Terminology

Entity

A record in Alloy that represents either a prospective applicant or an active customer. Entities are the data structure in Alloy that is “sent through” a Journey or Workflow. Accounts and Transactions are attached to Entities for ongoing monitoring.

Account

A record in Alloy that represents either the source or counterparty (f.k.a. destination) of a transaction. Entities can have multiple source Accounts, and Accounts can have multiple Entities.

Source accounts are always attached to an Entity record and are accounts managed and monitored by your financial institution.
Counterparty accounts typically represent accounts at other financial institutions, merchants, or external funding accounts.

External Account

An account held at another financial institution that is used for funding and disbursement. In Alloy, External Account records are similar to regular source Accounts in that they must be attached to an Entity record, but they are not normally used as the source on Transactions.

Transaction

Exactly what it sounds like! A Transaction record in Alloy represents a (request for) or any action resulting in the monetary movement of funds between a source and counterparty Account. Transactions are created through submitting Events. The Transaction is always associated with a Counterparty record, an Account record and an Entity record that are specified in the Event request payload.

Events

Ongoing data, including Entities (Persons/Businesses), Bank Accounts, External Accounts, Transactions and Logins are sent to Alloy as Events via the Events API. Events are a flexible record type and can be used simply to store data in Alloy for data retention and future use, or to evaluate the Event and related records through policy logic in one or more Source Workflows.

Source Workflows

A Source Workflow is a decisioning tool in Alloy that evaluates ongoing Event data. Source Workflows are a container for custom policy logic that can either be assessed in real-time when an Event is submitted or at a scheduled time (also known as a Portfolio Workflow). The result of a Source Workflow is an Evaluation, which for real-time Workflows will be attached to the Event in Alloy’s API response. Source Workflows may trigger an ongoing Journey if one is enabled.

Ongoing Journey

An ongoing Journey is a decision configuration that allows you to process multiple workflows or actions based on the Source Workflow outcome. Journey helps to ease the state management of alerted activity and empower the use of multiple workflows or actions related to one or more events. The result of an Ongoing Journey is a special type of Journey Application called an Alert. Please consult with your implementation team if interested in this feature.

Case

A record in Alloy that represents a group of Evaluations which triggered ongoing monitoring rules for a single Entity. Cases can be viewed as a container of suspicious activities for an Entity and are created or updated whenever an Entity (or an ongoing Event) triggers a “case-generating” rule. Please note that Cases have different behavior when ongoing Journeys are enabled.

Alerts

An Alert in Alloy is a special type of record generated when an Entity, Account, Transaction, or Event triggers a rule or threshold defined in a Source Workflow or Ongoing Journey. Alerts serve as notifications of potentially risky or noteworthy activity, such as fraud indicators, watchlist hits, or unusual transaction patterns. Alerts are designed to draw attention to specific events or behaviors that may require further review or action by compliance or risk teams. Each Alert is associated with the underlying Entity and relevant Event data, and can be configured to trigger additional workflows, notifications, or integrations with external systems. Alerts are visible in the Alloy dashboard and can be managed, escalated, or resolved as part of your organization’s risk management process.

Investigations

An Investigation in Alloy is a record type that consolidates Alerts on flagged activity for review. Investigations are created when an Alert or Case requires deeper analysis, documentation, or manual intervention by compliance, risk, or operations teams. Each Investigation acts as a container for all relevant information, including the triggering Alert, associated Entity and Event data, analyst notes, attachments, and a record of actions taken. Investigations can be assigned to specific team members, tracked through various statuses, and resolved with documented outcomes. This process ensures a comprehensive audit trail and supports regulatory compliance by capturing the full lifecycle of the review and decision-making process.