Wave Pricing, Features, Reviews & Comparison of Alternatives

Pretty good for a free software

David Hahn, President, Vonvon Global Inc
Yes, there are more feature-rich software out there if you're willing to pay $20 a month, and yes, it is a little slow. But for a basic accounting needs, it really works, and it's free. I can't really understand other reviewers who gave it 1 star. I think it deserves better ratings than that.

Pros: - Free accounting software that pulls data from your online banking. - Their invoicing (also free) and payroll (costs a fraction of any other payroll competitors out there) are very well integrated with the accounting system.

Cons: - Transaction reconciliation can be a little slow if you have lots of transactions.

Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Features
Customer support

Time used

6-12 months

Frequency of use

Weekly

Likelihood to recommend

NEVER EVER EVER USE THIS -

(Import and Export company, 1-10 employees)
Do you remember 1996, when it took 10 minutes to download a page on the internet with just text - 20 minutes for one with a photo? That is what using this software is like. If you have 10 hours to do something that would take 30 minutes on any other platform / software etc, use wave app. If, however you have more to do than stare at a rainbow ball waiting to do things, check transactions etc etc stay away or you might end up smashing your computer in despair. Never worked with something so goddamn awful as this.

Pros: ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

Cons: EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS IS A CON

Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use

Time used

6-12 months

Be aware!

Nate Mandel, Owner of Expect Huge Co-Owner of Product Direction
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!

Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Customer support

Time used

Less than 6 months

BAD!!

A verified reviewer
I've only used this service for a couple of months. I had a problem with a customer making out the check wrong, so I returned it, and he paid by credit card. The payment was to be deposited in my account today, 9 days after it was made, and all of a sudden, my account has been disabled, and I have no clue when I will receive my money. And, now their website is down!!

Pros: Easy to use, nice invoicing

Cons: They apparently like to screw with your money. I will not be using this service again, once I finally get my payment.

Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Customer support

Time used

Less than 6 months

I suggest this to my startup business clients

Quintin Pease, Owner of Geek Dad
I'm two years into my business and for nearly the first year I used Wave. It's what I suggest to my clients who are looking for something cloud-based and easy to use. Yes, it is not perfect, but it's FREE. I currently use InvoiceASAP, but I'm strongly considering switching back to Wave after the first of the year. Why? The cost of one, but features are another. Nothing else free compares.

Pros: Receipt scanner. Invoices look nice. Email is sent from Wave account (Not quite sure that is a plus or a negative). Connects to your Bank Account and lets your categorize the transaction. Dashboard has great-looking layout with graphs. Paid invoices are marked as a receipt instead of an invoice which makes more sense to me. Will alert you of non-payment on a regular basis. Sales Tax Report is basic, but layout is very appealing. Has Premium Payroll option starting at $19/month with direct deposit included. On a more positive note, I recently received an email from the CEO saying to look out for improvements to Wave in the near future. Apparently, there will be new tools and features and it will be faster. I look forward to that.

Cons: The App on iPhone and iPad is slow. I don't remember using support, so I can really speak to how quick or effective they are. It's FREE so I'm guessing it's not superior. It's not Quickbooks, but it works. However, it you have Quickbooks (Stand Alone version) on your computer and you bank with an up-to-date institution that allows you can integrate for a fee and not have to pay an additional ongoing subscription to Quickbooks online.

Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Customer support

Time used

6-12 months

Best Accounting App

Nisarg Shah, Partner at Shah Jain & Co, Chartered Accountant
Well, if you are a startup and wanted to have accountant but at no cost with some world class security and autonomous transactions accounting. This is the app you need to have. Very well designed and made.

Pros: easy to understand, free of cost, automatic sync with bank accounts, auto entries, auto invoicing, hell lot of other feature at no cost.

Cons: invoice templates are limited, data and invoices cant be exported as we required. we have to make a request to send. however, request of data were completed within minutes.

Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Customer support

Time used

Free Trial

Avoid the Personal Incarnation of this App

Steve Hemingway, Consultant
When you sign up with wave you get a 'Personal' set of accounts. You can add companies without limit. If you want to understand the full power of this app, you have to use the profile that comes with a company. The reports and chart of accounts you can set up for the personal account are very incomplete. I cannot really comment on customer support. I did email them for a couple of things, but managed to work out how to use the system before I got the response. There is a feature which allows a transaction to be 'moved' between companies. To be perfectly honest I have not fully understood how this works, but the couple of times I attempted to use it, it did not behave in a way that I expected.

Pros: Free, quick, multicurrency, excellent integration with many bank accounts, ability to take credit cards, ability to scan receipts.

Cons: A lot of transactions require you to use a journal. (To my mind) an arbitrary partition of accounts into payment accounts and 'categories'. This allows you to put both accounts on one line: e.g. combining a credit to a bank account with a debit to an expense category.

Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Customer support

Time used

1-2 years

Wave cares a lot about its customers

Co-Founder / COO (Sports company, 1-10 employees)
I originally commented and my major complaint was Wave’s terrible customer service. However, since then Wave has stepped up and really made right of the situation. One of their heads of customer success reached out to me and we’ve finally sorted out the entire ordeal. Although a frustrating experience, it is nice to see a large company that is willing to go the extra mile to make sure their customers are happy. Overall, I have minimal complaints about their product. Invoicing is great and a quick way to collect money from clients. We also use their software for reconciling our books and managing our projections and cashflows. Pretty intuitive product and pricing friendly for business owners.

Pros: - Great reporting. Syncing with bank account is a nice feature - Professional looking invoices with fast collection - Price friendly

Cons: - Long response times from customer support at times, but ultimately will fix any issue you have

Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Customer support

Time used

6-12 months

Wonderful Software But So Slow

Lifeguard Instructor (Recreational Facilities and Services company, 11-50 employees)
This software does a great job of invoicing and accepting payments. The big downside is the speed at which it moves. It takes sometimes over a minute to pull up an invoice. When customers are on the phone or inline waiting to pay, it is a very long time. "Time is Money"

Pros: Email Invoices, Simple to Learn, Clean Interface, Easy for customer to use, Has flexibility on how it can be used. Can run more than one business from the same account. Can share with unlimited users. It's Free

Cons: SO SLOW! The time it takes to create an invoice or accept payment over the phone, another software could have done 3 invoices or more. No Customer Portal for continuous tracking. Limited on payment processors.

Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Customer support

Time used

1-2 years

I want to like Wave, and have been trying for years

Josh Rachlis, Senior Copywriter at Leo Burnett
..., but I need them to help me figure it out. I have a full-time salaried job as a copywriter and a few self-employment careers, like freelance writing, voice acting. I've always found doing my taxes to be a nightmare. I'd spend months stressing about it and trying to calculate income and expenses. Originally, I was adding up all my expenses with a calculator. When I discovered I could put things into Excel, it got a bit easier add numbers. And then about 4 or 5 years ago, I started using a new accountant, and he suggested Wave to me. I was excited to hear that it would important my bank and credit card statements, and that I could then quickly and easily categorize everything. I was sure this would save me so much time and stress. But I found Wave very hard to use. I wasn't sure how to create my own categories. I could never tell if my statements had been uploaded completely, and I would often wind up with duplicate transactions. And I still can't find a way to view the categories after I've allocated transactions to them. I tweeted to Wave a lot, and they were nice enough to send one their IT guys to sit with me in a coffee shop for a few hours. He watched as I tried to do things and he gave me help. He said this was useful to him, to see what people might be having trouble with. And, I figured I would then be ok. But I'm still having a lot of trouble. I'm not asking a lot. All I want to be able to do is import my bank statements and credit card statements, and categorize all the transactions. And being able to invoice people would be nice too. And it seems that his app has those features. But I still find it very complicated. I don't understand the categories. I can't find where the totals are. And lately, my mbna Mastercard has been saying it can't link to Wave. So tonight, I went in and started deleting all the transactions from 2014, hoping that I could start fresh and be sure that everything was imported correctly. But now I see that mbna won't give me the data files for before August (that's an mbna problem, not Wave) and I can't undelete what I deleted. And there's no way to get support without paying for it. But I don't want to pay until I'm confident the site can do the simple things I need it to do. Anyway, I'd love to support a local Toronto company. And I appreciate that someone from the company sat with me in person. And I see people reviewing positively, saying it makes a freelancers life easy. Someone even tweeted today that Wave makes doing accounting fun. But I just don't understand how people are able to use this site. If someone from the company, or one of the satisfied customers, could explain to me how to use this site properly, I'd love to be converted. But at this point, I fear I need to cut my loses and simplify my life by paying for some other software. I just want to be able to file my taxes and concentrate on my creative projects.

Pros: It seems like it offers the ability to import credit card and bank statements, categorize expenses, and invoice people. Those are the features I want. But...

Cons: ...I haven't been able to figure out how to smoothly and accurately use the features I want. This app is making my life harder than it was when I just manually typed in all my expenses into a Microsoft Word and added them up with a calculator.