Wave - An Accounting Solution For Small Business

Amanda Wilkie for Perigee Technology writes:  As promised in last week's post, I want to highlight another solution provider that made an impression on me at the ACIPA Practitioner Symposium & Tech+ conference in Las Vegas earlier this month. Today, I'd like to introduce you to Wave, a Toronto-based team that boasts of making "awesome, cloud-based, integrated software and tools for small businesses". 

At a conference, I'm always drawn into a vendor's booth when the folks inside look like they're having fun, which Brooke and her team certainly looked like a fun crowd. Once I was in, she promised to completely train me to use Wave in about 60 seconds. Okay, maybe I didn't learn everything I needed to know but Brooke did a great job hitting the highpoints and left me intrigued. 

Most fascinating was Wave's price. It's free! Yes, free. Well, mostly free. Wave provides the ability to accept credit card payments for which there is a small processing fee. Additionally, the payroll module is a premium feature but the fees are very reasonable. Wave also covers its costs by selling ad space in the application; however, I'm so accustomed to on-line ads these days that I found the ads along the right side of Wave easy to ignore. 

After a few minutes with Brooke (and after she gave me some really cool socks - see the pictures below), I decided to try Wave out and see for myself. I half expected a watered down accounting application but I was wrong. Here are few things I found:

• Wave is very easy to use. I quickly linked my accounts and transactions came pouring in. I had to spend some time categorizing the transactions but Wave quickly learned recurring transactions and successfully categorized them for me.
• On-the-fly set up was cool. On-the-fly meaning I did not have to sit down and enter all my vendors, customers, or even products. I can actually add them from the invoicing screen when the need arises. However, an import option would have been cool.
• The reporting is sufficient. You can't create custom reports but Wave provides all the basic reporting you need – balance sheet, sale tax report, aged AR and AP, etc.
• Personal finance tracking is included. This is a cool feature. If you comingle business and personal transactions Wave allows you to code each entry as such. However, I chose to keep my personal accounts out of Wave as my accountant has always recommended completely separate of business and personal accounts.
• Mobility is always good. Wave has two great iPhone apps so you can upload receipts or create and process invoices from your phone. Android apps are in the works as well.
• Access for your accountant and multi-business support. As a cloud-based solution, you don't have send files back and forth. You can give your accountant access to your Wave file and you can set up multiple businesses within the same login.
• My favorite feature – receipts. I was able to upload receipts from my computer and my iPhone. I even emailed one and it was imported. Receipts can create a transaction or easily be attached to an existing transaction. My wallet will be 5 pounds lighter going forward.
• Wave lost a few cool points on speed and navigation. Uploading statements and generating lists seemed to be a little slow at times; however, there are a few contributing factors (such as internet speed and file size) that could have effected responsiveness. And, more than once I wished the list of transactions had a scroll bar opposed to using the browser scroll bar.
• Support options are pretty good if you don't care about talking to a live person. Wave's support page is well organized by module and the search feature returned applicable articles. You can email support for free and expect a response in 48 to 72 hours. Or, a monthly fee gets you access to a live "Support Hero". Wave University is a great resource for training and how-to questions as well.

Offering all the features other major accounting applications do, Wave is designed for small businesses under 9 employees. As a sole proprietor I can attest that it is easy to set up and easy to use; and I'm sure I haven't uncovered a fraction of the awesomeness Wave has to offer yet. However, I will continue using the application for my business, Perigee Technology, so you see them in a future post. After all, it's a great tool at an unbeatable price.