The "hacker way" was a small nod to the recent Facebook filing - I don't it necessary implies any kind of elegant design.

Zuckerberg explains "hacking just means building something quickly... Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo...Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to get everything right all at once."

Email is super-convenient though, and honestly I can't say that I've ever had an email just vanish into the ether, though certainly that's possible. How often does Accounting lose an expense report or receipt? I bet it's more often than emails get lost... especially intra-company emails.

A simple web page on the company intranet that let you upload the scan, and key in a description and amount, would be more reliable but somewhat less convenient. It's a trade-off.