Wave Accounting Review 2025: Pros, Cons, Pricing, Alternatives, and Our Take

There’s no live support unless you pay for it so you’ll have to dig for the answers to your questions in the help center or cross your fingers that the automated chatbot will help you out. Wave’s invoicing features are robust and highly customizable. The services they were referencing were me selling anti-virus software. MAQTOOB helps entrepreneurs and freelancers discover ​useful and affordable business tools.

It contains a tax calendar, online consultation with an accountant. In Wave, the layout is designed with users without bookkeeping experience in mind. The dashboard provides a quick overview of the most important information, while still providing quick access to other features a user would want to access on a regular basis.

• Wave uses double-entry accounting to monitor transactions based on income and expenses.
• You can configure Wave to automatically add attachments to transactions, create reusable message templates, and send payment reminders.
• Click on the links above to view the reports and also get additional information on our selection methodology.
• Its free features make it a valuable tool for managing finances without high costs.

How does Wave Accounting make money?

These two software are designed to simplify the accounting tasks for small businesses and freelancers. However, their features, pricing models, and user experiences may differ, making one a better fit for certain businesses over the other. Compared to QuickBooks, FreshBooks, and Zoho Books, Wave Accounting lacks some features like time tracking, project management, and inventory management. However, its cost-effectiveness and user-friendly interface make it a popular choice for small businesses. Once you start populating your company’s data, the dashboard becomes quite useful. You have to scroll a bit to see everything, but you get a great overview of your finances with links to deeper details.

• Enter some basic information about your business’s accounting software needs and we’ll send you up to five personalized quotes for absolutely free.
• Wave is a free, cloud-based accounting software designed specifically for small businesses.
• Wave’s smart dashboard organizes your income, expenses, payments, and invoices.
• Now we’re expected to deal with another ridiculously redundant requirment to keep our account open, forward all the documentation we already have forwarded twice before.
• Thus, if your business needs more than just basic accounting, you should consider other software options that will meet all your requirements.
• To do this, you need to link your bank account to the online accounting department in the Internet Bank and the personal account.

Ease of Data Integration

They can experience dramatic fluctuations in transactions, clients, and revenue streams. Accounting software adapts to these changes seamlessly, accommodating the evolving needs of the business. This scalability ensures that the software remains a valuable asset as the business changes. Overall, Wave’s features make it a suitable choice for small businesses that need basic accounting functions without breaking the bank. Wave has 14 reports, about half of which relate to Wave payroll (the company supplies full-service payroll to 14 states currently; the rest require self-filing of payroll taxes). You shouldn’t expect much more given the scope of the site, but it does offer the standard financial reports that accountants like to run and analyze, like Balance Sheet and Cash Flow.

It is simple (no need to look for a good accountant) and cheap (the cost wave accounting reviews of the service is usually less than the accountant’s salary). Considering that we are used to being able to access and do a lot via our mobile phones, a bookkeeping system we are using must have a great mobile app. With the Wave app, you do not have to get out your laptop to see how you are doing financially. The apps are compatible with both mobile operating systems. Separate apps are used for invoicing and receipt scanning. I’ve also heard some not great things about Quickbooks in the past but kind of assumed they were the only show in town so you just had to deal with it.

Ability to track, report and analyse financial results and implications at an individual project level

It also enables accepting online payments through various methods like credit card and bank transfer. The new service allows customers with a wave accounting login to get a simple and convenient way to conduct accounting and pay taxes by automating several operations. To do this, you need to link your bank account to the online accounting department in the Internet Bank and the personal account. This is a Wave app that allows users to take a photo of their receipts with a phone, whether they are online or offline, and have them uploaded into their Wave accounting account. The system will automatically fill in the information and add the transaction to your bookkeeping records. However, some users noted that this feature sometimes resulted in a double recording of their transactions, so they had to manually delete a repeated record.

Breadth of Features

Anyone have experience with both and is there really a huge difference? For reference my business has very few clients that each spend a significant amount of money and I really only have one recurring vendor that I purchase from if that makes a difference. Payroll processing is only available in certain regions (like the U.S., Canada, and Australia). Similarly, payment processing fees can vary, and some features may not be available outside specific markets.

Any connections between you, your bank accounts, and Wave are protected by 256-bit SSL encryption. Wave employs industry-standard encryption and security protocols to protect sensitive financial data, ensuring users’ data is safe. Offer access to multiple users with tailored permission levels, facilitating collaboration between accountants, bookkeepers, or team members. Gateway Commercial Finance reports that small businesses in 2025 require essential financial tools to thrive amid economic challenges. The companies that provide these offers normally pay a fee to Wave in order for their offers to be shown/listed within the Wave platform. Your financial transactions will appear directly on the Wave interface dashboard in no time.

Its automated reconciliation saves you a significant amount of time and makes the bookkeeping process more efficient. Other similar programs lacked some of the capabilities that Wave offers. Since I charge clients by the hour, I make heavy use of the billing tool. Provides easy-to-use setup to accept payments via bank transfer or credit card, automatically assigns sequential numbers to invoices, and keeps track of which have been paid and which have not.

Wave Accounting is an excellent choice for micro-businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs who need a free, user-friendly solution for managing their bookkeeping, accounting, and invoicing. While it has limitations compared to more scalable software, Wave Accounting offers essential features and helps businesses stay organized financially. Comparing two prominent accounting solutions, Wave and FreshBooks, we can see both similarities and differences.

Awesome and easy-to-use software that unfortunately you can’t use if you hire a good bookkeeper

But if you’ve got a more complex business or need advanced features, you might want to look elsewhere. Wave might not have everything you need, and you don’t want to be stuck with software that can’t keep up with your growing business. Sometimes you get a quick response, other times it feels like you’re talking to a wall. It can be frustrating, especially if you’re dealing with a time-sensitive issue. We provide different levels of support, depending on the plan and/or the add-on features you choose.

Inside the Wave platform, you will notice offers from companies like Symantec, RBC, Amex, Staples, and others. One major difference between these two software programs is that Wave is free, while you have to pay a fee to use QuickBooks (after the trial period). There are no restrictions when it comes to using its many accounting tools and interfaces. Below we present a more detailed review of Wave Accounting, including the many factors and features that we like about it. QuickBooks also integrates with a wide range of partner apps and software, making it very flexible to your specific needs.

It allows you to create and track purchase orders and fixed assets. Wave Connect is a Google Sheet add-on that lets you download your COA, customers, invoices, and products to a spreadsheet. You can also upload transactions, customers, invoices, and products from Google Sheets to your Wave account.