VPP

VPP — Volume Purchase Program — is the part of Apple Business that lets an organization buy apps centrally and assign them to devices and users, with the licenses owned by the company rather than an individual. When someone leaves, their assigned licenses return to the pool and can be reassigned to the next person.

The reason this matters is what happens without it. If a paid app is bought on an employee's personal Apple ID, that license is locked to that personal account. You can't transfer it to corporate ownership later — when you move to managed Apple IDs, the license is simply lost. Bought correctly through VPP, the same app is a company asset you control and reassign freely.

It's a clear example of why buying and managing within the proper business channels from the start avoids a category of cost and frustration that's effectively impossible to recover later.