Wave

What is Wave?

Positioning: A cloud-based financial management platform focused on small businesses, freelancers, and sole proprietors, offering integrated accounting, invoicing, and receipt tracking solutions.

Functional Panorama: Covers Accounting, Invoicing, Receipt Scanning, Payroll, and Banking (Wave Money), where Wave Money supports business bank accounts and debit cards for streamlined financial operations.

Wave’s Use Cases

• Small Business Owners can use Wave’s Accounting module to categorize transactions, manage vendors, and generate financial reports for tax purposes.
• Freelancers and Contractors can use Wave’s Invoicing feature to create professional invoices, send automated reminders, and accept online payments from clients.
• Entrepreneurs can leverage Wave Money to separate personal and business finances, manage cash flow, and track business spending with a dedicated business debit card.
• Small Teams can utilize Wave Payroll to automate employee payments, direct deposits, tax calculations, and payroll tax filings.

Wave’s Key Features

• Comprehensive double-entry accounting with unlimited income and expense tracking, supporting chart of accounts customization.
• Customizable invoicing with automated payment reminders and integration for online payment processing.
• Mobile receipt scanning and attachment for streamlined expense management, allowing for quick capture of receipts on the go.
• Enhanced reporting dashboards for better financial insights, rolled out in March 2024.
• Introduction of improved bank reconciliation tools for faster matching of transactions, launched in April 2024.
• Users often recommend utilizing recurring invoices for subscription-based services to automate billing.
• The mobile app’s receipt capture feature is highly praised for simplifying expense entry and reducing manual data input.

How to Use Wave?

1. Sign up for a free Wave account and set up your business profile, including basic business information and currency.
2. Connect your business bank accounts and credit cards for automatic transaction imports and synchronization.
3. Categorize incoming transactions and reconcile them against your bank statements to maintain accurate financial records.
4. Create and send invoices directly from the platform, accepting online payments through integrated payment processing.
5. Regularly review the "Chart of Accounts" and customize categories to ensure accurate financial categorization for better reporting.
6. Use the "Guest Collaborator" feature to grant limited access to your accountant or bookkeeper, simplifying collaboration.
7. Explore integrations with other apps via Zapier for expanded functionality, such as CRM synchronization or e-commerce platform connectivity.

Wave’s Pricing & Access

• Free tier: Offers full accounting, invoicing, and receipt tracking functionalities with unlimited transactions and users.
• Payments by Wave: 2.9% + $0.60 per credit card transaction for Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and 3.4% + $0.60 for American Express. Bank payments are 1% per transaction (minimum $1).
• Payroll by Wave: Base fee ($20-$40/month depending on state) plus $6 per active employee/contractor per month. Tax service options and pricing vary by state.
• The free tier is ideal for basic bookkeeping and invoicing, while paid services for Payroll and Payments cater to businesses needing to pay staff or accept online payments directly within Wave.

Wave’s Comprehensive Advantages

• Unlike QuickBooks Self-Employed, Wave offers a comprehensive double-entry accounting system for free, making it a more robust solution for growing small businesses and maintaining full financial transparency.
• Wave’s integrated payments processing for invoices simplifies collection, often with more transparent per-transaction fees compared to some third-party payment gateways, improving cash flow efficiency.