Wave Invoicing Review 2025: Features, Pros & Cons

Clients can make payments online, and Kashoo automatically records these payments, keeping your accounts accurate and reducing administrative overhead. What sets SimplePractice apart is its seamless integration of accounting features within a broader practice management system. Therapists can manage their entire practice—scheduling, client notes, billing, and payments—from a single platform, eliminating the need to juggle multiple platforms. Its user-friendly interface and HIPAA-compliant design ensure that therapists can manage their finances securely and efficiently while maintaining focus on client care. Many systems offer customizable templates for invoices, reports, and other documents.

• As a free service, it is a good option for freelancers, entrepreneurs and small business owners who would like to keep their overhead low.
• It automates the process of capturing receipts and financial data, helping businesses stay organized and save time.
• This robust feature can automatically pay and file taxes in select states, including California, New York, Arizona, Texas, and Washington.
• It’s particularly well-suited for those testing the waters with a new product line.

Wave is cloud-based software that boasts a solid set of accounting features suitable for most small businesses. In our last review, we found these features especially appealing because they were all completely free with no artificial limits. With Wave’s free plan, users can accept online ACH payments for a standard transaction fee of 1%. Credit card transaction fees for Visa, Mastercard and Discover start at 2.9% + $0.60 per transaction. American Express transactions start at 3.4% + $0.60 per credit card transaction. To review Wave, we set up a free Wave Accounting account that we used to create invoices, record sample transactions and generate financial reports.

Wave Accounting Verdict

With the higher-tier QuickBooks plans, you have access to inventory management, billable expenses and project profitability tools, none of which are offered with Wave. The platform’s reporting tools allow therapists to track income, expenses, and client balances. These financial insights help therapists monitor their practice’s financial health and prepare for tax season. Users can export financial data to integrate with dedicated accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero, offering flexibility for those who require more advanced financial analysis. Auto dealership accounting software is a tool designed to manage the financial needs specific to auto dealerships, including transactions, inventory, and compliance.

Wave Accounting Customer Support

The largest component of usability is the ability to find bookkeeping assistance when users have questions. This could be in the form of a bookkeeping service directly from the software provider or from independent bookkeepers familiar with the program. At the very least, we looked for software that could create multiple projects and separately assign income and expenses to those projects.

Most reputable auto dealer accounting software providers use industry-standard encryption and security protocols to protect your data. Your financial information, customer details, and other sensitive data will typically be stored in secure cloud environments. However, it’s important to verify the security measures each provider has in place, such as multi-factor authentication and regular software updates.

Boosting Team Efficiency in eCommerce: Essential Tools for Documentation

We’ve been testing and reviewing finance and accounting software since 2023. As CFOs ourselves, we know how critical and difficult it is to make the right decision when selecting software. We invest in deep research to help our audience make better software purchasing decisions.

It is a user-friendly, intuitive platform even for those with no prior accounting experience. As a free service, it is a good option for freelancers, entrepreneurs and small business owners who would like to keep their overhead low. This accounting process generates two entries for every wave accounting financial transaction. First, Wave is remarkably customizable—especially considering that it’s, you know, free.

My reviews offer an in-depth look at the key features, pros & cons, integrations, and ideal use cases of each tool to help you find the best one for you. FreshBooks and Wave Accounting are each solid small-business accounting software options for freelancers, independent contractors and microbusinesses. Both receive the same star rating, but that doesn’t mean they have the same strong points. While the invoicing platform is not easy to integrate with popular third-party payroll apps like Gusto or OnPay, Wave does have its own payroll software. Small businesses that plan to hire employees at some point might need to change accounting software systems in the future or upgrade to Wave Payroll.

QuickBooks offers a robust set of tools that far outweigh Wave’s capabilities—but that could be a drawback for small, simple businesses. The platform offers enough features and add-ons to grow with your business, but it may be more complex than you need if you’re a one-person shop. We evaluated general features like the flexibility of the chart of accounts, the ability to add and restrict the rights of users, and how your information can be shared with an external bookkeeper. We also searched for ways to provide more granular information like class and location tracking and custom tags. You can access personalized support through the Wave Advisor program, where you can get coaching and year-round advice from a Wave expert starting at $149 a month.

Connecting your accounts

The fact that Wave lets users create and send unlimited invoices and receive payment straight from the invoices for free makes it perfect for freelancers. In addition to creating invoices, Wave gives users the ability to create estimates for potential clients. Once those estimates are approved, they can easily be transformed into invoices with the click of a few buttons. Both Wave and QuickBooks give you the option to open a free checking account integrated with your invoicing account. You can receive online payments directly into this account, so you can get paid faster and avoid issues related to connecting an external bank account.

Yes—and it still has the best of all free accounting software that I’ve reviewed. It also has a paid version that you’ll need if you want to connect your bank account, have multiple users, and scan receipts, plus a few other nice features. Wave provides the basics, like adding sales taxes to invoices, estimates, and invoice transactions. Whenever I enter a transaction with a sales tax, it records the amount automatically in the sales tax liability account. However, there’s no way to file tax returns, which explains its low score in this category. Wave Accounting is an easy-to-use online accounting software ideal for businesses seeking a cost-effective solution for their accounting work.