Bill.com SSO Active Directory Integration Guide [2026 Updated]

Connecting Bill.com with your company's Active Directory through Single Sign-On (SSO) centralizes user access and tightens security protocols. For accounting and finance teams that manage sensitive financial data, this isn't just a fancy feature—it's a fundamental step in building a secure and efficient accounts payable and receivable process. This guide provides a detailed walkthrough of the benefits, technology, and steps required to set up Bill.com SSO with Active Directory for 2026 and beyond.

Why Integrate Bill.com with Active Directory?

Implementing SSO for Bill.com using your existing Active Directory (AD) infrastructure offers several immediate and long-term advantages. It moves access control from an application-specific level to a centralized, IT-managed system, strengthening security and simplifying administration.

Centralized and Automated User Management

With SSO, your Active Directory becomes the single source of truth for user identity. Instead of manually creating, managing, and deleting user accounts within Bill.com, access is governed by the user's status in AD. When an employee joins the company, they can be granted access instantly through their AD group membership. More importantly, when an employee leaves, revoking their AD access immediately cuts off their entry to Bill.com, eliminating the risk of unauthorized access due to forgotten account deactivations.

Enhanced Security Controls

Password fatigue is a real security threat. When users have to juggle multiple passwords for various applications, they often resort to weak, reused, or written-down passwords. SSO eliminates this by allowing users to log in with their primary corporate credentials. Furthermore, you can enforce your organization’s stringent security policies—such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), complex password requirements, and regular password rotations—at the Active Directory level. These policies are then automatically applied to Bill.com access, ensuring a consistent and high level of security across your tech stack.

Improved User Experience

For your team, the most noticeable benefit is convenience. Logging into Bill.com becomes as simple as clicking a button from their application dashboard, with no need to remember another set of credentials. This reduces login friction, encourages user adoption of the platform, and cuts down on the number of password-related helpdesk tickets your IT team has to field. A smoother user experience means your team spends less time on administrative tasks and more time on high-value work.

Simplified Audit and Compliance

Maintaining a clear audit trail of who is accessing financial data is a core requirement for SOC 2, SOX, and other regulatory frameworks. Centralizing authentication through Active Directory creates a single, authoritative log of all login attempts. This makes it significantly easier to prove to auditors that your organization has strong internal controls over financial system access.

How the Integration Works: Understanding the Technology

The connection between Bill.com and Active Directory is typically established using a standard protocol called Security Assertion Markup Language 2.0 (SAML 2.0). If that sounds technical, don't worry—the concept is straightforward. SAML allows two separate systems to trust each other and securely exchange authentication information.

In this setup, there are two key players:

• Identity Provider (IdP): This is the system that manages user identities and authenticates them. In this case, it’s your Active Directory, likely managed through services like Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) on-premise or Azure AD (now Microsoft Entra ID) in the cloud.
• Service Provider (SP): This is the application the user wants to access. Here, Bill.com is the Service Provider.

The process works like this:

1. A user clicks to log in to Bill.com.
2. Bill.com (the SP) redirects the user to your organization's login page, which is managed by your Active Directory (the IdP).
3. The user enters their corporate username and password (and possibly an MFA code). The IdP validates these credentials against your Active Directory.
4. Once authenticated, the IdP sends a cryptographically signed "SAML assertion" back to Bill.com. This assertion is like a digital passport that says, "I vouch that this is a valid user, and here is their identifying information (like their email address)."
5. Bill.com trusts the assertion from the IdP, logs the user in, and assigns them the appropriate permissions based on the information provided.

This entire exchange happens in seconds and creates a secure connection without Bill.com ever needing to see or store the user’s primary password.

Step-by-Step Setup and Configuration Guide

Setting up SSO requires administrative access to both Bill.com and your identity provider. Before you begin, gather the following prerequisites.

Prerequisites Checklist

• An active Bill.com account on a plan that supports SSO (usually Enterprise or custom plans).
• Administrative access to your Active Directory environment (either ADFS or Azure AD).
• A list of users and their corresponding roles within Bill.com to ensure correct permission mapping.
• A valid SSL certificate to secure the communication between your IdP and Bill.com.

Step 1: Configure Your Identity Provider (ADFS or Azure AD)

The first part of the process involves telling your Identity Provider about Bill.com. You are essentially registering Bill.com as a trusted application.

For Azure AD (Microsoft Entra ID):

1. Navigate to your Azure portal and go to Microsoft Entra ID > Enterprise applications.
2. Click "New application" and look for the official Bill.com application in the gallery. If it isn't listed, you can create a non-gallery application.
3. Once added, go to the Single sign-on section and select SAML as the method.
4. Azure will provide the URLs and certificate needed for the Bill.com side of the configuration. You will need to input the Bill.com-specific identifiers (like a unique Entity ID and Reply URL) provided within the Bill.com settings.
5. Assign users or groups to the application. Only users assigned here will be able to log in via SSO.

For ADFS:

1. Open the ADFS Management console and add a "Relying Party Trust."
2. Use the setup wizard to import the necessary configuration data, which you'll get from the Bill.com Security settings page. This usually involves a metadata URL.
3. Create claim rules. These rules define what information (claims) your ADFS sends to Bill.com in the SAML assertion. At a minimum, you will need to map an attribute like the user's email address or UPN to the Name ID format that Bill.com expects.

In both cases, you will need to download your IdP's SAML signing certificate and copy key URLs (like the Sign-in URL and Identifier/Entity ID). These will be pasted into Bill.com.

Step 2: Configure SSO Within Bill.com

Once your IdP is configured, log in to Bill.com with your administrator account to set up the other side of the trust relationship.

1. Navigate to Settings > Security > SSO.
2. Enable SAML and select your Identity Provider from the list, or choose "Other" if it is not listed.
3. Carefully enter the information you obtained from your IdP in Step 1. This includes pasting the Issuer URL (Entity ID), the SSO Sign-in URL, and uploading the X.509 signing certificate file you downloaded.
4. Save the configuration.

Step 3: Map User Attributes and Test

The final crucial step is ensuring that the user information sent by your IdP matches the user records in Bill.com. The "NameID" in the SAML assertion must uniquely identify the user; this is almost always the user's email address. Confirm that the email address in Active Directory is identical to the email address in the user's Bill.com profile.

Before rolling this out company-wide, test the integration with a pilot group of users (or even just your own account). Log out of Bill.com, and then try to log back in using the SSO method. A successful test will redirect you to your corporate login page and then straight into your Bill.com dashboard after you authenticate.

Common Integration Issues and Troubleshooting

If you hit a snag during setup, the cause is often a simple mismatch in configuration. Here are a few common issues and how to fix them.

Authentication Fails or "User Not Found" Errors:
This is the most frequent issue and is almost always caused by a mismatch in the user identifier. Double-check that the email address (or whatever attribute you're using as the NameID) in Active Directory perfectly matches the user's email address in their Bill.com profile. Check for typos, extra spaces, or different domains (e.g., `john.doe@email.com` vs. `john.d@email.com`).

Certificate or Trust Errors:
If you see an error related to an expired certificate or broken trust, ensure that you uploaded the correct SAML signing certificate from your IdP into Bill.com. Also, confirm that the certificate has not expired. Most SSO setups require updates when an SSL or SAML certificate is renewed.

Error Message about an Invalid SAML Assertion:
This technical error means that the information packet sent from your IdP to Bill.com is malformed or missing key information. Verify that the correct Entity ID and Reply URL from Bill.com are entered into your IdP's configuration. A single typo in one of these URLs can cause the entire authentication process to fail.

Best Practices for Managing Your Integration

• Force SSO Logins: Once you've confirmed SSO is working correctly for all users, consider disabling the standard username/password login method in Bill.com settings. This ensures all users are funneled through the secure, AD-managed authentication process.
• Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Your single sign-on is only as secure as the credentials used. Enforce MFA at the Identity Provider level to add a critical layer of protection against compromised passwords.
• Keep Detailed Documentation: Document your configuration settings, including the URLs, attribute mappings, and certificate-renewal dates. This is invaluable for future troubleshooting, security audits, or handing the process over to a new administrator.
• Regularly Review User Access: While SSO automates provisioning, it’s still good practice to periodically review who has access to Bill.com, especially for roles with high-level permissions like Administrator or Payer. Use AD group memberships to make this process easier.

Final Thoughts

This guide walks you through connecting Bill.com with your Active Directory using SSO, a setup that fundamentally improves security, simplifies administration, and provides a better experience for your users. By centralizing authentication, you assert greater control over who accesses your company's financial data and build a stronger foundation for compliance and audits.

Getting your financial operations tight with integrations like SSO is foundational for creating clear audit trails. When it comes to the tax side of compliance, deciphering complex IRS codes or state-specific regulations for things like 1099 filings related to Bill.com payments can be just as demanding. When you need instant, citation-backed answers to your toughest tax questions, we built Feather AI to help you find the precise code sections and IRS rulings you need in seconds.