TaxJar vs. Wave Accounting

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
TaxJar
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
TaxJar offers automated sales tax reporting and filing. According to the vendor, capabilities include: Accurate, Detailed Sales Tax Reports: TaxJar’s local jurisdiction reports show sales and sales tax collected not only for each state, but for local jurisdiction (counties, cities, special jurisdictions, etc). Users can also sort data by any date range. Estimated Sales Tax Reports: Users can see a comparison of what they actually collected versus what…
$19
for up to 200 orders/month
Wave Accounting
Score 6.0 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.N/A
Pricing
TaxJarWave Accounting
Editions & Modules
Starter
$19
for up to 200 orders/month
Professional
$99
for up to 200 orders/month
Premium
Custom
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
TaxJarWave Accounting
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details30 day free trial. No obligation, no activation fees. Upgrade, downgrade or cancel anytime. Pricing based on order volume. Transactions are equal to -Orders imported into TaxJar with one or more line items -SmartCalcs API pushed sales tax calculation If you go over your transaction limit during a single month, we will charge you the difference between the plan you’re on and the next highest plan. The next month you’ll start back on the original plan that you subscribed to, and the process will repeat itself again. This is all done automatically. Your plan will never be interrupted and you will not have to speak with a salesperson.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
TaxJarWave Accounting
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
TaxJarWave Accounting
Type of tax
Comparison of Type of tax features of Product A and Product B
TaxJar
9.3
6 Ratings
9% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Sales and Use Taxes9.76 Ratings00 Ratings
Cross-border Taxes9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Tax Reporting & Compliance
Comparison of Tax Reporting & Compliance features of Product A and Product B
TaxJar
9.6
6 Ratings
14% above category average
Wave Accounting
-
Ratings
Geolocation for Tax Assessment10.03 Ratings00 Ratings
3rd-Party Software Integrations8.76 Ratings00 Ratings
Tax Data Reporting9.85 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance Administration Management9.54 Ratings00 Ratings
Tax Exemption Processing10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Tax Document Management9.54 Ratings00 Ratings
Complex Tax Scenario Management10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
TaxJar
-
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
TaxJar
-
Ratings
Wave Accounting
8.5
13 Ratings
19% 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
TaxJar
-
Ratings
Wave Accounting
9.5
43 Ratings
19% above category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings9.730 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings9.334 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
TaxJar
-
Ratings
Wave Accounting
8.2
70 Ratings
8% above category average
Dashboards00 Ratings9.368 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings9.467 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings5.734 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
TaxJar
-
Ratings
Wave Accounting
6.8
73 Ratings
9% below category average
Accounts payable00 Ratings9.356 Ratings
Accounts receivable00 Ratings9.567 Ratings
Cash management00 Ratings9.359 Ratings
Bank reconciliation00 Ratings9.563 Ratings
Expense management00 Ratings9.561 Ratings
Time tracking00 Ratings9.411 Ratings
Fixed asset management00 Ratings9.412 Ratings
Multi-currency support00 Ratings10.019 Ratings
Multi-division support00 Ratings7.19 Ratings
Regulations compliance00 Ratings6.815 Ratings
Electronic tax filing00 Ratings5.914 Ratings
Self-service portal00 Ratings1.739 Ratings
Global Financial Support00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings7.04 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting00 Ratings4.05 Ratings
Localizations00 Ratings5.23 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations00 Ratings6.228 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting00 Ratings4.07 Ratings
Configurable Accounting00 Ratings5.516 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework00 Ratings1.03 Ratings
Standardized Processes00 Ratings4.317 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
TaxJar
-
Ratings
Wave Accounting
8.1
11 Ratings
14% 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
TaxJar
-
Ratings
Wave Accounting
7.6
52 Ratings
2% above category average
Pricing00 Ratings9.926 Ratings
Order entry00 Ratings10.018 Ratings
Credit card processing00 Ratings2.345 Ratings
Cost of goods sold00 Ratings10.033 Ratings
Order Orchestration00 Ratings5.85 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility00 Ratings8.24 Ratings
Order exception Resolution00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
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User Ratings
TaxJarWave Accounting
Likelihood to Recommend
9.3
(13 ratings)
3.6
(79 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
7.8
(3 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
6.2
(15 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
6.7
(4 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
2.9
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
7.5
(2 ratings)
2.5
(12 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
4.7
(3 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
3.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
TaxJarWave Accounting
Likelihood to Recommend
Stripe
If you aren't a tax professional, this is a must. Trying to manually calculate which county/city/state sales tax is owed will break your brain. Actually, even if you were a tax professional, why would you want to manually do it when you could just have a tool like this to calculate it for you. I wish it was also affordable to have it file for you and there are some crunchy bits, but its pros definitely outweigh the cons.
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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.
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Pros
Stripe
  • The CSV upload for clients that do not have or want to connect directly is very good. It allows us to get a lot of the information done quickly.
  • The cost is very competitive.
  • According to our clients, the integration is relatively easy.
  • For the most part, the reports are accurate.
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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.
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Cons
Stripe
  • Continually increase its native integration features with BigCommerce, which recently just opened up more Checkout APIs and Sales Tax APIs.
  • The Amazon integration is confusing only because Amazon (sometimes?) calculates and collects sales tax on your behalf. It's not clear what's best-- to let Amazon do it for you or for TaxJar to handle it.
  • Onboarding could be a bit easier and guided.
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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.
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Likelihood to Renew
Stripe
No answers on this topic
Wave
Easy to use for clients with no accounting background and the price is right.
Read full review
Usability
Stripe
No answers on this topic
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
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Reliability and Availability
Stripe
No answers on this topic
Wave
WAVE is always available when we need it ! Peter
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Performance
Stripe
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
Stripe
We had a few questions about integrations & onboarding, and support answered quickly and in-depth. They understood our questions - which were a bit technical in nature - and were able to provide an explanation in a timely and specific manner that allowed us to get the system up and running quickly.
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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
Stripe
No answers on this topic
Wave
easy to use and east to train on ! Our WAVE clients enjoy the ease of use
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Alternatives Considered
Stripe
TaxJar is less expensive, simpler to integrate and their billing is straightforward so that you don't have to worry about huge surprises at the end of a month or quarter. They spend a lot less time on sales/marketing but their support is excellent and overall we have had a much better experience with TaxJar.
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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
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Scalability
Stripe
No answers on this topic
Wave
Once they out grow what is ability to move up to a more robust system?
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Return on Investment
Stripe
  • With regards to ROI, it definitely saves time. And time, as they say, is money. It may be hard to put a particular dollar sign on this, but it definitely has provided a positive return.
  • It keeps me aware of where I have sales tax nexus that I might not know about otherwise. This is important. Even if I have to check it manually, at least I am made aware of where I need to file.
  • It allows me to track how much in sales tax we've paid year over year, which is a good indication of how our sales are doing.
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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

TaxJar Screenshots

Screenshot of TaxJar Reports dashboard showing you the states in which you have nexus, how much sales tax was collected, and your gross sales summary.Screenshot of TaxJar state report showing breakdown of sales tax by city, county, and local jurisdiction for easy sales tax filing.