Wave Accounting vs. Zoho Books

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
Zoho Books
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Zoho Books is an accounting solution that is designed to help small businesses manage their finances. This solution includes dashboards and a wide variety of reports. Business users can automate tasks and set up custom workflows. The vendor offers a 14 day free trial.
$0
For businesses with turnover <50K USD per annum
Pricing
Wave AccountingZoho Books
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Free
$0
For businesses with turnover <50K USD per annum
Standard
$15
Per Organization/Month, Billed Annually
Professional
$40
Per Organization/Month, Billed Annually
Premium
$60
Per Organization/Month, Billed Annually
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Wave AccountingZoho Books
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$15 Per Organization/Month, Billed Annually
Additional DetailsZoho Books is available for both monthly and yearly plans. Users who sign up for the annual plan get a discount.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Wave AccountingZoho Books
Considered Both Products
Wave Accounting
Chose Wave Accounting
The best feature about wave is that they let you use it for free for basic accounting and pay per use payments. But based on my horrible experience with how they cancelled my payments feature, I would never use them again!
Chose Wave Accounting
Zoho has many modules that can be integrated, including CRM, but Wave is pretty much ready to use 5 minutes after signing up.
Chose Wave Accounting
Across the board Wave takes the cake on price at $0/mo aside from payroll fees and credit card processing. That aside I'd say most accounting systems are fairly similar, however what I like about Wave is just how simple the interface is and the outstanding customer support from …
Zoho Books
Chose Zoho Books
The very easy to read dashboard, the clear categorization, the customization features, the easy learning curve and the seamless integration with other Zoho products (that we use a lot and frequently) are for our company the reasons why we favored Zoho books over other …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Wave AccountingZoho Books
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Wave Accounting
6.2
24 Ratings
19% below category average
Zoho Books
-
Ratings
Pay calculation7.123 Ratings00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.54 Ratings00 Ratings
Direct deposit files1.220 Ratings00 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management7.712 Ratings00 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.48 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Wave Accounting
8.5
13 Ratings
19% above category average
Zoho Books
6.0
14 Ratings
16% below category average
API for custom integration9.99 Ratings6.014 Ratings
Plug-ins7.011 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Wave Accounting
9.5
43 Ratings
19% above category average
Zoho Books
9.3
23 Ratings
17% above category average
Single sign-on capability9.730 Ratings10.018 Ratings
Role-based user permissions9.334 Ratings8.722 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Wave Accounting
8.2
70 Ratings
8% above category average
Zoho Books
7.8
22 Ratings
3% above category average
Dashboards9.368 Ratings7.222 Ratings
Standard reports9.467 Ratings7.221 Ratings
Custom reports5.734 Ratings9.01 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
Wave Accounting
6.8
73 Ratings
9% below category average
Zoho Books
8.3
23 Ratings
11% above category average
Accounts payable9.356 Ratings8.221 Ratings
Accounts receivable9.567 Ratings9.122 Ratings
Cash management9.359 Ratings8.021 Ratings
Bank reconciliation9.563 Ratings5.820 Ratings
Expense management9.561 Ratings7.421 Ratings
Time tracking9.411 Ratings6.013 Ratings
Fixed asset management9.412 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-currency support10.019 Ratings10.012 Ratings
Multi-division support7.19 Ratings00 Ratings
Regulations compliance6.815 Ratings10.011 Ratings
Electronic tax filing5.914 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-service portal1.739 Ratings10.015 Ratings
Global Financial Support9.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers7.04 Ratings00 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting4.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Localizations5.23 Ratings00 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations6.228 Ratings00 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting4.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Configurable Accounting5.516 Ratings00 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework1.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Standardized Processes4.317 Ratings00 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
Wave Accounting
8.1
11 Ratings
14% above category average
Zoho Books
6.5
12 Ratings
8% below category average
Inventory tracking5.68 Ratings6.012 Ratings
Automatic reordering9.95 Ratings7.07 Ratings
Location management8.12 Ratings00 Ratings
Manufacturing module9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
Wave Accounting
7.6
52 Ratings
2% above category average
Zoho Books
8.3
20 Ratings
11% above category average
Pricing9.926 Ratings7.017 Ratings
Order entry10.018 Ratings9.016 Ratings
Credit card processing2.345 Ratings9.017 Ratings
Cost of goods sold10.033 Ratings8.016 Ratings
Order Orchestration5.85 Ratings00 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility8.24 Ratings00 Ratings
Order exception Resolution7.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Wave AccountingZoho Books
Small Businesses
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Accounting Seed
Accounting Seed
Score 8.3 out of 10
Accounting Seed
Accounting Seed
Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Score 8.2 out of 10
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Score 8.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Wave AccountingZoho Books
Likelihood to Recommend
3.6
(79 ratings)
6.7
(24 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.8
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
6.2
(15 ratings)
6.7
(6 ratings)
Availability
6.7
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
2.9
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
2.5
(12 ratings)
5.3
(5 ratings)
Online Training
4.7
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
3.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Wave AccountingZoho Books
Likelihood to Recommend
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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Zoho
If using other cloud applications and you wish to create Zoho Books transactions via APIs, Zoho Books is great. The overall UI and flow of the application are great. If you need a detailed job cost accounting solution and robust reporting there is some room for improvement here.
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Pros
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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Zoho
  • Zoho Books invoicing and receipting features are second to none. We find it easy to quickly invoice clients and add items to their bills and also for our own receipting internally.
  • The accounting features are great for our accounting team to be able to see where we are financially and how the business is doing.
  • The ability to add contacts and run a mini CRM channel with clients within Zoho is invaluable. Since we use this in conjunction with our other CRM channels, it helps to have a centralized place to follow up and see through a sales funnel.
  • Zoho Books allows us to take payments from clients around the globe a feature we didn't have when we used another accounting system.
  • The pricing for Zoho Books is fairly reasonable for an SME organization which is a great for us as it pays itself back many times over every month.
Read full review
Cons
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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Zoho
  • Zoho Books is only available in Texas and California. There is no integration allowed for paying employee expenses. The absolute worst aspect is the fact that if you make even the slightest error in data input there is no backing up. You cannot undo an error.
  • The system does not allow change once implemented, so you must get every one of your beginning balances perfect. The practice of Journal Entries is cumbersome. When reconciling, Zoho Books has adopted a number of required steps that significantly overcomplicate reconciliation using practices that are not consistent with general accounting principles in the US.
  • On the customer side, you must look in two places to see the beginning balance and the current receivables that might exist for current invoicing.
  • The way the system works, you must avoid having much trust with the balances depicted. So far, it appears that Zoho Books uses what we called in school "that new math."
  • It would be terrifying to rely on this bookkeeping system to support an IRS Audit. The system violates too many fundamental accounting principles.
  • The software is used by so few people that there is concern that we might never find a skilled bookkeeper.
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Likelihood to Renew
Wave
Easy to use for clients with no accounting background and the price is right.
Read full review
Zoho
No answers on this topic
Usability
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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Zoho
Customization is the biggest struggle for us and most of the time we need to involve a tech person. The chat support is a great feature and very helpful. It would be great to be able to customize and create invoices and correspondence (templates) such are reminders in multiple languages within one organization. The currency (USD) would be the same. We have clients in different countries that don't speak English but pay in USD.
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Reliability and Availability
Wave
WAVE is always available when we need it ! Peter
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Zoho
No answers on this topic
Performance
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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Zoho
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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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Zoho
The support team feels very disjointed. We have filtered through a number of "lead" contacts and are frequently spammed by other Zoho members. Once getting an appropriate support contact on the phone - the team is very helpful, it just takes a lot of hoop jumping to get there. We actually unsubscribed from their support package as we were not getting the value we were looking for.
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Online Training
Wave
easy to use and east to train on ! Our WAVE clients enjoy the ease of use
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Zoho
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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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Zoho
We had a lot of problems with Exact Online, support-wise and price-wise. So Zoho Books wins on every point there. While Exact offers way more options, it tends to be really slow... and complex. Again Zoho Books wins. If you want an easy-to-use tool and not pay a lot of money, or if you are a small administration office with a few clients, this tool will be perfect for you.
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Scalability
Wave
Once they out grow what is ability to move up to a more robust system?
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Zoho
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
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.
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Zoho
  • Integration: Zoho Books offers out of the box integrations to extend the functionality and connect with the applications you love like MailChimp, Microsoft Outlook, PandaDoc, and Quickbooks, etc.
  • Flexibility makes Zoho Books great!
  • Since I can use forecast reports, I can create customizable sales forecast data from the dashboard to accurately measure revenue forecasts and establish sales quotas.
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ScreenShots

Zoho Books Screenshots

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