About Wave Accounting
What is Wave Accounting?
Wave Accounting, part of Wave’s suite of financial products, is a web-based accounting platform designed to help small businesses manage income, expenses, payments, and invoices.
How do you use Wave Accounting?
Wave Accounting requires no downloads and is accessible from web-connected devices. Data can be imported from other apps, such as Quickbooks. From an online interface, users can access visual dashboards, reporting, invoicing tools, and more.
Who uses Wave Accounting?
Wave Accounting is used by small business owners, freelancers, accountants, bookkeepers, and tax preparers.
How much does Wave Accounting cost?
Wave Accounting is free. Upgraded plans with more features are available for other Wave products.
Does Wave Accounting have an app?
Yes, the Wave Invoicing app (for iOS and Android) provides on-the-go access to invoices.
Wave Accounting pricing
Wave Accounting has a free version and offers a free trial.
Alternatives to Wave Accounting
Wave Accounting Reviews
Feature rating
- Industry: Design
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Awesome free accounting online software for your business that is super professional!
There is very little more I can ask for with Wave for my small business. It is free for the features I need and allows me to take only ACH or credit card payments with a reasonable fee and I only pay the fixed percentage when I use those features so I can just turn it off and get a check from a client and not pay anything. Great Flexibility!
Pros
Its free for small businesses that just need a good business accounting software! You can take ACH and CC payments if you want and turn them off on invoices you don't want it on. The rates are reasonable enough for using these services. The reports are easy enough for doing taxes. It's awesome and cheap for those that are one man shows or freelancers.
Cons
The thing that is the most annoying is when you want to do a recurring billing. It doesn't use something like Maintenance contract #1 then go to #2 or something like that it makes recurring billing invoice names that were the most recent of any invoices. Maybe I am not using it correctly, but each time I have to go and change invoice names then manually send it to the client.
Alternatives Considered
Quickbooks OnlineReasons for Switching to Wave Accounting
I originally chose Wave as it was free. Now I just love it and it works well for me so no reason to even look somewhere else.- Industry: Accounting
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
We no longer accept Quickbooks clients after finding WAVE Accounting!
No matter what complaints we have, we 100% now use Wave Accounting. We no longer accept Quickbooks clients and encourage any nw client consultations to switch over. For every new start-up business we assist, we automatically set up a wave accounting software for them and help them sync their busienss bank accounts. We also assist former Quickbooks users to switch over and set everything up for them.
Pros
This software is 100% FREE to use! No gimmicks, no catches. I was skeptical when one of my clients told me he used this. I did NOT want to lean yet another accounting software, but once I logged in and found out how easy and streamlined this software was to use, I was 100% sold on it! The ONLY fees they charge are IF you decide to use their payroll (I highly advise AGAINST using their payroll, it needs an overhaul), or IF you use them for payment processing of invoices you send to clients. The fees for using their payment processing are similar to those of Square and Stripe and a small price to pay for the amazing software. I would encourage you to use their payment processing so this service can remain on the free billing platform with no monthly charges!
Cons
1) Reporting abilities are lackluster! No way to print "no receipts attached" reports for clients. 2) Sometimes has glitches. We will work in this software, then log in later and all of the work we did has disappeared. Major panic attacks more than once! Still having problems with one account in particular. If I log in on an incognito window, the work is there again (sometimes). 3) Payroll systems SUCKS. I do not recommend! Square payroll is our go-to! 4) Chart of accounts is OUTDATED and does NOT match Schedule C nor S-Corporation tax return expense line items. We should be able to customize a chart of accounts the way we want it and be able to copy/paste it into other client accounts 5) Accountant login is great except the list is not always alphatized correctly. We should be able to alphabetize and/or sort by PRIORITY account 6) Need an easier/quicker way to upload receipts
Alternatives Considered
FreshBooksReasons for Choosing Wave Accounting
The EASE of use, the FREE software vs. the monthly expese of Quickbooks, How QUICK it is to reconcile monthly.Reasons for Switching to Wave Accounting
Free software; easy to use; quick to learn; ease to reconcile; accountant login- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 501-1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Simplistic Accounting System
Wave accounting was great till we used it. Later as our business expanded we wanted more features to be integrated in the system which is why needed to make the switch from Wave Accounting system.
Pros
I'd say Wave is a Simplistic Accounting System, easy to get started with and perfect for SMEs or small enterprises.
Cons
This app isn't scalable as in as your business data grows large, this app becomes sluggish and performs poorly
- Industry: Transportation/Trucking/Railroad
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Wave has everything you need to run a small business
I LOVE this software. I have been using it without issue for 2 years + without issue and it has really helped me organize my business. I will definitely stay with them as long as I can
Pros
The best thing about WAVE is its ease of use. It was so easy to learn to use this. Additionally the invoices are really customizable. There is a huge amount you can do with just the free version but if you upgrade to the paid version you can access a lot more of the accounting features and payment features.
I like that for security reasons the software logs you out at the end of the day. The invoices look very professional and are downloadable and can be sent with a pdf attachment. When a partial payment is made you can send a receipt reflective of how much was paid, how, when and with how much balance left. The software will also alert me when a payment is overdue. You can also add tax and discounts to the invoices.
Cons
The only gripe I have is that when I made changes to the invoice parameters, I was unable to delete the old parameters because they had been used in previous invoices. It would be nice to be able to "inactivate" or send to "archive" these parameters.
Alternatives Considered
FreshBooksReasons for Choosing Wave Accounting
This software is totally customizable, will send emails to clients automatically and has an accounting component. It is MUCH better and more professional than anything I could do with pages.Reasons for Switching to Wave Accounting
cost- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Simple invoicing and billing
The experience is pretty much all good
Pros
I didn't have to devote much time or effort to master the app
Cons
I am rankled a bit on what they charge for Credit Card payments and the 3-4 day wait time on top of that.
