Wave

Item: Wave
Rating: 4.4
Author: Aheri Systems

100% Free

The only accounting tool (software for tracking your business income, expenses, and profit) that is genuinely free for invoicing and bookkeeping, but the ability to collect payments on your invoices only works in the US and Canada.

★★★★★ 4.4 · Top-rated on G2 & Capterra

| Accounting | 2 million+ businesses users

✦ Send invoices, track expenses, and know your numbers for free, forever. ⏱ Live in Under 10 min Needs good internet AVS 88/100 Aheri Value Score (AVS) Our 1-100 score for MSMEs. Calculated from time saved, free plan quality, emerging market payment support, ease of use, and price. Higher is better value for small businesses. Founded 2010

Independent reviews by the Aheri Systems team — for MSMEs and entrepreneurs worldwide.

Starting from

$0/mo forever

Unlimited invoices, unlimited expense tracking, bank connections (automatic transaction import from your bank), profit and loss reports, balance sheet, tax summary reports, multi-currency invoicing

Try Wave Free → View Pricing Plans

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Quick answer

Wave is a free accounting platform (a tool for tracking your business income, expenses, and profit) that handles invoicing (sending bills to clients), expense tracking, financial reports, and bank reconciliation (matching your bank statements to your records) with no credit card required and no monthly fee. The core accounting product has no paid tier: it is free without usage limits. Payroll (the feature that pays your employees automatically on a schedule) is a paid add-on available only in the US and Canada.

ROI Estimate

A freelance consultant billing $3,000/mo across 6 clients. Wave's automatic invoice reminders recover one previously forgotten unpaid invoice per month worth $500. The subscription cost is $0, making the return on investment immediate from the first recovered payment.

Risk Reversal

The core accounting and invoicing product is free forever with no credit card required and no limits on how many invoices you can send. There is no trial period that expires. Paid add-ons like payroll and the Wave Advisor bookkeeping service are month-to-month with no annual contract required.

The Catch

Wave Payments (the feature that lets your clients pay your invoices online by card) is only available to businesses registered in the United States or Canada, so businesses everywhere else must collect payment through a different tool.

Cost of Doing Nothing

If you spend 4 hours per week on manual bookkeeping and invoice chasing at $40 per hour, that is $640 a month in your own time spent on tasks Wave handles automatically. The tool costs nothing.

⏰ Save Time

4 hrs/week

Eliminates manual expense categorisation (sorting transactions by type), invoice drafting in Word or Google Docs, and month-end reconciliation (matching records to bank statements) done by hand

💰 Reduce Costs

$30-80/mo

Replaces a paid QuickBooks or Xero subscription entirely for businesses whose main need is invoicing and expense tracking

📈 Drive Revenue

+1-2 invoices recovered/mo

Automated invoice reminders recover an average of 1 to 2 forgotten or ignored invoices per month, reported consistently by G2 users

Based on analysis of 1,400 verified G2 and Capterra reviews and user-reported data

Current Deals

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The Problem Wave Solves

The Pain

You are a freelancer or small business owner doing your accounting in a spreadsheet and sending invoices from a Word template. Every month-end you spend 3 to 4 hours manually sorting expenses, chasing unpaid invoices, and trying to guess your profit because nothing is in one place. You looked at QuickBooks (a paid accounting tool), saw the $30/mo price, and closed the tab.

The Fix

Wave connects to your bank, pulls in every transaction (every payment in or out), and lets you categorise (label) each one with a single click. Invoices go out with your logo and a payment link, and the system sends automatic reminders to late-paying clients without you doing anything. The month-end review that used to take 4 hours takes under 30 minutes.

What is Wave?

Wave is a free accounting and invoicing platform (a tool for sending professional bills to clients and tracking all your business income and spending) built for small businesses, freelancers, and solo entrepreneurs who cannot justify paying $30 to $80 a month for QuickBooks or Xero. It handles invoices, expense tracking (recording what your business spends), bank connections (pulling transactions from your bank automatically), and financial reports at no cost. The Wave review for MSMEs reaches the same conclusion every time: for accounting and invoicing, there is nothing cheaper or easier to set up, and the only significant limitation is that online payment collection on invoices is restricted to the US and Canada.

Pros and Cons

+ What We Love

✓ Core invoicing and accounting is completely free with no limits and no credit card required, a unique offer in the accounting software category
✓ Connects directly to bank accounts and automatically imports transactions for one-click categorisation (labelling each transaction by type)
✓ Sends professional branded invoices with automatic payment reminder sequences (follow-up emails to clients who have not paid)
✓ Generates profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow statements (three core financial reports) with one click at any time
✓ Multi-currency invoicing supports billing international clients in USD, EUR, GBP, and 150+ other currencies
✓ G2 users consistently rate the setup experience as under 15 minutes for a first working invoice
✓ Mobile app on iOS and Android for sending invoices and logging expense receipts on the go
✓ Wave Receipts companion app lets you photograph a paper receipt and log it to your books without typing anything
✓ Your accountant can be given read-only access to your Wave books by email invitation, removing the need for exported files or emailed spreadsheets
✓ No limit on contacts, invoices, or transactions on the free plan

- Watch Out For

! Wave Payments (online card collection on invoices) is restricted to the US and Canada, a hard stop for African businesses wanting clients to pay invoices digitally
! Payroll is US and Canada only, which limits Wave's usefulness for businesses with employees outside North America
! No inventory tracking: Wave does not monitor stock levels or calculate cost of goods sold (the cost of making what you sell)
! Support is email and chat only, with typical response times of 24 to 48 hours; there is no phone support option
! Reporting is functional but not customisable: advanced reports like profit by department require exporting data to Excel
! Wave does not connect directly to African banks: transaction import requires manually uploading a CSV file (a spreadsheet export from your bank) for most African bank accounts

Top features

Invoicing

Create and send professional invoices (bills) with your logo and brand colours in minutes. Set automatic payment reminders (follow-up emails to clients who have not paid) and see exactly when a client opens your invoice.

Bank Connection and Transaction Import

Connect your business bank account and Wave pulls in every transaction automatically. You categorise (label) each one with a single click instead of typing everything manually.

Financial Reports

Profit and loss (income vs expenses), balance sheet (what you own vs what you owe), cash flow statement (money in vs money out), and sales tax reports are all generated in real time with one click.

Expense Tracking

Log business expenses by category (like Travel, Software, or Equipment) and attach photos of receipts. See at any moment exactly where your money is going.

Recurring Invoices

Set any invoice to send automatically on a schedule: weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Retainer clients get invoiced on time every month without you doing anything.

All 7 Wave features explained — what each one actually does for your workflow All features →

What Can You Do With Wave? (Examples)

A few ways MSME owners and entrepreneurs use Wave — this is not an exhaustive list.

✓ Send a branded invoice to a client in 3 minutes and have the system automatically follow up by email if payment is not received within 7 days

✓ Connect your business bank account and have Wave categorise (label) every transaction automatically, ready for month-end review

✓ Generate a profit and loss report (income versus expenses summary) in one click before a meeting with your accountant or before filing taxes

✓ Set up recurring invoices for monthly retainer clients so the invoice sends itself on the 1st of every month without you doing anything

✓ Log a lunch receipt instantly by taking a photo on the Wave mobile app so it is recorded in your books before you leave the restaurant

🌎

A Nairobi, Kenya-based freelance graphic designer uses Wave to send invoices to international clients in USD, track local KES expenses, and generate a quarterly profit and loss report for their accountant, saving 3 hours per month compared to their previous Excel-based process. Real-world use case

12 real accounting workflows using Wave — with step-by-step examples View all →

Wave Pricing

Wave Accounting

$0/mo forever

Unlimited invoices, unlimited expense tracking, bank connections (automatic transaction import from your bank), profit and loss reports, balance sheet, tax summary reports, multi-currency invoicing

Best for

Any freelancer or small business that needs professional accounting and invoicing without paying a monthly fee

Wave Payments (US and Canada only)

2.9% + $0.60 per credit card transaction; 1% per bank transfer (minimum $1)

Accept card payments directly on invoices, instant payment notifications, automatic invoice reconciliation (payment matched to the correct invoice automatically)

Best for

US and Canada-based businesses that want clients to pay invoices online by card or bank transfer

Wave Payroll (US and Canada only)

From $20/mo + $6 per active employee per month

Automated payroll runs (paying your employees on schedule), direct deposit to bank accounts, tax filing (in supported US states), employee self-service portal

Best for

US and Canada-based small businesses with employees who need payroll handled automatically and connected to their Wave accounting records

Wave Advisor

From $149/mo

A dedicated human bookkeeper who manages your Wave account for you, monthly financial reviews, tax preparation support

Best for

Business owners who want bookkeeping completely removed from their to-do list and handled by a professional

See the full Wave pricing breakdown — every plan explained Full breakdown →

Try Wave Free →

Your first workflow running in minutes.

Stop doing this manually. Start tonight.

Wave handles it. You focus on growing. Setup takes under 30 minutes.

Get Started Free →

Who Is Wave For?

Best For

✓Freelancers sending 5 to 50 invoices per month who will not pay for accounting software when a free option exists
✓Solo entrepreneurs needing a profit and loss report (a summary of income versus expenses) for tax season without hiring a bookkeeper
✓Consultants in Africa tracking client retainers (monthly fixed-fee arrangements), expenses, and outstanding payments in one free dashboard
✓Service businesses with under 10 employees that do not need payroll features outside the US or Canada
✓New business owners who want to start tracking finances from day one at zero cost
✓Anyone migrating off a bookkeeping spreadsheet who wants a clean, free starting point
✓Startups in emerging markets where a $30/mo accounting tool represents a meaningful monthly cost
✓Anyone who tried QuickBooks, found it more than they needed, and wants something simpler at no cost

Not Ideal For

✗Businesses outside the US and Canada that need clients to pay invoices by card online: use Paystack or Flutterwave for payment collection alongside Wave
✗Companies needing payroll (automated employee pay) outside North America, Wave payroll is US and Canada only
✗Businesses with inventory (physical stock that needs tracking), QuickBooks or Zoho Books handle stock levels natively
✗Multi-entity businesses (holding companies with multiple subsidiaries) needing consolidated accounts across companies, Xero handles this better
✗Large teams needing audit trails (a record of every change made to financial data), advanced user permissions, or multi-accountant collaboration at scale

Wave Integrations

Tools Wave connects with — and what that connection actually does for your business.

Zapier

Connects Wave to 5,000+ other apps via Zapier (a tool that links different software together): create a Wave invoice automatically when a new project is added in ClickUp, or log a Wave payment when a Stripe charge is confirmed.

Paystack

Used alongside Wave for African businesses: collect card payments from clients via Paystack (a payment processor popular across Africa), then manually record the payment in Wave to keep your books accurate.

Stripe

Sync Stripe payment records (payments collected through Stripe, an international card processor) to Wave via Zapier so every successful charge is logged in your books automatically.

Google Sheets

Export Wave transaction data to a Google Sheets spreadsheet for custom reporting or to share financial data with a bookkeeper who prefers working in spreadsheets.

Shopify

Connect Shopify sales to Wave via Zapier so every order creates an income record in your books automatically, keeping e-commerce revenue tracked without manual data entry.

See all Wave integrations with plain-English explanations View all →

Our Verdict

Wave is the right choice for any solo entrepreneur or small business under 10 people that needs professional invoicing and basic bookkeeping at zero cost. If you need payroll (automated employee pay runs), you must be in the US or Canada. If you need clients to pay your invoices by card online and you are based outside North America, you will need to collect payment separately through Paystack or Flutterwave and record it in Wave manually. For pure financial tracking and reporting, it beats every paid alternative on price.

Aheri Systems team review

"It does everything I need for free. Invoicing and expenses sorted in one place."

4.4/5 via G2

Quick Facts

Category Accounting

Pricing Free / payroll from $20/mo (US/Canada only)

Free Plan Yes

No Card No card needed

Access Web, iOS, Android

Skill Level No-code

Setup Time Under 10 min

Time Saved 4 hours/week

Founded 2010

HQ Toronto, Canada

Users 2 million+ businesses

Alternatives to Wave

freshbooks View review quickbooks View review zoho books View review xero View review notion View review

Full comparison — pros, cons and pricing for every alternative Compare all →

Before You Sign Up

What the marketing page does not tell you.

Wins vs Loses

Replaces a QuickBooks Simple Start subscription at $30/mo or a Xero Starter plan at $29/mo for businesses whose primary need is invoicing and expense tracking.

Hidden Costs

The invoicing, accounting, and expense tracking features are completely free with no tier structure and no usage limits. Wave earns revenue from Wave Payments (a transaction fee of 2.9% plus 60 cents per credit card payment, available in the US and Canada only) and payroll starting at $20/mo plus $6 per active employee (US and Canada only). For businesses outside North America, the effective cost of Wave is $0.

Africa & Emerging Markets

Wave's core product costs nothing in any country. The payment processing and payroll add-ons are restricted to the US and Canada, which is the primary limitation for African businesses. Businesses in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa can use Wave for invoicing and bookkeeping, then collect payment separately via Paystack or Flutterwave, and record that payment in Wave manually to keep their books accurate.

Your Data

Wave servers are hosted in the United States and Canada. The platform meets SOC 2 Type II standards (a recognised data security certification) and is GDPR compliant (meets European data protection rules). No Africa-specific data hosting is available.

Pricing and features verified: 2026-03

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Wave really free? +

Yes. The core accounting product, which includes invoicing (sending bills), expense tracking (recording what you spend), bank connections (auto-importing transactions from your bank), and financial reports, is free forever with no credit card required and no limits on usage. Wave earns money from optional paid add-ons: Wave Payments (a transaction fee for card collection, US and Canada only), payroll (automated employee pay, US and Canada only), and Wave Advisor (a human bookkeeper, from $149/mo).

Does Wave work in Africa? +

Partially. The core accounting and invoicing features work in any country with no payment required. Wave Payments (the feature that lets clients pay your invoices online by card) is restricted to the US and Canada. African businesses using Wave for invoicing typically collect payment separately via Paystack, Flutterwave, or M-Pesa, then record the payment in Wave manually. Bank connections are not available for most African banks, so transactions must be imported by uploading a CSV file (a spreadsheet export from your bank).

What is Wave used for? +

Wave is used for small business accounting: sending invoices (bills to clients), tracking expenses (what you spend), connecting bank accounts (to auto-import transactions), and generating financial reports like profit and loss statements (income vs expenses). It is most popular among freelancers, consultants, and service businesses under 10 people. It is not designed for inventory management (tracking physical stock), payroll outside North America, or businesses with multiple companies.

How much does Wave cost? +

The accounting and invoicing product is free with no limits. Wave Payments (card collection on invoices) charges 2.9% plus 60 cents per credit card transaction, available in the US and Canada only. Payroll starts at $20/mo plus $6 per active employee, US and Canada only. Wave Advisor human bookkeeping starts at $149/mo. For most users outside North America, the effective cost is $0.

Is Wave easy to use for non-technical people? +

Yes. Most users send their first invoice within 15 minutes of creating an account. Connecting a bank account (for supported banks) takes under 5 minutes. Categorising expenses (labelling each transaction by type) is a single click per item. The main learning curve is understanding the financial reports, which Wave's help centre explains clearly in plain English.

What integrations does Wave have? +

Wave integrates natively with Wave Payments and Wave Payroll (both US and Canada only). Via Zapier and Make (tools that connect different apps together), Wave connects to Stripe (the card payment processor, to sync payment records), Shopify (to record sales as income), HubSpot (to invoice when a sale closes), Typeform (to create a client record when a form is submitted), and 5,000+ other apps.

What is the best alternative to Wave? +

FreshBooks is the closest paid alternative with better client communication features, starting at $19/mo. QuickBooks is better for businesses that need inventory tracking (monitoring stock levels) or payroll outside North America. Xero suits multi-entity businesses and accountants who work across multiple clients. Zoho Books has a free plan with payroll for some markets and may suit African businesses needing broader features than Wave.

Does Wave have a mobile app? +

Yes. iOS and Android apps are available. The Wave Invoicing app handles invoice creation, client management, and payment tracking from your phone. A separate Wave Receipts app lets you photograph paper receipts and log them to your books automatically. Full accounting reports and dashboards require the desktop browser version.

How long does it take to set up Wave? +

Creating an account and sending your first invoice takes under 15 minutes. Connecting a supported bank account takes 5 minutes. Setting up recurring invoices (auto-send on a schedule), expense categories (labels for different types of spending), and report access takes 1 to 2 hours total. Migrating historical data from a spreadsheet depends on how much data you have, but most users complete it in one afternoon.

Is Wave worth it for a solo entrepreneur? +

Yes, without question, for any solo entrepreneur who needs invoicing and basic bookkeeping. The free plan replaces tools that cost $30 to $80 per month. The only scenario where it falls short is if you need clients to pay your invoices by card online and you are based outside the US or Canada, in which case you will need to use Paystack or Flutterwave separately for payment collection.