Expense management tools can't be chosen on "can it capture receipts" alone. Requests, approvals, policy checks, journal entries, payment, and accounting handoff all matter — and how far they connect end to end decides the finance team's workload. When expenses live in a separate tool, spreadsheets tend to reappear between journals and payments at month end.
This guide compares the options for expense management — spreadsheets, dedicated expense SaaS, ERP, and Sanka — assuming you want requests and approvals connected through journals, payment, and accounting handoff.
Decide these first
| Decision | What to confirm |
|---|---|
| Requests and approvals | Where request paths, approval routes, and policy checks live |
| Journals | Where account codes and tax categories are assigned |
| Payment | Who reconciles reimbursements and card statements |
| Accounting handoff | How journals flow into your accounting tool |
Comparison summary
| Option | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheets | Few items, simple policy | Requests, approvals, and journals depend on people |
| Dedicated expense SaaS | Teams streamlining requests, approvals, policy checks | Journals, payment, and accounting handoff need design |
| ERP | Teams running accounting and expenses together | Broad scope; heavy setup |
| Sanka | Teams connecting requests through journals, payment, and accounting | Overkill if you only need a request form |
1. Spreadsheets
With few items and simple policy, spreadsheets can work — no setup cost — but people must keep requests, approvals, policy checks, and journals consistent, and reconciliation grows with volume.
2. Dedicated expense SaaS
To streamline requests, approvals, policy checks, and receipt capture, dedicated SaaS is a candidate. The thing to watch is how far it covers journals, reimbursements, card-statement reconciliation, and accounting handoff — you still decide who owns account codes and tax categories with your accounting tool.
3. ERP
To run accounting and expenses on one base, an ERP is an option. Journal and payment consistency is easier to hold, but scope is broad and setup and operating load are high.
4. Sanka
Sanka fits teams that want to manage expenses from request and approval through policy checks, journals, reimbursements, card-statement reconciliation, and accounting handoff as one operation. It centralizes the request-and-approval workflow and lets you review account codes, tax categories, and variances before handing journals to accounting.
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Which one to choose
If streamlining requests and approvals comes first, dedicated SaaS fits; for accounting-and-expense unification, ERP works; with few items, spreadsheets get you started. If the gap is connecting requests through journals, payment, and accounting, Sanka is practical because it can own the post-request processing as an operation.
