Wave Accounting Review

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. For small businesses any larger than that, however, Wave is limited. Unlike competitors, Wave doesn’t offer many advanced features to increase the software’s functionality. It’s also missing an audit trail and third-party integrations. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews.

Some automations are also only available on Wave’s paid plan. If your business needs these features or automations, check out these top Wave alternatives to fully explore your accounting software options. In the past, Wave generated revenue from its credit card processing, Wave Payroll, and bookkeeping services. While Wave’s free accounting software doesn’t limit you to a certain number of invoices, customers, or transactions, certain features and automations are now only available by subscribing to Wave Pro. It’s hard to beat free accounting software, especially if you’re running a small business on a budget. Wave’s free plan straight line depreciation calculator offers a decent number of features, like unlimited invoices, that are not always included with other free accounting software options, let alone paid accounting software plans.

Accounting for beginners

For a free software program, Wave boasts an impressive, robust feature set that rivals even some paid accounting definition accounting software programs. There are several additional Wave products that you can purchase for your business. Wave Payroll has two options ranging from $20 – $40/month + $6/employee or contractor. Tax service payroll is available in 14 states, while self-service payroll is available in the remaining 36 states.

Free accounting software for small businesses

Once logged in, your main dashboard will show your cash flow, profit and loss, invoices, bills and other financial insights. Wave Accounting is ideal for micro businesses with fewer than 10 employees, contractors, freelancers and other service-based businesses on a budget. The financial management software is user-friendly and equipped with all the basics, including income and expense tracking, invoicing and reporting. When rating accounting and invoicing software, we use a 47-point rubric that looks at pricing, ease of use, features, customer service, and user reviews. We weigh each section differently to calculate the total star rating. This free, easy-to-use accounting software is great for small businesses, especially for eCommerce, but lacks in project management, budgeting, and inventory tracking.

Allows an unlimited number of users in the Pro plan, but is not complex enough for businesses with more than a handful of employees; ideal for very small service-based businesses, freelancers or contractors. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. Users of the free plan are limited to using Wave’s Help Center or Mave, the support chatbot. Fortunately, the Help Center provides plenty of guides and information to help with most issues, and the software is intuitive enough that this support option will be sufficient for most users. Give your customers the option of paying with one click using a credit card, bank transfer, or Apple Pay. Bank data connections are read-only and use 256-bit encryption.

NerdWallet independently reviews accounting software products before determining our top picks. We collect the data for our software ratings from products’ public-facing websites and from company representatives. Information is gathered on a regular basis and reviewed by our editorial team for consistency and accuracy.

Best Accounting and Bookkeeping Apps for Small Businesses

1. After providing a few basic details about your business — name, type, currency you use, address — you’ll have instant access to your account.
2. You can mark invoices paid on the spot, so your records are instantly up to date.
3. The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
4. Wave Payroll has two options ranging from $20 – $40/month + $6/employee or contractor.
5. There are also add-on Intuit services like QuickBooks Payroll or QuickBooks Time.
6. It’s also great for Etsy shop owners and other eCommerce businesses using Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress.

The integrations Wave directly connects with are PayPal, Etsy, and Shoeboxed. You can also use the Checkouts feature to create buttons on websites, such as Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress. “Wave invoicing makes your life a whole lot easier and takes that worry off you. I’ve tried Quickbooks—it’s a bit more complicated and technical, and takes more time to set up.” Our (non-judgmental) team of bookkeeping, accounting, and payroll experts is standing by to coach you—or do the work for you. Only integrates with in-house apps, like Wave Payments and Wave Payroll; does not integrate with card readers for in-person payments. One of the most helpful features of Wave is its tax filing feature.

Easily create, customize, and top 5 benefits of erp systems and3 criteria to consider upon implementation send professional invoices while on-the-go. Easily monitor and keep track of what’s going on in your business with the intuitive dashboard. The quick summary allows you to stay in control of your business finances, including a task list of outstanding items. The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation. Refer to our Advertising Disclosure to learn more about how we earn compensation from affiliate partnerships and how we maintain our independent editorial integrity. Let us know how well the content on this page solved your problem today.

Plans to makeyour plans happen.

Wave is PCI Level-1 certified for handling credit card and bank account information. Have an eye on the big picture so you can make better business decisions. Our robust small business accounting reports are easy to use and show month-to-month or year-to-year comparisons so you can easily identify cash flow trends.