Even if you don’t have accounting experience, you can familiarize yourself with the features of Wave in less than a week. While Wave is free to use, it doesn’t offer multiple plans to increase its functionality. It lacks some of the useful features you may find in other accounting software, such as project management, time tracking and inventory management. Wave’s invoicing is free and unlimited, with customizable templates and a user-friendly interface, putting it on par with some of the best invoicing software solutions for small businesses. Pro plan capabilities include recurring invoicing and the option to let repeat clients opt into automatic credit card billing.
Make it easier for your customers to pay you through a Wave invoice, right from their bank accounts. Wave’s online payments feature lets you accept bank payments, quickly and easily. This takes into account customer management, revenue recognition, invoice management, and collections.
I look at the dashboard and know how many invoices are on the way, when they should be paid, and the average time it takes someone to pay. All your invoicing and payment information automatically syncs with Wave’s accounting feature. You can invite your accountants, bookkeepers or other business partners to Wave via email and designate their user roles. They can receive “editor permissions” and access accounting and reports as well as purchases easily.
This led him to a four-year stint as President and CEO of M-Paisa Afghanistan, bringing banking and financial education to underserved communities. Between the app and the payment process—I can’t tell you the hours it’s saved, and even the headaches that have gone away because of it. Easily monitor and keep track of what’s going on in your business with the intuitive dashboard.
Wave: Small Business Software
Transactions will appear in your books automatically, and you can say goodbye to manual receipt entry. Any connections between you, your bank accounts, and Wave are protected by 256-bit SSL encryption. Support network refers to a community of software users that can extend professional help to businesses.
Your data is always available, and backed up for extra peace of mind. “Wave invoicing makes your life a whole lot easier and takes that worry off you. I’ve tried Quickbooks—it’s a bit more complicated and technical, and takes more time to set up.” Monitor your cash flow, stay organized, and stop sweating tax season. We review products independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. In evaluating pricing, we considered the billing cycle (monthly or annual) and number of users.
Xero, for example, identifies matching transactions for you and supports other automated processes. Mark Calatrava is an accounting expert for Fit Small Business. As a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, Mark has extensive knowledge of QuickBooks products, allowing him to create valuable content that educates businesses on maximizing the benefits of the software.
Setting Up Your Accounting in Wave
The software must have features that allow users to set sales tax rates, apply them to invoices, and enable users to pay sales tax liability. Wave’s inventory management feature is very basic, so if you’re a product-based business, you should consider alternatives like QuickBooks Online or Xero. You can add a product or service, but not the quantity purchased or sold.
Customers can pay via credit card, bank payment or Apple Pay. For everyone else, however, we’ve always liked Wave’s browser-based application. With some exceptions, it includes a little bit of everything very small businesses need.
Multi-factor authentication is required for bank connections through Plaid, a third-party account aggregator that is a standard in the financial industry. Ease of use gets the highest weight in this case study because we want to give more credit to easy accounting software. For this section, we considered customer service, support network, and a subjective expert opinion score. Users must have easy access to customer service channels in case of problems, questions, or assistance.
- Wave Accounting can be a great option if you run a very small service-based business or don’t need more advanced features that alternatives might offer.
- You can’t set up projects and assign them to team members—meaning you can’t also track actual income and expenses by projects.
- Thanks for using Wave to help you stay more in control of your business while on-the-go.
We built our Payroll tool for small business owners, so it’s easy to use AND teaches you as you go. Give your customers the option of paying with one click using a credit card, bank transfer, or Apple Pay. Create beautiful, free invoices that reflect your business branding. Automate overdue reminders, set up recurring bills, and add notes or terms of service with ease. PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering lab-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.
Ratings and reviews
There are also add-on Intuit services like QuickBooks Payroll or QuickBooks Time. Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. Charge for a one-time compliance audit or ongoing site maintenance; you can schedule recurring invoices or send them manually whenever you need to. Our (non-judgmental) team of bookkeeping, accounting, and payroll experts is standing by to coach you—or do the work for you.
Importing Transactions From Your Financial Accounts in Wave
With a Pro Plan subscription, you can connect your bank account with Wave and automatically import your transactions. Transactions will appear in your bookkeeping automatically, and you’ll say goodbye to manual creditor synonyms receipt entry. Have an eye on the big picture so you can make better decisions. Our accounting reports are easy to use and show monthly or yearly comparisons, so you can easily identify cash flow trends.
These solutions are integrated within your dashboard and you’ll access them both through your single Wave login. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. Once you’re approved, you can turn payments on or off for any invoice, or pick default settings for all invoices. Set up recurring invoices for your finance clients https://accountingcoaching.online/ and safely store credit card info so you have one less thing to keep track of. See pending and completed payments from project-based and quarterly clients in one dashboard to identify revenue ebbs and flows and plan accordingly. They get the flexibility of paying you via credit card, bank payment, and Apple Pay; you get a reputation as a polished professional.
It’s also intuitive so you don’t need to be an accountant to use it successfully. These ratings are meant to provide clarity in the decision-making process, but what’s best for your business will depend on its size, growth trajectory and which features you need most. We encourage you to research and compare multiple accounting software products before choosing one. While Wave has a lot to offer when it comes to invoicing, know that it’s still slightly less automated than some competitors.
Patriot Software Accounting costs $20 to $30 per month, for instance, and Truly Small Accounting is $20 per month. The software must also have a mobile app to enable users to perform accounting tasks even when away from their laptops or desktops. Businesses with inventory items should choose accounting software that can track inventory costs, manage cost of goods sold (COGS), and monitor inventory units. As seen in the chart above, Wave beats QuickBooks Online and Zoho Books in pricing and ease of use. However, Wave’s two competitors have notable advantages in terms of features, like banking, A/P and A/R management, inventory, and project accounting.
Wave uses 256-bit transport layer security (TLS) encryption for data security, and all accounting data are stored in servers monitored 24/7. Once an invoice is created, you can email it directly to your customer in the paid version. The free plan doesn’t let you do that, but it provides you with a link to your invoice so that you can include it in your own email. Unfortunately, you can’t create a recurring transaction directly from the bill, which is something you can do in other software like QuickBooks. You also can’t create recurring expenses and create and send purchase orders (POs). Tam is the Chief Financial Officer, responsible for accounting/finance, taxes, and compliance at Wave.