How to Activate a Vendor in Pleo

This how-to covers activating the Pleo Vendor once its corresponding record has been created in the Accounting System. Run this after How to Create a Vendor in the AS, which covers creating the vendor record in the Accounting System.

Prerequisites

Before you begin:

You have completed How to Create a Vendor in the AS and have the AS-assigned externalId (and code, if available)
Your integration is authenticated using one of the supported authentication methods
Your integration can call Pleo’s Vendors API endpoints

Scenario

This how-to continues from the How to Create a Vendor in the AS scenario: the “Greenfield Logistics” vendor was created in the AS with externalId: AS-VENDOR-7841 and code: 2041.

Steps

1. Activate the Vendor in Pleo

API Endpoint: POST /v1/vendors/{id}:activate Example parameters: id: c27ed4d6-3d3d-458e-8f3f-735fdf32a3bc Report the identifiers assigned by the AS back to Pleo. This transitions the Vendor’s state from DRAFT to ACTIVE. Example Pseudo:

activateRequest.externalId = asVendor.externalId
activateRequest.code       = asVendor.code
POST activateRequest to Pleo /v1/vendors/{draftVendor.id}:activate

Example Request

OAuth 2.0
API Key

curl -X POST "https://external.staging.pleo.io/v1/vendors/c27ed4d6-3d3d-458e-8f3f-735fdf32a3bc:activate" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <access_token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json;charset=UTF-8" \
  -d '{
        "externalId": "AS-VENDOR-7841",
        "code": "2041"
      }'

curl --request POST \
  -u "pls_1ab2cd3e4f5g6h7a89b012c34de56f78_gabc90:" \
  -H "Accept: application/json;charset=UTF-8" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json;charset=UTF-8" \
  "https://external.staging.pleo.io/v1/vendors/c27ed4d6-3d3d-458e-8f3f-735fdf32a3bc:activate" \
  -d '{
        "externalId": "AS-VENDOR-7841",
        "code": "2041"
      }' \
| jq

Example Response

This endpoint returns 204 No Content on success. Fetching the Vendor afterwards confirms the new state:

{
  "data": {
    "id": "c27ed4d6-3d3d-458e-8f3f-735fdf32a3bc",
    "companyId": "12abc3d4-e567-890e-1234-abc56e78fabc",
    "name": "Greenfield Logistics",
    "country": "GB",
    "registrationNumber": "",
    "taxRegistrationNumber": "GB987654321",
    "externalId": "AS-VENDOR-7841",
    "code": "2041",
    "state": "ACTIVE",
    "defaultCurrency": "GBP",
    "createdAt": "2026-07-08T10:05:43.530450712Z",
    "updatedAt": "2026-07-08T10:14:02.221310Z"
  }
}

What it looks like in Pleo Web App

Select Accounting from the main left-hand navigation.
Select Export from the sub-menu.
Click on the same row to reopen the details panel for the expense used in How to Create Vendors in Pleo.

Once activation is complete, “Greenfield Logistics” appears on the Vendor field as a normal linked Vendor, with no draft notice:

Vendor field on an expense showing Greenfield Logistics after activation, with no draft notice

Result

The table below recaps the outcome for this Vendor.

Vendor	Pleo State Before	Action	Final Pleo State
Greenfield Logistics	DRAFT	Activated	ACTIVE

The Vendor is now activated and eligible to be matched by future Vendor Sync runs using its new externalId. It becomes available for bookkeepers to tag on expenses and invoices, provided Vendor Tagging is enabled for the company. See How to Enable Vendor-Based Bookkeeping.

What Comes Next?

this how-to is part of:

Vendor Creation Workflow Guide

Get Started

Integration Design

Workflow Guides

How-to's

How to Activate a Vendor in Pleo

Prerequisites

Scenario

Steps

1. Activate the Vendor in Pleo

Example Request

Example Response

What it looks like in Pleo Web App

Result

What Comes Next?

​Prerequisites

​Scenario

​Steps

​1. Activate the Vendor in Pleo

​Example Request

​Example Response

​What it looks like in Pleo Web App

​Result

​What Comes Next?

​Related Reading

Prerequisites

Scenario

Steps

1. Activate the Vendor in Pleo

Example Request

Example Response

What it looks like in Pleo Web App

Result

What Comes Next?

Related Reading