Feishu vs Lark:
Expense Management
Feature Comparison
If you have looked into Lark for your company's communication and workflow, you have almost certainly come across Feishu — and wondered whether they are the same product with a different name. The short answer: yes and no.
Feishu (飞书) is ByteDance's collaboration platform for the mainland China market. Lark is the international version of the same product, deployed on global infrastructure and tuned for markets outside China. They share the same underlying codebase and most of the same features — but there are meaningful differences in localisation, integrations, and compliance fields that matter specifically for expense management.
This comparison is for finance and operations teams trying to understand what they are getting — or giving up — on each platform when it comes to expense workflows.
The Core Difference: Market, Not Product
ByteDance built a single platform and deployed it in two configurations. Feishu is designed for Chinese regulatory requirements — VAT fapiao management, Golden Tax integration, RMB-centric finance workflows, and data residency on mainland China servers. Lark is designed for global markets — multi-currency support, PDPA-compliant data handling for Singapore, and integrations with international SaaS tools.
For expense management, the differences show up most clearly in: how receipts are captured and validated, what compliance fields are tracked, where data is stored, and which third-party finance tools can be connected.
Side-by-Side Feature Comparison
| Feature | Feishu | Lark |
|---|---|---|
| Core approval workflow | Full approval builder with custom templates | Full approval builder with custom templates |
| Mobile expense submission | iOS and Android, Chinese app stores | iOS and Android, global app stores |
| Receipt attachment | Photo upload, Alipay/WeChat invoice import | Photo upload; no Alipay/WeChat integration |
| Currency and localisation | RMB default, CN tax fields (VAT fapiao) | Multi-currency, SGD/USD/MYR default options |
| Compliance fields | CN Golden Tax integration for VAT fapiao | GST fields for SG/MY; PDPA data handling |
| Third-party integrations | DingTalk migration tools, CN ERP connectors | Slack, Zoom, Google Workspace, global SaaS |
| Data residency | Mainland China servers | Singapore/global region options |
| AI expense automation (Kopi) | Full support via webhook API | Full support via webhook API |
Where the Differences Matter Most for Expense Management
Receipt Validation and Invoice Type
Feishu connects directly with Alipay and WeChat Pay, meaning digital receipts from these platforms can be imported automatically into an expense claim. For a team operating primarily in mainland China, this eliminates a significant manual step — the employee does not need to screenshot or photograph a receipt that already exists digitally.
Lark does not have these integrations. International teams typically attach PDF or image receipts manually, which is the standard practice for Singapore and Southeast Asian expense claims. This is where AI invoice verification — like the kind Kopi provides — adds particular value: automatically extracting and validating the data from these attachments.
Regulatory Compliance Fields
For Singapore-based companies, the relevant compliance considerations are GST documentation for IRAS input tax claims and PDPA-compliant handling of employee financial data. Lark's international deployment is built for these requirements. Feishu's compliance stack is optimised for CN VAT fapiao, which is a different document type with different validation requirements.
Companies that have both CN and SG entities sometimes try to standardise on one platform — but the compliance requirements are different enough that running both Feishu (for CN) and Lark (for SG/international) is often the more practical choice.
Data Residency
This is often the deciding factor for companies with cross-border operations. Feishu data is stored on servers in mainland China. Lark offers Singapore-region and other global hosting options. For companies subject to PDPA, financial data sovereignty requirements, or clients with data localisation clauses, Lark's Singapore residency may be a hard requirement.
What About AI Expense Automation?
Good news for teams on either platform: Kopi connects to both Feishu and Lark using the same webhook-based integration. The underlying approval API is functionally identical across both platforms. When an employee submits an expense in Feishu or Lark, Kopi receives the event, runs AI invoice verification and anomaly detection, and delivers the check card to the approver — the same way on both platforms.
The only difference in the integration is authentication: Feishu uses CN-region app credentials, Lark uses international credentials. Once configured, the expense automation workflow is identical.
Which Should You Choose?
You are a Singapore-headquartered company using Lark
Stay on Lark.
You get better global integrations, Singapore-region data residency, and a growing ecosystem of international SaaS tools. Expense automation via Kopi is fully supported.
You have a mainland China entity using Feishu and a Singapore entity using Lark
Run both in parallel.
Both platforms share the same API structure, so tools like Kopi can integrate with both. Your finance workflow can be consistent across entities even if the platforms are different.
Your CN team uses Feishu and you want to standardise globally
Evaluate migration carefully.
Migrating from Feishu to Lark means losing VAT fapiao integration and CN payment platform connectors. Weigh these against the benefits of a single global platform before committing.
You are evaluating both platforms from scratch
Choose based on your primary market.
For Southeast Asia, Lark is the natural choice. For mainland China operations, Feishu. For cross-border companies, Lark's global integrations typically have the edge.
The Bottom Line
Feishu and Lark are not competing products — they are the same product adapted for different regulatory environments. For expense management, the choice is almost always determined by where your company operates and what compliance requirements you face, not by feature preference.
If you are based in Singapore or Southeast Asia and using Lark, you are already on the right platform. The next step is adding an AI layer to your expense approval workflow to reduce the manual review work that Lark's native approval system does not handle.
Learn more about how AI expense approval works in Lark, or start a free Kopi account to connect your Lark or Feishu workspace today.
Works with both Feishu and Lark
Kopi connects to Feishu and Lark workspaces using the same integration. Free for Singapore SMBs in private beta.