It comes with no monthly fees and no minimum, and you can receive invoice payments instantly instead of waiting for a payment to process and hit your bank account. Both Wave and QuickBooks include a section for tracking business expenses, which you can connect to your bank account and credit cards to automatically import transaction details. Project tracking tools in higher-tier plans; lacks industry-specific reports and transaction tracking tags; users with multiple businesses must pay for separate subscriptions.

What are the drawbacks of Wave Accounting?

• While it doesn’t have as many features as paid competitors like QuickBooks Online, Wave’s unlimited expense tracking, free invoicing, and basic reporting make it an ideal solution for many freelancers.
• Until recently, Wave was best-known for its completely free accounting solution.
• While the reports are accurate, they’re not very professional looking—especially the balance sheet that doesn’t provide a beginning and an ending balance.
• Finally, Wave’s billing, payment acceptance, and invoicing features all work together to ensure you get paid on time.

Wave’s invoices are easy to customize with your business’s logo, colors and contact information. If you want professional help to get your business up and running, you can access bookkeeping experts through Wave for $149 per month. If you want more in-depth support, accountants and payroll coaches are available starting at $379 per month. You can access personalized support through the Wave Advisor program where you can get coaching and year-round advice from a Wave expert starting at $149 per month.

More about Accounting

Finally, if you need extra help with your bookkeeping, accounting, or taxes, Wave Advisors is a service you can add to your account. This option is great for business owners who are new to accounting or want to outsource bookkeeping and/or tax filing. Wave’s introduction of a second plan on top of its free accounting tool makes it a more scalable solution than its previous one-plan-only structure.

The Complete Guide To Getting A Free Square Card Reader For Your Business

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 wave bookkeeping reviews remaining 36 states. Wave is cloud-based software that boasts a solid set of accounting features suitable for most small businesses. In our last review, we found these features especially appealing because they were all completely free with no artificial limits.

Since the paid version of the software allows for multiple users, it may also appeal to midsize and growing businesses where more than one person keeps an eye on company finances. Xero’s starting price is half the price of QuickBooks, which makes Xero a more suitable Wave alternative for freelancers on a budget. Wave and Xero also have some crucial, unique features in common, such as unlimited users, unlimited bank connections and optional invoice-based payment acceptance.

The company houses its servers under physical and electronic protection. Wave is also PCI Level-1 certified for handling credit card and bank account information. Multi-factor authentication is a requirement for bank connections through Plaid, too. You can choose from three templates and insert a logo, but more customization options would be welcome.

These features shouldn’t require a plan upgrade and Wave offers them for free, making it a better deal than FreshBooks’ Lite plan. Zoho Books also has a time tracker, multiple-currency support, inventory tracking, project management, and CRM. The benefits of Wave accounting software are unlimited invoices and income tracking, financial reporting, double-entry accounting, invoicing, and more. Wave is the cheapest accountancy software you’ll be able to get your hands on, but it’s not the only worthy contender out there. In fact, with a research score of 4.7/5, QuickBooks is our top-ranked accountancy software for small businesses. If you’re looking for a reliable tool to track your financial transactions, Wave’s bookkeeping features will definitely cut the mustard.

We have also looked at other factors, including prices and alternatives. Keep reading to learn if Wave is right for your business accounting needs. Here’s a breakdown of how we reviewed and rated accounting software. Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

You’ll need to upgrade to the Pro plan for $16 a month if you want live customer support. Its multicurrency support, revamped mobile apps, and user permissions features are additional points in its favor. FreshBooks and QuickBooks Online are more expensive, of course, though their flexibility, ease of use, and feature sets make them our Editors’ Choice winners, especially for larger small businesses. The landing pages for invoices and estimates provide useful, detailed overviews of your activity, along with the status of your sales forms. Customer statements are simple—a choice of outstanding invoices or account activity one at a time. New features here include attachments, automated payment reminders, and customizable templates for customer messages.