Wave’s smart dashboard organizes your income, expenses, payments, and invoices. Wave and QuickBooks both offer standard features and capabilities for invoicing for small businesses. Wave’s platform is simpler and designed for easy use for freelancers and businesses of one, while QuickBooks is designed to cover complex business needs and grow as your business grows. Although accounting and invoicing are separated into two different product sections on the Wave website (shown similarly below), they don’t require separate accounts. These solutions are integrated within your dashboard and you’ll access them both through your single Wave login.

Payments

Once logged in, your main dashboard will show your cash flow, profit and loss, invoices, bills and other financial insights. Wave is an up-and-coming contender in invoicing and payments software for small businesses. It’s primarily devoted to freelancers and small single-owner businesses, offering a single free plan that lets you send invoices, track expenses, receive online payments and run financial reports. With QuickBooks, your online payments will be deposited into your connected bank account within the next business day, or you can pay a 1% fee for instant deposit (free with a QuickBooks Checking account).

With this release, we’re waving bye to bugs and hello to stability improvements. Thanks for using Wave to help you stay more in control of your business while on-the-go. It’s been one of the best decisions I’ve made when it comes to making sure my accounting is on point.

After providing a few basic details about your business — name, type, currency you use, address — you’ll have instant access to your account. 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. 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. Get your money faster when you offer customers the ability to pay directly from your invoices, starting at 2.9% + 60¢ per card transaction. Set up recurring invoices for your finance clients and safely store credit card info so you have one less thing to keep track of.

Wave invoices are integrated with our accounting software, so payments are recorded for you – which means less bookkeeping and tax season prep. 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. If you’re a freelancer or other solo service provider, Wave is a better option.

Save time with automated accounting

Wave and QuickBooks facilitate online payments identically. When you accounting ethics and integrity standards 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. 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.

Personalized invoices

Monitor your cash flow, stay organized, and stop sweating tax season. Support for non-paying users is limited to the chatbot and self-service Help Center. Only integrates with in-house apps, like Wave Payments and Wave Payroll; does not integrate with card readers for in-person payments. Many, or all, of the products featured on this page are from our advertising partners who compensate us when you take certain actions on our website or click to take an action on their website. Here is a list of our partners and here’s how we make money. If you’re interested in our payroll software, you can start a free 30-day trial when you sign up for Wave.

1. Wave has helped over 2 million small business owners in the US and Canada take control of their finances.
2. The import from contacts button does not work at all and the layout to get to customers invoice is great after learning where it is.
3. If you’re a freelancer or other solo service provider, Wave is a better option.
4. Upload your logo, add customer info, share notes, and set net payment terms with ease.

Accounting software helps business owners understand how money flows in and out of their businesses. This can help you save time and make financial decisions quickly. The best accounting software programs all provide similar features, so when considering which one is best for your business, you need to consider which features are the most important to your situation. This will help you decide which accounting software meets your needs best. Other features you may want to consider include whether the software has a mobile app, how good its customer service is and how well it does with accounts receivable (A/R) and financial reporting. In addition, Wave’s mobile app lets you send invoices and track payments on the go.