When people data and spend fall out of sync, everyone feels it. Finance and HR teams are under pressure to move faster, reduce risk, and deliver a better employee experience. Yet many organizations still manage workforce data in one system and employee-driven spend in another. The result is delayed reimbursements, reactive controls, frustrated employees, and blind spots for leaders. For UKG customers, this disconnect is not a tooling problem. It is a data alignment problem. One that Emburse and UKG are built to solve together.
Payroll grade data meets employee-driven spend
For finance leaders, any system that touches payroll or people data carries risk. Yet travel, expense, and reimbursements often live outside the systems designed to manage workforce accuracy.
The challenge
- Employee data changes constantly through hires, role changes, manager updates, and terminations.
- Disconnected expense systems rely on static or manually updated employee records.
- Errors surface late, during approvals, audits, or reimbursements.
Who feels it
- CFOs and Controllers own compliance, audit outcomes, and financial risk.
- HR teams own employee data accuracy but get blamed when downstream systems fail.
- Employees feel the friction when approvals stall or reimbursements are delayed.
UKG remains the system of record for workforce and payroll data. Emburse extends that data directly into travel and expense workflows through Emburse Expense Intelligence.
What changes:
- Employee data updates automatically flow from UKG into Emburse.
- Approvals, access, and policy controls stay accurate without manual intervention.
- Finance gains confidence that spend controls reflect real employee conditions in real time.
Legacy expense systems cannot keep up with modern organizations
Many organizations are still replacing outdated expense tools, spreadsheets, or rigid platforms that were never designed to scale across departments or geographies.
The challenge
- Legacy tools struggle with growth, restructuring, and distributed teams.
- Workarounds and shadow processes emerge when systems do not adapt.
- Adoption drops as employees bypass tools that slow them down.
A familiar contrast
- Old approach: Finance reconciles spend after it happens using incomplete data.
- Modern approach: Spend is guided before it happens using live workforce context.
How Emburse and UKG help
Emburse is purpose-built to adapt to how organizations actually work. When integrated with UKG, Emburse Expense Intelligence aligns people and spend without forcing process change.
Key outcomes:
- A flexible platform that scales across teams and regions.
- Expense workflows that reflect how employees are hired, managed, and paid.
- Higher adoption because the system fits into existing HR and payroll environments.
Manual processes slow reimbursements and erode trust
When employee data is inaccurate or out of date, expense approvals slow down. Reimbursements take longer. Trust breaks down.
The challenge
- Incorrect employee or manager data leads to rework.
- Approvals bounce between teams.
- Employees lose confidence in the process.
Who feels it most
- AP and Finance teams spend time fixing avoidable issues.
- HR teams field complaints about delays they did not cause.
- Employees feel the impact directly in their wallets.
How Emburse and UKG help
By keeping employee lifecycle data in sync, Emburse and UKG remove friction from the reimbursement process.
What improves:
- Approvals route correctly the first time.
- Reimbursements move faster with fewer exceptions.
- Employees experience a system they can rely on.
Reactive controls are no longer enough
When spend data lives in disconnected systems, policy enforcement becomes reactive. Issues are found after money has already left the business.
The challenge
- Finance lacks real-time visibility into employee-driven spend.
- Policies are enforced after transactions occur.
- Audit preparation becomes a scramble instead of a process.
How Emburse and UKG help
Emburse Expense Intelligence turns workforce data into proactive control.
With UKG and Emburse together:
- Policies align to live employee data and roles.
- Spend stays in policy before employees transact.
- Finance and HR share a single, real-time view of employee-driven spend.
This shifts oversight from cleanup to confidence.
One connected experience from hire to reimbursement
At its core, the Emburse and UKG partnership is about alignment. UKG manages people and payroll. Emburse manages travel, expense, and reimbursements. Together, they eliminate the gaps that create risk, frustration, and inefficiency.
What organizations gain
- Finance gets visibility, control, and audit-ready confidence.
- HR maintains data integrity without downstream disruption.
- Employees get a smoother experience that respects their time.
See how Emburse and UKG work better together
If you are a UKG customer managing employee data in one place and spend in another, it may be time to close the gap.
Explore how Emburse extends UKG with Expense Intelligence to align people and spend.