With Wave, you can track income and expenses, send invoices, track sales tax and create reports. Run multiple businesses from the same account, check your dashboard to see how business is doing and collaborate with unlimited partners and accountants. 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. While several accounting software services provide a free version of their software, the free version usually limits the number of users, number of invoices per month and integrations. In addition, Wave’s mobile app lets you send invoices and track payments on the go.
Zoho Books offers a robust free plan, along with a range of paid plans that feature workflow automation. FreshBooks is an affordable option for freelancers and small service-based businesses that operate mostly on the go. Moreover, you can integrate QuickBooks with hundreds of third-party tools available in the app marketplace. There are also add-on Intuit services like QuickBooks Payroll or QuickBooks Time. Wave is PCI Level-1 certified for handling credit card and bank account information.
How Does Wave Compare To Other Accounting Software?
Consider how user-friendly each software is as well as whether it’s available on multiple platforms. While the lack of advanced features and customer service channels is a drawback, it is important to remember this is a free service. After signing up, you can customize your account by filling out your company name and business type, which Wave uses to create a dashboard that suits your needs. You’ll also enter your contact information, such as your business address and phone number so that this information automatically appears on invoices and other documents. After much research and analysis of accounting software, we recommend Wave Financial as the best free accounting software for small businesses in 2021.
- If you operate a larger business and need advanced features, give Xero a look before signing up for Wave.
- 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.
- Unlike a majority of its competitors, Wave does not have a comprehensive mobile app.
- It comes with no monthly fees and no minimum, and you can receive invoice payments instantly instead of waiting for a payment to process and hit your bank account.
It’s fast to set up a new account, and it’s simple to add business information, such as company name, type of business, address, and contact details. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
Wave Accounting Alternatives
If you’re looking to gain a firmer grasp of your business’s finances, Zoho Books offers excellent budget management features for as low as $15 per month. However, its budget management tools are reserved for its pricier tiers, making it less appropriate for budget-conscious businesses. If you’re looking for a reliable tool to track your financial transactions, Wave’s bookkeeping features will definitely cut the mustard.
With free customizable invoicing templates, it’s a great initial tool to invoice clients and adds professionalism to the mix with a personalized, branded design. Wave also aligns with accounting standards and allows users to reconcile accounts with ease. Like Wave, QuickBooks Online is easy-to-use, cloud-based accounting software. QuickBooks Online boasts a robust set of features, including advanced options like project management and inventory features you won’t find with Wave. QuickBooks Online also has hundreds of integrations, connecting your accounting solution with other small business software and apps.
Access all customer information in one place
Send invoices whenever and wherever you want with Wave’s free app for iOS and Android. Between the app and the payment process—I can’t tell you the hours it’s saved, cost-plus pricing is and even the headaches that have gone away because of it. Easily monitor and keep track of what’s going on in your business with the intuitive dashboard.
- This plan includes unlimited contacts, unlimited storage, automated workflows, and online support.
- Create and send professional invoices to your customers in seconds.
- Strong invoicing feature competes with that of paid products; app lets users send invoices on the go; offers significantly fewer reports than competitors; no inventory tracking.
- Practice has been specifically created for self-employed coaches and consultants so that they can manage the important parts of their business from one unified platform.
- You can attach a receipt to transactions within the web interface of Wave for free.
Wave also offers paid products for payroll, coaching and mobile receipt scanning. If your small business has taken off and you are at the point of needing effective online invoicing solutions, firstly, congratulations! Building up your small business is no easy feat, and the search for a more comprehensive invoicing tool is undoubtedly a sign that business growth is on the horizon. Billing software is vital for small businesses, freelancers, and solopreneurs. It allows professionals to generate invoices quickly, ensure faster payment, and effectively manage the financial aspects of their business.
Wave Customer Service
This free, easy-to-use accounting software is great for small businesses, especially for eCommerce, but lacks in project management, budgeting, and inventory tracking. If your small business has less than five employees, you can use the free version of NCH for your accounting software. The free version lacks some of the bigger features suitable for larger enterprises, but still has much to offer. Examples of financial statements you can generate include income statements, balance sheets, profit and loss (P&L) statements and sales analysis by item, customer and salesperson.
Top Wave Accounting alternatives
Transactions will appear in your books automatically, and you can say goodbye to manual receipt entry. This plan includes unlimited contacts, unlimited storage, automated workflows, and online support. If none of the tools above feel quite right for your business for one, it might be worth exploring Practice, with its payment flexibility, workflow optimization tools, and great design. Using billing software helps to eliminate some or all potential human errors by automating several processes that are normally done manually. Automated billing, invoicing and other processes also help improve project and client management.