Wave Accounting Platform Reviews

“Simple and powerful accounting tool

Pros

I am really impressed by how simple and easy Wave Accounting is, its clean design gets straight to the point while offering powerful features. I can control invoicing and recurring billing, set up customers easily and allocate expenses to specific projects, among other useful capabilities.

Cons

the reporting is just okay, many of the shortcomings I notice come from how I use the tool rather than because a feature is missing.

“Great for smooth accounting

Pros

Wave Accounting is incredibly efficient for handling my company's accounting needs.

Cons

So far I haven't encountered any problems while using this software.

“Invoicing made billing effortless

Pros

Creating invoices through this tool has made billing incredibly fast and simple even when we're handling many accounts. I love that its invoice tracking permanently ends the tired reply of we never received or opened it. Honestly these two standout features have completely transformed how our team handles billing.

Cons

I don't really use more than the CE and invoicing parts of the system so I feel it would be unfair for me to evaluate or assign a rating to the rest of the platform.

“Seamless and easy accounting

Pros

Wave Accounting makes it easy to handle accounting responsibilities like accounts payable, accounts receivable and recurring billing.

Cons

Right now, I don't find any part of the software to be confusing or difficult to use.

“Super easy and reliable

Pros

I find it extremely user-friendly, churns out detailed reports and streamlines billing for my clients.

Cons

Honestly I have no complaints, I am fully satisfied with the program.

“Super easy invoicing anywhere

Pros

Accessible from anywhere and I find it really handy. I can send invoices quickly and tend to get paid faster.

Cons

The only thing I'd change is that the Estimate function doesn't help me figure labour costs which makes pricing jobs harder for my projects.

“Great free option for startups

Pros

What I appreciate most about Wave is that it's free to get started. When I launched my new business on a shoestring budget and couldn't justify hiring a bookkeeper or paying for pricey accounting software, this felt like the right place to begin. I used Wave to prepare Profit & Loss reports and Balance Sheets and the layout was user-friendly so I picked it up quickly. My accountant suggested I use it for bookkeeping and honestly I am really glad I chose to start with Wave.

Cons

Unfortunately I was limited to uploading roughly six months worth of past bank transactions which was frustrating because I had considerably more historical data I needed to bring into the system.

“Easy start and clean interface

Pros

I found it really easy to get started, with a quick setup and a clean, user-friendly interface. That said once our workload expanded because we hired a full-time employee, the platform couldn't cope with our needs and we ultimately couldn't continue using it.

Cons

Payroll offered no flexibility and even if the vendor acknowledges the issue there's no way to address it. For example, when one of our staff had exhausted her paid time off, we had to let her take several unpaid days because there was no alternative.

“it is a free tool

Pros

What I like the most is that I can begin using this solution for free!

Cons

What I dislike most is the lack of scalability, as soon as my transactions exceed about $3k, I start running into issues because of AML requirements which causes real friction. I really hope they address this quickly so it doesn't keep undermining the user experience. Freezing my funds for a week, with that kind of lockup, is something I simply cannot afford.

“Love how simple and polished

Pros

What I like most is that Wave auto-generates sequential invoice numbers which takes away the hassle of tracking them myself. Beyond that, Wave keeps a clear record of paid and unpaid invoices so it's simple for me to see who owes me and who I owe. I also really appreciate the easy setup for accepting card payments which made getting paid much easier. Having used Wave since 2018, I have come to rely on the fact that a receipt is created every time a payment comes in and I can choose whether to send or print the invoice. The invoices and receipts always look polished and I can pull up a visual summary of all my transactions whenever I need it.

Cons

Fortunately, I haven't encountered any problems while using it up to this point.

“Free invoicing that just works

Pros

I was so impressed by how easy it was to put together custom, professional-looking invoices without paying anything. I could fully apply my branding, save templates for reuse and spin up new invoices in a matter of seconds. The app also let me accept credit card payments from clients which meant invoices were typically settled within 24 hours instead of taking more than a week when I only relied on bank transfers. Wave's integration with Stripe worked seamlessly and funds consistently hit my bank account quickly. On top of that, Wave doesn't charge a subscription fee. It uses a pay-as-you-go model that carries slightly higher processing fees than some other invoicing tools but those per-transaction costs are far lower than paying a monthly or annual plan making it ideal for freelancers who are just getting started and watching every dollar.

Cons

Because the service is now restricted to customers in the US and Canada, I unfortunately had no choice but to migrate to another invoicing platform and I switched over to FreshBooks.

“highly recommended!

Pros

it's an excellent way to dispatch quick invoices without any fees. I find it very simple to use and it was something that came highly recommended to me.

Cons

I don't really have anything negative to point out. It's just that I tend to go with another similar program because it offers more features.

“Great for busy small businesses

Pros

For a small business like mine, this program works wonderfully, I can keep all my accounting tasks centralized and it makes bookkeeping much easier especially when I am stretched thin running the day-to-day operations of my company.

Cons

My only gripe is that the support team isn't as fast as I'd like when handling problems and answering questions.

“affordable yet modern

Pros

Honestly compared to other services I have tried, I find this one significantly cheaper and noticeably more modern.

Cons

That said I wish the interface were a bit more user-friendly for my needs.

“Love using wave accounting

Pros

For over 10 years I have consistently relied on Wave Accounting as the primary tool that logs all my income/expenses for tax purposes and billing my clients.

Cons

I honestly haven't encountered any problems with the system.

“Frustrating payroll and no support

Pros

I liked how easy the initial setup was, getting started was simple and the interface felt user-friendly at first. Unfortunately, once we added a full-time employee and tried to expand functionality, it became practically unusable for our needs.

Cons

When it comes to payroll, we had zero flexibility and even when the company acknowledged the limitation they offered no practical fix. For instance, we had an employee who had exhausted her paid vacation but we agreed to allow several unpaid vacation days. There was literally no way to record that in Wave, it only supports paid vacation or nothing. I spent time chatting and emailing different reps but none were helpful and we wasted a lot of time only to be told it couldn't be done. Another major downside is the lack of support. the chatbot is pretty useless, live agents are often unavailable and when they are online there's usually a twenty-plus minute wait. I also expected the product to evolve but it doesn't seem to be improving at the pace I'd hoped. Today I got a notice that my card declined so I followed the email instructions from Wave to resolve it and the directions didn't match anything on their site. There isn't even a clear 'change payment' option and a Q/A at the bottom of the page shows someone asked the same question with no response. I regret choosing this software and we are already in the process of switching over to Gusto. I wish we'd known this before signing up.

“Easy invoicing and polished payments

Pros

I found setting up invoices easy, the emailed bills look professional, customers have several payment choices and overdue invoice reminders are sent automatically to clients.

Cons

I'd appreciate automated messages being available when I send invoices.

“Simple and powerful accounting tool

Pros

I am really impressed by how simple and easy Wave Accounting is, its clean design gets straight to the point while offering powerful features. I can control invoicing and recurring billing, set up customers easily and allocate expenses to specific projects, among other useful capabilities.

Cons

the reporting is just okay, many of the shortcomings I notice come from how I use the tool rather than because a feature is missing.

“Great for smooth accounting

Pros

Wave Accounting is incredibly efficient for handling my company's accounting needs.

Cons

So far I haven't encountered any problems while using this software.

“Invoicing made billing effortless

Pros

Creating invoices through this tool has made billing incredibly fast and simple even when we're handling many accounts. I love that its invoice tracking permanently ends the tired reply of we never received or opened it. Honestly these two standout features have completely transformed how our team handles billing.

Cons

I don't really use more than the CE and invoicing parts of the system so I feel it would be unfair for me to evaluate or assign a rating to the rest of the platform.