Both receive the same star rating, but that doesn’t mean they have the same strong points. The company also offers good customer support options, including an accounting guide, to help you learn to balance the books and use the software. You can enjoy features such as unlimited income and expenses tracking, digital receipt upload and transaction management and access its invoice mobile app at no cost. If you’re a small business owner in search of free, cloud-based accounting software, Wave Accounting is worth considering. This is particularly true if you don’t have much accounting experience and would like an easy-to-use, fully functional tool. 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.
Connecting your accounts
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- While Wave has competitive invoicing capabilities, it’s lacking when it comes to much else beyond basic reporting, bank reconciliation and income and expense tracking.
- At the time of our last review, we noted that Wave “has always been and always will be free,” and that the company planned to maintain this pricing structure following its acquisition by H&R Block.
- Additionally, QuickBooks does not have a free plan like Wave, with prices starting at $35/month.
Wave also offers paid products for payroll, coaching and mobile receipt scanning. Wave’s invoicing is free and unlimited, with customizable templates and a user-friendly interface, putting it on par with some of the best invoicing software solutions for small businesses. Pro plan capabilities include recurring invoicing and the option to let repeat clients opt into automatic credit card billing.
In this review of Wave vs. QuickBooks, we’ll look at how the services stack up, including their features, pros and cons, and which kinds of businesses can benefit from each. This free, easy-to-use accounting software is great for small businesses, especially for eCommerce, but lacks in project management, budgeting, and inventory tracking. Once logged in, your main dashboard will show your cash flow, profit and loss, invoices, bills and other financial insights. You can effectively analyze the financial health of your business, find ways to generate more profit, and move forward with your business plan. When you send an invoice, clients have the option to pay with the click of a button by entering their credit card or bank account information or connecting to Apple Pay. QuickBooks Online is a more scalable solution than FreshBooks and Wave, with four plan tiers and the ability to accommodate larger small businesses.
Unlimited bank and credit card connections
The checkout feature is one-of-a-kind and a great addition for business owners who need to charge multiple customers quickly. Wave allows you to search transactions, design accounting reports and reconcile data across other Wave products. Plus, you can calculate sales tax automatically, customize payment terms and enjoy access to easy-to-understand cash flow insights.
While Wave is free to use, it doesn’t offer multiple plans to increase its functionality. It lacks some of the useful features you may find in other accounting software, such as project management, time tracking and inventory management. However, like most products with free plans, Wave has its limitations, especially compared to more scalable small-business accounting software. Although Wave’s paid plan offers additional features, it’s still missing some more advanced capabilities, like built-in inventory tracking and audit trails, that growing what is contributed surplus on a balance sheet businesses might need.
Wave Customer Service
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. 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. We weigh each section differently to calculate the total star rating. Wave holds its own against two of its biggest competitors, QuickBooks Online and Xero.