Connect to your bank with read-only and 256-bit encryption. Wave is also PCI Level-1 certified, which is often necessary with third-party merchant service providers. Wave is cloud-based, so you can securely access your accounting software and your financial information anywhere you are—whether you’re working in your pjs, or waiting for a meeting to start. You can also choose from Wave’s selection of professional invoice templates to make sure every touch point instills client confidence in your brand. Overall, we rate Wave 3.9/5 and recommend it for business owners looking for a cheap — or in most cases, free — accounting software option. Check out our comparisons among these top three accounting software options to find the right fit for your business.

In the past, Wave generated revenue from its credit card processing, Wave Payroll, and bookkeeping services. Now, the company has added a paid accounting software plan. 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. Some automations are also only available on Wave’s paid plan.

Make tax time work for you

Customers can pay via credit card, bank payment 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. Pro plan capabilities include recurring invoicing and the option to times interest earned ratio formula let repeat clients opt into automatic credit card billing. Once logged in, your main dashboard will show your cash flow, profit and loss, invoices, bills and other financial insights. Wave has recently updated its pricing model to now include a paid plan. Now, many standard features (such as automatic importing of bank transactions) are only available if you purchase a monthly or annual plan.

1. If you need to manually edit, add or remove any transactions, you can do so on the Reconciliation or Transactions pages.
2. Visit your dashboard or use your invoicing or accounting features, and click the peach “Upgrade now” button.
3. With limitations on Xero’s lowest-tier plans, users will have to upgrade to a more expensive option to take advantage of everything the software has to offer.
4. Zoho Books offers a robust free plan, along with a range of paid plans that feature workflow automation.
5. This isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, but it might require a bit more bookkeeping work.

How Does Wave Compare To Other Accounting Software?

The checkout feature is one-of-a-kind and a great addition for business owners who need to charge multiple customers quickly. 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.

Create graphs, charts, and dashboards to see at a glance where your income is coming from and which expenses are cutting into your bottom line. You can then dig down as deep as you like with expense tracking and customized reports to manage your revenue, categorize expenses, and find cost-cutting opportunities. You’ll also experience peace of mind knowing your personal financial information is backed-up and secure. Unfortunately, Wave does not offer a project management feature. Explore more details on the competition in our full roundup of the best accounting software for small businesses.

Plans to makeyour plans happen.

It’s also intuitive so you don’t need to be an accountant to use it successfully. Similar to other reputable cloud-based accounting software products, Wave encrypts the data you share with it and reverse treasury stock method monitors its server facilities 24/7. 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. Can manage multiple businesses for free under one account; lacks project tracking tools, industry-specific reports and transaction tracking tags.

However, some features are noticeably missing, such as project management and budgeting, that are found with competing software options such as QuickBooks Online. The lack of these features brought our score in this category to 3 out of 5 stars. Some features are also only available on the paid Wave Pro plan. If you’re a small business owner in search of free, operating profit definition cloud-based accounting software, Wave Accounting is worth considering. This is particularly true if you don’t have much accounting experience and would like an easy-to-use, fully functional tool.

Unlimited accounting, starting at free.

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.

With a Pro Plan subscription, you can connect your bank account with Wave and automatically import your transactions. Bank data connections are read-only and use 256-bit encryption. Servers are housed under physical and electronic protection. 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.