Accounting Software for Small Businesses

While the free plan still exists, a paid plan is now available. Wave offers accrual-basis accounting only, not cash-basis accounting. Today’s leading accounting platforms offer standard security features, such as data encryption, secure credential tokenization and more. While human error will always play some role in security breaches, you can be confident in your accounting platform when it comes to keeping your information safe.

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We spend hours researching and evaluating each accounting software system we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on key characteristics to generate our ratings. Users of the free plan are limited to using Wave’s Help Center or Mave, the support chatbot. Fortunately, the Help Center provides plenty of guides and information to help with most issues, and the software is intuitive enough that this support option will be sufficient for most users. Unfortunately, Wave does not offer a project management feature. At the time of our last review, we noted that Wave “has always been and always will be free,” and that the company planned to maintain this pricing structure following its acquisition by H&R Block.

Accounting softwarethat works as hard as you do

Still, Wave’s free plan offers a good set of features and could be suitable for sole proprietors or smaller businesses with basic accounting needs. Accounting software helps business owners understand how money flows in and out of their businesses. This can help you save time and make financial decisions quickly. We also ensure that the software offers most standard accounting features and reports, awarding higher rankings to those that provide advanced services, like tax filing.

Keep track of your business health

Refer to our Advertising Disclosure to learn more about how we earn compensation from affiliate partnerships and how we maintain our independent editorial integrity. With this release, we’re waving bye to bugs and hello to stability improvements. Thanks for using Wave to help you stay more in control of your business while on-the-go. Automate the most tedious parts of bookkeeping and get more time for what you love.

1. Now, many standard features (such as automatic importing of bank transactions) are only available if you purchase a monthly or annual plan.
2. But for small-business owners who want to eventually expand their businesses and hire an employee or two (or more), just know that Wave doesn’t make it easy to add payroll software beyond its own.
3. Our (non-judgmental) team of bookkeeping, accounting, and payroll experts is standing by to coach you—or do the work for you.
4. Furthermore, customers using the free Starter plan will have limited support options.

Explore more details on the competition in our full roundup of the best accounting software for small businesses. Also, Wave Accounting only offers self-serve customer support. If you have a question or issue, you can browse the help center or reach out to Mave, the automated chatbot. If you do want live support, you’ll need to invest in an Advisor or paid service. We built our payroll tool for small business owners, so it’s easy to use AND teaches you as you go. Give your customers the option of paying with one click using a credit card, bank transfer, or Apple Pay.

Data Not Linked to You

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. 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. There are several additional Wave products that you can purchase for your business. Wave Payroll has two options ranging from $20 – $40/month + $6/employee or contractor. Tax service payroll is available in 14 states, while self-service payroll is available in the remaining 36 states.

Most importantly, it doesn’t sync with any third-party payroll providers. You can enjoy features such as unlimited income and expenses tracking, digital receipt upload and transaction management purchase discounts returns and allowances and access its invoice mobile app at no cost. Wave Accounting offers free software, meaning you won’t need to submit a credit card or payment information to use it. It can help you manage your bookkeeping, accounting and invoicing processes through a few internal integrations. Xero also doesn’t support multiple businesses, so pricing can add up quickly for some users. And it’s worth noting that while Xero has more features, the software also has a steeper learning curve than Wave.

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. 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. However, there are a few features the software is still lacking.