Wave Accounting Review: App Features, Pricing, Pros & Cons

However, most people already use a payroll software so that they don’t have to worry about filing reports and making payments and deposits, so this may not be an issue for you. FreshBooks is a cloud based software, which means you can use it from anywhere. You can download iOS and Android apps that let you painlessly invoice your clients and track expenses wherever and whenever you need to. Switching from Wave, spreadsheets or a different accounting software? Our team will migrate your account, onboard your team, and walk you through the most important features you need.

Wave is a company that provides financial services and software for small businesses. Wave is headquartered in the East Bayfront neighborhood in Toronto, Canada. Compared with free software like Wave, QuickBooks plans are expensive.

The “sales tax” report helps you assemble the taxes collected from your sales and paid on purchases. The “payroll and wage” report helps you monitor the money Wave Accounting spent on your employees’ wages and taxes. To add an invoice item, click on the “new item” button to pick one from your “products and services” list.

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It can help you manage your bookkeeping, accounting and invoicing processes through a few internal integrations. If you’re a small business owner in search of free, cloud-based accounting software, Wave Accounting is worth considering. This is particularly true if you don’t have much accounting experience and would like an easy-to-use, fully functional tool. It’s one of the only truly free options on the market and can allow you to manage your accounting processes in one convenient place. Yes, Wave’s accounting software does automatic double-entry bookkeeping.

• Our Wave accounting review finds the best things the app has going for it are its excellent features and the fact the basic software’s completely free.
• You can send unlimited invoices, create unlimited bills, add multiple currencies, manage expenses and add customers as your business grows.
• Xero lets you add unlimited users in all plan tiers and, similar to QuickBooks Online, can grow alongside your business.

Once logged in, your main dashboard will show your cash flow, profit and loss, invoices, bills and other financial insights. From the dashboard (or the Banking menu on the left-hand side), you’ll be able to connect your bank and credit card accounts to automatically download and categorize your transactions. However, like most free products, Wave has its limitations, especially compared to more scalable small-business accounting software.

The great news is there’s a free app called Wave to help you handle bookkeeping. This is definitely not the right software for you if you’re a large business with advanced needs regarding inventory management. For more advanced tools that will serve larger product-based businesses, look to Zoho Books or QuickBooks Online.

Review of Wave accounting support

No more jumping between Wave and Excel or Wave and sticky notes. FreshBooks has all the features you need to handle invoicing and tons of other business and accounting needs. Wave Accounting is the completely free software platform, but two of Wave’s offerings can make a big difference for freelancers and contractors who want affordable finance technology.

So, if you’re wondering is Wave accounting worth it, in general, the answer is definitely yes. It may not be the best accounting software ever, but it’s an excellent starting point for all those who are just getting started with accounting and bookkeeping for their business. Wave is packed with great (free) features, including creating invoices and tracking transactions. Wave’s double-entry accounting system is designed to help you keep track of your cash flow and manage your business finances. With Wave, you can connect your bank account and credit cards, track expenses, and run reports.

Best Online Invoicing Software

We like how easy it’s to record a new bill and enter an expense without paying. You can snap a photo of your expense receipt and upload it to Wave through the mobile app. The offers that appear on the website are from software companies from which CRM.org receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). This site does not include all software companies or all available software companies offers.

Other capabilities include recurring invoicing and the option to let repeat clients opt into automatic credit card billing. You can connect your bank account to Wave, which will automatically import and match your banking transactions with your recorded income and expenses. Many users praised the fact that it accommodates unlimited users and offers free accounting, invoicing, and receipt scanning features. Its other integrations, such as Wave Payments and Wave Payroll, were added benefits according to users. However, there were several complaints about poor customer service and limited contact options.

Wave’s ease of use

The developer, Wave Financial Inc, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. It fits very well with our small business and makes bookkeeping simple. Unavailability of global enterprise accounting tools is the only flaw so far. Wave has helped over 2,000,000 North American small business owners take control of their finances. Easily take the hours you’ve logged and add them to a client’s invoice. Select up to three two products to compare by clicking on the compare icon () of each product.

Wave is best known for two things—its free version and ease of use. We’ll show how the app keeps track of your cash flow, and go over the most important app features, pricing, and pros and cons. If you use H&R Block to file your taxes, you can import information from Wave to make tax filing more straightforward. Pricing varies depending on your business type and you can choose to file taxes yourself or have a Wave tax advisor assist with filing. The reports are composed of line items rather than graphs, but this is still a helpful and simple layout of company financials. To learn more about how we research and rate software tools, read about SoftwarePundit’s review methodology.

Before you commit to accounting software, it’s in your best interest to shop around and compare all your options. Unlike QuickBooks and FreshBooks, Wave Accounting is completely free to use. It can allow you to manage all your accounting processes without paying a dime. It’s also intuitive so you don’t need to be an accountant to use it successfully. FreshBooks has an excellent mobile app that allows you snap photos of receipts, send invoices and track mileage. Wave Accounting can be a great option if you run a very small service-based business or don’t need more advanced features that alternatives might offer.

Allow your customers to pay your invoices immediately via credit card, secure bank payment (ACH/EFT), or Apple Pay. Finally, Wave’s billing, payment acceptance, and invoicing features all work together to ensure you get paid on time. In other words, Wave has many of the invoicing perks you get with invoice-heavy software like FreshBooks, but at no cost. Wave Accounting also uses double-entry accounting, which is much more accurate than basic single-entry accounting. Most accounting software use the double-entry system, though FreshBooks’ cheapest plan is a notable exception. We love that even though Wave is free and freelance-focused, it doesn’t assume freelancers can afford to skimp on financial accuracy.

Wave accounting integrates with bank accounts, and can accept credit card payments as well as online bank transfers to your business. You can also manage paying outside contractors, and send and manage receipts. There’s no denying that Wave is one of the most popular accounting software tools on the market, and that’s largely due to its low cost and fantastic user interface. The core software tools—accounting, invoicing, and the business bank account—are entirely free, while other tools like payment processing, payroll, and services come at a monthly fee. It’s hard to beat free accounting software, especially if you’re running a small business on a budget. It also complies with accounting standards, uses double-entry accounting and helps automate the reconciliation process, which can help ensure accuracy and save you time.

Wave Invoicing also syncs automatically with Wave Accounting once you’ve downloaded the app and linked accounts. However, these features might not be enough for bigger businesses that need more than a simple money manager. If you need more powerful features — such as repeating bills, time tracking or more reporting templates — it’s worth a shot to look at Wave’s paid competitors.

This site does not include all companies or all available Vendors. For customers who only use our free Wave Accounting or Invoicing products, support is self-service with assistance available in the Help Center and through the chatbot, Mave. While the company does offer email and live chat support, there is no phone support available. Wave invoicing offers customizable invoices and allows you to add your branding to invoices.