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1,205 reviews
Recommended
Dave B.
Vice chair
Education Management, 11-50 employees
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Dave B: I'm Dave, I'm a freelance sound engineer, and I give Wave Accounting a five out of five. Before...
Jose L.
Operations Manager
Automotive, 51-200 employees
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Jose L.: Hey, I'm Jose. I'm the owner of a management consultancy for small businesses. I use Wave Accounting...
Laura G.
Verified reviewer
Photography, self-employed
Used weekly for 2+ years
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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!
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.
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.
Anonymous Reviewer
Verified reviewer
Civil Engineering, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 1-2 years
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I was able to quickly send professional estimates and invoices on go and I didn't have to keep a lot of envelopes with receipts any more, I could just scan receipts and attach them to a bank transaction. Before I even get an accountant, I would easily see the performance of the business from the cash flow graphs and profit and loss graphs.
Setting reminders to be sent to clients for payment is the most important feature from wave in my opinion. Also being able to create recurring invoices you you don't have to do the same thing every week or every month. My other favorite is customer statements. Pulling out customer statements and sending to your clients gives you points in terms of professionalism. I also appreciate that when Wave stopped operating in South Africa they recommended Zoho and gave us a year of free use of Zoho. Even though I did not like changing, this was a very thoughtful move by wave.
For some reason wave starting giving limited access to its South African customers and partnered with Zoho for customers to migrate. Even though the apps are similar, they're not the same and it took a little bit of time to now learn Zoho a new app.
Anonymous Reviewer
Verified reviewer
Marketing and Advertising, self-employed
Used daily for 6-12 months
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Very poor customer service. Never available. Only send you to "articles" to read when you DO get the opportunity to speak to someone live. If you are disappointed in the paid-for service, they do not issue a refund.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. We are fully disappointed.
New users require support to appropriately navigate the software. However, the "support" is chatbot only most of the time. When you "do" get to "chat", again only online, no actual phone to call, you are repeatedly directed to "articles" to read. I don't know about you, but I am very busy running my business, and certainly do not have time to be directed to article after article to read what they can...
Natali C.
Education Management, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for 1-2 years
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Wave is easy to setup, navigate, use and the features are incredibly robust! A a non-profit founder, I was looking for a cost-effective solution that would allow me to create a general ledger, track and categorize spending, create estimates and invoices, track AP/AR, and easily build financial reports. Wave does ALL of this, and it's FREE. I can't believe how good it is!
I literally haven't a single dislike about this software. Truly.
Sofia C.
Education Management, 51-200 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
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I love the feeling of it, it is very comparable to QuickBooks online and other more expensive type of user oriented software. I just wish the chart of account and the check printing were more flexible.
This software is a game-changer for free or low cost needs. It can 100% cover the needs of a non profit organization, or in my case our home owner's association needs. It is very easy to create accounts, or modify the already existing ones, and it is very easy to send invoices out. Also, it offers electronic payments which is very convenient for those who wish to pay electronically.
The software does not allow for check printing through it. All expenses need to be recorded and checks to be entered manually. This causes a feeling of "double entering" or doing twice a process that could have been simplified. The fact that the software will not be able to make payments is a little outdated.
Salma J.
Verified reviewer
Financial Services, 10,001+ employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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It's allows me to organize my books of accounts neatly. Payrolls processing.
It's simple to manage income and expenses using Wave Accounting. Enables ease to create and send professional invoices. This tool accepts credit cards and bank payments method.
It's tool is simple to use and understand hence I lack anything to complain.
Ani P.
Verified reviewer
Health, Wellness and Fitness, self-employed
Used weekly for 2+ years
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LOVE it
It's FREE, very similar to QuickBooks without the huge financial commitment
As of now, the capacity I use it I have nothing negative to say
Nick N.
Verified reviewer
Financial Services, 10,001+ employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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It's convenient with billing and invoicing process. Allows ease to create,send and manage invoices.
With Wave Accounting,it's simple to carry out all accounting and bookkeeping process effectively.It's reliable tool for payment processing.
It's affordable and easy to use accounting tool thus nothing to dislike.
María G.
Verified reviewer
Banking, 10,001+ employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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It's more convenient with billing and invoicing.
Managing expenses with this tool is simple.Again,I like ease to manage cash flows transactions.
There is nothing unpleasant with Wave Accounting as it does what it's supposed to do.
Andrea F.
Health, Wellness and Fitness, self-employed
Used weekly for 1-2 years
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I really loved using this accounting software. As a personal accounting software or if you do t have a whole lot going on in your business then it’s great! It definitely helped me get started and it is free.
Sometimes it would import transactions twice so I had to be careful and double check that I wasn’t counting an expense or a income twice. But that’s why you should reconcile each month.
Henry C.
Verified reviewer
Marketing and Advertising, self-employed
Used weekly for 2+ years
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Extremely positive. In 3+ years I don't think I've had to contact support once, nor have I ever considered switching to other tools. It is one of the few software tools I use regularly where I am happy to open it, and I'm happy to give them their percentage. As a freelancer, Wave has been indispensable to me. Always simple and smooth, and exceptional bang for the buck. Not only would I recommend Wave to freelancers and small businesses, I have recommended it. Numerous times.
Wave is ideal for freelancers. Set up is really simple and the interface is user-friendly. I have zero background in financial matters, and with Wave that's totally fine. The price is also right. There's no subscription or hidden fees, they just take a perfectly reasonable percentage from invoice payments. I asked a financial advisor friend of mine before signing up, and she was pleasantly surprised...
There are no major cons that I can think of. One issue I have is mostly my fault: When I first started using Wave I didn't know what I was doing, and I ended up creating a whole bunch of client and work type records unnecessarily. It would be nice if there were some more in-your-face tutorials, maybe some hover tips for new users. But the messiness is mainly from me leaping in before looking.
Spencer I.
Photography, self-employed
Used monthly for 1-2 years
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I am very impressed with Wave Accounting. Their free products aren't skimpy or limiting, but are actually very full and would likely not be free from another service provider! Wave's premium offerings are extensive as well. Overall, I've found that Wave Accounting is perfect for a wide target audience including small businesses, sole proprietors, independent contractors and freelancers, or people looking to take their invoicing, accounting, payment collecting, etc. to anything beyond their basic capacity and limitations. Highly recommend to a broad audience needing such services.
Wave Apps software features not only very beautiful interfaces for their products' dashboard, but the platform is at once very feature-heavy and thoughtfully well designed. The aesthetically-pleasing graphics for content such as cash flow, profit and loss, and expense breakdowns on the primary dashboard are sharp and clean in addition to being so helpfully data-driven, and all that is just on the landing...
So many elements within Wave are intuitively navigable and to use with simple data entry. One area that was a little more challenging for me to set up with the chart of accounts section in the accounting area of the interface. It's so nice that it's deeply customizable, but the challenge was that it took me a little extra time to understand and knowledgeably input the data of my assets, liabilities/credits,...
Josh C.
Verified reviewer
Design, self-employed
Used daily for 2+ years
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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!
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.
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.
Kari G.
Verified reviewer
Human Resources, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Overall, I highly recommend Wave if you are running a business and want low costs and an easy way to manage your finances. My business is simple and Wave makes it so much easier for me to stay on top of things and know where I need to focus my energy.
I have been using Wave since around 2015 and my books were a mess when I first began because I was doing them (not my strength) and once I heard about Wave's bookkeeping services, I couldn't believe how affordable they were. It's super easy to set up and use, run reports and know about your financials. I tried switching to QB for about 1 month and hated it, so I switched back. Lesson learned and I'm sticking around!
One thing I had to get used to was because I had my bank account connected and until the month is reconciled, when a invoice is paid I mark it paid and then the 'payment' comes in again from banking. It was easy to catch and now my Wave bookkeeper keeps all that reconciled. Thank you!
Proinsias M.
Verified reviewer
Online Media, self-employed
Used daily for 2+ years
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I was very happy with the invoicing, payments, and the Design and functionality. I was able to search past transactions very easily. I did not pay for premium support, but the support that I recieve is excellent.
It was free to use the accounting services I was able to invoice customers using Stripe as a Payment Gateway which was great value The Design and User Interface is very professional compared to others that I have seen The Payment Gateway was also very professional when sent to customers, it added to the credibility of the business
My particular Bank would not allow me to sync my account with Wave, but that was a local issue not a general issue. I was very very happy with the invoicing. but I always felt that the ledger views were not as robust.
Cheikh B.
Computer Software, self-employed
Used daily for 6-12 months
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The speed with which the credit cards were processed automatically saved me a lot of time.
This is a very complete software that allows you to build quotes and convert them into invoices in a fraction of a second without much effort. Wave is excellent especially when it comes to credit card processing which is done automatically with a very low 1% fee. It is very easy to set up and use and the cost is low or even free. Personally, I recommend buying this package because it comes with support: from setting up your account to the specific categories for your company . The other advantage of Wave is the presence of a number of applications to send invoices when you are away from your workplace. So even when you're away from home you can download them. In this case, all you have to do is take the photo on the spot.
The problem on the Wave software is not so numerous, but we notice that it is impossible to close a period correctly. All members who are able to make transactions have the possibility to change or add entries from the previous year. For me an administrator must have the ability to close a period so that no changes are made. User growth is also very limited. The lack of audit trails for transaction...
Michael M.
Music, self-employed
Used daily for 1-2 years
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My overall experience has been great! I have to do some thinking/remembering at tax time to separate the double entries of income. I show an invoice paid by check WAVE shows that income on my account. I go to the bank and deposit, there is that check again. For the total amount of money saved, around $450-500, I will put up with it.
It is FREE in the cloud, works on ALL platforms Windows 7,10, Android, iphones. Accepts all credit cards including Amex for 2.9% I am saving $420+ yearly by not having QB, I don't have to print invoices. Since WAVE is in the cloud I email my invoices and receipts.
I wish it had more storage of customer service that has been performed in the past but I suspect that would require some expense. It only had 3 invoice templates and there wasn't much customization on those. You can't compound taxes on your invoices, let me rephrase, you can compound 1 tax but no more. Since my only taxes are State and County I found it best to compound none for fear of forgetting which one I had compounded
Brooke B.
Design, self-employed
Used daily for 2+ years
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Wave no longer integrates with CapitalOne Spark Business Checking & Savings. CapitalOne is going through some changes so I don't blame Wave too much but manually uploading bank statements every month is a hassle. Though I love Spark, I'm hopefully that Wave's banking that is coming soon will be a good future solution. I love Wave for everything else. It's the most rounded and affordable solution for my small business finances.
It's everything I need in one place. As a small business, Wave is the best solution for me. I can invoice my clients for free, and easily keep my finances up-to-date making tax season worry free.
Wave no longer integrates with CapitalOne Spark Business accounts, so I have to manually upload two bank statements every month into Wave; One for my checking and one for my savings account, both of which are Spark.
Sutra B.
Leisure, Travel & Tourism, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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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.
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...
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.
Suzanne R.
Verified reviewer
Photography, self-employed
Used daily for 2+ years
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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.
It was wonderfully easy to use, the invoices looked professional and payment processing features were handy.
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.
Anonymous Reviewer
Verified reviewer
Management Consulting, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 1-2 years
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We use it for multiple businesses and a non-profit as we are a small cluster of social enterprises that work hand in hand with each other. We are really enjoying working with this software and it has helped us tremedously, all while not costing us a penny!
On the positive side, this software's functionality is almost up to par with other options that cost a lot of money. Wave is free and for that price what they offer is unbeatable. It is a fully featured accouting software, as it is a web app, it means multiple people can use it simultaniously and it also works great for a virtual team. I like that it is made with non-accountants in mind. For example,...
On the downside, and this can be a big one, you are not able to properly close a period. This means anyone with permission to enter transactions can go and change entries from last year, or add some. This can make things really messy and I hope they add a function where an administrator can close a period such as a month, so that no more changes can be made. Further, you can add other users, but the...
Corinne P.
Health, Wellness and Fitness, self-employed
Used daily for 2+ years
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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.
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.
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.
Anonymous Reviewer
Verified reviewer
Management Consulting, self-employed
Used daily for 6-12 months
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I haven't gone through a tax season with my business yet, but I have been an independent consultant and I anticipate having everything tracked in Wave is going to help me out a lot come April. It's so easy to use and I can focus on my core business rather than spending a lot of time on admin.
Wave helps me do so much. I can issue invoices, track them (I.e. I can see when a client has viewed it!), and allow clients to make payments directly through the invoice. I can also customize my invoice, which is great. I could do all of this from day 1. I'm a solopreneur and launched my business this summer. I was able to issue professional invoices from day 1 and track my expenses using their receipts app. The other thing I love about Wave is that they are very interested in feedback from their customers. I've had a few interactions with them and it's always been really pleasant. It's also free which helps me out a lot. I do use the credit card payments, which has a fee like any other service would.
Their mobile app could use some work, and I've given them this feedback. The receipts app is great to take pictures really quickly, but I generally have to use the browser to do anything else.
Felix J.
Verified reviewer
Accounting, 5,001-10,000 employees
Used daily for 6-12 months
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It’s been a solid piece of cloud accounting software, albeit limited. It’s hard to beat the price of it, and I have yet to find a similar but more fully featured one at the price of FREE!
I use Wave to keep track of my personal finances, from income to spending. In that lens, Wave performs quite well, allowing you to tag transactions that are automatically imported from your bank. It also lets you generate some simple reports such as your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow. The interface is simple to use and understand, and I was able to pick it up (coming from an accounting...
Wave still appears to be in its infancy, although the product has been there for a while. The user interface will frequently be updated (the reconciliation flow changed 3 times since I signed up about 6 months ago), and new features will constantly be added without any notification, often shifting often things around from where you expect them to be. The reports from Wave are also very limited, so...
Clay A.
Hospitality, 1-10 employees
Used weekly for 2+ years
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Very stress free. For a free app, you expect the quality to not be as high, but overall Wave has been very reliable. I didn't really want to pay $30+ a mo for Quickbooks when all I need is for my transactions to be categorized. Wave does this well, so glad it is free. I did use the chat once and had very good experience, although I think I saw they were disabling chat except for people that have paid for support or something, so that's a bummer. But I understand, they have to get paid somehow so I'm not complaining.
I love the simplicity. We are just a small business, so the primary purpose of using this app is to categorize all my expenses, so once tax time rolls around, I just have to send the tax lady a breakdown of my income and expenses. Once a week or so, I'll log in to check all the transactions it imported from my bank account. It auto categorizes most of them which is awesome, I just have to click the...
For some reason, they disabled the ability for deposits to be auto categorized. This is my most common type of bank transactions, since all credit card payments are deposited into my account a few days after they process, so I have tons of transactions I have to go manually mark as the 'Sales' category. I did talk to customer support over chat about this though, and the lady agreed this would be extremely useful so they are looking into this.