80+
Countries with local payment rails, native to the ledger
Comparison · Light vs Payhawk
Light vs Payhawk
Payhawk is a capable spend platform for groups, with real multi-entity spend controls and bidirectional ERP sync. What it does not do is replace the ERP: the ledger, the statutory consolidation and the ERP bill all stay in place. Light is the agentic accounting platform that IS your system of record: spend, AP/AR, and multi-entity accounting in one platform.
Book a demo$2B
Revenue Tillo runs on Light across 8 entities
76%
Cut in Tillo's month-end processing time
4
People on the finance team scaling Lovable to $500M revenue
Compare Light vs Payhawk
| Light | Payhawk | |
|---|---|---|
| Implementation | Weeks, with a dedicated implementation team and account manager included | Fast for cards and expenses; ERP integration is a project of its own and the ledger remains separate |
| Architecture | One AI-native ledger; consolidation posts as transactions happen | Spend platform that syncs into your ERP, with direct two-way connections to NetSuite, Dynamics 365 Business Central and Sage Intacct |
| Agents | Agents complete work end to end inside your controls; every action logged and attributable | AI within spend and invoice workflows; no ledger agents |
| Configuration | Astra learns from your data and suggests workflow and configuration changes to increase performance; applied in-product, no consultants | Self-serve and admin configuration, within spend scope |
| Subscription management | Contract-based invoicing and deferred revenue automated | Subscription and vendor spend visibility; revenue lives in your ERP |
| Spend management | Corporate and virtual cards with Apple Pay and Google Pay, expense capture via Slack, Teams and email, native to the ledger | Native, across entities; Payhawk's core strength |
| Global bill pay | AP and vendor payments executed on local rails in 80+ countries, from the ledger itself | Multi-currency bill pay and transfers; postings land in your ERP |
| Advanced reporting | Real-time multi-entity reporting with instant drill-down; no spreadsheet exports | Group spend dashboards in real time; financial statements come from the connected ERP |
| SaaS metrics | ARR, MRR, NRR, churn and cohort metrics computed from the ledger and contracts, in real time | Lives in your ERP or a separate tool |
| Global coverage | Local payment rails in 80+ countries; multi-entity, multi-currency by default | Broad coverage across Europe, the UK and the US for spend; the ledger sits elsewhere |
Why finance teams choose Light over Payhawk
Payhawk is a strong product and unusually good at the thing most spend tools are weakest at: operating across many entities and geographies at once. Credit where it is due. It is also explicit that it integrates with your ERP rather than being one, with bidirectional connections into NetSuite, Dynamics 365 Business Central, Sage Intacct, Xero, QuickBooks and DATEV.
That leaves the same structural question open. The ERP is still there, still billed for, and still the place the accounts are produced. Light answers it differently: the ledger and the spend platform are one product, so cards, expenses, AP, procurement, consolidation and reporting share one audit trail.
A layer versus a ledger
Every Payhawk deployment has a second system underneath it, and the month-end job of agreeing the 2. On Light there is nothing to agree: the card transaction, its receipt, its coding and its posting are one record on one ledger.
Group spend is not group accounting
Seeing spend across entities in one dashboard is genuinely useful, and it is not the same as consolidating the group. Eliminations, currency translation and the statutory accounts still run in the ERP. Light consolidates continuously as transactions post, with drill-down from the group number to the individual card line.
Where Payhawk fits
A group committed to its ERP that wants far better spend control across entities has a genuine case for Payhawk. A group that wants to stop running 2 systems, and to have the consolidation fall out of the same ledger the spend posted to, is the case for Light.
Signs you’ve outgrown Payhawk
Payhawk is a layer, not a ledger
Payhawk does group spend well, and by design it syncs into a system of record it does not replace. You still run and pay for the ERP underneath. Light is the ledger and the spend platform in one.
Two integrations to keep alive
A bidirectional ERP sync is powerful and it is also a thing to own: mappings, entity setup and reconciliation when the two disagree. On Light there is no sync, because there is no second system.
Consolidation still happens elsewhere
Payhawk gives you a group view of spend. The statutory consolidation, the intercompany eliminations and the financial statements are still produced in the ERP. Light produces them from the same ledger the card transaction posted to.
“We evaluated several vendors. Light won because it covers our full finance stack, revenue, AR, AP, expenses, and consolidation, without stitching together a patchwork of point solutions.”
TanjaDirector of Finance, Omnea
Top 3 reasons leaders pick Light over Payhawk
An all-inclusive platform
Leverage native products for AP, AR, Procurement and budgeting that seamlessly leverage AI and integrate to Slack and Teams.
Superior performance
Whether you are processing 100,000 or 50 million transactions, the Light Ledger is based on a hyper-performant database.
Beautiful reporting
Stop the reporting headache of spreadsheets, and get fast, intuitive reports with instant drill-down capabilities.
More reasons to love Light
Enjoy integrated products that both finance and the employees enjoy using.
Expense Management
Automate expense approvals, track spending in real-time, and gain insights with AI-powered analytics.
Vendor Management
Streamline vendor relationships with simplified onboarding, tracking supplier performance, and enforcing procurement policies.
Cards
Issue vendor and employee cards with Apple Pay and Google Pay globally. Upload receipts via Slack, Teams or email.
Frequently asked questions
Is Light an alternative to Payhawk?
Light replaces Payhawk plus the ERP underneath it: one platform for the ledger and spend, with agents running the work. If you keep only Payhawk, you still need and pay for the ERP.
Payhawk already handles multiple entities. Why change?
Payhawk handles multi-entity spend. The consolidation, eliminations and statutory accounts still run in your ERP. On Light the spend and the consolidation are the same ledger, so there is nothing to reconcile between them.
Can Light match Payhawk on cards and expenses?
Light issues corporate and virtual cards with Apple Pay and Google Pay, captures receipts in Slack, Teams and email, and enforces expense policy at submission, natively on the ledger.
What happens to our ERP if we move to Light?
Light becomes it. The ledger, consolidation, reporting, AP, AR and spend all run on one platform, so the ERP subscription and its integration go away rather than being maintained.