Wave Accounting Review 2024: Pricing, Features, Pros & Cons

Credit card transaction fees for Visa, Mastercard and Discover start at 2.9% + $0.60 per transaction. American Express transactions start at 3.4% + $0.60 per credit card transaction. In addition to its accounting software, Wave offers paid services, including Wave Payments, Wave Payroll and Wave Advisors pwc deloitte kpmg or ey which big four firm pays the most for bookkeeping support and accounting coaching.

Wave Accounting Review ( : Pricing, Features, Pros & Cons

Includes tools that help automate the reconciliation process and auto-categorizes transactions for you in the Pro plan, but you can’t set up your own bank rules; no global search function. Free plan includes direct integration with Square and PayPal for payment processing. No third-party integrations, mileage tracking feature or ability to accept in-person card payments.

Best for Financial Analysis

Wave and Xero also have some crucial, unique features in common, such as unlimited users, unlimited bank connections and optional invoice-based payment acceptance. Additionally, free Wave Accounting users don’t have access to customer service. While you can check out articles on Wave’s knowledge base, you won’t be able to connect with a live person who can talk you through any accounting software problems. Most accounting software was designed with non-accountant business owners in mind, which means setup should be fairly straightforward. Still, some accounting programs are more user-friendly than others, and Wave Accounting is among the easiest for first-time business owners to configure. Wave Accounting imposes fewer limits than most of its competitors on everything from users to vendors.

Users can use the tool to track bills and expenses, record payments in multiple currencies, and scan bills. However, unlike QuickBooks and Zoho Books, businesses using the software can’t set recurring bills or create purchase orders, making it harder for them to manage finances automatically. Unfortunately, this prevents Wave from scoring any higher in this category.

Best Accounting and Bookkeeping Apps for Small Businesses

Wave Accounting’s Starter plan is free and its accounting automation Pro plan, which includes more features, is $16 per month. Regardless of which you choose, you will have to pay processing fees to accept invoice payments online. Wave also offers paid products for payroll, coaching and mobile receipt scanning. For example, QuickBooks Online doesn’t have a free plan, but offers four paid plans, each with additional features, making it a great choice for scalability. With the higher-tier QuickBooks plans, you have access to inventory management, billable expenses and project profitability tools, none of which are offered with Wave. Accounting software is a great way to manage your finances if you’re a small business owner, freelancer or contract worker.

Wave was previously our top overall pick for free accounting software, but the platform has moved a number of features (including bank transaction imports and the ability to add users) to its paid plan. One thing that remains free is invoices, and if your business transacts mostly in that fashion, Wave makes it pretty easy. Users can connect an unlimited number of bank accounts to Wave Accounting software, ensuring every transaction is accounted for and financial snapshots are up to date. While only Wave Pro users can access automated bank transactions and expense categorization, free users can manually categorize expenses by tax category to ensure their data is ready to go by tax time.

After providing a few basic details about your business — name, type, currency you use, address — you’ll have instant access to your account. 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. We also looked at customer reviews to see what users are saying about the software.

Is Wave Accounting Really Free?

Compared with free software like Wave, QuickBooks plans are expensive. The most basic plan, Simple Start, costs $30 per month, and the top-tier Advanced plan costs $200 per month, which is a sizable investment if you’re running a business on a tight budget. Allows an unlimited number of users in the Pro plan, but is not complex enough for businesses with more than a handful of employees; ideal for very small service-based businesses, freelancers or contractors. Wave Accounting free accounting software is best for businesses that want an easy-to-use accounting software. TrulySmall free accounting software is best for freelancers who need basic accounting features. Zoho Books is best for small businesses that are already using other Zoho products and want to ‌integrate their accounting software for a seamless experience.

1. It’s one of the only truly free options on the market and can allow you to manage your accounting processes in one convenient place.
2. In our Wave Accounting review below, we’ll cover Wave’s features, add-ons, pros and cons to help you decide.
3. Wave Accounting is an affordable bookkeeping and accounting software service that doesn’t sacrifice features for the sake of pricing.
4. Accounting software makes it easier to categorize transactions and keep your books organized for tax season.
5. It lacks some of the useful features you may find in other accounting software, such as project management, time tracking and inventory management.

“It’s not just a cool piece of software, it is giving peace of mind to people.” You deserve to know your taxes aren’t something is chart of accounts the same as a general ledger you have to sweat over the entire calendar year.” It’s been one of the best decisions I’ve made when it comes to making sure my accounting is on point.