There’s a fee involved with accepting online invoice payments, too. Customers can pay via credit card, bank payment or Apple Pay. If you’re interested conservatism principle of accounting in using payroll software, you can start a free 30-day trial when you sign up for Wave.

Wave Starter Plan

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. While Wave has a lot to offer when it comes to invoicing, know that it’s still slightly less automated than some competitors. This isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, but it might require a bit more bookkeeping work.

1. Create beautiful invoices, accept online payments, and make accounting easy—all in one place.
2. Today’s leading accounting platforms offer standard security features, such as data encryption, secure credential tokenization and more.
3. Next, you can add sales tax (if necessary), create customer profiles and customize your invoice templates.
4. Unfortunately, you can’t create a recurring transaction directly from the bill, which is something you can do in other software like QuickBooks.

Wave Accounting Assisted Bookkeeping Options

Wave Accounting offers free software, meaning you won’t need to submit a credit card or payment information to use it. It can help you manage your bookkeeping, accounting and invoicing processes through a few internal integrations. Approval is subject to eligibility criteria, including identity verification and credit review. Your deposit times may vary based on your financial institution.

Wave holds its own against two of its biggest competitors, QuickBooks Online and Xero. Wave’s free pricing structure gives the software its appeal, but users that have larger businesses and require more advanced accounting features may find QBO or Xero to be the better fit. However, some features are noticeably missing, such as project management and budgeting, that are found with competing software options such as QuickBooks Online. The lack of these features brought our score in this category to 3 out of 5 stars. Some features are also only available on the paid Wave Pro plan. Wave’s accounting software is built for small business owners.

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. Of course, if you freelance, you don’t need to worry about running payroll either now or in the future. But for small-business owners who want to eventually expand their businesses and hire an employee or two (or more), just know that Wave doesn’t make it easy to add payroll software beyond its own. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services.

Manage yourmoney like a boss.

Until then, the software is still a good solution for small business owners looking for simple, easy-to-use accounting software that won’t break the bank. Wave’s customer support resources and new Wave Advisor services make it easy for people with limited accounting experience to learn the software. It’s also great for Etsy shop owners and other eCommerce businesses using Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress. If you’re a startup, micro-business or sole proprietor who doesn’t want to invest in accounting software but needs to keep track of your finances, Wave Accounting is a great option.

Wave Accounting Review 2024: Pros, Cons, Alternatives

Instant Payout is an additional service offered by Wave subject to user and payment eligibility criteria. A 1% fee is applied to the amount you withdraw from your available balance, in addition to regular processing fees. Deposits are sent to the debit card linked to your account in up to 30 minutes. Deposit times may vary due to processing cutoff times or third party delays.

While not built in, Xero has an integration with BILL (formerly Bill.com) and some useful tools like Google Sheets and BlueCamroo, but all other integrations must be made through Zapier. If you have a Zapier subscription, you can integrate a lot of other apps—but it will be more difficult than having a deep integration, such as those offered in other accounting software. Wave took a hit in integrations because you can’t connect it to time tracking and electronic bill pay processors. For comparison, QuickBooks actually has an electronic bill pay and time tracking built into all its plans except Simple Start. Wave what is accounting is one of our best A/P software because of its ability to record unpaid bills even in the free Starter plan. Wave earned high marks for general features, and it could have aced the criterion if users could use account numbers in the chart of accounts.

Additionally, the free Starter plan does not allow you to connect a live feed to your bank or credit card accounts. However, you can upload your bank statements from comma-separated values (CSV) or Excel files and perform bank reconciliations. Also, Wave Accounting only offers self-serve customer support. If you have a difference between accrual and deferral question or issue, you can browse the help center or reach out to Mave, the automated chatbot.