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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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Learn from top reviewers

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Pricing

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Starter

$0

Cloud

Pro

$16

Cloud
per month

Pro - billed annually

$170

Cloud
per year

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.waveapps.com/pricing

Offerings

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

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $16 per month
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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 7.7

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.

6.6
Avg 8.2

Reporting & Analytics

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

6.4
Avg 7.8

General Ledger and Configurable Accounting

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

7
Avg 7.6

Inventory Management

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

8.1
Avg 7.5

Order Management

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

7.6
Avg 7.7
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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

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
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.

Wave Accounting starts at $16.

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 From Top Reviewers

(1-3 of 3)

We love WAVE for our Small Business Customers

Rating: 8 out of 10
March 16, 2016
We use Wave Software for our small business clients who are getting started and need efficient and easy to use accounting software to manage their business finances, process payroll and have support for income tax preparation.
  • So easy to use and set up
  • Easy to collaborate with our Clients
  • Easy to view reports and share information in meetings with clients
Cons
  • The journal Entry Feature definitely could use improvements by allowing billable expenses to be posted to a Customer account
  • Reporting is still very basic and needs enhancement - ability to generate custom reports is needed
It is so not good for inventory and product related customers. It is best for service based customers and early stage companies.
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting (12)
52.5%
5.3
Accounts payable
70%
7.0
Accounts receivable
70%
7.0
Cash management
90%
9.0
Bank reconciliation
90%
9.0
Expense management
80%
8.0
Time tracking
N/A
N/A
Fixed asset management
N/A
N/A
Multi-currency support
60%
6.0
Multi-division support
10%
1.0
Regulations compliance
80%
8.0
Electronic tax filing
N/A
N/A
Self-service portal
80%
8.0
Inventory Management
N/A
N/A
Order Management
N/A
N/A
Payroll Management (5)
N/A
N/A
Pay calculation
N/A
N/A
Benefit plan administration
N/A
N/A
Direct deposit files
N/A
N/A
Salary revision and increment management
N/A
N/A
Reimbursement management
N/A
N/A
Reporting & Analytics (3)
60%
6.0
Dashboards
90%
9.0
Standard reports
60%
6.0
Custom reports
30%
3.0
Customization (2)
N/A
N/A
API for custom integration
N/A
N/A
Plug-ins
N/A
N/A
Security (2)
50%
5.0
Role-based user permissions
50%
5.0
Single sign-on capability
50%
5.0
  • Works very well with our small business customers so we are pleased
entry level software - does not yet compare to XERO
7
Accounting Tax Planning Analytics
4
Understanding what types of analytics clients need to see in their WAVE account Setting up bank feeds customizing Chart of Accounts POsting Manual Jounals
  • Start-ups
  • Mobile workforce
  • Virtual Teams
  • Fractional CFO
  • none so far
  • more mature companies as WAVE evolves
easy to use and east to train on ! Our WAVE clients enjoy the ease of use
easy to use, bank feeds work as expected, reporting while basic covers most needs
WAVE is always available when we need it ! Peter

Easy to use for the right client but doesn't not currently work well with large companies.

Rating: 10 out of 10
May 20, 2015
JH
Vetted Review
Verified User
Wave Accounting
28 years of experience
I recommend it to many of my clients, set it up, monitor it and, in some cases, handle some of the date categorization. In some cases, clients use only the invoicing feature which provides us with information for revenue entries in our on-site software and information to process sales tax reports.
  • It does a wonderful job of invoicing and billing - great for tracking outstanding receivable and payables.
  • Love the ability to add my own general ledger accounts.
  • Entering journal entries is easy and provides needed flexibility.
Cons
  • We need to be able to create a template for general journal entries so that we don't have to enter every line on repetitive monthly entries.
  • Need the ability to choose cash or accrual for sales tax reporting.
  • Re sales tax liabilities, I really don't want a separate liability account for each sales tax jurisdiction. When I pay, I make one payment for multiple jurisdictions.
Who will be doing the data entry? Which features are most important?
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
N/A
N/A
Inventory Management
N/A
N/A
Order Management
N/A
N/A
Payroll Management
N/A
N/A
Reporting & Analytics
N/A
N/A
Customization
N/A
N/A
Security
N/A
N/A
I use Simply Accounting for clients with more complicated needs. Wave is great for small businesses with simpler needs. But it does complement very nicely with things like have a client do their own invoicing while we maintain everything else in Simply
Easy to use for clients with no accounting background and the price is right.

Wave review

Rating: 9 out of 10
April 29, 2015
JK
Vetted Review
Verified User
Wave Accounting
1 year of experience
Sole proprietor that is using it to keep books, send invoices, and prepare financial statements.
  • Auto download information from bank and credit cards and prepare financial statements that can be easily managed
  • Prepare invoices, send and collect money via credit card
  • Easy to understand instructions
Cons
  • Log in screen is confusing. You may end up creating a second account instead of logging in to your current one. It then takes customer service help to delete the second account.
Accounting by Wave is perfect for small businesses and sole proprietors - especially for whom QuickBooks or other heavy hitters are too complex.
Low cost, ease of use.
Haven't tried all of their features yet - still in testing mode.
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
N/A
N/A
Inventory Management
N/A
N/A
Order Management
N/A
N/A
Payroll Management
N/A
N/A
Reporting & Analytics
N/A
N/A
Customization
N/A
N/A
Security
N/A
N/A
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