Wave Accounting Platform Reviews

“Easy invoicing and saved details”

Pros

The thing I like is that I can store customer details and product entries with their prices which makes it simple for me to pull them into a new invoice instead of retyping everything each time.

Cons

Previously the app allowed me to send invoice reminders directly from it but lately those reminders arrive as email links instead which changes how I follow up with clients.

“Perfect for small businesses”

Pros

Wave is a free, user friendly and well suited tool for small businesses. Overall it really simplifies handling invoices, payments and reports without any fuss.

Cons

Well the tool reaches its limits quickly when you need more advanced accounting and some functions are only available to users in North America.

“All-in-one tool for startups”

Pros

As a tiny start-up business, I really appreciated having a simple, user friendly program that managed all of my financial tasks and records conveniently in one place for me.

Cons

Not a single complaint about it. In fact it's motivated me to expand my business so I can take advantage of all the features it offers!

“Affordable and easy to learn”

Pros

For me the standout thing about Wave is how affordable it is and I also find the interface incredibly easy to learn, use and move around.

Cons

On the downside their customer support is terrible particularly for free users which makes the product feel far from a complete software package. Additionally the inventory management is weak and that makes generating accurate reports difficult for me.

“Love how easy this is”

Pros

I really like the invoicing features as they make billing simple and I can accept payments right on the invoice. Also it is handy that bank transactions can be linked and reconciled automatically which saves time. For my small business, the payroll option is a big plus as it's affordable and easy to manage and the company handles payments and employee offboarding. I also rely on the profit and loss tracking. Plus seeing those reports clearly laid out is very helpful. There is an open chat for quick questions and when chat cannot help, support follows up by email. Lastly the automation that syncs the bank and sorts income and expenses has been really useful for keeping the books balanced and staying on top of things.

Cons

Nothing too serious but I am not entirely sure whether they have added or integrated a job scheduling and dispatch feature yet. But what I am hoping for is the ability to create schedules and dispatch tasks tied directly to invoices so I can manage client jobs more efficiently without juggling separate tools.

“Payroll has become a disaster”

Pros

It performed well before. I genuinely liked Wave! Perfect for my bookkeeping, invoicing, handling credit card charges and payroll until they altered it. Well I have been a subscriber for over 10 years.

Cons

Payroll has become a complete disaster. My staff have not been paid in six weeks so I have had to cover their wages out of my own pocket. Also taxes were taken from my bank but never submitted. And no one is responding to support emails. Honestly I am stuck.

“keep accounts organized”

Pros

One thing I really like about this software is that it delivers a wide range of accounting tools for little to no cost. It also makes it simple for me to keep both my personal and business accounts organized.

Cons

My biggest frustration is how limited the bank statement upload feature is. I have also found that many banks don't export statements in the format this tool requires and that's a real problem for accounts with a lot of transactions.

“saves line items properly”

Pros

Wave makes creating and sending invoices really easy and hassle-free. Plus being able to save frequently used line items has been incredibly helpful for our agency.

Cons

That said its effectiveness depends heavily on how well you manage your internal data and accounting. Such as our team has sometimes had trouble onboarding new clients or contractors when our SOPs weren't defined clearly enough to ensure consistent invoice data entry.

“Great free option for sb”

Pros

For my small business back then, the price was great as it's free if you forgo bank feeds. I am also a fan of how easy and user friendly it is to navigate.

Cons

What bothered me was that free users don't get a bank-feed feature and the program felt less feature-rich and powerful compared to several other accounting systems I have tried.

“Good value for the price”

Pros

I am really blown away by the bang for your buck here as this product packs capabilities I normally expect only from far pricier services so the overall value feels outstanding.

Cons

The interface can be a bit complex at times and somewhat tricky to navigate. Like you really have to know where items flow so you can find what you need.

“Payroll service was a disaster”

Pros

The clean user interface and the dashboard layout is something I really like. Plus they show when an invoice has been viewed but sadly the negative side of things is absolutely terrible.

Cons

What started as a promising service quickly became a complete nightmare. The one I will be dealing with for months. They messed up my June 1 to 15 payroll by not sending direct deposits to my employees, even though they took out the taxes. For over a week, I had no idea what was happening. My support tickets were closed with no explanation and no one replied. I could not even choose the right payroll dates for nearly a week. When the system finally started working again, they had already billed me for July and said I could not cancel because the charge had gone through even though there'd been no support at all the week before. I was also told that if I wanted my tax reports filed, I'd have to keep paying through July. They also said if any taxes were collected that were not due until after July 31, I'd have to stay another month to avoid incomplete filings. To make things worse, you cannot switch to a new payroll provider until they formally release your business from their system so you are basically trapped. Don't expect clean exports either. Their reports are nearly useless and do not work well with other payroll systems. Overall it was a total disaster. So I'd strongly advise staying away.

“Support is no where to be found”

Pros

I used to be completely in love with Wave but eventually I felt I had to walk away. At the beginning it told me exactly what I needed to hear and did everything right. Now the real issues have come out as it's just another piece of software that had a good run and then messed things up. We were extremely loyal and appreciated the invoicing, simplicity and low costs but it's reached a point that's unsustainable for us.

Cons

After a software integration upgrade, we couldn't run payroll and there was absolutely no support available when we needed help. So we were left without assistance during a critical payroll run.

“Great for invoice tracking”

Pros

Using this app for sending invoices to my customers as it makes billing simple. It also shows me when a customer has opened an invoice and I get a notification the moment the invoice is paid.

Cons

For my small business the transaction fees still feel excessive and I often find that accepting customer payments by credit card ends up costing us more than I'd like.

“A frustrating payroll disaster”

Pros

We have been with this company for many years and it has really served us well over that time. The main early perk was that the platform was free initially like there was not a monthly subscription, only a per-employee payroll charge.

Cons

I started noticing they began charging a monthly subscription and lately the platform has become painfully slow and it's caused us real stress. More importantly, they pushed a system update that turned into an absolute disaster. Everything drags and pages take forever to load. When I signed in to run payroll, the system forced me to update tax details for every employee. After making all the requested updates, we still cannot process payroll or run payments. I cannot even view the payroll summary to know how much we owe so I could hand-write checks. There's no way to reach customer support and we're now frantically hunting for a different payroll provider to resolve this. You can find many Reddit threads from other users experiencing the exact same problem.

“Major problems since 2025”

Pros

Before 2025, using Wave was really easy for me as it handled everything I required and offered all the features I needed to manage my small business without any fuss.

Cons

Up until 2025 I never ran into problems with it but starting in 2025 things went downhill. Such as the ability to download report PDFs was removed, employees pay was reduced mysteriously without explanation and tax liabilities failed to be paid.

“Easy to use and full-featured”

Pros

Wave is incredibly simple to use, packed with useful features and based on what I need it's either free or very affordably priced.

Cons

The only small thing I'd change is how descriptions work when I add line items to an invoice but it's a minor issue overall.

“Great for daily use”

Pros

Using it is not a problem as it's simple to operate and excellent for creating invoices and keeping tabs on expenses, with a clean, generally user friendly interface.

Cons

I feel it lacks the features needed for growing businesses and it misses some advanced reporting capabilities like time tracking and project-level accounting.

“Super helpful for small business”

Pros

It incredibly useful for invoicing and staying on top of the small business details. And because I don't have an accounting background, it makes everything seem simple and manageable.

Cons

At first some features were a bit hidden and not easy to find but once I got used to them, things have been smooth. I also really appreciate that the service is free which helps a lot.

“Love using it daily”

Pros

One thing I really like is the voice navigation as it guides me clearly and the colorful interface makes using it feel fresh and fun. Overall it's reliable, simple to operate and noticeably better than MapQuest.

Cons

Honestly I cannot come up with any criticisms as it feels like a breath of fresh air compared with other services and I am really grateful a family member recommended it to me.

“Packed with great features”

Pros

this tool stands out because it bundles a full range of accounting features without breaking the bank. Even on the free Starter tier I get core functionality like creating invoices, monitoring expenses and pulling financial reports which works really well for my small business.

Cons

My main complaint is that the premium tools are locked behind paid plans and those subscription fees can feel expensive for micro-businesses or new startups trying to keep overhead low.