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Wave Apps, Explained for Small Business Owners

Wave is a small-business financial platform built around accounting, invoicing, payments and payroll. In the United States, businesses can start with Wave’s free Starter plan, upgrade to Pro for automated bookkeeping and additional workflow tools, accept card or ACH payments, run payroll, scan receipts and connect external applications.

People often search the brand as Waveapps, Wave Apps or simply Wave. These terms generally refer to the same Wave Financial platform rather than separate accounting products.

[PUBLICATION NAME] is an independent editorial publication. We are not Wave and do not operate Wave accounts, payment processing, payroll profiles or tax filings.

Start With Wave Accounting

The core of Wave is its accounting system.

Starter currently includes unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records. Pro adds automatic bank transaction imports, auto-merging and categorization, receipt capture and other automation features. Wave’s banking connections use Plaid, and Wave says those transaction-import connections are read-only.

Read: Wave Accounting: How Bookkeeping, Transactions and Reports Work

Wave Starter vs. Pro

Wave’s current U.S. Starter plan is $0. Pro is currently listed at $19 per month or $190 per year for new subscriptions, with each business profile requiring its own subscription.

The decision is less about whether Wave can create invoices—Starter already can—and more about whether the business needs automation.

Pro currently adds capabilities such as automatic bank imports, automated transaction matching and categorization, receipt scanning, reusable email templates, enhanced user access and additional payment-related benefits.

Read: Wave Pricing: Starter vs. Pro and Optional Add-Ons

Invoices and Online Payments

Wave combines invoicing with payment processing.

Businesses can create invoices and estimates and, where eligible, let customers pay by card or bank payment. Current U.S. Starter pricing is 2.9% + $0.60 for Visa, Mastercard and Discover transactions and 3.4% + $0.60 for Amex. Pro removes the $0.60 fixed component for the first ten monthly card transactions before Starter pricing resumes. ACH bank payments are currently 1% with a $1 minimum.

Read: Wave Invoices and Payments: Cards, ACH and Recurring Billing

Payroll

Wave Payroll is a separate paid service.

For new U.S. payroll customers, Wave currently lists a $40 monthly base fee plus $6 per active employee and $6 per independent contractor paid. The product includes direct deposit, employee access to pay stubs and W-2s, contractor workflows and, in supported tax-service states, automated tax payments and filings.

Read: Wave Payroll: Pricing, Direct Deposit and Payroll Taxes

Receipts and Expense Tracking

Wave’s receipt scanner converts receipt images into accounting transactions.

Users can capture receipts in the mobile app, upload files from a browser or forward digital receipts by email. Each scanned receipt can automatically create an expense transaction. The feature is included with Pro or sold separately through the Receipts plan, currently $8 per month or $72 per year in the U.S.

Read: Wave Receipts and Expenses: Scanning, OCR and Bookkeeping

Bank Connections and Reconciliation

Automatic transaction importing is a Pro feature.

Wave uses Plaid for bank connections, with supported checking, savings, credit-card and certain other account types. Wave says connected transactions generally update every 24 hours but may take up to seven days depending on the institution. If a connection is unavailable, businesses can upload bank statements or use Wave Connect instead.

Read: Wave Bank Connections: Plaid, Imports and Reconciliation

U.S. Tax Filing

Wave itself is not a complete do-it-yourself income-tax preparation product.

For U.S. businesses, Wave provides a tax-filing integration with Block Advisors, part of H&R Block. The workflow depends on business structure. Schedule C businesses can transfer Wave accounting information into the tax process, while multi-member LLCs, S corporations and C corporations are directed toward a Block Advisors tax professional.

Read: Wave Tax Filing With Block Advisors

Integrations and Collaborators

Wave can also connect with outside tools.

Wave Connect is Wave’s official Google Sheets add-on and can upload customers, products, invoices, bank transactions and journal entries or download accounting data and generate financial reports. Partner integrations and Make generally require Pro or a Wave Advisors bookkeeping subscription.

Wave also supports different collaborator roles, including Admin, Editor, Viewer, Payroll Manager and Block Advisors Tax Pro, with access depending on plan and role.

Read: Wave Integrations, Wave Connect and User Permissions

Independent Information, Not a Wave Login Page

[PUBLICATION NAME] does not need your:

• Wave password;
• banking credentials;
• tax documents;
• payroll information;
• card numbers;
• verification codes.

Use Wave’s genuine account environment when performing financial or account-sensitive actions.

This site exists to explain how the pieces fit together and which Wave feature owns each task.