Plus, you can calculate sales tax automatically, customize payment terms and enjoy access to easy-to-understand cash flow insights. It also features a well-laid-out, clutter-free dashboard with individual tabs for sales, purchases, accounting, banking, payroll and reports. Wave’s invoicing is free and unlimited, with three customizable templates and a user-friendly interface, putting it on par with some of the best invoicing software solutions for small businesses. Other capabilities include recurring invoicing and the option to let repeat clients opt into automatic credit card billing. That said, there are still quite a few areas where Wave could stand improvement.

Through Wave, you can onboard and pay employees and independent contractors via direct deposit. Wave also handles payroll taxes in 14 states, but all other states are self-serve (the platform continues to add more full-service states). In full-service states, payroll in Wave costs $35 plus $6 per employee or contractor per month. In self-serve states, the cost is $20 plus $6 per employee or contractor per month. QuickBooks offers a robust set of tools that far outweigh Wave’s capabilities—but that could be a drawback for small, simple businesses. The platform offers enough features and add-ons to grow with your business, but it may be more complex than you need if you’re a one-person shop.

Wave Financial Features

Keep reading our Wave bookkeeping review to find out more about the pricing plans as well as the most prominent features of this software. In this Wave accounting review, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about this user-friendly, free accounting software. The software setup wizard guides you through four easy setup steps to generate an uncluttered, straightforward dashboard (Figure B). The interface ensures a low learning curve with friendly graphics, an in-app help center, live chat, user-first design and an accessible app.

The great news is there’s a free app called Wave to help you handle bookkeeping. FreshBooks came to life as an invoice- and billing-specific software program that expanded into a total accounting solution. Wave Accounting also uses double-entry accounting, which is much more accurate than basic single-entry accounting. Most accounting software use the double-entry system, though FreshBooks’ cheapest plan is a notable exception.

QuickBooks Online

As noted up and down this article, Wave has become one of the most popular accounting software platforms for small businesses and freelancers out there. Most popular accounting tools have at least a handful of built-in app integrations that make connecting with third-party services as painless as possible. For instance, Xero and FreshBooks’ native Gusto integrations ensure the accounting and payroll software sync with each other problem-free. Wave Accounting imposes far fewer limits than most of its competitors on everything from users to vendors. For instance, Xero’s cheapest plan limits users to sending 20 invoices a month, while FreshBooks’ cheapest plan limits users to invoicing only five clients a month.

Running a business is different from every other job on the planet. Imagine if someone loved writing so much that they became a journalist, only to find out that they were expected to repair machinery as part of their duties. You have to do a lot of things that fall outside your skillset and comfort zone, every single day. Wave has helped over 2,000,000 North American small business owners take control of their finances. If you’re interested in our payroll software, you can start a free 30-day trial when you sign up for Wave. After creating your account, everything is set up so you can get started.

Free Wave Plan

In the Transactions page, accountants can add payroll runs, which account for salaries, taxes, tax reimbursements, and bonuses. Wave is easy to navigate with its clean and straightforward dashboard, which neatly displays all of its functions. Information surrounding a business’ sales transactions, purchases, banking, tax information, and payroll can be viewed, monitored, and edited on the tables provided. Accompanying the financials are reports and charts that indicate one’s cash flow, profits, and losses.

• There’s an FAQ, webinars, user guides, community forum and more all included in the basic free package.
• Wave accounting integrates with bank accounts, and can accept credit card payments as well as online bank transfers to your business.
• Considering Wave is completely free, with no trials or hidden fees in sight, its value offering is extremely impressive.
• Wave is PCI Level-1 certified for handling credit card and bank account information.
• Wave doesn’t skimp on basic features for small businesses, but it also has some limitations, considering it’s free software.

With Wave, you have access to expense tracking, bank reconciliation, and reporting to help you manage your finances. Wave also offers time-saving automations, such as recurring invoices, automatic billing, and receipt scanning. However, some features ‎ezclocker personal timecard on the app store are noticeably missing, such as project management and budgeting, that are found with paid software options such as QuickBooks Online. Wave Accounting free accounting software is one of the easiest to use, with an interface that’s similar to Mint.

Review of Wave accounting support

Accounting software can be complex, so you’ll want to find something that’s easy to use and install or, better yet—it’s available in the cloud. Consider how user-friendly each software is as well as whether it’s available on multiple platforms. With QuickBooks Checking, you can get integrated bookkeeping plus instant deposit of your payments, plus 1% APY interest on your balance (as of July 6, 2022). Both Wave and QuickBooks have the option to add payroll capabilities to your account for an additional fee.

Wave Accounting is one of the best truly free accounting software services on the market. Its accounting software costs exactly $0 and, unlike most paid competitors, it lets you add unlimited users, billable clients, bank accounts and credit card connections. Wave Accounting also includes multi-business management at no additional cost. It’s hard to beat free accounting software, especially if you’re running a small business on a budget. With Wave, you receive a lot of features, like unlimited invoices and unlimited users, that are not always included with other free accounting software options, let alone paid accounting software plans. It also complies with accounting standards, uses double-entry accounting and helps automate the reconciliation process, which can help ensure accuracy and save you time.

Wave Accounting Features

Users can create reports to show month-to-month or year-to-year comparisons to easily identify cash flow trends. You can also receive unlimited income and expense tracking data, instant updates for invoicing, payroll and payments data and profit/loss reports. The main difference between Wave accounting free and paid is that the latter provides access to additional features, such as Wave payroll, payments, and invoicing. With the free version of Wave, you can still do your bookkeeping and track expenses. Wave accounting integrates with bank accounts, and can accept credit card payments as well as online bank transfers to your business. You can also manage paying outside contractors, and send and manage receipts.