SAP S/4HANA Cloud vs. Wave Accounting

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a modular cloud ERP. Embedded with AI and analytics, it helps business run anywhere, in real time. SAP S/4HANA Cloud can be deployed either on premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid combination.N/A
Wave Accounting
Score 7.8 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
SAP S/4HANA CloudWave Accounting
Editions & Modules
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Custom Pricing
per month FUE users*
Starter
$0
Pro
$16
per month
Pro - billed annually
$170
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SAP S/4HANA CloudWave Accounting
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional Details* FUE = Full user equivalent, which allows flexible customer choice among: 1 Advanced user, 3 Core-users, or 30 self-service users per FUE. Minimum purchase is 35 FUEs.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SAP S/4HANA CloudWave Accounting
Features
SAP S/4HANA CloudWave Accounting
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.1
320 Ratings
9% above category average
Wave Accounting
6.2
24 Ratings
19% below category average
Pay calculation7.8276 Ratings7.123 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.8274 Ratings7.54 Ratings
Direct deposit files7.7271 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
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
7.7
482 Ratings
2% above category average
Wave Accounting
8.5
13 Ratings
9% above category average
API for custom integration7.7462 Ratings9.99 Ratings
Plug-ins7.7428 Ratings7.011 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.2
556 Ratings
2% below category average
Wave Accounting
6.5
45 Ratings
23% below category average
Single sign-on capability8.5521 Ratings6.532 Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.0548 Ratings6.536 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
7.7
561 Ratings
4% above category average
Wave Accounting
7.7
73 Ratings
2% below category average
Dashboards7.7521 Ratings7.571 Ratings
Standard reports7.8551 Ratings8.770 Ratings
Custom reports7.6515 Ratings6.837 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.3
563 Ratings
8% above category average
Wave Accounting
7.2
76 Ratings
5% below category average
Accounts payable8.2555 Ratings8.159 Ratings
Accounts receivable8.2529 Ratings8.170 Ratings
Global Financial Support7.8111 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers7.9115 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations8.0119 Ratings8.530 Ratings
Configurable Accounting8.0109 Ratings5.017 Ratings
Standardized Processes8.3123 Ratings7.019 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
Intercompany Accounting00 Ratings4.05 Ratings
Localizations00 Ratings5.23 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting00 Ratings4.07 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework00 Ratings1.03 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.3
484 Ratings
4% above category average
Wave Accounting
8.1
11 Ratings
8% above category average
Inventory tracking8.3474 Ratings5.68 Ratings
Automatic reordering7.9406 Ratings9.95 Ratings
Location management7.8393 Ratings8.12 Ratings
Manufacturing module00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.1
496 Ratings
2% above category average
Wave Accounting
7.6
53 Ratings
0% below category average
Pricing8.0472 Ratings9.926 Ratings
Order entry8.1482 Ratings10.018 Ratings
Credit card processing8.724 Ratings2.345 Ratings
Cost of goods sold8.2453 Ratings10.034 Ratings
Order Orchestration7.791 Ratings5.85 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility00 Ratings8.24 Ratings
Order exception Resolution00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Subledger and Financial Process
Comparison of Subledger and Financial Process features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.4
121 Ratings
12% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Billing Management9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Cash and Asset Management7.7108 Ratings00 Ratings
Travel & Expense Management10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Budgetary Control & Encumbrance Accounting7.497 Ratings00 Ratings
Period Close7.9120 Ratings00 Ratings
Project Execution Management
Comparison of Project Execution Management features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
9.3
1 Ratings
29% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Project Planning and Scheduling10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Task Insight for Project Managers8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Project Mobile Functionality10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Definable Resource Pools9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Grants Management
Comparison of Grants Management features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.1
52 Ratings
10% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Award Lifecycle Management8.152 Ratings00 Ratings
Procurement
Comparison of Procurement features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
7.8
105 Ratings
11% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Bids Analyzed and Compared7.773 Ratings00 Ratings
Contract Authoring7.874 Ratings00 Ratings
Contract Repository7.670 Ratings00 Ratings
Requisitions-to-Purchase Orders Integrated8.193 Ratings00 Ratings
Supplier Management7.992 Ratings00 Ratings
Risk Management
Comparison of Risk Management features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
9.8
1 Ratings
39% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Risk Repository10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Control Management10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Control Efficiency Assessments10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Issue Detection9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Remediation and Certification10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Logistics
Comparison of Logistics features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
7.9
80 Ratings
14% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Transportation Planning and Optimization8.174 Ratings00 Ratings
Transportation Execution Management7.873 Ratings00 Ratings
Trade and Customs Management7.766 Ratings00 Ratings
Fulfillment Management8.169 Ratings00 Ratings
Warehouse Workforce Management7.969 Ratings00 Ratings
Manufacturing
Comparison of Manufacturing features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
8.2
87 Ratings
10% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Production Process Design8.280 Ratings00 Ratings
Production Management8.381 Ratings00 Ratings
Configuration Management8.174 Ratings00 Ratings
Work Execution8.278 Ratings00 Ratings
Manufacturing Costs8.276 Ratings00 Ratings
Supply Chain
Comparison of Supply Chain features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
7.8
96 Ratings
7% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Forecasting7.784 Ratings00 Ratings
Inventory Planning7.992 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance Monitoring7.789 Ratings00 Ratings
Product Lifecycle Management
Comparison of Product Lifecycle Management features of Product A and Product B
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
9.0
87 Ratings
21% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Proposal Management10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Product Master Data Management8.087 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
SAP S/4HANA CloudWave Accounting
Small Businesses
Zoho One
Zoho One
Score 9.3 out of 10
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Infor VISUAL
Infor VISUAL
Score 8.4 out of 10
Accounting Seed
Accounting Seed
Score 7.5 out of 10
Enterprises
24SevenOffice
24SevenOffice
Score 8.8 out of 10
BlackLine
BlackLine
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
SAP S/4HANA CloudWave Accounting
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(644 ratings)
6.5
(82 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(14 ratings)
7.8
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(538 ratings)
8.3
(17 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(3 ratings)
6.7
(4 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(2 ratings)
2.9
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
7.5
(78 ratings)
2.1
(12 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(1 ratings)
4.7
(3 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.5
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
5.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(2 ratings)
3.0
(2 ratings)
Professional Services
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.9
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.3
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
SAP S/4HANA CloudWave Accounting
Likelihood to Recommend
SAP
SAP S/4HANA provides Real-Time financial insights and performs automation for routine tasks. It reduced dependency on spreadsheets, resulting in fewer data losses, errors, and manual tasks. SAP S/4HANA may be less suitable for companies with highly specialized or higher financial requirements that require extensive customization, as the cloud version has certain limitations.
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
SAP
  • SAP S/4HANA Cloud uses the SAP HANA in-memory database, allowing companies to process massive amounts of data in real-time.
  • The system integrates AI, machine learning (ML), and robotic process automation (RPA) to automate manual tasks.
  • S/4HANA Cloud unifies core business processes like finance, procurement, supply chain, and human resources under one system.
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
SAP
  • I would like to have an offline functionality as well which is not available at the moment.
  • I would like to see in-built templates that can be used according to organization needs and have to be industry specific.
  • Navigation of this platform is quite difficult to learn and requires training. So, new users will find learning a steep curve.
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
SAP
The cost of SAP as an ERP is quite high and the switching costs associated with ERP systems are even higher. That being said moving from one ERP to another only happens once in a great while for large organizations. Those switching costs include retraining, IT hardware requirements, outside consultants and more
Read full review
Wave
Easy to use for clients with no accounting background and the price is right.
Read full review
Usability
SAP
Day to day data insight is more accurate for manufacturing industry to procure as per forecasted from supplier. Supply and fulfillment cycle becomes more easier. I would say more about performance as we are using this new server so we can see clear difference between SAP S/4HANA Cloud and ECC. Also it has customized business extensions for rapid development.
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
SAP
No answers on this topic
Wave
WAVE is always available when we need it ! Peter
Read full review
Performance
SAP
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
Support Rating
SAP
The technical support received by the ITT design teams and OS implementation team has been very useful in ensuring that the SAP ERP is well-tailored to our company's specific needs and operations. This coupled with the training materials, business process maps, and concept demos (sand-box demos) makes adoption easy on end-users.
Read full review
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
Read full review
In-Person Training
SAP
More effective
Read full review
Wave
No answers on this topic
Online Training
SAP
No answers on this topic
Wave
easy to use and east to train on ! Our WAVE clients enjoy the ease of use
Read full review
Implementation Rating
SAP
SAP requires
a lot of internal and external resources to complete its successful
implementation. The cloud version requires a deeper understanding of the
different capabilities of the local systems (hardware) and the connection
towards your local IT team. We found several problems on our systems that we
couldn't foresee before the implementation and roll out.
Read full review
Wave
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
SAP
The platform utilizes advanced predictive analytics to anticipate operational bottlenecks and put them out of commission before the problems become larger. We can proactively develop effective strategies that help keep service quality in the face of unexpected changes in the market, or external disruptions, by continuously analyzing historical performance data as well as elements of the current market
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
Scalability
SAP
No answers on this topic
Wave
Once they out grow what is ability to move up to a more robust system?
Read full review
Return on Investment
SAP
  • SAP is as stable as an ERP can get, so there an mandays lost on recovering from problems, etc.
  • As as big and stable system, there are quite a few master data tables that need to be maintained on a constant base, so this does cost some extra time, but one gets to have fine tuned processes in return. So this is well invested time.
  • SAP is an expensive system in general, but it is as they say. You get what you pay for and SAP is just the best ERP you can get, so...
Read full review
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

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Screenshots

Screenshot of the Order to Cash Dashboard - For the management of the order-to-cash process more efficiently across revenue streams and business models - including sales of physical and digital goods, services, subscriptions, projects, and bundles.Screenshot of Sales Management Overview - Helps ensure sales reps meet their goals with an overview of orders and key sales performance metrics, with status tracking for each order in real time for the early detection of potential issues.Screenshot of Purchasing Spend Dashboard - For weighing various aspects of purchasing spend through quick access to clear, complete, and real-time data, with less risk, and without opening different reports and transactions.Screenshot of Operational Supplier Evaluation - Provides a transparent overview of suppliers. Users can approve the most reliable vendors and get the right mix to serve business needs while reducing risk.Screenshot of Inventory Management - Provides visibility to manage supply chains, to mitigate risk, avoid unnecessary costs, maximize efficiency, and fulfill customer orders on time.Screenshot of Inventory Processing - Enables real-time supply chain visibility and provides meaningful metrics, with customizable dashboards and reports that display real-time inventory that track the status of inbound and outbound deliveries.