While Wave shines as a free option for freelancers, independent contractors and microbusinesses, it’s not meant for businesses that might expand their operations. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their transposition error products or services. At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations.

1. For instance, you can only edit invoice templates and send invoices via email with Pro.
2. On the other hand, QuickBooks charges fees based on how you process a transaction.
3. In contrast, QuickBooks offers five software packages with a price cap of $200 per month and no free option — earning it a lackluster value score of 3/5.

You’re All Set

Can support larger small businesses with dozens of employees; highest-tier plan includes 25 users. Since QuickBooks Online is so popular, it syncs with just about every major payroll provider—including Gusto, what are cost flow assumptions one of our favorite payroll systems. If you’re trying to decide between QuickBooks’ native payroll solution and a highly rated third-party option like Gusto, check out our in-depth Gusto vs. QuickBooks Payroll comparison. In contrast, QuickBooks Online has four plans to choose from—plus some versatile options for freelancers and desktop users.

Wave vs. QuickBooks Online: Key features

All plans include 24/7 live chat support; phone support is available 5 a.m. Support for non-paying users is limited to the chatbot and self-service Help Center. Includes tools that help automate the reconciliation process, along with a global search function and customizable dashboard; however, there is a learning curve.

You can connect your financial institutions to Wave for automatic transaction import, or use the Add Manual Transactions feature to record banking transactions manually. There’s also an optional payroll feature available in Wave if you have any employees you need to pay. Both Wave and QuickBooks have the option to add payroll capabilities to your account for an additional fee. Transaction fees apply on both platforms, and all payment methods are optional. You can disable payments and let clients pay another way, such as through a paper check or PayPal.

While it’s not necessarily convenient to switch accounting software products down the road, it’s also not impossible. I only had to keep track of my ice cream bucket with my business, but if you sell a product, you’ll probably have a bit more to organize. To access the feature, you have to turn on a setting under Sales to allow inventory tracking, which I learned through a demo video. After that, you can input all your products or services and have the option to add pictures, stock quantity, vendor information, and more. However, if you have a lot of bills to pay, the lack of bill payment capability in Wave may be an issue.

Wave vs. QuickBooks Online: Ease of use

However, just because they’re easier to use doesn’t mean product support is unimportant. When you send an invoice, clients have the option to pay with the click of a button by entering their credit card or bank account information or connecting to Apple Pay. QuickBooks offers a robust set of tools that far outweigh Wave’s capabilities—but that could be a drawback for small, simple businesses. The platform offers enough features and add-ons to grow with your business, but it may be more complex than you need if you’re a one-person shop. These ratings are meant to provide clarity in the decision-making process, but what’s best for your business will depend on its size, growth trajectory and which features you need most.

Wave and QuickBooks both offer standard features and capabilities for invoicing for small businesses. Wave’s platform is simpler and designed for easy use for freelancers and businesses of one, while QuickBooks is designed to cover complex business needs and grow as your business grows. The platform’s design is intuitive, so it’s easy for anyone to set up and use. QuickBooks Online and Wave are two entirely different accounting software products meant for distinct types of businesses. Choosing between them mostly comes down to whether you need a solution that can scale with your business.

And then when it did load my location’s sales tax requirements, it didn’t automatically apply that to my invoice or even let me override whatever was going on to manually apply the rate. It’s super easy to create an invoice with Wave, and you can use that template to speed up the process in the future. There’s also a preview feature, so you can see how the invoice will look to your customers. While both Wave and QuickBooks are apt at providing accounting features, each has its own strengths that make it better for certain businesses than others. Conversely, Wave has a handy chatbot called Mave which is available from 9 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday.

You have complete oversight of unpaid bills and, if you have the Pro plan, then you can attach captured receipts to bill entries. So, if you have vendors that bill regularly, you may want to consider if not having a recurring bills feature is a worthy compromise for affordable pricing. When it comes to QuickBooks vs. Wave in terms of pricing, Wave takes the lead because it has a free plan and an affordable paid tier. If you have a limited budget and don’t mind not getting advanced features, we recommend choosing it. Under the free plan, you get most of its offerings — except for automatic import of banking transactions and reminders. Like Wave, QuickBooks Online can track and manage your income and expenses, import receipt images, accept online payments, and connect your banking information.

It’s hard to say which one is better—but we can help you decide which one is better for you. Most notably, you adp run review: features and pricing can manage more than one business with your free Wave account. QuickBooks Online Advanced offers tons of report templates with categories for Business Overview, Who Owes You, Sales and Customers, What You Owe, Expenses and Vendors, Employees, For My Accountant, and Payroll. You can work off one of the (seemingly) hundreds of pre-made templates, or you can take one of those templates and customize it to meet your specific business needs. I dug into two popular accounting tools, Wave and QuickBooks, to help you narrow down which tool is best for your business.