Reports can play a big role in the management of your business, and Wave and QuickBooks Online both offer reporting options, though those options vary widely between the two applications. Growing businesses with more than a handful of employees will be better off subscribing to QuickBooks Online because of its array of features and integrations. While Wave shines as a free option for freelancers, independent contractors and microbusinesses, it’s not meant for businesses that might expand their operations. Using billing software helps to eliminate some or all potential human errors by automating several processes that are normally done manually.

• Its simple $15-a-month plan lets you send simple invoices, track mileage, and get quarterly tax estimates to make end-of-year tax payments easier.
• Wave discontinued its integration with PayPal in 2020 — however, that doesn’t mean Wave doesn’t work with PayPal.
• Wave is a free accounting software platform that makes money off of its add-on services like bookkeeping and Wave payroll.
• Create beautiful invoices, accept online payments, and make accounting easy—all in one place—with Wave’s suite of money tools.

The app offers a receipt scanning feature as well, but you have to pay a subscription fee to access it. There’s a fee involved with accepting online invoice payments, too. Among QuickBooks product offerings are add-ons for payroll, a bank account, advanced accounting, employee time tracking and e-commerce inventory management. QuickBooks expense tracking lets you automatically capture information from receipts and track miles, features that make QuickBooks more flexible for a variety of businesses. However, there are a few features the software is still lacking. There’s no project management and limited time tracking, which rules the software out for a lot of businesses.

Accounting

Wave Payments is an add-on payment processing service that allows your business to accept credit cards, debit cards, and ACH payments. This is a pay-per-use service with credit card processing rates starting at 2.9% + $0.60 per transaction and ACH rates set at 1% per transaction. You can enjoy features such as unlimited income and expenses tracking, digital receipt upload and transaction management and access its invoice mobile app at no cost.

• It lacks some of the useful features you may find in other accounting software, such as project management, time tracking and inventory management.
• You can’t count on Wave for managing fixed assets, which isn’t surprising for a free program.
• And it’s worth noting that while Xero has more features, the software also has a steeper learning curve than Wave.
• After creating your account, everything is set up so you can get started.

Wave is PCI Level-1 certified for handling credit card and bank account information. 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. Transactions will appear in your books automatically, and you can say goodbye to manual receipt entry. Track your income and expenses, easily and for free, with Wave’s accounting software.

However, just because they’re easier to use doesn’t mean product support is unimportant. You can create estimates for your customers and upload receipt images to track expenses. A new feature, Checkouts, lets your customers pay for goods or services directly from your website, eliminating the need to invoice. Learn more about the best payroll software for small businesses. Wave and QuickBooks offer comparable features for invoicing but the QuickBooks suite of services goes far beyond what Wave offers, so it can better grow with bigger businesses.

Both Wave and QuickBooks include a section for tracking business expenses, which you can connect to your bank account and credit cards to automatically import transaction details. 1 Payouts are processed in 1-2 business days for credit card payments and 1-7 business days for bank payments. Deposit times may vary due to processing cutoff times, third party delays, or risk reviews. You can add features as you need them, such as bank account connections and real-time transaction updates, and you can easily make changes if your accounting or business requirements change. With the Wave Money business banking account, managing your business finances is a breeze. Keep your business and personal finances separate, connect with your Wave accounting software to automate your books, and use your Wave Visa® Business Debit Card and virtual card anytime, anywhere.

Wave vs. QuickBooks Online: Support

Next, you can add sales tax (if necessary), create customer profiles and customize your invoice templates. Accounting software like Wave can also seamlessly connect with your bank accounts so you can automate tasks like recording transactions and generating reports. This can help you save time and make financial decisions quickly. You can connect nearly 10,000 different bank and credit card accounts with Wave, so your financial transactions import automatically to make your bookkeeping simple.

Wave vs. QuickBooks Online: Integration with other software

Just like Wave Accounting, though, Wave Payroll is cheaper than QuickBooks Payroll. Its self-service plan costs $20 a month plus an additional $6 per employee. And its full-service plan is just $35 a month, which puts it on the lower end of the payroll-cost spectrum. (QuickBooks non operating expenses Payroll sales pricing starts at $37.50 a month plus $5 per payee—which honestly could make it cheaper than Wave Payroll depending on the number of employees you have). On the whole, if you’re okay paying less to get less, Wave Payroll could be a good pick.

Wave Accounting New Features for 2023

To add more users, go to Settings and click Users under User Management. Even if you don’t have accounting experience, you can familiarize yourself with the features of Wave in less than a week. You can access personalized support through the Wave Advisor program where you can get coaching and year-round advice from a Wave expert.

Wave vs. QuickBooks Online: Ease of use

While Wave is free to use, it doesn’t offer multiple plans to increase its functionality. It lacks some of the useful features you may find in other accounting software, such as project management, time tracking and inventory management. It’s hard to beat free accounting software, especially if you’re running a small business on a budget.

Unlimited accounting, 100% free

The software supports multiple companies and offers personal accounting as well. The checkout feature is one-of-a-kind and a great addition for business owners who need to charge multiple customers quickly. Wave “has always been and always will be free,” a structure that the company plans to maintain following its acquisition by H&R Block. Unlike most free plans, Wave doesn’t limit you to a certain number of invoices, customers, or transactions, making it one of the best free options out there — plus, there are no pesky ads. The company generates revenue from its credit card processing, Wave Payroll, and bookkeeping services and uses this revenue to keep the software completely free.