Wave Payroll is a separate paid service that connects employee and contractor payroll with Wave’s accounting system. For new U.S. payroll customers, Wave currently charges a $40 monthly base fee plus $6 per active employee and $6 per independent contractor paid.
The payroll product covers more than transferring wages.
It also handles employee records, direct deposit, payroll reporting, year-end forms and, where applicable, automated federal and state tax-service workflows.
The Base Fee Is Separate From Employee Charges
Current U.S. pricing begins with $40 per month.
Each active employee adds $6.
Each independent contractor paid in that month adds another $6.
For example, a business with five active employees starts with:
$40 base;
plus $30 employee charges;
for $70 before considering the accounting plan or any other Wave service.
Payroll Is an Add-On, Not Part of Pro
A Wave Pro subscription does not automatically include Payroll.
Wave’s pricing page identifies Payroll as an optional add-on, while the payroll product maintains its own separate fee structure.
This prevents a common misunderstanding.
Pro improves accounting automation.
Payroll is the system that calculates and distributes employee compensation.
Direct Deposit
Wave currently includes unlimited free direct deposits as part of its payroll offering.
The employer runs payroll, Wave calculates employee amounts and eligible employees can receive net pay through direct deposit.
The business still needs an eligible connected funding account and enough available funds.
Employees Get Their Own Portal
Wave Payroll includes an employee portal.
Current product materials say employees can access:
pay stubs;
W-2s;
vacation-leave information.
This keeps employees away from the business owner’s full accounting dashboard.
The owner manages payroll.
Employees see their own payroll records.
Contractors Are Supported Too
Wave Payroll allows businesses to pay independent contractors and currently supports 1099-NEC generation where the requirements are met.
Contractors and employees should not be confused.
They use different tax reporting, and the legal worker classification depends on the actual relationship rather than simply which button the business selected in software.
Year-End W-2s
Wave creates W-2s for eligible employees when the payroll account satisfies its year-end requirements.
Current Help Center guidance says the business needs an active payroll subscription during December of the tax year and January of the following year, a complete payroll profile and at least one successfully paid payroll before December 31.
Those conditions matter when a business cancels payroll late in the year.
1099-NEC Requirements
Wave also creates 1099-NEC forms for eligible contractors.
Current guidance says contractor bills need to be paid by December 31 to be included in that year’s year-end form. Bills marked as paid after year-end are not retroactively added.
This makes year-end accuracy dependent on bookkeeping as well as payroll setup.
Payroll Tax Service
Wave says its U.S. payroll product can automatically transfer tax payments and file required paperwork with state tax agencies and the IRS as part of its tax services, excluding 1099 filing from that automatic tax-payment statement.
Availability and exact responsibilities can vary by state and account setup.
Employers should confirm what Wave is filing for their particular payroll account rather than assuming all states use an identical service model.
Payroll Reporting Connects to Accounting
Wave Payroll integrates with Wave Accounting and provides wage and tax payment reporting.
That means payroll expense does not need to be manually rebuilt from the bank statement.
The payroll system already knows:
gross wages;
employee withholding;
employer taxes;
net payments.
Those records can flow into the broader accounting picture.
Payroll and Income-Tax Filing Are Different
Wave Payroll handles payroll taxes and payroll forms.
The business’s annual income-tax return is a separate process.
Wave’s U.S. income-tax filing pathway uses Block Advisors, with Schedule C and entity-tax workflows depending on business structure.
A W-2 or 1099-NEC is therefore not the same thing as the business’s Schedule C, S corporation or C corporation tax return.
Payroll Manager Is a Separate User Role
Wave supports a dedicated Payroll Manager collaborator role on all plans.
Current permissions give Payroll Managers full payroll access without broader accounting, sales or purchasing access.
That is useful when the person running payroll should not see or edit the entire accounting system.
Admin and Editor Can Also Have Payroll Access
Pro businesses can give Admin or Editor collaborators payroll access according to the current permission structure.
That creates several ways to divide responsibilities.
The business owner can remain the account owner while an accountant or payroll specialist handles payroll.
Payroll Setup Quality Matters
Payroll software calculates based on configured:
employee information;
tax setup;
pay rates;
deductions;
worker classification.
If those inputs are wrong, automated payroll can still produce a wrong result consistently.
The software reduces arithmetic and filing workload.
It does not replace correct employer setup.
Wave Payroll Fits Best Inside the Wave Ecosystem
The strongest advantage for an existing Wave business is integration.
Invoices create revenue.
Accounting tracks expenses.
Payroll creates wage and tax costs.
Bank activity can reconcile the resulting cash movements.
Using all those components inside the same system reduces the need to copy totals between unrelated platforms.