BILL vs. Wave Accounting

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BILL
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
BILL is an online service for SMBs which provides a central dashboard for managing Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, and cash flow management. It syncs with all major accounting systems like QuickBooks, Sage, Intaact, and NetSuite.
$45
per month
Wave Accounting
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Wave Accounting is a free, cloud-based accounting platform exclusively for small businesses. It supports double-entry bookkeeping and permits unlimited user access, invoicing, and expense management. Wave Accounting integrates with Wave's invoicing, receipt scanning, payment processing and payroll apps.
$16
per month
Pricing
BILLWave Accounting
Editions & Modules
Essentials
$45
per user/per month
Team
$55
per user/per month
Corporate
$79
per user/per month
Enterprise
Custom Pricing
Starter
$0
Pro
$16
per month
Pro - billed annually
$170
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BILLWave Accounting
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BILLWave Accounting
Features
BILLWave Accounting
Payment Management
Comparison of Payment Management features of Product A and Product B
BILL
7.3
8 Ratings
1% below category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Customizable Approval Policies7.86 Ratings00 Ratings
Financial Document Management7.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Payment Status Tracking7.38 Ratings00 Ratings
Payment Audit Trail7.78 Ratings00 Ratings
Duplicate Bill Detection8.66 Ratings00 Ratings
Advanced OCR6.64 Ratings00 Ratings
Electronic Funds Transfer6.47 Ratings00 Ratings
Accounts Payable
Comparison of Accounts Payable features of Product A and Product B
BILL
7.3
5 Ratings
7% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Automated Accounts Payable Processes8.24 Ratings00 Ratings
Vendor Management8.45 Ratings00 Ratings
Tax Form Preparation5.32 Ratings00 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
BILL
-
Ratings
Wave Accounting
6.2
24 Ratings
19% below category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings7.123 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings7.54 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings1.220 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings7.712 Ratings
Reimbursement management00 Ratings7.48 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
BILL
-
Ratings
Wave Accounting
8.5
13 Ratings
9% above category average
API for custom integration00 Ratings9.99 Ratings
Plug-ins00 Ratings7.011 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
BILL
-
Ratings
Wave Accounting
6.5
45 Ratings
23% below category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings6.532 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings6.536 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
BILL
-
Ratings
Wave Accounting
7.7
73 Ratings
2% below category average
Dashboards00 Ratings7.571 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings8.770 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings6.837 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
BILL
-
Ratings
Wave Accounting
7.2
76 Ratings
5% below category average
Accounts payable00 Ratings8.159 Ratings
Accounts receivable00 Ratings8.170 Ratings
Cash management00 Ratings9.162 Ratings
Bank reconciliation00 Ratings8.565 Ratings
Expense management00 Ratings8.464 Ratings
Time tracking00 Ratings9.811 Ratings
Fixed asset management00 Ratings9.812 Ratings
Multi-currency support00 Ratings10.019 Ratings
Multi-division support00 Ratings7.19 Ratings
Regulations compliance00 Ratings5.016 Ratings
Electronic tax filing00 Ratings5.914 Ratings
Self-service portal00 Ratings8.040 Ratings
Global Financial Support00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting00 Ratings4.05 Ratings
Localizations00 Ratings5.23 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations00 Ratings8.530 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting00 Ratings4.07 Ratings
Configurable Accounting00 Ratings5.017 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework00 Ratings1.03 Ratings
Standardized Processes00 Ratings7.019 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
BILL
-
Ratings
Wave Accounting
8.1
11 Ratings
8% above category average
Inventory tracking00 Ratings5.68 Ratings
Automatic reordering00 Ratings9.95 Ratings
Location management00 Ratings8.12 Ratings
Manufacturing module00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
BILL
-
Ratings
Wave Accounting
7.6
53 Ratings
0% below category average
Pricing00 Ratings9.926 Ratings
Order entry00 Ratings10.018 Ratings
Credit card processing00 Ratings2.345 Ratings
Cost of goods sold00 Ratings10.034 Ratings
Order Orchestration00 Ratings5.85 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility00 Ratings8.24 Ratings
Order exception Resolution00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BILLWave Accounting
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Score 9.8 out of 10
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Score 9.1 out of 10
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Square 9 Softworks
Square 9 Softworks
Score 9.8 out of 10
Accounting Seed
Accounting Seed
Score 7.5 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 8.7 out of 10
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Score 8.6 out of 10
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User Ratings
BILLWave Accounting
Likelihood to Recommend
6.8
(68 ratings)
6.5
(82 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(14 ratings)
7.8
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.5
(8 ratings)
8.4
(17 ratings)
Availability
8.0
(7 ratings)
6.7
(4 ratings)
Performance
6.0
(3 ratings)
2.9
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
7.7
(18 ratings)
2.1
(12 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(2 ratings)
4.7
(3 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(1 ratings)
3.0
(2 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BILLWave Accounting
Likelihood to Recommend
BILL
It depends, Bill.com certainly has a strong reputation and I agree it can be a great solution in the right scenario but I think the implementation and initial setup are critical and need to be well thought out based on the setup of the organization you are a part of.
Read full review
Wave
Wave Accounting was used for a small practice without a lot of the accounting considerations a large company would have. For the price, you really can't beat what Wave offers out of the box. All of the basic tools for things like invoicing and expenses are all easy to use. End of year accounting is easy with exports of data.
Read full review
Pros
BILL
  • The fact that bill.com automatically processes most information on the invoice is really helpful - leads to quicker processing
  • The "to do list" feature ensures you see the tasks that need to be completed ASAP
  • The reports section is very helpful in year end prepping for audits
Read full review
Wave
  • Reconciliation is very difficult with multiple Wave transactions that need to be deleted or merged before it can be matched to a bank transaction.
  • Payroll worked fine for us but took several days to get it set up. We have switched to another bookkeeping system and another payroll system. Canceling with Wave took several days and they charge $6 for something even though the month was paid for in advance.
  • Credit card processing is nice and worked fine for us.
Read full review
Cons
BILL
  • Currently, our company uses a different platform to submit expenses, we only use bill.com to receive them. So perhaps this isn't actually a place where bill.com could improve, but the expense submission process may not have been robust enough for our company.
  • The bill.com platform wasn't the most beautiful or pleasing to use, but this is a minor fault.
  • I'd love a way to set up recurring payments (e.g., my phone bill is reimbursed each month).
Read full review
Wave
  • I know that credit card processing is a way for Wave to make money, but I really wish they offered ACH payment on Invoices.
  • I do cash-based accounting, which means I have to make little journal entries at the start and end of each year to get my books to balance because Wave wants to do everything differently. This should just be a setting to flip, whether you want cash-based or accrual-based.
  • They use Yodlee for bank connection, which doesn't play nice with 2FA. Pretty much every time I log in I have to re-enter credentials, get a code sent to me, reauthenticate, and know that I'm going to have to do it again next week. Not really on Wave, but wish they could get it together nonetheless.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
BILL
While our firm does not use Bill.com internally, we know many customers that use Bill.com and are very happy with it. Based on the feedback from current users, I would say that the product should have a strong renewal forecast. Once customers move their AP to the cloud, they would be unlikely to move it back given a choice.
Read full review
Wave
Easy to use for clients with no accounting background and the price is right.
Read full review
Usability
BILL
Bill.com continues to raise the bar with new features and improved interface. The Fast Pay option is another innovation that reduces administrative time when you have to get an overnight check out. The new Chat Support interface, powered by Zopim, which is world-class, adds to the responsiveness of Bill.com's support team and makes getting real-time answers that much easier.
Read full review
Wave
I am a professional bookkeeper and I have no problems using Wave and all of it's features. I can see that certain individuals who have no accounting knowledge might struggle with a few different features and entries, but that is why Wave has an emphasis in connecting users to Wave Pro's who will walk them through things
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
BILL
The only time Bill.com was ever "unavailable" was then the Sync to Quickbooks function failed. That happened a time or two but was usually quickly remedied. I'm not sure if that's an issue with newer online versions of Quickbooks Enterprise -- at the time we were using a remotely hosted Quickbooks instance accessed via terminal server (vs a cloud offering like Bill.com is)
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Wave
WAVE is always available when we need it ! Peter
Read full review
Performance
BILL
Load times can be slow after long use.
Read full review
Wave
Wave does tend to slow down when filtering your transactions screen especially by date. This is more of an issue when trying to trouble shoot certain transactions or clean-up a set of books.
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Support Rating
BILL
I could not explain to them how I was trying to remove an old email account from my company page while granting the new email account access to the bank account that the first email account had added. The "set a bank account as inactive" button is labeled delete, but they don't seem to recognize that. I requested my Bill.com account be deleted on Wednesday so I could start all over with a fresh account; this seemed to be completed Wednesday night, but when I tried to create a new Bill.com account from the same email, it took me to my old bill.com account.
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Wave
I never had to call Wave Support as we barely experienced any support-related problems on our side. However, I do know a few people that complained about Wave support. It would be nice as well, though if they could have more in your face tutorials for new users or how-to videos should we struggle to do something
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Online Training
BILL
The online training provided by Bill.com is concise and since the firm consistently improves the platform functionality, users are able to select the training for the modules they specifically need.
Read full review
Wave
easy to use and east to train on ! Our WAVE clients enjoy the ease of use
Read full review
Implementation Rating
BILL
I heard from my leadership that it went very well.
Read full review
Wave
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
BILL
1. Automation & Workflow Efficiency.2. Integration Capabilities with other softwaresWe needed a centralized, automated, and scalable solution for managing both payables and receivables. The strong integration with our existing accounting software was a key factor.The platform gave us better visibility and control over cash flow and approval processes.
Read full review
Wave
Wave is FREE for most functions. Payment processing costs no matter where you go (as does payroll or taxes). Wave rises above tools like QuickBooks Online because they know that for our small firm, being nimble is the name of the game. We don't need exhaustive reporting and management like QB offers and we certainly don't want to pay for it
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
BILL
None, all good.
Read full review
Wave
No answers on this topic
Scalability
BILL
We have multiple locations, and everything works fine.
Read full review
Wave
Once they out grow what is ability to move up to a more robust system?
Read full review
Return on Investment
BILL
  • After receiving an offer to 'finance' outstanding invoices, I was enticed by the promise of a 3% total cost for a 60-day period, with the possibility of extending the financing for an additional 10 months (for an additional fee). Eager to access funds, I decided to finance an invoice worth $17,160.00. Within 24 hours, BILL deposited $16,645.20 (97% of the invoice amount) into my account.
  • However, when the customer paid their $17,160 invoice four days later, instead of the funds being deposited into my checking account as I expected, BILL chose to retire the loan and retain my $514.80 fee for the 4 day advance period. This unexpected turn of events resulted in an effective interest rate of a staggering 273.75%. It was clear that this arrangement was far from what I had initially understood, and the financial impact was outrageously high.
  • Frustratingly, my attempts to resolve this issue through customer service were in vain, as I spoke with three agents who provided no satisfactory solutions. To anyone contemplating using BILL's services, I strongly urge you to carefully scrutinize the fine print and consider opting for a more reputable finance company."
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Wave
  • Wave has been ROI positive for our company. With not having to pay for the service we can use our money for growing our business.
  • The fees on credit card transactions for invoices are reasonable especially as we don't pay a monthly subscription.
  • The invoicing feature has made our lives easier for us and our customers. The invoicing piece and AR tracking has been ROI positive as well.
Read full review
ScreenShots

BILL Screenshots

Screenshot of BILL’s central dashboard, which displays upcoming bills, invoices, and ingoing and outgoing payments.Screenshot of BILL automatically pulls in bills via email and automatically starts the process. It also checks for duplicate invoices by looking at the invoice numbers and payment amounts to flag questionable invoices.Screenshot of BILL's desktop and mobile applications so users' teams can review invoices and send payments on-the-go.Screenshot of BILL’s mobile app, which can be used to review invoices, add comments, and approve from anywhere.Screenshot of The overview screen, where the status of invoices can be reviewed to get a bird’s eye view of tasks.