However, if you’re just after a simple bookkeeping tool to manage your finances, Wave will do more than meet your needs. This makes Wave an ideal tool for managing the finances of small businesses and side hustles. It offers multiple premade reports that you can generate in a few clicks. Wave also does great in reporting because it has all the essential financial statements but lacks the customizability of QuickBooks. If you’d like to create granular reports like income by class or expense by location, QuickBooks can do it in a few clicks.
Additionally, depreciation and amortization basics Wave Pro includes receipt scanning, but Wave Starter users can only add receipt scanning for a fee of $11 per month or $96 per year. Has robust reporting tools and report customization options, invoicing for an unlimited amount of clients, inventory tracking in higher tier plans, plus a capable mobile app. QuickBooks, on the other hand, is going to cost you, even for the most basic plan. It adds up even more if you opt for additional services like Payroll or Workforce, where employees can view their pay stubs and W-2 forms.
How we evaluated QuickBooks Online and Wave Accounting
You’ll only have to enter the information absolutely necessary in order to get started, and you can add the rest when the time comes. You can also import customers and other information into Wave from other applications using a CSV file. All product features can be accessed from the vertical menu bar to the left of the main screen, and help can be accessed from any screen in the application. You can create estimates for your customers and upload receipt images to track expenses. A new feature, Checkouts, lets your customers pay for goods or services directly from your website, eliminating the need to invoice.
If you’re unsure which is a better fit, it could be worth taking a test drive of QuickBooks Online and starting a free trial of Xero to see which user interface is preferable. If Wave has everything your small business needs, it’s hard to beat free. And QuickBooks can be expensive with plans starting at $35 per month. If you need software that’s more robust but less expensive than QuickBooks Online, consider Xero, which starts at $15 per month, or Zoho Books, which has a free plan plus paid plans how to void a check for direct deposit starting at $20 per month. While Wave is probably the most comprehensive QuickBooks alternative, it isn’t the only one. ZipBooks, Odoo, and CloudBooks are all good options, as are the other free software options on our list of the year’s best free accounting software.
More about Accounting
- 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.
- There’s also a preview feature, so you can see how the invoice will look to your customers.
- QuickBooks Online offers integration with hundreds of apps, including Stripe and PayPal, expense-tracking apps like Expensify and Concur, as well as invoicing, time tracking, HR, CRM, and e-commerce apps.
- It’s free to use, and the clear user interface makes it easy for anyone to adopt and navigate, so you can spend more time offering your services and less on managing your business.
You’ll get plenty of accounting features and multiple users with each of these plans, but they come at a high cost. Businesses can also use both tools to access income statements, balance sheets, and sales reports. But since Wave lacks custom reports, its financial reporting features are slightly less flexible, which is why we gave the provider a 4.2/5 in the category, compared to QuickBooks’ perfect 5/5. Despite the differing price points between Wave and QuickBooks, their accounts payable and receivable features are essentially neck and neck too. QuickBooks is a comprehensive accountancy tool that can help you out with just about any function imaginable, from batch importing and payroll processing to KPI tracking. This makes it better suited to businesses with complex accountancy requirements than Wave, which lacks some basic features like stock tracking and budgeting.
What features should I look for in accounting software?
(You’ll probably need to use your laptop, since Wave doesn’t have an accounting app.) In contrast, QuickBooks Online’s all-in-one app lets you scan and upload receipts right from your phone. It also has plans to roll out Intuit Assist—an AI-powered accounting assistant the five types of accounts in accounting that can highlight important trends in your data and complete tasks automatically. The assistant will be able to automatically draft and send overdue invoices, automate expense records, and complete basic administrative work without human intervention. You also have features for scheduling work and time off, projects, approvals, and reports—all necessary features for a medium to large workforce.
Online payments
And while we gave it a dismal 0/5 score for advanced features, it offers all the capabilities you need to get started too, including 5/5 bookkeeping features and quality invoicing integrations. If you’re in need of advanced accountancy features, choose QuickBooks over Wave. If you still want Wave, you’ll have to track inventory separately and make periodic adjusting journal entries.
While Wave’s reports are adequate, you have much more data at your fingertips with QuickBooks Online’s reporting capabilities. QuickBooks Online offers more than 50 standard reports that can be customized within the application, exported to Microsoft Excel for further customization, or saved as a PDF. Wave offers more apps for potential integration, but app integration in QuickBooks Online requires one less step than app integration using Wave. It’s nice to be able to connect the app from within the software application, which you can do in QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Online, like Wave, is designed to help users find answers to questions using a variety of resources, and it encourages users to access live support as a last resort.