Wave

As a freelancer who wanted to professionalize without incurring new expenses, Wave was the solution I was looking for. Prior to Wave, I was using extremely simple invoice templates that communicated to clients that I didn’t have a wealth of freelance experience. Professionalizing via products like Wave can ultimately result in increasing your perceived value to clients and being able to increase your rates.

I also love the bookkeeping. It’s nice to be able to glance at their monthly overview and know what direction my revenue is trending in for the year. When the end of the year rolls around, or when it’s tax season, the records make life significantly easier. Tax season last year was the easiest tax season I’ve had in a long time!

First off, it’s free! (Unless you need payroll, then there’s a fee.) As a one-man biz, I just need basic accounting features, and Wave covers it nicely. Double-entry, invoicing, reports, allows for payment within the invoices, etc. Amazing what you get for…nothing! More than enough features for me, replacing my outdated version (10 yrs old) of QuickBooks and mothballed version of MS Money.

The program does exactly what it says it does. It is a premium app without the costs.

That it is free while still giving me good functionality and basic reports.

I like that it syncs up with my business bank account.

‘m not sure how I ended up settling on Wave, but I originally planned to use it purely for invoicing. I’m the kind of person that generally spends way too long exploring options, but I just clicked with Wave straight away and haven’t looked at anything else since! I really like their ecosystem and how well everything just works with the minimum of fuss, and over time I’ve entrusted it with all of my accounting.

The Recieipts app is incredibly useful to me, since I’m often using public transport and I’m terrible at keeping track of bus/train passes etc, so I simply snap a photo on the wave app and don’t worry too much if I lose it. Ditto small expenses like food.

The invoicing is easily my favourite bit, they just work with the absolute minimum of fuss. I’ve got a graphic design background but I’ve never felt any need to have custom invoices etc, the basic Wave template with my logo on top looks great as is. Very well organised and just the right amount of customisation for me. I was also pleased to see the invoicing calendar supported setting a payment date of September 3019 – that got a little giggle out of a wedding client who’s had to postpone her marriage several times due to ill health. Not particularly useful but at least I know their coding is robust!

My accounting needs are fairly simple, and I stopped using the link to my bank account directly since it just wasn’t necessary (though it worked well), but it’s been more than enough for me to keep track of expenses and earnings without needing an accountant. As the business grows and I take on employees regularly I may take a look at other options, but as a small independent sole trader it’s been nothing short of brilliant.

Wave is simple to use, has a beautiful interface, and is constantly coming up with new capacities to help me run my business on my own terms. I like that it is not intimidating and that I can send invoices to clients that are branded and easy to read. The checkouts are a great feature!

I love how quickly and easily everything integrates into Wave so that I barley have to add any income or expenses manually when I do my accounting at the end of each month. It makes tax time a breeze because i can just print out my income report and hand it over to my accountant. And really, once I had all of my categories set, going through my income/expenses at the end of each month takes less than 15 minutes. The invoicing feature is also handy so I can get paid from clients who are not interested in paying though paypal (which is what I normally use for invoicing)