Expensify JumpCloud Integration Guide [2026 Updated]

Connecting your expense management software to your central identity provider is a critical step in building a secure and efficient tech stack. An integration between Expensify and JumpCloud allows your IT and finance teams to work in harmony, automating user management and simplifying logins for your entire company. This guide provides a detailed walkthrough of why this integration is important and how to set it up step-by-step using the industry-standard SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) method.

What Are Expensify and JumpCloud?

Before diving into the integration, let's briefly touch on what each platform does. Understanding their individual roles will clarify why connecting them is so powerful.

Expensify is a popular expense management platform designed to automate every step of the expense reporting process. Employees use its intuitive mobile app to snap photos of receipts, which are automatically scanned and categorized. From there, Expensify builds expense reports, submits them for approval based on company policies, and processes reimbursements. It's built for everyone from freelancers to large enterprises looking to get rid of manual expense reports and spreadsheets.

JumpCloud is a cloud-based directory platform that offers a modern alternative to traditional, on-premise solutions like Active Directory. It provides Directory-as-a-Service (DaaS), allowing organizations to manage user identities and access across all their resources—from laptops and servers to a wide range of web applications. Its core features include Single Sign-On (SSO), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), user provisioning, and device management, giving IT administrators centralized control over who can access what.

Why Integrate Expensify with JumpCloud?

Integrating Expensify with JumpCloud isn’t just about convenience; it's a strategic move to strengthen security, improve efficiency, and enforce compliance across your organization's financial workflows. Here are the main benefits you'll realize.

Centralized User Lifecycle Management

When an employee joins your company, the IT team has a long list of applications to grant access to. When an employee leaves, that access must be revoked immediately. Without a central directory, this process is manual, tedious, and prone to error. An HR or IT manager might forget to de-provision an Expensify account, leaving a security risk.

By connecting Expensify to JumpCloud, you automate this entire process. You manage users in one place: JumpCloud.

• Onboarding: When you add a new user to the appropriate group in JumpCloud, they can be automatically provisioned with an Expensify account the first time they log in via SSO.
• Offboarding: When you suspend or remove a user from JumpCloud, their access to Expensify is instantly cut off. This single click protects sensitive financial data and ensures a clean offboarding process.

Enhanced Security Through SSO and MFA

Password management is a major headache for both employees and IT teams. Password fatigue leads to users reusing weak credentials across multiple platforms, creating a significant security vulnerability. Single Sign-On solves this problem.

With SSO, your employees log into their JumpCloud user portal with one strong, secure password (and MFA). From there, they can access Expensify and other connected applications without needing to enter another password. This drastically reduces the risk of password-related breaches.

Furthermore, you can enforce JumpCloud's robust Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) policies for Expensify access. This adds a critical layer of security, ensuring that even if a user's credentials were to be compromised, an unauthorized party couldn’t access your company's expense data without physical access to the user's secondary device.

Improved User Experience and Reduced IT Burden

From an employee's perspective, the integration is a huge win. They no longer have to remember yet another password. Logging into Expensify becomes as simple as clicking a button in their JumpCloud portal. This seamless experience encourages timely expense report submission and reduces friction.

For your IT helpdesk, this means fewer support tickets a month for "forgot password" requests related to Expensify. This frees up your technical team to focus on more strategic initiatives instead of handling repetitive, low-value tasks.

Simplified Compliance and Auditing

Almost every industry has compliance standards that dictate how access to financial systems should be managed and audited. With a centralized directory, proving that you have control over user access becomes straightforward. You can easily generate reports from JumpCloud showing exactly who has access to Expensify, when their access was granted, and what user groups they belong to. During an audit, this centralized logging is far more effective than trying to pull data from individual applications.

Step-by-Step Guide: Setting Up SSO Between JumpCloud and Expensify

The most common and secure method for this integration is using SAML 2.0, a standard protocol that allows JumpCloud (the Identity Provider or IdP) to securely authenticate users and pass their identity information to Expensify (the Service Provider or SP). Follow these steps to get it configured.

Prerequisites:

• Administrator access to your organization's JumpCloud account.
• Domain Control or Administrator access to your Expensify account.
• The domain you use for employee emails (e.g., yourcompany.com) must be verified within Expensify.

Step 1: Create a Custom SAML 2.0 Connector in JumpCloud

First, you need to tell JumpCloud about Expensify so it knows where to send authentication information.

1. Log in to your JumpCloud Admin Portal.
2. Go to User Authentication > SSO Applications in the left-hand navigation pane.
3. Click the (+) Add New Application button.
4. In the search bar, type "Expensify". If a pre-built connector exists, select it. If not, select Custom SAML App.
5. Under the General Info tab, give the application a clear Display Label, like "Expensify."
6. Go to the SSO tab. This is where you configure the connection. Leave this tab open, as you'll need information from Expensify to fill it out. Here are the key fields:

• IDP Entity ID: JumpCloud usually pre-fills this, specific to this application. You'll need it for the Expensify configuration.
• SP Entity ID (Audience URI): You'll get this from your Expensify settings. It's usually `http://www.expensify.com\`.
• ACS (Consumer) URL: This is the most crucial field. It tells JumpCloud where to send the SAML assertion. You will get this URL from Expensify, and it will be unique to your company.

8. Under Attributes, ensure you map the `email` attribute. This is how Expensify identifies the user. Click add attribute and ensure that the Service Provider Attribute Name is `email` and the JumpCloud Attribute Name is also `email`.

Step 2: Get SAML Configuration Details from Expensify

Now, log in to Expensify in a separate browser tab to retrieve the information JumpCloud needs and to input the data from JumpCloud.

1. Log in to Expensify with an admin account.
2. Navigate to Settings > Domains.
3. Click on your verified domain name, then select the SAML tab on the left.
4. Set the SAML Login toggle to Enabled.
5. Here you will find the unique Recipient (ACS) URL for your account. Copy this URL. This is the value you need for the "ACS (Consumer) URL" field in your JumpCloud configuration.
6. Now, back in your JumpCloud tab, paste that unique ACS URL into the "ACS (Consumer) URL" field. Set the SP Entity ID to `http://www.expensify.com\`. Click Activate.
7. After activation, JumpCloud will give you its metadata. You can either (1) download the metadata XML file or (2) copy the IDP Entity ID/Issuer URL and the SAMLRequest/Login URL, and find and export the public certificate. The metadata file is usually easiest.
8. Return to your Expensify SAML settings and you'll find a field called Identity Provider Metadata. Copy and paste the entire contents of the JumpCloud metadata XML file you downloaded directly into this text box. This action auto-populates all the necessary fields on the Expensify side.
9. Click Save in Expensify.

Step 3: Assign Users and Test the Connection

The connection is configured, but it won't work until you grant users access within JumpCloud.

1. In JumpCloud, find the Expensify app you just created.
2. Go to the User Groups tab.
3. Select the user group(s) that should have access to Expensify (e.g., "All Employees"). Click Save.
4. To test: Open an incognito browser window. Try to log in as a user who is part of the assigned group. You can do this by either navigating to Expensify and entering your email, which should redirect you (known as SP-initiated login), or by logging into the JumpCloud User Portal and clicking the Expensify icon (known as IdP-initiated login).

If the user is logged into Expensify successfully, the integration is working!

Step 4: Roll Out and Communicate

Once you've confirmed the SSO connection works, it's time to communicate the change to your team. Let them know they will now access Expensify through their JumpCloud accounts and will no longer need a separate password. You can also enforce SSO in Expensify settings, preventing users from logging in with a username and password directly.

Common Issues and Troubleshooting

Even with careful setup, you might run into a snag. Here are a few common issues and how to fix them:

• SAML Configuration Mismatch: If you receive a SAML error (e.g., "Invalid Assertion"), the most common cause is a typo or mismatch in the ACS URL or SP Entity ID. Double-check that the values in JumpCloud exactly match what is provided by Expensify, paying attention to details like `http` vs. `https` and any trailing slashes.
• User Not Assigned: If a user reports they can’t see the Expensify app in their JumpCloud portal or can't log in, verify that they are a member of the user group you assigned to the application in JumpCloud.
• Attribute Mapping Incorrect: Expensify primarily relies on the user's email address to identify them. Make sure the email attribute is mapped correctly in the custom SAML app settings within JumpCloud. The user's primary email address in JumpCloud must match their user email address in Expensify.

Final Thoughts

Integrating Expensify with JumpCloud provides tangible benefits by centralizing user access, strengthening your security posture with SSO and MFA, and automating tedious administrative tasks. Taking the time to properly configure this connection eliminates password-related risks and gives your finance and IT teams a single source of truth for user management.

While securely managing your tech stack is one half of the equation, tax and accounting professionals must also ensure the expense data flowing through these systems is compliant. When questions pop up around business expense deductibility or navigating complex reimbursement policies, relying on verifiable information is key. This is where having our AI tax research assistant, Feather AI, provides a significant advantage. Instead of searching through dense IRS publications, you can ask direct questions and get clear, citation-backed answers in seconds, empowering you to support your finance policies with confidence.