
About Wave Accounting
Wave is a fully integrated solution designed for small businesses with 9 employees or less. With our total focus on small business owners, you’ll never have to navigate inflated or cluttered to find what you need, right now. With an easy to navigate interface and single login, it’s never been easier to find what you need, when you need it.
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Use the 100% free accounting tools in Wave to gain the insights you need, without the legwork. With our automatic bank connections, your information flows seamlessly into Wave, without the manual entry. And even though it’s easy to navigate and understand, it’s still a real, double-entry application. Collaborate with your accountant or bookkeeper in real-time, and save both of you time!
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Use Wave’s invoicing tools to collect your money faster. Choose the template that best reflects your business, load your own logo, and choose a color for your invoices. Email invoices right from Wave, and collect credit card payments through our payment processing. Use Wave’s invoicing tools to stay professional, get paid faster, and keep track of where your money is.
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Everyone loves getting paid, but no one likes running payroll. Now, use Wave’s Payroll tools in America and Canada to take the headaches out of running your payroll. With guaranteed accuracy, direct deposit and employee self-service all included, at $5 per employee per month or less it’s never been more affordable for your employees to get paid.
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Use Wave’s personal finance tools to gain better insights into where your money goes. With simple budgeting tools, real time investment tracking, and more, Wave’s personal tools are the best way to master your personal finances.
Pricing starting from:
N/A
- Free Version
- Free Trial
- Subscription
Top 5 alternatives to Wave Accounting
Key benefits of Wave Accounting
Wave is 100% focused on the real small business owners, with nine employees or less. That means you’ll never see cluttered, complicated software that you can’t navigate, never mind understand.
What you will see is all the tools you need to gain better insights into your personal and business finances, all with one login. Whether it’s invoicing, payroll, or personal investment tracking, the days of multiple logins are in the past. And with free accounting and invoicing tools and totally affordable payroll, getting organized has never been more affordable.
Get paid faster, gain insights into your businesses financial health, know where your money goes and pay your employees, all with Wave.
Devices
Business size
Markets
Australia, Canada, China, Germany, United Kingdom, India, Japan, United States and 3 others
Supported Languages
English
Pricing starting from:
N/A
- Free Version
- Free Trial
- Subscription
Top 5 alternatives to Wave Accounting
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Features
Total features of Wave Accounting: 65
Alternatives
Quickbooks Online

FreshBooks

Xero

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

Reviews
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- Industry: Photography
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10
Best accounting software to grow as a small business
Reviewed on 14/05/2022
The overall experience with Wave has been very good. With some hiccups on the roadmap, Wave has...
The overall experience with Wave has been very good. With some hiccups on the roadmap, Wave has evolved by leaps and bounds from a pretty basic software to quite a powerhouse, even for the free version. If my business grows and I will feel the need to add more features such as payroll and tax advisor use, I will still remain a Wave believer!
Pros
I've used Wave since 2009!!! I feel like my company grew with it. It's helped me understand all I was doing right (and wrong!) financially in my business. It helps tremendously when filing monthly sales taxes. I keep a habit of staying organized, verifying all transactions and reconciling with my bank accounts. All of this, plus categorizing everything the right way makes tax time an absolute breeze - my taxes are done in two days and I don't need to freak out about it because everything is organized ahead of time and all I do is input expenses and sales.
Cons
What I least like about Wave is that a few years ago they stopped support for free accounts. Absolutely no human support whatsoever. Disagree with that big time!!!
Sometimes also a bank connection will be interrupted and you cannot reconnect for many many months and since there is no support, you are left without any help.
I am a small business of one person and I do not need any of the paid features that Wave offers so I could be upgraded to paid support, so I am always stuck in no human support land. It doesn't feel good, especially to someone who has used this software for as long as I have.
Alternatives Considered
FreshBooksReasons for Choosing Wave Accounting
Absolutely hated QuickBooks. It felt overwhelming, like I needed to go to school to learn yet another piece of software. Absolutely could not get used to the awful interface and I ditched it immediately, although I paid a few hundred dollars for a desktop version that was rendered obsolete by Intuit after 3 years. Apparently, that is quite a frequent practice from Intuit regarding QuickBooks.Switched From
QuickBooks Desktop ProReasons for Switching to Wave Accounting
Interface, ease of use and pricing - FREE!- Industry: Civil Engineering
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 0.0 /10
Wave Accounting
Reviewed on 31/03/2022
I was able to quickly send professional estimates and invoices on go and I didn't have to keep a...
I was able to quickly send professional estimates and invoices on go and I didn't have to keep a lot of envelopes with receipts any more, I could just scan receipts and attach them to a bank transaction. Before I even get an accountant, I would easily see the performance of the business from the cash flow graphs and profit and loss graphs.
Pros
Setting reminders to be sent to clients for payment is the most important feature from wave in my opinion. Also being able to create recurring invoices you you don't have to do the same thing every week or every month. My other favorite is customer statements. Pulling out customer statements and sending to your clients gives you points in terms of professionalism. I also appreciate that when Wave stopped operating in South Africa they recommended Zoho and gave us a year of free use of Zoho. Even though I did not like changing, this was a very thoughtful move by wave.
Cons
For some reason wave starting giving limited access to its South African customers and partnered with Zoho for customers to migrate. Even though the apps are similar, they're not the same and it took a little bit of time to now learn Zoho a new app.
Alternatives Considered
QuickBooks Online AccountantReasons for Switching to Wave Accounting
Wave Accounting came highly recommended by friends. In addition when I first opened wave, the dashboard look simple and it was easy for me to follow.- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 0.0 /10
Pathetic Customer Service and Return Policies
Reviewed on 11/04/2022
Very poor customer service. Never available. Only send you to "articles" to read when you DO get...
Very poor customer service. Never available. Only send you to "articles" to read when you DO get the opportunity to speak to someone live. If you are disappointed in the paid-for service, they do not issue a refund.
Pros
Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. We are fully disappointed.
Cons
New users require support to appropriately navigate the software. However, the "support" is chatbot only most of the time. When you "do" get to "chat", again only online, no actual phone to call, you are repeatedly directed to "articles" to read. I don't know about you, but I am very busy running my business, and certainly do not have time to be directed to article after article to read what they can simply explain to me in a fraction of the time.
However, the most upsetting was the persistent pressure to pay for the Payroll Service that my company was test driving. When we finally decided to just pay for it and move ahead, we couldn't use it as it was, again, more complex than we had bargained for. Unfortunately, however, there was no customer service available, and the "chatbot"stated it could take XXX # of days to get a response. As I needed to pay my contractors, we ended up using a completely different service. When we asked for our money back as this software nor the customer service is a good fit, they refused. We are absolutely disgusted with this company. Think carefully before using.
- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 11-50 Employees
- Used Weekly for 1+ year
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Ease of Use
- Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10
Wave is a WONDERFUL!
Reviewed on 13/04/2022
Pros
Wave is easy to setup, navigate, use and the features are incredibly robust! A a non-profit founder, I was looking for a cost-effective solution that would allow me to create a general ledger, track and categorize spending, create estimates and invoices, track AP/AR, and easily build financial reports. Wave does ALL of this, and it's FREE. I can't believe how good it is!
Cons
I literally haven't a single dislike about this software. Truly.
Alternatives Considered
Quickbooks OnlineReasons for Switching to Wave Accounting
Quickbooks was too complicated to setup, and we would have to pay for a much higher service tier to have general ledger features. That tier included many features we'd never use. It was not cost effective, and not non-accountant friendly.- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 51-200 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10
I love what it does, wish it could do more!
Reviewed on 5/05/2022
I love the feeling of it, it is very comparable to QuickBooks online and other more expensive type...
I love the feeling of it, it is very comparable to QuickBooks online and other more expensive type of user oriented software. I just wish the chart of account and the check printing were more flexible.
Pros
This software is a game-changer for free or low cost needs. It can 100% cover the needs of a non profit organization, or in my case our home owner's association needs. It is very easy to create accounts, or modify the already existing ones, and it is very easy to send invoices out. Also, it offers electronic payments which is very convenient for those who wish to pay electronically.
Cons
The software does not allow for check printing through it. All expenses need to be recorded and checks to be entered manually. This causes a feeling of "double entering" or doing twice a process that could have been simplified. The fact that the software will not be able to make payments is a little outdated.
Alternatives Considered
Quickbooks OnlineReasons for Choosing Wave Accounting
QB Online became too expensiveReasons for Switching to Wave Accounting
It is a freeware for the most part.Wave Accounting FAQs
Below are some frequently asked questions for Wave Accounting.Q. What type of pricing plans does Wave Accounting offer?
Wave Accounting offers the following pricing plans:
- Starting from:
- Pricing model: Free Version, Subscription
- Free Trial: Available
Accounting & Invoicing - Free Receipt Management - Free Credit card processing - $0.30 + 2.9% per transaction Bank payment/ACH processing - 1% per transaction ($1 minimum fee) Payroll (tax service states): $35/month base fee + $4/active employee + $4/independent contractor paid Payroll (self service states): $20/month base fee + $4/active employee + $4/independent contractor paid
Q. Who are the typical users of Wave Accounting?
Wave Accounting has the following typical customers:
Self Employed, 2-10, 11-50, 51-200
Q. What languages does Wave Accounting support?
Wave Accounting supports the following languages:
English
Q. Does Wave Accounting support mobile devices?
Wave Accounting supports the following devices:
Android (Mobile), iPhone (Mobile)
Q. What other apps does Wave Accounting integrate with?
Wave Accounting integrates with the following applications:
Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, PayPal, Shoeboxed, Zapier
Q. What level of support does Wave Accounting offer?
Wave Accounting offers the following support options:
Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Chat
Related categories
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