After providing a few basic details about your business — name, type, currency you use, address — you’ll have instant access to your free account. Allows an unlimited number of users, but is not complex enough for businesses with more than a handful of employees; ideal for very small service-based businesses, freelancers or contractors. Explore more details on the competition in our full roundup of the best accounting software for small businesses.
- Easily monitor and keep track of what’s going on in your business with the intuitive dashboard.
- See our guide to the best small business accounting software for additional recommendations.
- Learn more about the best payroll software for small businesses.
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). Xero lets you add unlimited users in all plan tiers and, similar to QuickBooks Online, can grow alongside your business. Zoho Books offers a robust free plan, along with a range of paid plans that feature workflow automation.
Wave vs. top competitors: Monthly and yearly software costs
It also features a well-laid-out, clutter-free dashboard with individual tabs for sales, purchases, accounting, banking, payroll and reports. If you want professional help to get your business up and running, you can access bookkeeping experts through Wave for $149 per month. If you want more in-depth support, accountants and payroll coaches are available starting at $379 per month.
- Wave Accounting is the best free accounting software solution for freelancers, solopreneurs, and small-business owners alike.
- It doesn’t have the best customer service, but most of its features are easy to use, so you shouldn’t have any trouble setting it up and using it.
- We don’t guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.
- 1 Payouts are processed in 1-2 business days for credit card payments and 1-7 business days for bank payments.
It’s useful that you can connect to a Wave customer service representative over live chat without navigating away from your accounting dashboard. However, live chat is only available during Wave’s typical business hours, and apart from the chat, your only other support option is email; Wave Accounting doesn’t offer any U.S.-based phone support. Is Wave Accounting the right bookkeeping software system for your business? In our Wave Accounting review below, we’ll cover Wave’s features, add-on products, pros and cons to help you decide.
Easily monitor and keep track of what’s going on in your business with the intuitive dashboard. The quick summary allows you to stay in control of your business finances, including a task list of outstanding items.
Banking and Cash Management
You can also choose from Wave’s selection of free, beautifully designed invoice templates to make sure every touch point with your client instills confidence in your personal brand. If you have a question or issue, you can browse the help center or reach out to Mave, the automated chatbot. If you do want live support, you’ll need to invest in an Advisor or paid service. Track your income and expenses, easily and for free, with Wave’s accounting software. If Wave isn’t a good fit for you, read through our article on the year’s best free accounting software. The article kicks off with Wave, but it includes reviews for nine other free bookkeeping programs that you might prefer.
In our internal case study, we examined Wave up close across 11 categories and achieved the following scores and results. You can learn more about the features by watching the video of our accounting expert as he assesses Wave based on the case study criteria. 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.
Get your accountant in on the action
The free financial management software is user-friendly and equipped with all the basics, including income and expense tracking, bank connections, invoicing and reporting. Get rid of late payments by including features like automated reminders and recurring invoices. Make it easy and convenient for your clients to pay by offering options such as bank transfers, credit cards, and online payments. Wave Accounting does a lot for the price—but it can’t do everything. For instance, it doesn’t offer the same built-in time-tracking and project-tracking features you get with most other basic accounting software plans. Unlike with QuickBooks, you can’t manage 1099 contractors with Wave (which is one reason Wave’s better suited to 1099 contractors rather than those who employ them).
Wave is a well-rated payroll solution that offers a self-serve employee portal, time tracking and payroll processing for both employees and contractors. However, it doesn’t automate payroll or offer a mailing service for paychecks. Get more information about how it stacks up with our Wave Payroll review. Learn more about the best payroll software for small businesses. Both Wave and QuickBooks give you the option to open a free checking account integrated with your invoicing account. You can receive online payments directly into this account, so you can get paid faster and avoid issues related to connecting an external bank account.
But for small-business owners who want to eventually expand their businesses and hire an employee or two (or more), just know that Wave doesn’t make it easy to add payroll software beyond its own. Invoicing, payments, and banking all in one place that saves you time, gets you paid, and makes money management easy. We provide different levels of support botkeeper company profile for customers who use different features and services from Wave. Create beautiful invoices, accept online payments, and make accounting easy—all in one place—with Wave’s suite of money tools. To review Wave, we set up a free Wave Accounting account that we used to create invoices, record sample transactions and generate financial reports.
Accounting
Since Wave only has one accounting plan, though, it’s not perfect for business owners who want to add accounting features as they grow. And its email-only customer support means users are largely on their own if they encounter an immediate problem. Again, every online payment processing system requires its users to pay a transaction fee. The key pricing difference between Wave and competitors is you don’t need to pay a base fee to access Wave’s payment processing services. Both Wave and QuickBooks include a section for tracking business expenses, which you can connect to your bank account and credit cards to automatically import transaction details. For very small businesses that rely mostly on invoicing, QuickBooks Online’s additional features might be overkill.
We’ll also showcase some key Wave Accounting competitors so you can explore other accounting software options if you decide Wave isn’t a good fit. You can set up multiple sales tax rates, apply them to invoices, and generate reports to help with tax compliance. 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. This means that Wave can’t calculate your COGS, which is important if you deal with inventory. Wave is a totally free accounting software, while Zoho Books offers a free plan that can be upgraded to higher plans.
QuickBooks Online limits user numbers by plan (its cheapest plan, QuickBooks Simple Start, includes just three users). And FreshBooks doesn’t limit your user number, but it does charge an extra $10 a month per user—which adds up fast. Wave Accounting is the best free accounting software solution for freelancers, solopreneurs, and small-business owners alike. While it doesn’t have as many features as paid competitors like QuickBooks Online, Wave’s unlimited expense tracking, free invoicing, and basic reporting make it an ideal solution for many freelancers. Wave offers its own in-house payroll and payment processing, but it doesn’t integrate with third-party apps. This can be limiting for small businesses that use separate software for inventory management, customer relationship management or payroll.