Wave+ Bookkeeping servicesare optional; costs start at $129 per month. Wave is the best free accounting software, and is well suited for freelancers, small service-based businesses and new companies with little or no inventory. 1) When your bank account is connected and it tracks your transactions, it double records the money collected from jobs. For instance, if I have a job for $500, when I collect the money and record a payment from the invoice it adds that to my transactions. Then when I deposit the money in the bank from the job, it records it again which essentially makes it seem like I made $1,000 instead of $500. We usually just go in and delete the deposit transaction and keep the invoice deposit.

• It’s a good option to think about if you’re a small business owner looking for free cloud-based accounting software.
• You can also record payments here and take other actions, like sending reminders.
• After offering free online accounting software for a time, the platform grew to include many tools for double-entry bookkeeping as well as other financial services like payment processing.
• Although these are fewer direct integrations than what many of Wave’s competitors offer, you can connect with hundreds of third-party apps through Zapier.

Wave payment processing feature allows users to accept credit card and ACH payments. Wave users can accept all types of payments including via bank deposit, credit card, and Apple Pay. If you operate a larger business and need advanced features, give Xero a look before signing up for Wave.

Wave Customer Support

It also offers both phone and online-based customer support. Wave offers a thorough online Help Center with guides https://simple-accounting.org/ on setting up your account and completing common tasks, as well as video tutorials for accounting basics.

Until then, the software is still a good solution for small business owners looking for simple, easy-to-use accounting software that won’t break the bank. Wave’s customer support resources and new Wave Advisor services make it easy for people with limited accounting experience to learn the software. It’s also great for Etsy shop owners wave invoice review and other eCommerce businesses using Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress. If Wave sounds like it might be a good fit for your business, give it a try! Wave and Lendio Accounting, two free accounting software in the list, are nearly head-to-head in almost all features. However, we like to emphasize that Wave isn’t strong in ease of use.

Who is Wave for?

While the idea is good, the pricing seems out of line for their core audience. I don’t know of one freelancer who has budgeted $149 a month for bookkeeping services. They automatically refunded 3-4 of my clients without informing me.

Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team. For sole proprietors and freelancers who want an easy-to-use accounting application, Wave’s free service can certainly fit the bill. Just choose one of the options — Professional Invoicing, Better Bookkeeping, or Reliable Payroll — and Wave will guide you through the entire setup and creation process. A reconciliation feature is also included in Wave, with a brief tutorial provided. Your chart of accounts is also easily accessible, so you can add a new account, change the name of any account, or edit the default chart of accounts.

Is Wave Right For You?

If you’re looking for extensive features and detailed accounting reports, Wave probably isn’t right for you. If you’re a freelancer, entrepreneur or extremely small business, however, Wave Financial is a tremendous option that deserves consideration. You can generate a dozen different reports using Wave, including general ledger, balance sheet, profit and loss, sales tax, income by customer, and aged receivables reports. Visit our best picks page to see all of our recommendations for small business accounting software. Use Wave’s personal finance tools to gain better insights into where your money goes.

If that’s not something you are interested in, you can always use the premade invoice templates and look professional. We’ll show how the app keeps track of your cash flow, and go over the most important app features, pricing, and pros and cons. Wave includes 12 reports that have limited customization capability, though they can be exported to a CSV file.

You can’t chat with a live person if you’re just using the free features of Wave, and you can’t contact them over the phone or through email. Live support is available for users who process payments in Wave. You can browse through some self-help resources, like set-up guides and troubleshooting tips, from the Help Center or through the chatbot. Wave’s inventory management feature is very basic, so if you’re a product-based business, you should consider alternatives like QuickBooks Online or Xero. You can add a product or service, but not the quantity purchased or sold.

• You can hire Wave Advisor at $149 or more per month to help you with bookkeeping and taxes.
• There are more, specialized fields if you designate a vendor as a 1099 contractor, however.
• There’s no project management and limited time tracking, which rules the software out for a lot of businesses.
• Track everything and connect to other Wave products such as payroll, payments, and invoicing in an automated package.
• He then taught tax and accounting to undergraduate and graduate students as an assistant professor at both the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Mississippi State University.

However, two days later I went to use the app again for another invoice, and my previous invoices now appeared as unpaid and past due. Wave had sent payment reminders to my two customers requesting payment.

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To recap, Wave can manage invoicing, track expenses, and do bookkeeping. It’s a solid platform for basic accounting needs, but it doesn’t go in for so many advanced features. The vendor also provides expert accounting coaching by real advisors, which is a great resource. 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. That said, there are still quite a few areas where Wave could stand improvement. There’s no project management feature, limited time tracking, limited inventory, and poor mobile apps.