UKG Pro Expensify Integration Guide [2026 Updated]

Manually transferring approved expense totals from Expensify into your UKG Pro payroll is a recipe for errors and wasted time. This guide provides a direct path to automating the connection between your expense management and HR systems. We’ll show you the different integration methods available and walk you through the most reliable way to set up the connection using a third-party automation tool, turning a manual chore into a seamless workflow.

Why Integrate UKG Pro and Expensify?

Connecting your expense reporting software with your human capital management (HCM) platform does more than just save a few clicks. It closes a critical gap between your finance and HR departments, creating a more efficient and accurate reimbursement process. Organizations that use UKG Pro for its powerful payroll and HR capabilities and Expensify for its user-friendly expense management see several key benefits after integration.

• Automated Payroll Reimbursements: The primary benefit is pushing approved expense report totals directly into UKG Pro as a reimbursement line item for the next pay run. This completely removes the need for payroll administrators to manually key in this data from a spreadsheet or email, significantly reducing the risk of typos or delayed payments.
• Reduced Administrative Burden: Your finance team spends less time exporting data from one system and your HR team spends less time importing it into another. Automation frees up both teams to focus on higher-value work instead of acting as human data bridges.
• Improved Employee Experience: When employees know their approved expenses will be included in their next paycheck without delay or error, it builds trust and satisfaction. A fast, reliable reimbursement process is a quality-of-life improvement that employees notice and appreciate.
• Centralized & Accurate Records: Keeping expense data tied to employee records within UKG Pro ensures you have a single source of truth for all compensation, including reimbursements. This strengthens your financial-reporting process and simplifies compliance checks, making audits smoother.

Understanding Your Integration Options

Before diving into setup, it’s important to know that UKG Pro and Expensify do not currently offer a built-in, one-click native integration. This means you’ll need to use another tool to facilitate the connection. Here are your options, from the most common and practical to the most complex.

1. Third-Party Automation Platforms (Recommended Method)

Tools like Zapier or Make (formerly Integromat) are the go-to solution for connecting cloud applications that don’t talk to each other directly. These platforms act as intermediaries, using the APIs of both UKG Pro and Expensify to create an automated "if this, then that" workflow. For instance: "If an expense report is finally approved in Expensify, then create a one-time payment entry for that employee in UKG Pro."

• Setup Difficulty: Easy to Medium. You don’t need to be a developer, but you do need to be comfortable with mapping data fields and testing workflows.
• Cost: Usually requires a paid plan. Free plans often lack the multi-step functionality or premium app connectors needed for this type of integration.
• Best For: Most businesses looking for a reliable, no-code solution to automate their reimbursement process.

2. Custom API Integration

For large enterprises with highly specific needs, a custom-built solution might be necessary. Both UKG Pro and Expensify offer robust APIs that allow developers to build a direct integration tailored to unique workflows. This could include complex approval chains, custom data transformations, or two-way data synchronization.

• Setup Difficulty: Complex. This requires hiring a development team or using internal IT resources with API expertise.
• Cost: High. You’ll incur significant costs for development, implementation, and ongoing maintenance.
• Best For: Organizations with unique process requirements, high transaction volume, and the budget for a custom development project.

3. Manual CSV Export/Import (The Fallback)

The simplest method, though not an integration, is to use CSV files. A finance administrator exports approved expense report data from Expensify as a CSV file, reformats the columns to match UKG Pro’s specifications, and then uploads it into the payroll system. While this bypasses manual typing, it is still a time-consuming, multi-step process prone to human error.

• Setup Difficulty: Easy, but tedious.
• Cost: None, other than the staff time required.
• Best For: Organizations with a very low volume of expense reports or as a temporary backup if an automated integration fails.

Step-by-Step Guide: Integrating with Zapier

Because third-party connectors offer the best balance of power and simplicity, we'll walk through a typical setup using Zapier. The general principles apply to similar platforms as well.

Prerequisites to Get Started

• An active UKG Pro account with administrative permissions or access to API credentials.
• An active Expensify account on a plan that includes integration capabilities.
• A paid Zapier account to access premium app connections and multi-step Zaps.

Step 1: Create the Trigger Event in Expensify

The trigger is the event that starts your automation. In this case, it’s an expense report in Expensify reaching its final, approved state.

1. Log into your Zapier account and click "Create Zap".
2. Search for and select Expensify as your trigger app.
3. For the "Event", choose "Report Finally Approved." This is a better choice than "New Expense Report" because you only want to send paid-out reimbursements to payroll, not every report submission.
4. Connect your Expensify account by following the authentication prompts.
5. Test your trigger. Zapier will pull in a recent, finally approved report from your Expensify account. Review the sample data to make sure it looks correct before moving on.

Step 2: Set Up the Action in UKG Pro

The action is what you want to happen automatically after the trigger event occurs. Here, we want to add the reimbursement to the employee's pending payroll data in UKG Pro.

1. Click the "+" button to add an action step and select UKG Pro.
2. The specific action "Event" will depend on UKG Pro’s available actions within Zapier. Common options might include "Create One-Time Earning" or "Create Pay Data Batch Entry." Select the action that best fits how you process reimbursements.
3. Connect your UKG Pro account. You will likely need an API key, Client Secret, and customer domain/tenant URL. You may need to ask your UKG administrator for these credentials.

*Note: The exact terminology of API actions can change. Look for an action that adds a non-recurring payment to an employee record.

Step 3: Map the Data Fields Between Systems

This is the most important step. You are telling Zapier how to match information from Expensify to the correct fields in UKG Pro. You will see fields from UKG Pro on the left and dropdowns containing data from Expensify on the right.

• Employee Identifier: First, you must match the employee. The most reliable way is to map the "Report Submitter Email" from Expensify to the "Email" or a similar field in UKG Pro. This ensures the reimbursement is applied to the correct person.
• Reimbursement Amount: Map the "Report Total Amount Reimbursable" from Expensify to the "Amount" field in UKG Pro. Make sure to use the reimbursable amount, not the total spend, which might include corporate card charges.
• Earning Code: Many payroll systems use codes to classify payments. In UKG Pro, you'll likely need to select an existing Earning Code for "Reimbursement."
• Memo/Description: To provide context, map the "Report Title" or "Report ID" from Expensify to the "Description" or "Memo" field in UKG Pro. This helps clarify the payment on the employee's pay stub.

Step 4: Test, Activate, and Monitor Your Zap

Before turning your Zap loose on live payroll, test it thoroughly.

1. Zapier allows you to test the Action step using the sample data from your Trigger. Run the test and then go into your UKG Pro environment to confirm that the test data appeared correctly.
2. Once you’ve confirmed the mapping and setup are correct, name your Zap something descriptive (e.g., "Expensify Approved Reports to UKG Pro Payroll") and click Publish.
3. After activating, monitor the Zap's task history for the first few pay cycles to ensure everything is running as expected.

Common Issues and Troubleshooting Tips

Even a well-configured automation can hit a snag. Here are a few common issues and how to resolve them:

• Authentication Errors: If UKG displays a "permission denied" error, the API credentials you used may have expired or lack the necessary permissions to create payroll entries. Check with your UKG administrator to ensure they are still valid and have the correct scope.
• Data Mismatch or Failures: An employee may not have been found because their email in Expensify doesn’t match their work email in UKG Pro exactly. Consistent data hygiene across both systems is key. Check for typos or variations (e.g., j.doe@company.com vs. john.doe@company.com). A filter step can sometimes be added in Zapier to handle known discrepancies.
• Incorrect Amounts Posted: This almost always points to incorrect field mapping. Double-check that you mapped "Report Total Amount Reimbursable" and not a different total from the Expensify report data.

Final Thoughts

While UKG Pro and Expensify lack a direct, native connection, connecting them is entirely achievable using third-party automation tools like Zapier. Setting up this link removes a tedious manual process, reduces the likelihood of payroll errors, and ensures your team is reimbursed quickly and accurately for their business expenses.

Properly categorizing these reimbursements to align with an accountable plan is also key for tax compliance, as it determines whether the payments are taxable fringe benefits. When nuanced questions pop up around payroll tax or reimbursement policies, getting a fast, clear answer is vital. That's where we've designed Feather AI to help—it gives accounting and tax professionals instant answers backed by citations from the IRS code and state regulations, so you can advise with confidence.