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Wave Accounting

Wave Accounting

Overview

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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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

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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Disappointed in Wave Accounting

1 out of 10
January 19, 2024
I am an artist and the only user. In trying to reconcile sales tax in wave to what I report to the state by quarter using the P&L, all …
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Good Accounting Software for SME's

9 out of 10
January 13, 2022
We use Wave Accounting for all the financial data of the organization (SME.) The payroll, however, was outsourced. The product addresses a …
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Wave Accounting Review

1 out of 10
August 17, 2021
Went from Rave to RIOT over payout holdups. [It seems like] they've delayed my money countless times. They suspend payment, asking for …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 44 features
  • Bank reconciliation (63)
    9.6
    96%
  • Accounts receivable (67)
    9.6
    96%
  • Standard reports (67)
    9.5
    95%
  • Dashboards (68)
    9.4
    94%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Unavailable

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…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Alternatives Pricing

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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Product Demos

How To Use Wave Accounting App | Get a hold of your Money! | Ibukun Awosika

YouTube

Wave Accounting Demo

YouTube
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Features

Payroll Management

Provides for pay calculation and benefit plan administration, in addition to managing direct deposit, salary revisions and payroll tracking.

6.2
Avg 7.5

Customization

This addresses a company’s ability to configure the software to fit its specific use case and workflow.

8.5
Avg 7.1

Security

This component helps a company minimize the security risks by controlling access to the software and its data, and encouraging best practices among users.

9.5
Avg 8.0

Reporting & Analytics

Users can report on and analyze usage, performance, ROI, and/or other metrics of success.

8.2
Avg 7.6

General Ledger and Configurable Accounting

Financial management solution, including capabilities for general ledger and configurable accounting

6.9
Avg 7.4

Inventory Management

The ability to track and manage the flow of goods or materials into and out of an inventory.

8.1
Avg 7.0

Order Management

The ability to process orders, and track them from quote to cash.

7.6
Avg 7.4
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Product Details

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 Competitors

Wave Accounting Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

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.

QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks, and Xero are common alternatives for Wave Accounting.

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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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(172)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

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.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 48)
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Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I am an artist and the only user. In trying to reconcile sales tax in wave to what I report to the state by quarter using the P&L, all income by customers and the account balances for the same time period (accrual) show different totals. I am at a loss how they can produce different numbers from what should be the same data. I am finding them unusable.
  • Site is nicely done
  • It's easy to read
  • In my experience, by quarter reports do not show the same totals
  • They closed the community support page
  • In my opinion, chat bot is useless for anything that isn't simple
  • Reporting on sales tax, I need to print 3 different reports to get the info I need
I would not recommend for anyone who needs to track sales tax, total and taxable sales.
Marc Fogel | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Wave seems to be down more than it is up. The last few weeks it has been under repair very often making it very hard to do business. I like to use their software for invoicing but I can't get into doing my work. It is strange for a large company like this to be unavailable to its clients.
  • Easy to work
  • Used to be available
  • Familiar
  • MAINTENANCE
  • Reliability
  • Poor Customer Service
I have been trying to create invoices for two days. It seems strange that they cannot fix the problem. The yellow system is down again.
Allen Eshmoili | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use it for personal and business account. My bookkeeper has access and will update my accounts and generate financial statements and use it to communicate with my accountant at year end. Its nice that it imports all my financial statements from my banks allows me to categorize transactions and view my transactions and a recolcile my books as well. its easy enolugh for me to use as well and I have no finance background. The reports are helpful from P&L and balance sheets and more.
  • Reconcile
  • Categorize
  • Reporting
  • Access to submit question
  • customer service
I use it on a monthly basis to reconcile my books, see where my money is being spent, look at my profitability and cashflow as well. The reports make this easy to do and categorizing multiple transactions are easy as well. I cant think of many cases where you would not want to use WAVE accounting software
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
As a somewhat accounting-illiterate owner of a small business, Wave has been easier to use than Quickbooks. It's made my finances accessible and easy to understand. Also the invoices that go out, along with the automatic reminders, look very professional. Best of all for a micro-business like mine, it's free!
The very consequential difficulty has come in finding bookkeepers or accountants who will use Wave. This has frankly led me to hire a sub-par bookkeeper who did such a poor job that someone else had to straighten things out. This is because all the talented bookkeepers wouldn't touch Wave. They complain that it's not properly set up for what they normally do, and that they have to transfer all the numbers from Wave to Quickbooks, anyway, which isn't worth their time.
  • Invoices with automatic reminders
  • If you're willing to manually issue payroll, it's by far the cheapest payroll service
  • Transactions easily categorized
  • Bookkeepers won't use it, making it only useful for small business owners who do their own books
  • Customer service is pleasant, but limited (understandable since it's a free service)
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!
Well suited for the free reporting BUT Invoice somewhere else. Less appropriate for INVOICING. [I feel] that they suspend [the] account often and for reasons that aren't relevant. [It seem like] you have [to employ] someone else to take the time to sort it out on a monthly basis because you're not giving them advertised services or canceling advertised services.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Wave Accounting for our everyday accounting system. We use it for invoicing, expenses, and payments.
  • Invoicing
  • Expenses
  • Reporting
  • No areas that I currently see
I always recommend Wave Accounting to my business contacts. It is great (and free) for the modules we use.
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
I would not recommend Wave based on how they treated me and my business. Yes, I’m a small business so I was attracted to their free service, which was great for me, but... I was not able to connect my bank and most importantly they cancelled my ability to receive payments with giving me warning. They just sent me an email saying that they determined that there was risk and turned it off. So, payments that I just received was refunded. I had to inform my clients that they needed to pay me again! What risks are there? I was receiving payments via credit card, they were taking their cut? I only had a handful of transactions?
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.
Spent almost 100 hours trying to get Waveapp to provide accurate reports. I am a graduated MBA (many decades ago) and watched videos and read literature with no success in finding the root cause of the issues we experienced. Finally paid $199 for their advisor. A little past halfway through their 60-minute Zoom meeting, I stopped it. The advisor didn't know why we had the issues we had and said delete that and merge this, etc. Apparently, you need to understand how their software works in the background and spend many hours trying to reconcile your bank statements. Switched to another product and imported my bank statements. Within 30 minutes the reconciliation was complete.
Magdalene van der Walt | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As an accounting firm, we co-use the program with our smaller clients. We are invited to use the system on their side, and then managing their financial records, and accounting transactions remotely. For our clients, it addresses the problem of cost-efficiency for our smaller clients as it has a free version. For us, it allows us to work remotely without having to visit our clients at their office. This is important as we are a virtual accounting firm, meaning we do not have a physical office address, but rather work from our own individual homes from our PC's. Many site visits would increase costs for our clients, many of whom are small clients, and need their costs kept as low as possible for cash flow reasons.
  • Bank upload and reconciliations (new feature).
  • Reports are good for a free system.
  • Good customer and supplier reconciliation features for a free system.
  • I find the system to be quite sluggish at times, compared to other systems that we use.
  • They are adding new features to the system, but it is still very behind other comparative systems.
  • The payroll function is only currently available to USA and Canada.
It is well suited if you are a micro-business that is not registered for sales tax, and does employ staff. If you do not reside in the USA and Canada, you will not be able to use the payroll function which forces you to have to use another program that won't intergrate with the system. It is also limited with its functions. If you are looking to save costs however, and are looking to track your monthly profit and loss, compare it to other periods, and are a freelancer, it is highly recommended if you do not reside in the USA/Canada due to the payroll issue. You will find it has everything that you need for your basic bookkeeping tasks.
Rachel Zeldin | TrustRadius Reviewer
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.
  • Cloud-based
  • Connects to external accounts for transaction import
  • Customer Service
  • Software Upgrades that negatively affect bookkeeping past and present
MAYBE, if you are looking for a free and very simple transaction-management system you could consider this. But for us, it's been nothing but an accounting/bookkeeping/payroll nightmare over the past 2 years.

Wave erratically makes software updates, rolls them out without consent, and when your books or payroll are negatively impacted by their changes, they don't do anything to fix it. There is no real-time support via chat or phone, so the back and forth via email takes an impossible amount of time and is highly ineffective.

One example of this is there Payroll service. I enrolled in this paid program after reading about all its great features for tax collection and remittance on federal and state levels. Months later, after adding an employee in another state, I learned through my own investigating that they only withhold the taxes for the employee in that state, but they don't remit them to the state despite saying loud and clear in the User Interface that "everything is all taken care of." Only after digging through support articles and contacting their email support was I able to confirm that they only remit taxes in certain states. That was not clear and never indicated when I onboard the employee in a non-supported state. As a result, I still needed to sign up for 3 separate employer accounts in that state just to remit the taxes on a monthly and quarterly basis. And because we were then 4 months overdue in remitting the withholding, we owed penalties that Wave refused to cover.

Had I known that this would have caused so many problems and rework, I would have gladly paid $30/mo for a more stable accounting and payroll software with actual customer support.
Vin Campbell | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I am personally using Wave Accounting (free version) as the primary accounting app to run the backend of my business. I use the program to create, send, and track invoices to my clients, and I use the link to my bank account to track my expenses, profit and loss, sales tax, and general income vs. expenditures. Having a piece of software this comprehensive that is completely free is a pure lifesaver. I am on a generally tight budget, so this feature solves a huge problem for me and my company!
  • Providing a comprehensive piece of accounting software for free
  • Invoicing + receiving payments--super easy and intuitive on both fronts
  • Bank account linking: They are working diligently to correct this, but it broke when they updated their system. Probably could have tested more banks prior to rolling out the upgrade
  • If you don't fully track and reconcile your books, you'll see carry over numbers--needs a better way to handle this.
First, I have already recommended Wave Accounting to everyone that has ever asked me about accounting software. This software is perfectly suited to small businesses with small operating budgets. Entrepreneurs can rejoice for sure--free is unheard of and I can't stress enough that this solution is 100% free! Now, they make money when the need arises for a small business to hire an accountant. That's their level-up plan that generates revenue. For me, I've yet to need this service, but if/when I do, I'll certainly use Wave first!
Andrea Mitchell, MSW, APSW | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
It is really great for a small business with only minimal transactions to have to categorize. It is also perfect for someone who has zero accounting knowledge.
I'm not entirely sure who it would not work well with because I really don't know much about other businesses or accounting.
Jared Hammond | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Wave Accounting helps me keep track of my invoices and process payments from my customers. I don't have a large amount of time to spend, and Wave makes it very easy for me to do this. My customers can keep track of the invoices and easily pay online. It just works.
  • Accept payments online.
  • Easy invoice creation.
  • Overall accounting.
  • More integration options.
  • More options in mobile app.
I use Wave Accounting for my audio engineering and videography business. I have recommended this product to all of my colleagues, and they enjoy using it as well. It makes it easy to keep track of, send, and process payment for invoices.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Wave Accounting is being used as a way to organize all purchases and money coming in and to quickly look at reports if need be. It's also a nifty tool to create quick invoices that are nice looking, functional, and time-saving, being that I don't have to send automatic follow-ups.
  • Invoices
  • Reports
  • UI/UX
  • For people who aren't experienced with accounting, it can be a little confusing. I wish the help were a little more extensive.
I don't think that Wave Accounting would be the best solution if you're an enterprise-level company, but if you're a tiny business or a solopreneur, then Wave Accounting would be a great fit. Also, unless you use their added services, there won't be any other costs passed on to you.
Patrick Contreras | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
I think it is very well suited for small businesses that are service-related. Entrepreneurs would also find it well suited for their needs until the business gets going. Design agencies and marketing consultants are a good fit for Wave Accounting. Small construction companies would also be able to benefit from Wave Accounting. I don't see large corporations being a good fit for Wave Accounting.
Tiffany Rachann | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use wave for its essential accounting functions such as invoicing, payment receipts, and to track business-related purchases and expenses using the account connection feature. It's relatively easy to use and can copy and duplicate invoices, send reminders and gauge how often invoices are paid or not. It's primarily used by myself though I sometimes have my assistant send a simple invoice.
  • Allows the user to set up customer profiles and manage the intricacies of account payable tracking.
  • Allows the user to connect the app to a bank account thereby identifying purchases and business-related expenses. Awesome for tax time!
  • Allows the user to create vendor profiles and manage payroll accordingly.
  • Connecting the app to a bank that isn't listed in their database isn't seamless.
  • Sending multiple invoices to one client that needs to use different payment methods raises a red flag.
  • Receipts can't be exported as PDF's and must be sent from the email that was used during sign-up (can't be altered).
Overall, Wave is a good stand-alone option for a small business with a few employees and/or vendors. It's easy to set-up, navigate and trigger for reoccurring situations. The platform utilizes Stripe for payment processing so the standard fees apply (which if one takes payments upwards of $5,000 can be pricey) and the funds are deposited in a few days with ETA notifications on both the dashboard and via email.
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.
Wave is fine if you only use it for accounting but I would urge others not to use Wave for credit card processing. Apparently our account was either not set up correctly and we received no notification, or the link to our bank account to deposit credit card payments was broken, again with no notification. When trying to resolve the issue we received little help from customer support. In fact their reaction was to no lover service our account for credit card transactions. When asked why, we were given reasons that were untrue and when confronted with evidence contradicting their claims Wave would provide another reason. We have since moved on to another credit card transaction provider and have not had any problems.
David Schwartz | TrustRadius Reviewer
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!
If you do freelance work then it's perfect! I love having Wave for side business we perform at work and it makes it so easy to set up a freelance operation with professional invoicing. When a customer, or perspective customer, receives one of Waves invoices it definitely helps to make you look more professional and gives your customer confidence that you aren't just the average Joe that's going to take their money.
J.P. VanderLinden | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Wave is free to use, and they have some premium features you can pay for. For someone just starting out as a small business, freelancer or independent contractor, this is a Godsend. You can look professional, have something easy to manage, and yet also have excellent records come the end of the year. You won't spend a bunch of time having to learn the program, it's very intuitive and you get a host of great features that will make getting paid easy.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Wave is great for small businesses that want a low-cost (or free for most features) online billing system. The credit card fees are competitive for online transactions. The setup is simple enough for most users. I've never used the payroll functions, but those would be helpful to many people as well. It's less suited for large businesses with advanced accounting needs, or complicated billing systems. They work with a number of APIs, but some organizations may need more advanced integrations.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
I have recommended it to many small businesses because first off, it works. Setup and daily use it is easy. There is no cost outside of any payment transaction processing fees. You can probably find lower fees, but they are not out of line with other services.
Lindsay Frey | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I used Accounting by Wave to invoice my clients, send payment reminders, send estimates, track my business expenses, and see profit & loss when it was time to do taxes. As a solo entrepreneur, it kept my business accounting separate from my personal, and I loved that it was a free service that looked professional when emailing clients.
  • Good design / branding – looks modern & professional & trustworthy for my clients (that's coming from a picky 'millennial'!)
  • Enjoyable & well-designed interface
  • Great options for their free product
  • Really no complaints!
It's great if what you need is simple, well-designed invoicing and bookkeeping. If you want to integrate more features (like CRM, proposals, questionnaires, lead management, etc) into the same app, go with something else.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Wave is great at small business accounting where fairly simple quotes and invoices can be set up and payments can be received online or as mailed checks. Other or more complicated situations are not well suited to the platform. Any business that takes in Bitcoin or other alternative currencies will struggle to link the account types together.
Lukas Sundahl, MBA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Wave is well suited for small businesses looking to have an accounting service that won't hinder profitability. Wave is a great service for a small business owner just starting out and is flexible enough to meet demands of larger businesses. Wave even offers a paid payroll service if needed for any business owner. The ease of use with Wave makes it perfect for non-accountants, and for accountants they have tools available that they are used to seeing with other accounting software.
Kristy Nittskoff | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Wave is great for a small consulting shop like mine. I'm sure that there are more sophisticated systems out there but I have a limited number of expenses and invoices each year - for me, Wave meets my needs. They've made significant improvements to their dashboard over the past three years and have not changed the cost (FREE for my instance).
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