Wave Review
Wave is a free double entry ledger with invoicing for US and Canadian solo operators and micro businesses, owned by H&R Block, that earns its money from a 19 dollar Pro plan, per transaction payment processing and a payroll subscription.
Independently scored, one dimension at a time. Every dimension is sourced, and we say whether a claim is published, reported, or estimated.
Everything is on the pricing page with the date checked: Starter at 0, Pro at 19 US dollars per month or 190 per year (25 or 250 Canadian), card processing at 2.9 percent plus 60 cents, ACH at 1 percent, payroll at 40 US dollars base plus 6 per person, receipts at 8 US dollars, Advisors from 149 US dollars (published, 5 Sep 2026). Points off because the Pro card discount covers only the first 10 transactions a month, each business profile is billed separately, and legacy free businesses lost bank feeds and collaborators on June 1, 2026 (published).
Signup is self serve, invoices and manual transactions work immediately, and Pro adds Plaid bank feeds with no cap on connected accounts (published). Wave Connect uploads customers, products, invoices, transactions and journal entries from Google Sheets, a step by step guide covers moving balances from another system, and a test business doubles as an API sandbox (published). Wave Advisors sell accounting coaching from 229 US dollars one time and bookkeeping from 149 US dollars per month for those who want help (published).
A single GraphQL endpoint with OAuth 2.0 scopes covers invoices, estimates, checkouts, customers, products, sales taxes and money transactions, with no published rate limits and no access fees today (published). Reports, journals, bills, vendors and payroll have no write path, the public roadmap page has not changed since 2021, and webhooks launched in July 2026 for Pro accounts only (published). Make and Zapier workflows, Wave Connect for Google Sheets and Plaid bank feeds on Pro cover the no code side (published).
The web only Reports page offers profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, sales tax, aged receivables and payables, income by customer, purchases by vendor, account balances, trial balance and a general ledger, each switchable between accrual and cash basis (published). Tag comparison reports need Pro and compare up to 7 tags, cash flow forecasting is a downloadable spreadsheet template, and there is no lock date, budget or close checklist in the product (published). A controller will close in a spreadsheet.
Starter users get the help center and the Mave chatbot; email and live chat run Monday to Friday 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern and only for businesses on Pro, payroll, receipts, an approved payments application or an Advisor package, with no inbound phone line (published, 6 Sep 2026). Trustpilot shows 3.3 from 533 reviews with 46 percent one star and the most recent page dominated by held payouts, frozen accounts and unanswered tickets; Capterra is friendlier at 4.4 from 1,730 reviews but scores customer service 4.0 and flags inconsistent service quality (reported, checked 5 Sep 2026). Status page uptime over 90 days is 100 percent for the web app and 99.96 percent for payroll (published).
There is no first party MCP server, and the only AI in the product is receipt OCR plus Mave, the support chatbot (published). An agent can work through the GraphQL API on invoices, estimates, customers, products, sales tax and, in beta, money transactions, but reports, journals, bills and payroll are not exposed, and any app other than your own requires the connecting business to hold a Pro or Advisor subscription (published). Webhooks arrived in July 2026 and also require Pro (published).
One Wave account holds up to 15 business profiles, but every business needs its own Pro subscription for bank feeds and extra users, and the four fixed user roles cannot be customized (published). Wave serves only US and Canadian businesses in USD or CAD, US territories are excluded, and the business currency cannot be changed after setup (published). Wave says 5.9 million small business owners have used it since 2010 and that over 300,000 subscribe to Pro, which describes the ceiling as much as the reach (published).
Wave records sales tax per line item into liability accounts, handles foreign currency invoices and bills with unrealized gain or loss entries, and reports on an accrual or cash basis (published). The help center documents no period lock, no audit log and no consolidation, 1099-NEC comes only through the payroll subscription, and the Form 1099-K is visible only to the account owner (published). Fine for a sole proprietor's tax return, thin for anyone who has to evidence controls.
Written by the Audit Friendly research team. No vendor edits, no sponsored placement.
What you are buying is a free, competent double entry ledger for a one to ten person business in the United States or Canada: unlimited invoices, estimates and bills, manual statement uploads, accrual or cash basis statements, and a 19 US dollar Pro plan that adds Plaid bank feeds, receipt OCR, tags and up to three extra user roles (published, 5 Sep 2026). Since 2019 it has been owned by H&R Block, and the product now points US users to Block Advisors for tax filing (published).
The catch is that the ledger and the money movement products are different businesses with different risks. Wave states that every online payment is subject to risk review and that it may hold funds, the payment status list carries an On hold state, and the most recent Trustpilot page is dominated by held payouts, frozen accounts and unanswered tickets, with a 3.3 TrustScore and 46 percent one star reviews (published and reported, checked 5 Sep 2026). Payroll files and pays taxes for you with no self serve option, and support by email or chat runs weekdays 9 to 5 Eastern only for paying or payments approved businesses, with no phone line (published).
Confirm in writing before you rely on it: whether your business type clears the payments eligibility review, what triggers a hold and how long it lasts, that each business profile needs its own Pro subscription, that the API and webhooks you plan to use require Pro, and that accounting data exports as CSV whenever you decide to leave (published).
- Sole proprietors, freelancers and micro businesses in the US or Canada that want a real double entry ledger with unlimited invoicing at no cost and a 19 US dollar Pro plan for bank feeds.
- Businesses that already collect card or ACH payments elsewhere and want Wave only as the ledger and invoicing layer, keeping payout risk out of Wave Payments.
- Owners who will hand a clean Starter or Pro file to a tax preparer at year end, since the export covers transactions, invoices, customers, vendors and bills as XLS or CSV.
- Anyone outside the United States and Canada, or with a base currency other than USD or CAD, since Wave discontinued product and support elsewhere in November 2020 and redirects those users to Zoho Books.
- Controllers who need a period lock, an audit log, budgets, custom reports or multi-entity consolidation, none of which the help center documents.
- Businesses that cannot tolerate a payout hold or a payroll tax filing they do not control, given the risk review language on every payment and the mandatory tax service since April 2, 2025.
The jobs a controller actually hires Wave for
Jobs, mapped to how finance teams actually buy.
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What it actually costs
Here's what it really costs: published rates where a vendor lists them, aggregated quote data where they don't, plus a path to your own number.
Unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and bookkeeping records, manual bank statement uploads, reconciliation and the standard reports. No bank feeds, no receipt scanning and no extra users beyond a payroll manager or Block Advisors tax pro. Online payments optional at 2.9 percent plus 60 cents per card transaction.
Adds Plaid bank feeds with automatic merging and categorization, unlimited receipt OCR, recurring invoices with automatic card payments, late payment reminders, tags, and Admin, Editor and Viewer users. Card fee drops to 2.9 percent plus 0 on the first 10 transactions a month. A 9.50 dollar promo for the first 3 months was on the pricing page on 5 Sep 2026. No free trial.
Receipt scanning with OCR for businesses that stay on Starter; already included in Pro. Bulk upload up to 10 receipts at once.
Direct deposit, employee portal, W-2, W-3 and 1099-NEC or T4 and T4A. Tax payments and filings in all 50 US states through the Check partnership since April 2, 2025, with no self serve filing option. Limited access pause plan at 17 US dollars or 10 Canadian dollars per month. 30 day free trial. Not available in Quebec. Prices apply to customers who signed up after April 2, 2025.
Pay per use with no monthly fee. Approval is subject to identity verification and credit review, every payment is subject to risk review and funds can be held. Payouts in 2 business days for cards and 2 to 7 for ACH in the US, 1 and 1 to 6 in Canada. Instant payout adds 1 percent with a 25 dollar minimum. Chargebacks cost 7 to 15 dollars plus the disputed amount. Discover is US only.
An assigned in house bookkeeper based in North America, monthly review calls and financial statements, priced on transaction volume; includes a Pro subscription without the receipts feature. Coaching adds 30 days of email access. Not available in Quebec.
What it actually takes to go live
Wave states that approval for online payments depends on identity verification and credit review, that every payment is subject to risk review, and that it may hold funds and request more information; the payment status list carries an On hold state assessed by the Risk Team (published). Trustpilot's most recent one star reviews in August and September 2026 are dominated by held payouts, frozen accounts and unanswered tickets (reported, checked 5 Sep 2026). Keep the ledger; decide separately whether to route revenue through Wave Payments.
Email and live chat run Monday to Friday 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern and only for a business profile that is on Pro, payroll, receipts, an approved online payments application or a Wave Advisors package; everyone else gets the help center and the Mave chatbot, and there is no inbound phone line on any plan (published, 6 Sep 2026). Wave's two pages disagree on the closing time: the help center article says 5 PM Eastern and the pricing page plan grid says 4:45 PM Eastern, both read on 6 Sep 2026.
Each of up to 15 business profiles in an account needs its own Pro subscription to get bank feeds and extra users, and subscriptions bought in the mobile app can only be cancelled through the app store (published). The Pro card rate of 2.9 percent plus 0 applies to the first 10 cumulative transactions in a monthly period and then reverts to 2.9 percent plus 60 cents (published).
Since the Check partnership took effect on April 2, 2025, Wave pays and files federal and state payroll taxes in all 50 states with no self serve option and no way to turn the service off short of cancelling payroll (published). New payroll accounts may be asked for EIN, bank and state registration documents and cannot approve a payroll until a review of 1 to 2 business days clears (published). Payroll runs only in a web browser and is not available in Quebec (published).
Wave discontinued product and support for users outside the United States and Canada in November 2020, now blocks invoice sending for those users and redirects them to a partner offer from Zoho Books (published). The business currency is USD or CAD, cannot be changed after setup, and US territories are not supported; travelling owners who get redirected are told to use a VPN (published).
Scored on what an outside agent can actually reach: the documented API, how it authenticates, and whether the vendor ships an MCP server.
Wave publishes one GraphQL endpoint (gql.waveapps.com/graphql/public) with OAuth 2.0 scopes for account, business, checkout, customer, estimate, invoice, product, sales_tax, transaction and user; write scopes exist for invoices, estimates, customers, products, sales taxes and money transactions, the last marked BETA in the API reference updated 29 Jul 2026 (published).
Webhooks for invoice, estimate and checkout events launched in July 2026 and require a Pro account to authorize delivery; the OAuth guide states that users can only grant access to businesses with an active Pro or Wave Advisor subscription, though a developer can test against their own business with a full access token on any plan (published).
There is no first party MCP server, no AI assistant in the ledger beyond receipt OCR and the Mave support chatbot, and no published rate limits; the Coming Soon page was last updated in 2021 and says there is no defined roadmap for public API releases (published). Wave charges no API access fees today but reserves the right to introduce them with notice (published).
Reconcile the bank
Who wins for whom: A free ledger with bank feeds on Pro: Wave. The largest app ecosystem around your bank feeds: QuickBooks Online. More than 600 US direct feeds plus PDF statement import: Xero.
Wave
Free, with feeds on Pro. A free ledger with trial balance and general ledger reports, and Plaid bank feeds on the Pro plan.
Where it loses: No lock date, budget or close checklist, and it works in the US and Canada only, in USD or CAD.
- Reporting & close: 42/100
- Price: $0 to $19/mo
Source: AF score rationales: Reporting & close 42, API & automation 46; Wave watch-outs.
Watch: How to Reconcile Your Accounts in Wave (How To Wave) 10:02 · Official walkthrough · Wave: Small Business Software on YouTube (official)
QuickBooks Online
The biggest feed ecosystem. Automatic bank feeds and the largest app ecosystem in small business accounting, on a mature accounting API.
Where it loses: Bank feed and integration matching complaints are common in reviews, and mistakes made early are hard to unwind.
- API & automation: 76/100
- Price: $38 to $340/mo
Source: AF score rationale: API & automation 76; QuickBooks Online watch-outs.
Watch: Do not do this in QuickBooks when adding bank transactions 9:19 · Independent walkthrough · Hector Garcia CPA on YouTube
Xero
Feeds and statement import. More than 600 US direct bank feeds and PDF statement import, with a bank reconciliation detail report for each period.
Where it loses: Multi-currency is on the top plan only, and the Early plan's caps count traffic from partner apps.
- API & automation: 77/100
- Price: $25 to $90/mo
Source: AF score rationales: Implementation 80, Reporting & close 58; Xero watch-outs.
Watch: How the Xero bank reconciliation works (Match, create, and automate) 5:55 · Official walkthrough · Xero Accounting Software on YouTube (official)
Send an invoice
Who wins for whom: Free invoicing with every fee printed on the pricing page: Wave. Prices published ahead of increases: Xero. Invoicing inside the biggest app ecosystem, if you can absorb summer price rises: QuickBooks Online.
Wave
Free invoicing, every fee printed. Invoices and estimates are free on Starter and every fee is on the pricing page: cards at 2.9 percent plus 60 cents, ACH at 1 percent, Pro at 19 dollars a month.
Where it loses: Support is only for paying or payments-approved businesses, and the Pro card discount covers just the first 10 transactions a month.
- Pricing transparency: 88/100
- Price: $0 to $19/mo
Source: AF score rationale: Pricing transparency 88; Wave watch-outs.
No public demo of this task. Ask for a sandbox run into your own system before you sign.
QuickBooks Online
Clear list, rising price. Per-tier pricing is published openly, and invoicing sits inside the largest small business app ecosystem.
Where it loses: Prices rise almost every summer, and included-user caps force upgrades before you need the other features.
- Pricing transparency: 62/100
- Price: $38 to $340/mo
Source: AF score rationale: Pricing transparency 62; QuickBooks Online watch-outs.
Watch: How to create, customize, and send an invoice in QuickBooks Online 3:56 · Vendor walkthrough · Intuit QuickBooks (official)
Xero
Prices published in advance. Every US price is published, including the October 2026 increase announced ahead of time, with invoice caps spelled out on each plan.
Where it loses: The Early plan caps invoices and bills, and payment fees sit outside the subscription.
- Pricing transparency: 84/100
- Price: $25 to $90/mo
Source: AF score rationale: Pricing transparency 84; Xero watch-outs.
Watch: Create and send invoices on the fly with Just Ask Xero (JAX) 0:28 · Official clip · Xero Accounting Software on YouTube (official)
Wave, kept current
Wave FAQ
For a US business with 10 people on payroll and bank feeds turned on: Pro at 19 US dollars per month (or 190 per year) plus payroll at 40 dollars base and 6 dollars per active employee, so 100 dollars, giving about 119 dollars per month before payment processing at 2.9 percent plus 60 cents per card transaction or 1 percent for ACH (published, 5 Sep 2026). A Canadian business pays 25 Canadian dollars for Pro and 25 plus 6 per employee for payroll, about 110 Canadian dollars per month, and cannot run payroll in Quebec (published). A second business profile is a second Pro subscription.
Pro and Receipts are monthly or annual subscriptions with no free trial; cancelling keeps the features until the end of the paid period and then drops the business to Starter, and refunds for web subscriptions go through the Mave chatbot under Wave's paid subscription terms (published). Payroll is month to month with a 30 day trial and a 17 US dollar or 10 Canadian dollar limited access pause plan (published). Data export from Business settings delivers accounting files (journal entries and transactions, bills, customers, vendors), receipts as a ZIP and, for Canadian businesses only, payroll profiles and pay stubs; only the owner and Admin roles can export (published).
The same day for a new business: sign up, pick Starter or Pro, add sales taxes and accounts, and start invoicing or uploading statements. Moving from another system means downloading a trial balance, recreating opening balances through an equity account and uploading customers, products, invoices, transactions and journal entries with the Wave Connect Google Sheets add on (published). Nobody is required; Wave Advisors sell accounting coaching from 229 US dollars one time and bookkeeping from 149 US dollars per month for those who want help (published, 5 Sep 2026).
Partly. Wave exposes a single GraphQL endpoint with OAuth 2.0 scopes for businesses, accounts, customers, products, sales taxes, invoices, estimates, checkouts and money transactions, so an agent can create and send invoices and post transactions, and since July 2026 can subscribe to invoice, estimate and checkout webhooks if the business is on Pro (published). It cannot read reports, post journal entries, manage bills or touch payroll through the API, there is no first party MCP server, and any app used by a business other than your own requires that business to hold a Pro or Advisor subscription (published).
Wave alternatives
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