> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.pleo.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Detect Draft Vendors

> How to reliably detect new DRAFT vendors created in Pleo, using webhooks or polling, ready to be created in the Accounting System.

This page describes how integrations must detect new `DRAFT` vendors created in Pleo, ready to be created in the Accounting System.

This is the **first step** in the Vendor Creation workflow.

## Implementation

See the corresponding how-to article for API usage and step-by-step instructions:

* [How to Detect Draft Vendors](/docs/current/how-tos/accounting-integrations/vendors/how-to-detect-draft-vendors)

## Conceptual Model

Detection identifies `DRAFT` vendors that need to be created in the Accounting System.

It must:

* Detect vendors newly created in Pleo with `state: DRAFT`
* Avoid modifying vendor state in Pleo
* Avoid re-processing a vendor that has already been created in the AS

## Detection Mechanisms

Integrations may use one of the following:

### Webhooks (preferred)

* Subscribe to `v1.vendor.created`
* Trigger creation processing as soon as the event is received
* Pleo triggers this event the moment a bookkeeper adds a vendor with no matching AS record, so this is the fastest path to a usable vendor
* Even when using webhooks as the primary mechanism, pair them with a low-frequency backstop poll (for example, hourly, using the polling mechanism below): webhook delivery is not guaranteed under all failure conditions, and a stranded `DRAFT` vendor with no repair path can otherwise go undetected indefinitely

### Polling (fallback, only if webhooks cannot be supported)

* Periodically call `POST /v1/vendors:search` filtering for vendors in `DRAFT` state
* Use a controlled interval of every 5 minutes

Remember

A `DRAFT` vendor only exists once a bookkeeper adds a vendor in Pleo that has no matching record in the Accounting System yet. If every vendor a company uses already exists in the AS, this event may never fire for that company.

## Single-Item Processing

Unlike Export Jobs, there is no batching concept for Vendor Creation. Each `DRAFT` vendor is:

* Detected and processed as its own independent unit of work
* Not blocked by, or blocking, any other `DRAFT` vendor being processed at the same time, with one narrow exception: the per-company concurrency lock shared with Vendor Sync (see [Create and Activate: Failure Handling](/docs/current/integration-design/exports/vendors/integration-design-vendor-creation-create-and-activate#failure-handling)) is scoped to the whole company, so two `DRAFT` vendors for the same company can briefly wait on each other for that lock; vendors in different companies are never affected by each other's locks

## Avoiding Duplicate Processing

Filtering on `state: DRAFT` is not sufficient by itself to prevent the same vendor from being processed twice:

* **Webhook redelivery**: the webhook provider may redeliver the same `v1.vendor.created` event. Persist the event's `eventId` and skip any event already processed.
* **Overlapping polls, or webhook and polling running together**: a poll cycle can re-detect a `DRAFT` vendor that is already being created or activated from a previous poll or from the webhook path, because the vendor genuinely still has `state: DRAFT` until activation completes. Before beginning creation, check whether that vendor id is already marked in-flight (for example, a persisted "processing" record keyed on the Pleo vendor id), and skip it if so.

See [How to Detect Draft Vendors](/docs/current/how-tos/accounting-integrations/vendors/how-to-detect-draft-vendors#handling-edge-cases) for the implementation.

## Key Rules

* Detection must not change a vendor's state in Pleo; only creation and activation do
* Prefer webhooks over polling: they notify the integration immediately, rather than after up to 5 minutes of delay
* If polling, filter strictly on `state: DRAFT` so already-active vendors are not reprocessed
* Treat each detected `DRAFT` vendor as an independent item to create and activate

## Processing Order

## Upstream Dependencies

* A bookkeeper adding a new vendor in Pleo's Web App
* Integration authentication configured
* Webhook subscription or scheduled polling implemented

## Downstream Dependencies

* Vendor creation in the Accounting System
* Vendor activation in Pleo

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## What Comes Next?

* [Create and Activate Vendors](/docs/current/integration-design/exports/vendors/integration-design-vendor-creation-create-and-activate)

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## Related Reading

* [How to Detect Draft Vendors](/docs/current/how-tos/accounting-integrations/vendors/how-to-detect-draft-vendors)
* [Vendor Creation Workflow Guide](/docs/current/guides/vendor-creation-workflow-guide)
* [Platform Capabilities: Vendor Creation](/docs/current/platform/exports/vendors/vendor-creation-overview)

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