It’s hard to beat free accounting software, especially if you’re running a small business on a budget. Wave’s free plan offers a decent number of features, like unlimited invoices, that are not always included with other free accounting software options, let alone paid accounting software plans. It also complies with accounting standards and uses double-entry accounting, which can help ensure accuracy. Honestly, these features outpace those margin of safety formula calculation example and faqs included with some paid accounting software. For instance, Xero only includes expense tracking with its priciest plan, which starts at $65 a month. QuickBooks Online limits user numbers by plan (its cheapest plan, QuickBooks Simple Start, includes just three users).
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These are why I couldn’t award Wave more points in this criterion. Depending on your subscription, you can snap a photo of your expense receipt and upload it to Wave through the mobile app. All users can attach a receipt to transactions in the desktop interface, although you can’t attach them to unpaid bills.
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’s Starter plan is free and its 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.
- By providing feedback on how we can improve, you can earn gift cards and get early access to new features.
- While not built in, Xero has an integration with BILL (formerly Bill.com) and some useful tools like Google Sheets and BlueCamroo, but all other integrations must be made through Zapier.
- I provide a detailed explanation of the scores in the Features section below.
Project Accounting
The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships. For a free software program, Wave boasts an impressive, robust feature set that rivals even some paid accounting software programs. The program did well in A/R management, and it could have scored higher if there were more options to personalize invoices.
Pay per use (no strings attached)
You’ll need to upgrade to the Pro plan for $16 a month if you want live customer support. In addition to its accounting software, Wave offers paid services, including Wave Payments, Wave Payroll and Wave Advisors for bookkeeping support and accounting coaching. You can connect nearly 10,000 different bank and credit card accounts with Wave, so your financial transactions import automatically to make your bookkeeping simple. When rating accounting and invoicing software, we use a 47-point rubric that looks at pricing, ease of use, features, customer service, and user reviews.
Wave Accounting Review 2023
Enable invoice payments by credit card for a pay-as-you-go fee as low as 2.9% + 60¢, and watch the money roll in. Yes, switching from other accounting apps or products to Wave is easy! See our step-by-step guide on how to import bookkeeping data into Wave here. Bank data connections are read-only and use 256-bit encryption. Wave is PCI Level-1 certified for handling credit card and bank account information.
Finally, Wave’s billing, payment acceptance, and invoicing features all work together to ensure you get paid on time. In other words, Wave has many of the invoicing perks you get with invoice-heavy software like FreshBooks, but at no cost. Wave Accounting also uses double-entry accounting, which is much more accurate than basic single-entry accounting.
Wave also doesn’t have quite as many integrations as other paid (and more popular) accounting software options. Most importantly, it doesn’t sync with any third-party payroll providers. Xero also doesn’t support multiple businesses, so pricing can add up quickly for some users. And it’s worth noting that while Xero has more features, the software also has a steeper learning curve than Wave. With Wave, you have access to expense tracking, bank reconciliation, and reporting to help you manage your finances. Wave also has some of the most appealing invoices on the market.
