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Wave Accounting is a reliable tool for staying up to date with accounting tasks such as creating invoices, tracking payments, and managing …
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What is Wave Accounting?
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.
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- Bank reconciliation (63)9.595%
- Accounts receivable (67)9.595%
- Standard reports (67)9.595%
- Dashboards (68)9.494%
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What is Wave Accounting?
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…
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What is Xero?
Xero is an online accounting software product for small businesses and personal finance. Its features beyond general ledger and double-bookkeeping include quotable invoicing, bank reconciliation, purchase order and expense management, and tax management. Third party apps can extend its features…
What is QuickBooks Online?
QuickBooks Online is a SaaS version of the QuickBooks product. It contains all of the features found in the local version. Higher-priced plans include greater automation, payment management, inventory and time tracking, and analytics features.
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What is Wave Accounting?
Wave Accounting is a fast growing, free, cloud-based accounting platform exclusively for small businesses (less than 9 employees) offered by Wave in Toronto. It supports double-entry bookkeeping and permits unlimited user access to always-available records and reports, as well as unlimited invoicing and expense management. Wave integrates with expense tracking software Shoeboxed. The software is mobile-accessible.
Wave Accounting integrates with Wave's invoicing, receipt scanning, payment processing and payroll apps, into one relatively comprehensive package. However, the automated payments and payroll functionality must be purchased; the payments addition bills per transaction, and the payroll feature bills by number of employees over a flat rate. To support the free platform, Wave integrates advertisements from business partners. Thus these are a necessary facet of the service.
Wave Accounting integrates with Wave's invoicing, receipt scanning, payment processing and payroll apps, into one relatively comprehensive package. However, the automated payments and payroll functionality must be purchased; the payments addition bills per transaction, and the payroll feature bills by number of employees over a flat rate. To support the free platform, Wave integrates advertisements from business partners. Thus these are a necessary facet of the service.
Wave Accounting Competitors
Wave Accounting Technical Details
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
Reviewers rate Multi-currency support and Order entry and Cost of goods sold highest, with a score of 10.
The most common users of Wave Accounting are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Wave Accounting is a reliable tool for staying up to date with accounting tasks such as creating invoices, tracking payments, and managing financial obligations. Users appreciate how Wave Accounting simplifies these processes, eliminating the need for manual tracking. The software offers an intuitive interface and essential accounting features that make it a popular choice for small businesses. It has been commended for its ability to quickly generate professional estimates and invoices, as well as provide performance insights through flow graphs and profit and loss graphs. Although some users have experienced drawbacks such as limited customer support and lengthy credit card acceptance processes, overall, Wave Accounting has been highly recommended by users who find it valuable for organizing their businesses. It is particularly useful for tracking inventory purchases, sales, expenses, managing independent contractor businesses, and is considered an affordable and powerful solution by accounting professionals in service-based industries.
Comprehensive and Versatile Software: Users have found Wave Accounting to be a comprehensive and versatile solution for bookkeeping and budgeting. It has been praised for its ability to effortlessly track and categorize financial transactions, streamline invoice creation without redundant data entry, as well as generate various financial reports.
Cloud-based Accessibility: The cloud-based nature of Wave Accounting is highly appreciated by users, providing them with easy accessibility from any computer while eliminating concerns about computer glitches or server problems. This feature has been mentioned by numerous reviewers.
Powerful Invoicing Feature: Users have lauded the invoicing feature in Wave Accounting for its power and user-friendliness. They can easily create and send invoices, keep track of due dates, and mark off paid invoices. The software also provides automatic invoice numbering, facilitating quick reference to different invoices.
Horrible Reconciliation Process: Users have expressed frustration with the reconciliation process in Wave, describing it as horrible. They find it difficult to match transactions and suggest a simpler method for reconciliation.
Lack of Customer Support Options: Many users complain about the lack of customer support options in Wave. They mention the absence of phone or chat lines and express frustration with the frequent response to read documentation. Users desire more personalized assistance and quicker ways to resolve their issues.
Limited Reporting Features: Users feel that the reporting features in Wave could be more robust and flexible. They report issues with exporting general ledger items and mention the need for improvements in sorting options for reports. Some users desire preset date options for reports and request further development of this aspect in Wave.
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August 17, 2021
Wave Accounting Review
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Went from Rave to RIOT over payout holdups. [It seems like] they've delayed my money countless times. They suspend payment, asking for "client contracts" to prove my [business] [is legitimate] after paying me for months! I have legal [business] docs, but they said [I needed to show] "client contracts, Social Media, or Website to review". I was OFFENDED [and refused to give] a client contract! And WHY NOT [ask for] THAT UPFRONT? Their "support" [is only] Mon-Fri 8-5! I buckled and applied for Wave Debit & instant payouts. Last [month] [my account] said "instant payout $500". Hadn't had one since before the suspend. Clicked to "instant payout" and [I felt like a] fool! Suspended, AGAIN! Waited for Monday to chat support and was told "new" debit card is why. [I think they are the] same two cards on account, [which they] paid [previously]. Then [support] emails others to "release" the suspension. Waited ALL DAY with no reply, I got worried they were closing, checked account [and] it was released. Currently [I've been] told to wait 7 business days (MAX time) on ACH client paid 7/27. They ALWAYS pay [out on] days estimated, [and it] was never more than five [days] before. I [am upset that] I didn't [change vendors] after the first problem.
- Site Layout is nice
- No charge to add a logo to your invoice
- Support hours and efficacy.
- Communication of timelines & support issues
- Tell me my money was released after suspending my account
- Don't tell me "You got paid" when my client pays an invoice. Say "Wave has your money," because [of the time it takes] to release a payer's finalized transaction. {I feel that] either don't want to, or you can't. And it's not the bank's fault or timelines.
- Tell me "You got paid" when [I did not receive my money for] 15 days after "You got paid" by my client!
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
It is being used for my business to handle my accounting needs: invoicing, payments, bills.
- Easy to use
- Free version
- Customer service, bot chat only or email
- Changed/cancelled payment services without warning
December 03, 2020
Avoid Waveapps if you are a non-profit
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Used by a small chamber of commerce to handle credit card payments, payroll, and bookkeeping. Has a nice appearance but when we try to reconcile with our bank statement it gets bad. Usually, there are three Wave transactions for every bank transaction. Sometimes there are duplicates. I read their documentation, watched many videos, and sent emails. The answer was the same: either delete or merge transactions. I didn't know which to delete or which to merge. I finally paid $199 for an advisor to show me what to do. I had an associate at the Zoom meeting. The advisor talked way too fast, and after asking several times to slow down, he did not. He then started to say delete that or merge those two. I didn't understand why, and after over 30 minutes, he seemed perplexed by what he was seeing. I asked my associate if she was getting anything out of this and, like me, it was a "No." I asked to stop the session and then asked for a refund. They refused.
- 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.
- Reconciliation is horrible. A user does not need to see multiple Wave transactions. I should see one Wave and one Bank transaction and if I think they are the same check a box and be done with it.
- No phone number to call and no chat line so all help is via email. Frequently the Wave person says to read the documentation and provides a link. I already did that and need help, not a mechanical response. On occasion, I did get a helpful and specific response but that was rare.
- Would like to have the ability to see each payroll by person pay stub and not just a summary by quarter.
March 03, 2020
Awful Software and Support
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are a technology startup and began using Wave in 2015 for bookkeeping, an "upgrade" from our Excel bookkeeping efforts.
We were looking for something simple, that easily connected to our external bank and credit card accounts, in the cloud, and low-cost.
As the company evolved, we began using it for some invoicing and for payroll. We stopped using it for Invoicing, and recently stopped using it for Payroll.
We were looking for something simple, that easily connected to our external bank and credit card accounts, in the cloud, and low-cost.
As the company evolved, we began using it for some invoicing and for payroll. We stopped using it for Invoicing, and recently stopped using it for Payroll.
- Cloud-based
- Connects to external accounts for transaction import
- Customer Service
- Software Upgrades that negatively affect bookkeeping past and present
January 29, 2020
Very Affordable Accounting Software
The cool thing about Wave Accounting is that there is no cost to use their accounting software. Wave Accounting is very similar to QuickBooks Online without the monthly cost. Wave Accounting is an online accounting software that is pretty easy to use. If you have a basic accounting understanding then it should be no problem for you to set up your company and start using this software to manage your business finances. You can link all of your bank accounts to this including credit cards so that it will import all of your transactions and all you have to do is assign the transactions to the correct account. This accounting software is great because it is completely online which means that you can access it anywhere you have a laptop and the internet.
- Very affordable.
- Easy to use!
- Connection issues with bank accounts and credit card accounts
- Learning curve to understanding the accounting software is large.
As a one-woman consultation, I use Wave to manage my quotes as I bid projects. I use it as my main CRM as well to organize and keep track of current and potential clients. When bids turn into accepted projects, I convert them to invoices and track payments there as well. I've connected my bank accounts and have used the card terminal before as well. I like the mobile app function to monitor and track outstanding invoices.
- Bid to invoice conversion is great.
- Client information is easily added to documents.
- Financial reports are in-depth enough.
- Some design aspects could be improved upon in their document creation.
- Some aspects of the interface are hard to use, and are not as intuitive as they should be.
December 04, 2019
Easy to use for someone without accounting or business experience
I own a small business and Wave is used for all of our accounting and expense tracking. It is linked to my checking account and I like that all of my expenses are already listed and I just need to go in every once in a while and categorize them. I used to do everything myself but as we have grown I now have our Office Manager do some of the categorizing and it is super simple for her to learn and do.
- Links to bank account
- Allows me to create new categories while other apps do not
- It is completely free to use
- I'm not a big fan of the invoice feature and don't use it
- I haven't figured out a good way to get a full report of expenses at the end of the year for my tax accountant without having to make some tweaks.
- The predictive categorization is most often incorrect.
October 29, 2019
Free Wave Accounting hits the spot for small businesses
We are using Wave Accounting to provide us with all of our accounting needs except the accounts payables throughout our entire company. We provide invoices and estimates through Wave Accounting. We also accept credit card payments through Wave Accounting. Our payroll and tax liabilities for sales tax and payroll are all managed on Wave Accounting.
- Invoicing - The invoicing feature of Wave Accounting is pretty solid. We are able to enter our services and items that are available for our customers at the correct price point. We add the services or the items to the invoice and add the quantity ordered or used. Invoices can be sent electronically through Wave Accounting and once the customer receives the invoice, it can be paid using the links provided.
- Recurring invoices - This is a nice feature in Wave Accounting. With recurring invoices, you can enter invoices that will be sent to clients on a regular basis. Either monthly, quarterly or yearly, the invoice will be sent to the customer. Customers can then pay online with a credit card and also permit you to automatically pay the invoice upon submission.
- Payroll - This feature will allow you to run payroll on your schedule and Wave Accounting will determine your liabilities and submit all paperwork to the proper government agencies. Wave will also schedule and notify you when payments will be made to those government agencies.
- Invoicing - Unfortunately, once an invoice is paid, you can still go back and correct that invoice or revise that invoice. Once the invoice is paid, it should be locked so that it can not be revised.
- Bills - The bills part of Wave Accounting needs quite a bit of work. I would like to see the bill section be brought up to the level that the invoicing section is at. It would be nice to enter a bill and notify me when the bill is due. Or just some way of keeping track of bills that come into the business.
- Reports - I would like to see some improvements in the reporting areas. I think it does a good job with reports but business owners always like to see reports with more detail. I know I would like to run a report automatically every month of my accounts receivables and payables.
October 29, 2019
A Simple Invoicing Software for Freelancers
Wave Accounting is a simple invoicing solution for a one-person freelancing business. It has all the features I need and has some extra things like payroll, etc. in case I grow to need them. It's very easy to create a new invoice as well as duplicate an existing one and make changes to it. You can email it straight to your client or you can get a share link to embed in your own email.
- Easy to use/simple user-friendly interface.
- Multiple options to send invoices as well as set-up automatic reminders.
- Can create products so that creating new invoices is a breeze.
- One thing I'd like Wave to implement is for me to be able to pass along credit card fees to the customer. There are instances where I give people options if they'd like to pay by check or card and if paying by card, I have to manually add a "processing fee" to my invoice if I want the credit card fees to be passed along. I want this process to be automatic. It would be great if I could turn it on and off each invoice as needed.
I use Wave Accounting for all of my bookkeeping/accounting needs. I have all of my money accounts linked to it so that I don't have to keep track of my purchases and sales, it all automatically goes into my bookkeeping accounts. Then, at the end of each month, I categorize them and verify each income/expense. With the click of a button, I can see my revenue, expenses, and profit for the month! This also makes it super easy when tax time comes! I can just print a copy of my income report for the year and hand it over to the accountant who does my taxes. It couldn't be easier!
- Bookkeeping
- Invoicing
- Keeps income/expenses organized for tax time
- Quick at-a-glance stats for monthly budget/spending/revenue
- It does not integrate with my small credit union so I rarely use that account to purchase things because I have to remember to manually log it.
- Invoice line items must be something that is reoccurring or you have to create new "products" for each new project/service. I wish I could just add whatever I wanted to the item field on an invoice instead of having to choose from or create a new product
- It always logs transferring money out of my PayPal balance as an expense when I'm really just transferring it to my bank account. Easy fix, but always a bit annoying to wonder where that much money went (only to realize it just went to my bank account).
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are using it as company-wide after QuickBooks upped their pricing. We started with Wave Accounting 3 years ago but transitioned to QuickBooks for a period of time. Then, as I mentioned, once QuickBooks upped pricing we decided to move back to Wave. Upon returning, we were pleasantly surprised by the updates made in the time we were away, recurring invoicing being one of them. The look and feel of it changed, and it looked much better than before.
- Accounting is #1 of what they do. It does appear they want to compete and take market share from QuickBooks.
- Simple invoicing and estimations.
- Automatic follow up on invoices is great.
- Support. They have no phone support. All of it is done via chat and you tend to get canned answers.
- ACH Processing Time. 7+ business days to process an ACH is not very manageable for a business. As a former banker, they say the problem is with your bank or the client's bank - however, that's not true. They have the money from an ACH within 1 business day.
August 03, 2019
Not a Wave you Want to Ride
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Wave as our primary system to track expenses, invoices, and payments. We also used Wave to process credit card payments. We use Wave Accounting software company-wide. At first, it appeared to be great way to track invoices and easily receive payments via credit card. The website itself has some nice features.
- Logging invoices and payments as it is relatively easy and fast.
- Integration with our payroll system (ADP)
- Customer service needs a lot of improvement! It is extremely difficult to contact support as they do not provide a dedicated customer service line and it takes a long time to get a response via email.
- Credit card payments have been extremely problematic and are often held up for an unreasonable amount of time (several days and longer).
- Complete lack of communication if an issue arises and lack of support getting any kind of resolution.
- No longer linking with our account and no notification when it occurred.
August 03, 2019
The best option if you're a freelance worker!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Wave Accounting in mainly the IT department to track invoices and receive payments from clients for work completed and reoccurring sales. Wave makes it very easy to create an invoice template, add customers, create line items, and send invoices! The option to also allow credit card payments on the invoice through Wave is a nice feature and saves us time from having to contact the customer and take card information over the phone and the transaction fee they charge isn't bad at all considering other applications out there.
- They make sending invoices pretty simple and you can choose from sending either from Wave or you can add an email account and it will allow you to send from the Wave account but using your own account to avoid confusion from your clients.
- Being able to store products, line items, and various services so you can quickly create more invoices later is a great feature! It'll save the price or hourly rate for the next time you need to use it
- Reoccurring invoices are one of my favorite features, it makes it simple to send invoices to customer who have a monthly fee you need to charge. Wave will send it automatically and there's no extra work for you to do to ensure your customer is up to date on current charges.
- Taking payments - I would like to see them integrate with CashApp or Venmo since many of my clients like to pay via mobile apps like those and then I have to manually record the payment in Wave
- I would also like to see a feature that allows you to download a PDF version of an invoice in their mobile app. Other than that the mobile app is great!
December 15, 2018
Powerful Free Accounting and Invoicing for Small Businesses
As a small business owner (founder, principal and independent contractor) with clients across the country, I quickly discovered that I needed a solution to manage my invoicing, cash flow and expenses for the business. Spreadsheets are fine, but I needed something professional but lightweight. I tried a few other solutions, but once I found Wave I was hooked. I've been using it for years, it's my go-to solution, and they keep adding features that make it better. I use it for estimates, invoicing, and bookkeeping.
- Invoices are so easy to execute. Whether they are one-off or recurring, fixed or variable, single item or multiple line entries, they come out looking professional, polished and they get sent without any fuss. Put your client's info on them, add your logo, describe the services, add notes, set due dates, etc. all without cracking an abacus.
- It's a little thing but I love how the estimates feature integrates with Invoices. You start by making an estimate for a client, with a defined expiry date. Once they accept, you can convert that estimate immediately into an Invoice and set it up to send.
- Built-in payment processing is great. I don't have to worry about Paypal or Stripe or anything, Wave just handles my client's credit cards so I don't have to do a thing. They even have recurring billing for my retainer clients!
- 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.
November 18, 2018
Wave Accounting works great for my small business
We use Accounting by Wave for our entire billing system. We generate all invoices from Wave, and accept online credit card and bank transfers through Wave. We also use their accounting system to track expenses, profit & loss, and reporting. Wave simplified our billing system because it will auto-generate recurring invoices, and we get paid much faster using their system.
- Easy to generate invoices, and recurring invoices
- Online Payments via credit card and bank transfer
- Accounting functions are very good to have integrated
- I think that some customers may not trust the bank transfer login system
- The auto-generated invoice numbers can be confusing if you have different prefixes for services.
- it would be amazing if they added document signing and agreements to this system.
November 07, 2018
A wave of approval for Wave
Wave Accounting is used as the central accounting package for the business. All income and expenses are synchronized from various bank and card accounts. Both one-off and recurring invoices are issued through Wave. Payments via credit card or back transfers are accepted through Wave. Cash low is monitored on the dashboard. Year-end reports are used for income tax calculation.
- The dashboard provides instant views of month-by month income & expenses for the past 12-24 months, a breakdown of current year expense by category, and net income for the past year and year-to-date.
- Invoicing has easy templated set up has lots of per invoice options such as single/recurring payment options, due dates.
- Year end reports are easy to generate in either pdf or csv format.
- My biggest request is that they add a way to link invoice payments with the bank deposits . When a payment is made through Wave, they show the income and it is marked with the invoice number, but when they transfer the money into the bank, the credit is not tied to the invoice(s). You have to figure out by hand and delete the transaction from the bank to prevent getting double credit on it
- It would be good to have a field for CC email on each customer. Currently you have to add any CC when sending.
- On the Transactions view, a few more search options would be helpful.
November 01, 2018
Ride the Wave! It's awesome!
We use Wave as our primary accounting solution for the entire company. We're small, but Wave has great features we're using across both backend financial management and front-end sales (quoting and invoicing). The ability to process payments has been a great tool for us as well and the auto-reminder feature on outstanding invoices saves a ton of time so I don't have to manually beat the bushes.
- Quoting and Invoicing - This feature is huge to be able to manage customers and automate the process of sending invoices as well as reminding outstanding balance holders about their obligations.
- Payment Processing - Once you get the invoicing down, the ability to process credit card and ACH payments in a single package is great. The fees are competitive and the turn-around time to money in the bank is quick.
- Bank Integrations - I mean, this ought to be a standard thing these days, but Wave makes it super simple. There is no need to use esoteric APIs or ugly interfaces - everything is in the same Wave wrapper and the functionality is truly seamless.
- The mobile experience leaves a lot to be desired. While I can use the receipt app to capture expenses, we live in a mobile digital world where I need to be able to create quotes and invoices on the spot and not back at my desk.
- There are a few accounting and account related tools that could use some sharpening. For example, there isn't a good way to merge transactions - so when I snap a picture of a receipt and add it there is trouble reconciling against the bank. This shows up as two discrete transactions that cannot be merged - so one has to be manually deleted. It kind of defeats the purpose of scanning the receipts in entirely.
- We've struggled with integrating debt accounts. For example, a shareholder may pay for something to get us by one day - how to we capture that as a debt owed? There isn't a way. The "shareholder debt" account doesn't talk to the rest of the system.
November 01, 2018
Wave Hello to Your New Accounting Solution - Wave
We use Wave for our whole organization. We run various reports from within Wave to track and monitor performance for the firm. With Wave we can easily generate a professional sales invoice for our small company. The reports from the software give us a way to quickly analyze trends both short term and long term.
- The ease of use with Wave makes it a great tool. Someone without much accounting experience can jump in and use the software.
- The reports features in Wave make looking at financial statements a breeze. In addition you can quickly drill down into expense categories to see all transactions of a certain type.
- It is very easy to generate a sales invoice and see the average period for our company to get paid.
- I love the Wave Invoice app where we can track invoices on the go and verify payment history.
- One area of improvement for Wave would be combining the various mobile applications into one app.
- Another room for improvement would be on the dashboard level. It would be great if they could use more bar graphs and get away from pie charts for things like expenses.
- Some of the other areas from improvement have been addressed by recent updates so I am excited to see what else Wave brings out.
November 01, 2018
Wave is a great small business solution
As a business owner, I use Wave to track and categorize expenses, pay vendors and freelancers, and send and categorize invoices. I provide a separate logon for my accountant so that they can pull information during tax time. Wave eliminates any need for manual tracking since it connects directly with my business credit card and checking account. It also provides a helpful dashboard that tracks earnings and expenses. You can pull financial reports easily, as well.
- tracks and categorizes financial transactions with a direct link to bank accounts and credit cards - helpful since there is no manual input outside of verifying that a category is correct
- easily creates invoices without the need to input customer information more than once. you can also send directly from the platform and toggle the option to accept credit card and ACH payments
- creates financial reports with ease
- connection to bank sometimes lags - you can refresh the connection but it takes a minute or two to update
- sometimes invoices are categorized as sales versus consulting income - you really have to look and change it to the appropriate income account. once an invoice is recorded as paid, you can change the income account
- Wave has a tendency of not accepting a saved password, forcing users to reset a password that is knowingly valid. Using Single Sign On eliminates this but it's still annoying.
October 29, 2018
All You Need Accounting For Start-up Businesses
We utilize Wave across the company to manage expenses, invoicing, credit card processing, and 1099 employee payroll tracking. Having one application to handle all these transaction makes the accounting side of the business far less of a headache and with the recent updates it's even easier to navigate.
- Crisp, clean invoices, and I particularly like the ability to customize the invoice to fit our needs.
- Custom reporting tools so we can slice & dice our data as needed.
- Overall interface is incredibly easy to navigate through and you don't have to be a professional accountant or book keeper to make sense of everything.
- Offering a recurring payment option, credit card processing, and ACH payment options with customer online payment options as well has made our life much easier with the repeat accounts we manage.
- Adding customers profiles is simple and can be done right in the new invoice tool
- Setting up vendors is quick and easy to associate to various payable/receivable accounts is simple.
- Not too much to complain about with Wave although I do wish they kept an audit trail of all invoice reminders sent, changes in the invoice, and have the ability to pull reports with this data. This functionality would be great to review clients as a whole to determine profitability and time spent with these clients.
- 9% processing fees for all cards which is a bit higher than some of the competitors like Blue Pay. The pro to this though is there's no monthly commitment or monthly service fees.
Wave is a great alternative to QuickBooks Small Business, and is being used to satisfy all of my small business' accounting needs. It also keeps my overhead low, because it is completely free- there's no initial or monthly subscription fee! It is completely online, so it allows me to access my account anywhere from any device, which is very helpful when I am travelling or when I forget to bring my laptop to work. Additionally, the interface is simple and easy to use, so there was no learning curve and very little stress in setting it up. It allows me to reconcile accounts, run various reports, and easily keep tabs on both my income and expenditures.
- It connects seamlessly to my bank and credit card accounts, and typically inputs updated account information within 24 hours of the bank or credit card account being updated
- It provides easy access to my financial information from multiple devices anywhere, anytime
- It allows me to organize my income and expenses in easy to identify categories, helping me (and my accountant!) immensely during tax season
- I can reconcile all accounts with a few clicks of a mouse, without hassle or stress
- Wave doesn't have a comprehensive mobile app available, at least for Android. Wave does have supplementary apps, like an app that allows you to upload and categorize receipts, which then integrate into the main Wave interface. However, it would be great if there was an app that allowed for more on-the-go accounting.
- On some occasions there is a delay of more than 24 hours between my bank accounts updating and Wave inputting the updated information
- There are a few less "bells and whistles" in Wave than in QuickBooks, if those are things that are important to you and your business
Accounting by Wave has been an integral element of my business since I've been a part-time sole prop and stayed with me as a tool of choice as I moved into an S-Corporation. I use Accounting for invoicing, bookkeeping, receipt and expense management and to have a better idea of my cash flow. It pulls reports directly in from my bank and helps me assign expenses easily and resolve my books each month.
- Wave is a wonderful integrated solution offering invoicing, bookkeeping, and cash flow analysis along with bank integration that auto updates.
- Wave is a payment solution provider with an industry standard rate of 2.9ish% for credit card transactions and provides a good analysis for me as to when I typically get paid.
- Wave pulls common data for me in building a customized branded invoice, allowing me to make the invoice process faster by adding repeat customers and listing my graphic design services.
- Wave is owned by ADP and integrates well, but I'm less of a fan of ADP these days, so I'll need to work out how it'll work out with alternate payroll providers.
- The app for Wave has some great functions, but the website has much more complete integration, where you can 'skip' sending an invoice if you're just using it to track invoices for retainer-based clients.
- The receipt tracking app is separate from the accounting app, and could possibly be integrated better.
I use Wave to keep track of invoices and payments. It allows me to create recurring invoices and took my day of accounting on the final day of the month from the full day down to under an hour.
- Recurring Invoices
- Online Payments
- Manual Payments
- Simple reporting
- Cost of sales as related to products unclear
- Bringing in payments from other providers and applying the fees associated with those is not automatic
December 12, 2017
Wave Accounting - Approach with Caution
We use Wave to do the bookkeeping, invoicing and payment processing for my small internet marketing business. We use it to perform monthly recurring invoicing and automatic charging to client payment cards (debit and credit cards). We attempt to use it to import transactions from our Bank of America business checking account.
- Recurring invoicing works (finally) in a reliable and secure manner.
- Automatic credit or debit card charging now works (finally) in a reliable and secure manner.
- The reporting tools for the balance sheet and income statement are ok
- Importing transactions from our Bank of America business checking account goes very poorly because Wave sometimes fails to import all transactions, leading to hours of additional work to reconcile the accounts and find and manually enter the missing transactions.
- When automatic payments fail to work, such as when a customer's payment card is declined, there is no email notification sent to me, but there should be.
- When transactions are imported or otherwise added, there should be/could be automatic expense category assignments but there are not at this time.
June 30, 2017
Wave: God bless you for your genius
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Accounting by Wave is used across the organization for invoicing and accounting.
- Credit Card Acceptance, an excellent feature that makes payment convenient for clients. It's also a very quick set up.
- Estimate to Invoice Lifecycle: Incredibly useful and time-saving to convert quotes instantly.
- Usability: Very intuitive and a lovely dashboard for financial overviews.
- Invoice templates can be customised and look instantly impressive. Very easy to edit, filter, arrange and most importantly, they're easy to process from the client's point of view.
- Great customer support. The first day I had an IT issue, they solved it straight away.
- Invoices look great on desktop and device formats.
- Upload your receipts direct to Wave, even if it's not a unique feature, I love that Wave includes it.
- My accountant is happy to use the data from it.
- Seriously everything, every tiny, well thought out feature that I've discovered so far.
- None found, not yet. It's brilliant.