sub-stages.
5. Check the team workload panel to see how work is spread across the team.

How to pin the deals you care about

1. Find a deal you want to keep in view.
2. Add a focus pin to it.
3. Pinned deals stay easy to reach from the Dashboard, so your priorities are one look away.

Targets are the companies you track. A target is the company itself; the deals you run against it live underneath (section 5). This is where you add companies, keep their records current, and decide which ones deserve attention now.

The Targets module, under Pipeline › Targets, gives you a segmented Registry / Watchlist view, screening areas, industry and sector, enrichment, snooze, and bulk mark-reviewed.

How to add and watch a company

1. Open Pipeline › Targets.
2. Add the company, with its industry and sector (for example Manufacturing, DE).
3. Use the segmented view to place it: the Registry is the full set of companies on your radar, the Watchlist is the subset you are actively watching.
4. Switch between Registry and Watchlist with the segmented control at the top.

How to screen, enrich, and keep the list clean

1. Apply screening areas to a target to record the lenses you are assessing it against. Screening areas are configured by an admin in Settings (section 16).
2. Filter by industry and sector to work a slice of the list at a time.
3. Enrich a target to fill out its record with more detail.
4. Snooze a target you do not need in front of you right now, to quiet it without losing it.
5. When you have worked through a batch, use bulk mark-reviewed to clear them in one action instead of one at a time.

A deal is one active pursuit of a target. The Deal Pipeline, under Pipeline › Deal Pipeline, is where deals live and move through the gated flow of Qualification, Evaluation, Active, and Acquired.

You can see the pipeline two ways: a stage board (Kanban) where you drag deals between stages, and a table view with per-user column customization and bulk outcome actions.

How to create a deal on a target

1. Open the target the deal is for (section 4).
2. Create a deal on it. The deal starts in Qualification, the first stage.
3. Give it a clear name, for example "Bolt-on talks", so it is easy to tell apart from other deals on the same target.

How to move a deal between stages

1. On the Kanban board, drag the deal from its current stage column to the next one.
2. If the stage's work is done, the deal moves and the transition is recorded.
3. If the gate is not satisfied, the move is blocked. A deal cannot advance while its milestones are incomplete, and it cannot leave Qualification until the scorecard gate passes (sections 6 and 7).
4. Because the flow is linear, you move one stage at a time and cannot skip ahead.

How to pass or hold a deal

1. Open the deal.
2. Mark it Passed if you are walking away, or On Hold if you are pausing it.
3. In the table view, use bulk outcome actions to set the outcome on several deals at once.

How to read the deal timeline

Every stage transition is written to the deal's timeline as an immutable, logged audit trail. You can see who moved the deal and when, and that record cannot be edited after the fact.

1. Open the deal and find its timeline.
2. Read the history of stage moves, each stamped with who did it and when.
3. Treat it as the source of truth for how the deal progressed.

How to tune the table view

1. Switch from the board to the table view.
2. Customize your columns. This is per-user, so your layout is yours and does not change anyone else's.
3. Select multiple deals and apply bulk outcome actions when you need to act on a group.

Before a deal can leave Qualification, it must pass a qualification scorecard. The scorecard is driven by your team's acquisition thesis: a firm-wide, configurable set of sections and criteria the target is scored against.

What the scorecard measures

Criteria mix two kinds of judgement:

• Qualitative ratings of High, Medium, or Low, for things like strategic fit and product or AI strength. You can leave a note on each criterion.
• Financial hurdles: hard numbers in the Financial Profile section, each shown as hurdle versus actual so you can see at a glance whether the target clears the bar.

The Financial Profile also captures LTM GRR % (gross revenue retention) and recurring revenue mix %. EBITDAC is an absolute figure shown as context rather than a pass-or-fail hurdle.

The gate: what actually blocks advancement

A high score is good, but it is not what opens the gate. A deal advances from Qualification to Evaluation only when both of these are true:

1. The Sanity Test passes: at least one "yes" among the three strategic-value sub-questions.
2. A Conclusion is written on the scorecard.

Every other criterion contributes to the overall weighted score but does not block the gate. The scorecard carries that overall score and a gate-passed flag.

How to fill in a scorecard

1. Open the deal and go to its qualification scorecard.
2. Rate each qualitative criterion High, Medium, or Low, and add a note where it helps.
3. Enter the Financial Profile numbers. Each one shows hurdle versus actual so you can read the gap immediately.
4. Answer the Sanity Test. You need at least one "yes" of the three sub-questions.
5. Write the Conclusion. This is required for the gate.
6. When the Sanity Test passes and the Conclusion is written, the gate flips to passed and the deal can advance.

The scorecard milestone completes itself

Every deal in Qualification carries a special Complete qualification scorecard milestone. It is system-managed, not something you click. The moment the gate passes, it auto-completes. If the scorecard later drops below the gate while the deal is still in Qualification, it reopens on its own.

How admins edit the thesis

The acquisition thesis is the configurable template behind every scorecard. It is versioned (with version history) and firm-wide, for example "IFS Corp Dev Thesis v1", seeded from a template. Admins maintain it under Settings › Acquisition Thesis.

1. Open Settings › Acquisition Thesis.
2. Edit the sections and criteria, including the Sanity Test, Financial Profile, and qualitative fit sections.
3. Set each numeric hurdle with a direction, for example a minimum (≥) or a maximum (≤).
4. Read the built-in "How it gates" explainer to confirm how your changes affect the Qualification gate.
5. Save. Changes are versioned, so the history is preserved.

Nothing advances until the work is done, and milestones are how Apex tracks that work. Each deal carries milestones: the concrete tasks that must be completed in a stage before the deal can move on.

Milestones come from two places: configurable templates (one set per stage, editable by admins in Settings › Milestone Templates) or ad-hoc milestones you add to a single deal. Each milestone has an owner (assignee) and a target date.

Statuses

Milestones move through: planned, in progress, slipped (overdue), done, and cancelled. As a sample, a deal might show "Initial outreach completed" (Done), "NDA countersignature" (In progress, due Fri), and "Site visit / management call" (planned, assigned to JP).

How to set up a deal's milestones

1. Open the deal and go to its milestones.
2. Apply the template for the current stage to bring in the standard tasks.
3. Add any ad-hoc milestones this particular deal needs.
4. Give each one an owner and a target date.

How to complete a milestone

1. Move the milestone through its statuses as work progresses (planned, then in progress).
2. When it is finished, mark it done. Completing a milestone requires a completion note, so there is always a short record of how it was closed.
3. An overdue milestone shows as slipped until it is completed or cancelled.

How to use the cross-deal Milestones page

The Milestones page, under Pipeline › Milestones, is a timeline of every open milestone across all your deals, grouped by urgency.

1. Open Pipeline › Milestones.
2. Read the groups top to bottom: Slipped / overdue, This week, Next week, then Later.
3. Filter by Me to see only what you own, or by lead or assignee to see someone else's load.

Stakeholders see only their own rows here, scoped by Row-Level Security (section 17).

How admins edit milestone templates

1. Open Settings › Milestone Templates.
2. Edit the standard milestones for each macro stage.
3. Your template becomes the default set applied to deals in that stage.

Apex tells you before things slip, not after. It generates notifications for the moments that matter and delivers them where you will see them.

You get notified about:

• Upcoming milestones.
• Slipped (overdue) milestones.
• Milestone assignments to you.
• Stage moves.

Notifications arrive in-app (the bell) and by email. You control each type and each channel independently, with a per-type, per-channel opt-in matrix. Email defaults on.

How to read and control your notifications

1. Check the bell in-app for new alerts.
2. Open Settings › Notifications to see the opt-in matrix.
3. For each type (upcoming, slipped, assignment, stage move), switch the in-app and email channels on or off to suit you.
4. Turn a channel off for any type you do not want, and leave the ones that keep you ahead of deadlines on.

The Reports builder, under Overview › Reports, lets you answer almost anything as a table. Every report is live and permission-scoped, so the numbers are current and you only ever see what you are allowed to see.

Two ways to build a report

• Describe it in plain English and let the description seed a builder, for example "deals in evaluation with ARR growth over 20%".
• Or build it by hand: pick an entity, choose columns, add filters, and set an optional group-by with count, sum, or average.

Reportable entities

You can report on Deals, Target companies, Contacts, Intermediaries, Tasks, Milestones, Qualification scorecards, and Scorecard answers. Target companies expose the Financial Profile numbers: LTM ARR growth %, gross margin %, LTM GRR %, recurring revenue mix %, and LTM EBITDAC in EUR.

How to build, preview, and export a report

1. Open Overview › Reports.
2. Either type your request in plain English, or pick an entity and add columns, filters, and an optional group-by.
3. Reorder the columns to the order you want: drag the grip handle, or use the arrow keys. The output follows your column order.
4. Read the preview, which shows the top 15 rows.
5. When it looks right, use CSV export to pull the full result set, not just the previewed 15.
6. Save the report with a name to reuse it. Saved reports can be shared org-wide.
7. Use the All / My scope toggle to re-scope any report between the whole firm and just your own.

Hit Cmd K (or Ctrl K) from anywhere in Apex to search the whole database in plain English, the way you would say it out loud.

AI Search is a true hybrid of semantic and keyword search, and it reaches across targets, deals, contacts, interactions, tasks, news, intermediaries, and milestones. It thinks with Claude (Haiku).

How to search

1. Press Cmd K (Mac) or Ctrl K (Windows) from any screen.
2. Ask in plain English, for example "IoT companies in DACH", "deals in LOI", "deals James is leading", or "recent meetings with Goldman".
3. Read the answer, along with its confidence, any assumptions it made, and any filters it had to drop.
4. Refine your wording if it assumed or dropped something you did not intend.

Contacts are the people at your targets. The module, under Network & Intel › Contacts, keeps track of who knows whom and how well.

Each contact record captures a relationship owner (who on your team owns the relationship), a relationship strength, a contact type, and the source of the connection.

How to add and maintain a contact

1. Open Network & Intel › Contacts.
2. Add the person and connect them to their company.
3. Set the relationship owner so it is clear who holds the relationship.
4. Record the relationship strength, the contact type, and the source.

Intermediaries are the bankers, advisors, and brokers around your deals. The module, under Network & Intel › Intermediaries, keeps them in one place with coverage notes, and lets you attach one to a deal as the banker.

How to add an intermediary and link them to a deal

1. Open Network & Intel › Intermediaries.
2. Add the banker, advisor, or broker.
3. Record coverage notes so the team knows what they cover and how you know them.
4. Link the intermediary to a deal as its banker when they are advising on it.

Market Intelligence, under Network & Intel › Intelligence, brings outside signal on your targets into Apex: real-time news and signals pulled from trackers.

Trackers draw from GDELT and RSS and are polled about every 30 minutes. The module has two tabs: a Feed of the latest items, and a Trackers tab where the sources are managed.

How to keep an eye on your targets

1. Open Network & Intel › Intelligence.
2. Read the Feed for recent news and signals on your targets.
3. Open the Trackers tab to see and manage what is being watched.

Tasks, under Overview › Tasks, track what you owe and what is due. Each task can carry a due date, and can be attached to a deal for context.

How to manage your tasks

1. Open Overview › Tasks.
2. Create a task for something you owe.
3. Set a due date so it shows up when it matters.
4. Attach the task to a deal when it belongs to one, so the work and the deal stay connected.

Board deck, under Pipeline › Board deck, assembles a board-ready deal narrative for you. Apex builds the deck for a deal from its own data, with AI assistance, using fixed report types and templates.

How to generate a board deck

1. Open Pipeline › Board deck.
2. Choose the deal you want a deck for.
3. Generate the deck. Apex draws on the deal's data and follows the fixed report types and templates.
4. Review the result before you take it into a meeting.

Stakeholders can see board decks for the deals they are on, even though they do not see the rest of the firm's data (section 17).

Settings holds your profile and every piece of firm configuration. Some tabs are for everyone, some are admin-only, and one is super-admin-only. Here is what each tab is for.

Profile

Your name and preferences.

Notifications

The per-type, per-channel opt-in matrix for in-app and email alerts (section 8).

UsersAdmin

Invite, deactivate, and manage users.

TeamAdmin

Org-tier team configuration.

Acquisition ThesisAdmin

Edit the scoring template: sections, criteria, hurdles, versions, and the gate (section 6).

Sub-Stages

Configure the sub-stages under each macro stage of the pipeline.

Screening Areas

Configure the screening areas applied to targets and deals.

Milestone Templates

The per-stage milestone templates applied to deals (section 7).

Integrations

Connected services.

AI SpendSuper admin

The monthly AI answer-spend cap, a spend-by-month chart, all-time spend, and recent AI activity. Also holds the instance data tooling (seed, flush, and reset dummy data) and the Trigger onboarding flow button that replays the tour (section 2).

Suggestion

Send feedback, bugs, and ideas. This is the one feedback channel; there is no support email.

Apex has three visible roles, plus a hidden instance-owner tier. Your role decides what you can see and do in every module, report, and search.

• Admin: full run of the firm. Sees everything, manages users, and edits firm configuration.
• Member: the normal CRM user. Sees and edits all deals, targets, contacts, intermediaries, and intelligence, but has no user management or system tools.
• Stakeholder: deal-team only, by design. Sees only the deals they are on the team for and those deals' board decks, and nothing firm-wide.

^* The AI spend cap and the instance data tooling live in Settings › AI Spend, which only the super admin can open.

A note on super admin

Super admin is a hidden instance-owner tier, granted only by SQL. A super admin can do everything an admin can, plus set the monthly AI spend cap and use the data tooling that seeds, flushes, and resets the dummy dataset. It is the tier that owns the instance itself.

How this is enforced

Enforcement is server-side, through Postgres Row-Level Security (RLS). The UI gating is a convenience; the database is the real boundary. You only ever see the rows you are allowed to see, in every module, report, and search, no matter how you reach them.

Short answers to the questions that come up most, all grounded in how Apex actually works.