Have an eye on the big picture so you can make better business decisions. Our robust small business accounting reports are easy to use and show month-to-month or year-to-year comparisons so you can easily identify cash flow trends. Any connections between you, your bank accounts, and Wave are protected by 256-bit SSL encryption. We built our payroll tool for small business owners, so it’s easy to use AND teaches you as you go. Give your customers the option of paying with one click using a credit card, bank transfer, or Apple Pay.
- 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.
- This isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, but it might require a bit more bookkeeping work.
- You can’t pay bills through Wave as you can in Intuit QuickBooks Online, but you can record them, mark them as paid, and track the status of your payables.
- With some exceptions, it includes a little bit of everything very small businesses need.
- The app also comes with standard financial reports like Profit & Loss (Income Statement) and Balance Sheet.
Best Accounting Software for Small Businesses of 2024
Wave Accounting is an affordable bookkeeping and accounting software service that doesn’t sacrifice features for the sake of pricing. Its expense, income and cash-flow tracking features are perfectly suited to freelancers, solopreneurs and other self-employed individuals who want to keep their accounting software expenses low. You can’t pay bills through Wave as you can in Intuit QuickBooks performance financial cpa tax and accounting Online, but you can record them, mark them as paid, and track the status of your payables. Wave now uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology to read photos of receipts taken with a smartphone and turn them into categorized transactions.
Can I share Wave Accounting with accountants?
No, Wave Accounting does not include built-in inventory tracking or management. For a limited time, new Wave Pro users can accept Visa, Mastercard and Discover payments at a discount. Businesses in the 36 other U.S. states can only sign up for Wave’s self-service payroll plan. We’ve already hit on a few accounting features how to become an auditor in 7 steps that set Wave apart, but there are a few more perks to cover. That said, QuickBooks Online and FreshBooks are our Editors’ Choice winners.
NerdWallet independently reviews accounting software products before determining our top picks. We collect the data for our software the trial balance ratings from products’ public-facing websites and from company representatives. Information is gathered on a regular basis and reviewed by our editorial team for consistency and accuracy. Wave Accounting can be a great option if you run a very small service-based business or don’t need more advanced features that alternatives might offer. For small businesses any larger than that, however, Wave is limited. Unlike competitors, Wave doesn’t offer many advanced features to increase the software’s functionality.
Bank data connections are read-only and use 256-bit encryption. When everything is neatly where it belongs, tax time is simple. Wave’s smart dashboard organizes your income, expenses, payments, and invoices. If you want professional help to get your business up and running, you can access bookkeeping experts through Wave for $149 per month.
Monitor your cash flow, stay organized, and stop sweating tax season. With Bookkeeping, you outsource your bookkeeping to us and let the pros handle it. With Accounting Coaching, we ensure you are set up correctly and coach you on how to do it yourself.
Accounting software that works as hard as you do
Otherwise, users must sync Wave with their favorite business management apps through Zapier, a third-party service. Wave Accounting does a lot for the price—but it can’t do everything. For instance, it doesn’t offer the same built-in time-tracking and project-tracking features you get with most other basic accounting software plans. Unlike with QuickBooks, you can’t manage 1099 contractors with Wave (which is one reason Wave’s better suited to 1099 contractors rather than those who employ them). If you’re a startup, micro-business or sole proprietor who doesn’t want to invest in accounting software but needs to keep track of your finances, Wave Accounting is a great option. As long as you’re content with basic features and don’t see yourself expanding in the foreseeable future, you’ll find this completely free, easy-to-use software particularly appealing.
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. FreshBooks has an excellent mobile app that allows you snap photos of receipts, send invoices and track mileage. While Wave has a lot to offer when it comes to invoicing, know that it’s still slightly less automated than some competitors. This isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, but it might require a bit more bookkeeping work. Wave Advisors are trained in-house professionals in bookkeeping, accounting and Wave features.
Wave used to be free unless you signed up to accept customer payments or used the app’s payroll features. Since my last review, it’s added a fee for scanning and uploading receipts ($8 per month or $72 billed annually), a feature that competitors offer free. The company also offers advisory services from in-house accounting and payroll coaches and bookkeepers for a fee. Wave has been one of the best accounting applications for years because it’s good and it’s free (unless you need payroll, and many microbusinesses don’t). Our Editors’ Choice winners for small business accounting programs are Intuit QuickBooks Online and FreshBooks for their superior capabilities, usability, and customizability, but neither is free. While Wave is free to use, it doesn’t offer multiple plans to increase its functionality.
Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. Yes, switching from other accounting apps or products to Wave is easy! See our step-by-step guide on how to import bookkeeping data into Wave here.
