Wave Accounting reviews

Awesome free accounting online software for your business that is super professional!

Opmerkingen: There is very little more I can ask for with Wave for my small business. It is free for the features I need and allows me to take only ACH or credit card payments with a reasonable fee and I only pay the fixed percentage when I use those features so I can just turn it off and get a check from a client and not pay anything. Great Flexibility!

Pluspunten:

Its free for small businesses that just need a good business accounting software! You can take ACH and CC payments if you want and turn them off on invoices you don't want it on. The rates are reasonable enough for using these services. The reports are easy enough for doing taxes. It's awesome and cheap for those that are one man shows or freelancers.

Minpunten:

The thing that is the most annoying is when you want to do a recurring billing. It doesn't use something like Maintenance contract #1 then go to #2 or something like that it makes recurring billing invoice names that were the most recent of any invoices. Maybe I am not using it correctly, but each time I have to go and change invoice names then manually send it to the client.

It's impressive that it offers so many features for free!

Opmerkingen: I've used this software for years, and it's honestly great.

Pluspunten:

Simple and free option that's great for solopreneurs (like me!) who only need to send invoices to their clients.It even has a feature for regular invoices: you can set them up so that they're sent every month (for example) with a custom message.I love the fact that you can really customise your invoices: most competitors don't offer this option in their free plan!

Minpunten:

It does send a reminder the day AFTER an invoice has expired. However, it'd be better if it were sent on the actual day. That way, a client has time to look into it immediately if they've forgotten about it.I couldn't find an option to automated the "logging a payment" side of things. Whereas I've heard of some other software options that can be connected to your business bank account and they automatically mark an invoice as 'paid' when the client used the exact number/reference.

Big Mistake

Pluspunten:

It was cheap and not too difficult to set up and use.

Minpunten:

I did the research and chose Wave. I run a three person operation, so just enough to make accounting more complicated than a spreadsheet I create myself. After making the jump, there was obviously a learning curve. It wasn't perfect, but I was making it work. I paid the extra monthly fee for payroll services, and that was fine.Then, about nine months in, the accounting stopped importing my bank account info. I contacted Wave through the chat bot, and learned that it was an issue with their third party vendor Plaid, that handles that importation. Wave's advice was to wait until Plaid fixes the issue.Next call was to my bank. They were completely unaware of any issue with Plaid. I tried to contact Wave again, but still couldn't get a satisfactory answer, just "wait for Plaid to fix it".Now it has been about six weeks, with no data imported. I am having to start from scratch to find another accounting program, and then make the commitment to learn how to use it. This shouldn't be that hard. I want to run my business, not spend all my time wondering why the accounting program won't work.

A User-Friendly Accounting Software: Wave Accounting

Opmerkingen: Overall, I'm very satisfied with the Wave Accounting software. It's comprehensive yet easy to use, and the mobile app makes it easy to stay on top of my business. The only downside is that some features are lacking compared to competitors, and the customer service could be improved.

Pluspunten:

I've been using Wave Accounting for my small business for a few years now, and I'm really impressed by its user-friendly interface and the comprehensive set of features it offers. It's great for tracking expenses, managing invoices, and reconciling bank accounts. The mobile app is also very handy, making it easy to stay on top of my business even when I'm away from my computer.

Minpunten:

While Wave Accounting is a great accounting software, it is missing some features that competitors offer. For instance, it doesn't have budgeting or forecasting capabilities, and the reporting options are quite limited. Additionally, the customer service could be improved, as it can be difficult to get help when you need it.

Good Into Accounting software

Opmerkingen: This software helped me learn about accounting and feel more confident in doing my own bookkeeping.

Pluspunten:

I enjoyed the ease of use for this software. I currently have quick books but I still use my wave account because it's easier to navigate than quick books. I like that the software is free also. As a small business owner every dollar saved is good.

Minpunten:

I wished that the software had more option for customer service. The option to pay for service is too much for a one time call.

An easy to use accounting system for a small business

Pluspunten:

Wave accounting allows you to create professional-looking invoices that can be easily and timely sent to customers. I was able to customize the invoices with our company's branding. One of the best features is the ability to set up automatic reminders for unpaid invoices. The interface is user-friendly and has a comprehensive set of features that can elevate any small business to great success.

Minpunten:

The difference between the website and the mobile app is "night and day". The website is pretty good. The mobile app could be better. It's slow to load, and when it does it's non-responsive, most of the time I have to close it and then open it again.

Wave Accounting for GC

Opmerkingen: Overall experience is great. From entering a client, creating a job and then collecting payment there is a nice flow to the software.

Pluspunten:

I like the ease of use. It has the categories on the side and is very intuitive. Creating estimate is very easy as well.

Minpunten:

Overall, the software is great. The only thing that could use some improvement would be the customer section.

Perfect for Small Business Bookkeeping

Opmerkingen: Very user friendly and compatible with small business needs.

Pluspunten:

So easy to set up and use. Connects to bank. Easy to reconcile.

Minpunten:

I do not have any complaints. I have not figured out how to enter an expenditure to match up with bank feed. Other than that, it's awesome.

Great for starting up a business

Pluspunten:

Well, the most obvious thing to love about Wave is that it is free! It was first recommended to me when I attended a small business training course. If you're starting your own business on a shoestring budget, the free plan should have everything you need for bookkeeping. The option to hire a tax expert within the app is also a noteworthy feature!

Minpunten:

Sadly Wave is no longer available for UK customers, but I'd still happily recommend to USA friends. We're lucky in the UK to have a lot of support for entrepreneurs, including amazing business banking apps that come with bookkeeping & invoicing facilities. I suppose this was why Wave left the UK market, as it couldn't compete with these new banking options.

Wave Accounting is an outstanding accounting tool for small businesses

Pluspunten:

Wave Accounting is free for its basic functionality and easy to use with its simple user interface. It offers accurate two-part accounting and tracks income and expenses. It can also integrate with other applications for payroll, billing and payments. You can generate financial reports to help you make informed decisions. In addition, it supports transactions in different currencies and offers secure storage for your financial data and customer information. You can also use it on your mobile device to manage your finances on the go

Minpunten:

As a Wave Accounting user, here are some drawbacks I have encountered:Advanced features are not free and must be paid for.Customer support is only available via email, which can be frustrating if I need immediate assistance.Transaction processing can sometimes take longer than I expect, compared to other online accounting platforms.Wave Accounting does not offer a multi-currency chart of accounts, which can be a drawback if I need to work with different currencies.Automatic bank synchronization can be inaccurate for certain types of transactions, which can lead to errors in my accounts.If I have employees in multiple states or provinces, payroll functionality is limited.Project management functionality is also limited, which can be a drawback if I need to track projects closely.Despite these drawbacks, I find Wave Accounting to be a convenient and affordable online accounting solution for small businesses.

Wave error messed up my entire system and they want to charge me $3000 to fix it

Opmerkingen: It was good while it lasted, before their system made my data unusable. They really tried to be helpful, I chatted with several friendly people online, all of whom were unable to resolve my issues. They were unable to refer me to a WaveApps specialist in my area. Ultimately their solution was to offer me one of their bookkeepers at a cost of $3000 to fix the problem they created. No thanks.

Pluspunten:

It was wonderfully easy to use, the invoices looked professional and payment processing features were handy.

Minpunten:

TLDR: Major syncing, reconciling and support issues Two of my accounts synced twice (so I had four accounts in Wave where there should have been two) and they were unable to fix this. Their suggested fixes did not work. They have chat and email support but no phone support and even though they logged in as an admin they were unable to fix this problem. A recent update to their system caused my entire past four years of records to be unreconciled, and the only fix was to go back to the beginning of time and compare each transaction ever made. They offered me a bookkeeper to do this for me for $269/month for a minimum of 12 months, despite my being very diligent about keeping my account up to date for the past four years. I have switched to another system now.

Best accounting software to grow as a small business

Opmerkingen: The overall experience with Wave has been very good. With some hiccups on the roadmap, Wave has evolved by leaps and bounds from a pretty basic software to quite a powerhouse, even for the free version. If my business grows and I will feel the need to add more features such as payroll and tax advisor use, I will still remain a Wave believer!

Pluspunten:

I've used Wave since 2009!!! I feel like my company grew with it. It's helped me understand all I was doing right (and wrong!) financially in my business. It helps tremendously when filing monthly sales taxes. I keep a habit of staying organized, verifying all transactions and reconciling with my bank accounts. All of this, plus categorizing everything the right way makes tax time an absolute breeze - my taxes are done in two days and I don't need to freak out about it because everything is organized ahead of time and all I do is input expenses and sales.

Minpunten:

What I least like about Wave is that a few years ago they stopped support for free accounts. Absolutely no human support whatsoever. Disagree with that big time!!! Sometimes also a bank connection will be interrupted and you cannot reconnect for many many months and since there is no support, you are left without any help. I am a small business of one person and I do not need any of the paid features that Wave offers so I could be upgraded to paid support, so I am always stuck in no human support land. It doesn't feel good, especially to someone who has used this software for as long as I have.

Wave has everything you need to run a small business

Opmerkingen: I LOVE this software. I have been using it without issue for 2 years + without issue and it has really helped me organize my business. I will definitely stay with them as long as I can

Pluspunten:

The best thing about WAVE is its ease of use. It was so easy to learn to use this. Additionally the invoices are really customizable. There is a huge amount you can do with just the free version but if you upgrade to the paid version you can access a lot more of the accounting features and payment features. I like that for security reasons the software logs you out at the end of the day. The invoices look very professional and are downloadable and can be sent with a pdf attachment. When a partial payment is made you can send a receipt reflective of how much was paid, how, when and with how much balance left. The software will also alert me when a payment is overdue. You can also add tax and discounts to the invoices.

Minpunten:

The only gripe I have is that when I made changes to the invoice parameters, I was unable to delete the old parameters because they had been used in previous invoices. It would be nice to be able to "inactivate" or send to "archive" these parameters.

Not enough features and virtually NO customer support

Opmerkingen: It was fine when we had one part-time employee. But for all the real-life scenarios that pop up when you have full-time employees, it's useless. The customer service is also super disappointing and unhelpful. We only use it for payroll, which should not require much in terms of software so I can't imagine trying to use it for accounting.

Pluspunten:

I like how easy it was to set-up--that process was straightforward and the interface initially was easy to understand. Unfortunately as we needed to do more after adding a full-time employee, it proved impossible to work with or use.

Minpunten:

For payroll you have no options, and even when they recognize this, they don't provide a solution. A good example--we had an employee who had maxed out her vacation hours, but we agreed to let her take a few unpaid vacation days. There was no way for us to do this within Wave (you get paid vacation time or nothing). I chatted and even emailed with various representatives--all of which were super unhelpful, and we ended up wasting a lot of time before just being told this isn't an option. That's another huge con--there is virtually no support. The chat bot is not only unhelpful, but real agents are usually unavailable or there's a 20+ minute wait. The system is also not improving like I'd expect. I was notified today that my card declined for some reason so I followed the instructions that Wave emailed me to try to fix it, and it's like someone wrote them without looking at Wave's website because none of the instructions match. Not only is there not a change payment button but there's a Q/A at the end of the page where a user specifically asked this question, and there's no answer! I kick myself for picking this software, and we're in the process of moving to Gusto right now.

Excellent for the start-up to small company!

Opmerkingen: So far it has been a good experience overall. I haven’t had any issues. I haven’t had very much interaction with customer service other than the initial consultation Coach and the vetting process situation.

Pluspunten:

Love this product because of the cost! Free! So many great tools that it offers to include invoicing. You can create all of your own products and services and include your terms & Conditions. Clients can pay directly from the invoice. You can get paid the same day if you attach your business card to your account. It has a payroll feature as well for an additional charge. I love the fact that the reporting is so simple and easy to read. I would highly recommend purchasing this set up package. It comes with consultations and assistance to work through all the process of setting up your account and different categories specific to your business. It was definitely worth the extra money spent. I also like the fact that there are apps available to send invoices if you are away from the office. Also, you can upload receipts directly from wherever you are by simply taking a picture and categorizing it on the spot. No more having to deal with Receipts in the shoebox LOL.

Minpunten:

On the Invoicing I wish there was an option to add tipping. Our clients like to add a tips for our service and while Square offers this feature, Wave does not. There was a weird vetting process that nobody told me about and at first I thought it was a scam and I didn’t reply. But then I confirmed with the consultant I had been working with and they verified that this was in fact something that I had to go through. It seemed kind of sketchy at first, but it had validity with regards to the financial process.

Scam alert - Worst Customer Service Ever - Free is not a good price, it actually is a worst price

Opmerkingen: Frustrating. To the point where employees are not even getting paid as promised. Money will be gone from your account but employees will not get it and you almost feel like fraud. Please stay away from this product even if you get paid to use this.

Pluspunten:

Easy to use if it works but it does not work most of the time.

Minpunten:

1) Customer service - lowest level we have ever experienced. The careless approach, lethargic service, bank connection issues and processing delays are beyond imagination in this digital age. 2) They have many exciting features at a lucrative price but the company is in a mess and nothing works. 3) No guarantee on Payroll deposit to your employee account and we have experienced that employees are not getting paid as promised. Yes - Correct. It is that bad. 4) Bank connection issues about 95% time with most of the bank. At our CPA firm, we were recommending this software to clients. Not anymore. Stay away from this product.

My go-to invoicing and accounting tool for my small business!

Opmerkingen: Nothing but amazing! I'm so glad I switched from Square for my invoice and payment processing.

Pluspunten:

It is so easy to use, and customized specifically for small business owners. I absolutely LOVE the invoice feature - it's the primary feature that I use - and it just works so well. My completed payments rate is 100% and I believe is at least in part due to how easy the process is to view/pay invoices.

Minpunten:

Sometimes I wish the payment speed was faster after a client makes a payment, but then they introduced instant deposits and I'm happy to pay the small fee to get my money faster!

Was the best free accounting software

Pluspunten:

I loved Wave Accounting. There was seldom any problems and they had some great ideas on how to do things like bank recons, which are much easier than other accounting software. And all for free. Can't beat that.

Minpunten:

They were taken over by H&R Block and then it was downhill from there!

To keep tabs on my profits and expenses, I use Wave!

Opmerkingen: I love this program since it's perfect for startups like mine! It makes accounting responsibilities much easier, especially when you're running a business and need to keep track of everything in one location.

Pluspunten:

I like how simple it was to get started, both in terms of the set-up procedure and the user interface. Unfortunately, when our workload increased as a result of hiring a full-time employee, we were unable to use it.

Minpunten:

For payroll, there are no choices, and even if they realize this, there is no remedy. As an illustration, we let one of our employees who had used up all of her paid vacation time to take a few unpaid days off.

Be aware!

Opmerkingen: Be aware! Let’s get straight to it. No polishing, no lies. Wave’s actual system is pretty good. If it “actually” worked…
One sad truth about this company that you’ll notice right away is that their servers or hosting is worse than blogs were in 1980. It is slow, freezes and crashes all the time. Way too annoying to work with on a daily basis for a professional company. Bottom line: the system is unreliable. Moving along to the stuff that matters even more… Customer service, honesty and professionalism. Uum, try again. You will not find any of that in this company. They clearly have no clue what it means to run a professional service. Last week I processed two transactions. Both of them were more than 2 grand.
Keep in mind that i’m a new startup that needs my money right away, or at least when promised. 2 days go by and no money. Okay…. here we go again. I email Wave asking what’s the deal with the money.
I say “again” because I had the same thing with my first few small transactions. But then I thought it was only because I was a new customer so they had to confirm some details. (by details I mean force me to show them communications between me and my clients). That same day I get an email from the department that deals with the money saying in fancy words that they are withholding my money for security reasons until they can confirm some details. Again they ask for communications and authorizations. (who do they think they are?) I respond within 2 minutes with snapshots of communications and conversations straight from my client explaining who he is and that he authorized the payment. a day or two goes by and nothing. You can imagine how angry I feel about now. Projects are on hold, business stops, Wave is running me into the ground…. Of course there is no one to talk to until you sign up for the live chat at ($9 a month). So I sign up, because I cannot wait. Open a chat, explain to the woman really respectfully what is going on, she looks it up for 10 minutes and responds by saying that she sees my ticket (email) and that she will escalate it to the top… blah blah blah. So there I learn that live chat is basically if you have a question regarding the functions of the site, but it is basically useless regarding the things that really matter. MY MONEY!
In short, you CANNOT contact anyone about it, you can only email. But emails, despite their promises may take 3 days get answered. So I send another email asking what’s going on and get a response that since I submitted 2 emails my ticket was moved back down to the bottom. (That wad their way of apologizing or exusing themselves). In that same email they don’t tell me that my snapshot isn’t sufficient or anything like that (even though it worked for the first 3 transactions), they tell me that they need to speak to my clients to confirm payments…. Really? …. wow, okay I respond within 2 minutes with two phone numbers. (this is Friday after 5pm) One of my clients get’s a phone call, confirms payment and they tell him that the money will be released “right away”. The second client get’s a phone call, but misses it. (He is still waiting for another phone call). And of course you cannot call them back, because they use fake phone numbers using local area codes. Well, guess what? The money from the first client that got the phone call from them was not released… and it’s Tuesday already. (almost a week from when I processed the transaction). Never heard anything back from them in past 3 days!! Conclusion: (aside from me being so frustrated, hardly able to contain myself) Well, firstly I would like to say that I switched to Quickbooks online right away. They are a professional company with lower rates and faster deposit times (ONE DAY!). And you can call them! The only reason I chose Wave over Square is because they had a good invoicing system. But i’ve used Square before and never had issues like this. What I mean is this: Why make an issue when there is none????
Wave makes security issues when there is none.
I’m a legal, professional company in the United States. Why in the world would you pretend like there are security issues with my transactions if no one ever disputed or complained? There is no answer. Because if there was a valid answer, Square and Quickbooks would be the same concerned.
Stop making issues where there are none. I would advise anyone reading this to go with Square or Quickbooks. You will end up being much happier. Unless you can afford these criminals withholding your money for as long as they like. So again: system: too slow, crashes and freezes. OH, and annoying advertisements.
Support: only for functionality questions.
Service: absolutely horrible and un professional. You choose. Thanks!

Satisfied daily user since 2015

Opmerkingen: I'm a sole proprietor of a service-based clinic, and I sell a very small amount of retail product (less than $500 per year). I use Wave to generate customer invoices, track payments, organize expense receipts, calculate taxes payable, and run reports. The app does allow for a "Personal" account which I do not currently use to my advantage but I plan to incorporate that into daily use next year to help keep better track of my overall financial situation.

Pluspunten:

Wave is free to use which makes it excellent for my small business. It has an app to facilitate easy upload of receipts for my expenses. Being cloud-based enables me to access my accounting from my clinic or my home office (or on the go) with ease in real-time. It syncs with my RBC account to import my transactions and is very user-friendly. Customer service is friendly and responsive.

Minpunten:

My complaints about this software are very minor. There is an option to "save and send" invoices by email with a single mouse click, but to print the invoices takes three clicks. My other complaint is that there is no simple Customer Statement to print. The Customer Statement that is available shows every transaction posted, so for most of my clients there will be three entries for each visit to my clinic; one invoice date, one copay payment, and one insurance payment applied. I would prefer to be able to generate this statement showing a list which includes ONLY the invoice date and total amount charged. They are very minor complaints. I am quite pleased with this product.

A data-import nightmare - Stay away unless you love lost transactions

Opmerkingen: Support has been poor quality. As a paying customer of both their payroll service (which is solid) and their accounting coaching, I'm tremendously disappointed with the platform.

Pluspunten:

The software at it's core is very easy to use. The reliability is however a complete failure.

Minpunten:

Throughout the past 3 years, Wave has been a game of 'make sure my bank works.' First, I closed incompatible credit card accounts in order to open accounts that were listed as compatible. A year later, Wave lost the connection with all of capital one due to an issue with switching data providers (from Plaid). Next, Chase bank cards also disappeared. When finally reconnecting, weeks worth of transactions were intermittently missing. For a software company who's core goal is to reduce manual data entry, this platform is a nightmare. Stay away.

Wave Accounting Review

Opmerkingen: An overall exceptional experience using Wave for my accounting needs. The only drawback is the automated banking transaction allocation as well as payroll management are not available in my country.

Pluspunten:

The basic version of the software is free and includes many features not found in paid versions. You don't need to purchase expensive add-ons to make it work for accounting, bookkeeping, or invoicing. Wave offers additional services that will help you improve your skills within the program. Wave automatically syncs your accounting and invoicing, making it a great choice for small businesses that want to consolidate and automate their bookkeeping and billing. Wave's invoicing capabilities are unlimited and completely free. Wave's invoicing features are also customizable and easy to use. Wave allows you to create customer profiles and send follow-up emails. You can also receive reminders and receipts for payment. Wave also offers a mobile app that lets you track and send invoices. Wave accounting has an intuitive interface that is simple to use. Wave accounting is different from other accounting software. Wave accounting is easy to use and requires no prior knowledge. It is easy to use, and you can learn quickly as you go.

Minpunten:

Wave's accounting software can be used for free. It's a great choice if you have a small business or don't need more advanced features. Wave's functionality is limited for businesses looking to grow. Wave does not provide multiple plans to increase its functionality, which limits its scalability. It offers limited customer service. Wave Accounting offers only self-service customer support. Wave Accounting offers only one-on-one support to Accounting customers through Wave's paid Accounting Coach option.

Wave is a Great Accounting Suite - and it's FREE!

Pluspunten:

Wave is a great piece of accounting software that rivals Quickbooks and Xero. The biggest winner, which it obvious to anyone who has researched Wave as an accounting platform for their small business: it’s FREE! Both Quickbooks and Xero have fairly low-cost pricing models for small businesses that range all the way to fairly high-cost for larger businesses. Wave, on the other hand, is specifically tailored to the small business, and offers only features popular with those businesses. But, because of this, their base accounting software is completely free. Their only products you would be billed for would be payroll or credit card processing, both of which are priced competitively to Quickbooks/Intuit’s and Xero’s offerings as well. Wave also offers a lot of the same features, including automatic bank and credit card feeds, customized charts of accounts, multiple businesses on one account, smart expense categorization (software learns over time), and more.

Minpunten:

Wave does have its limitations and is more basic than Quickbooks or Xero, especially to us accountants who can see the glaring differences. However, even as an accountant and bookkeeper, I recommend Wave to a lot of my smaller clients whose biggest consideration is cost, simply because you can’t beat free. Plus, a lot of the additional features that offerings like Quickbooks or Xero feature, smaller businesses will not always utilize anyway, so Wave fits them perfectly. All-in-all, there are no large drawbacks.

Wave Accounting: Could Be Perfect.

Opmerkingen: I am really happy having moved over from Zoho Books and before than from Xero.
I love that you can toggle between personal and business sides easily. Delegation is well thought out.
Personally, I love having my books in the cloud because I can hire a bookeeper who can get to know my workflow. (Wave also has bookeepers you can hire internally.) It's perfect for people that are small entrepreneurs who need to have a business set of books.

Pluspunten:

Wave Accounting is a really great idea. Simple bookeeping for people that don't have "accountant-minds." It gets into a space where programs like Xero and Zoho Books are a little too complicated for non-accountants and creators. It's got a fantastic UI. Easy to use. Fairly easy to setup. Way more intuitive than competitors like Zoho Books and Xero Accounting.

Minpunten:

Support is really slow. I get that it's a free service, and therefore you have paid support working for free customers. But support takes days to get back to you. So once you're setup, it's fine. But if you have a question or two doing setup, like I did, it takes an extraordinarily long time. Granted, most people using this might not have to deal with multi-currency and Paypal in particular, but it's something to keep in mind. Also, the bank connections sometimes fail. Although this is a problem with all of these services who use Plaid to get bank data.