Wave Accounting Review: The Free Tool That Got Me Through Year One

Quick take: Wave is genuinely free, genuinely useful, and genuinely enough for most new freelancers. It does about 90% of what FreshBooks does at 0% of the cost. The catch? That missing 10% starts mattering once you’re established. But for your first year? Wave is the move.

Why I Started With Wave

When I quit my day job in 2021, my bank account had exactly $4,200 in it. I had two clients lined up and a vague hope that more would follow. Spending $20-30/month on accounting software felt irresponsible when I wasn’t sure I could cover rent.

Someone in a freelancer Slack group said “just use Wave, it’s free.” I was skeptical — in my experience, “free” usually means “free until you need the one feature that matters, then $50/month.” But Wave is different. The core accounting features are actually, permanently free. No trial period. No “5 invoices then pay up.” Just… free.

I signed up, connected my bank account, and sent my first invoice within 20 minutes. That was November 2021. I used Wave as my only financial tool until July 2022.

What Wave Gives You for Free

Let me be specific because “free accounting” sounds too good to be true:

Free Invoicing

• Unlimited invoices to unlimited clients
• Customizable templates (your logo, colors, payment terms)
• Automatic payment reminders
• Recurring invoices
• Invoice status tracking (draft, sent, viewed, paid, overdue)

Free Accounting

• Double-entry bookkeeping (proper accounting, not just a spreadsheet)
• Bank and credit card connections
• Transaction categorization
• Chart of accounts
• Journal entries
• Financial reports (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, tax summary, aged receivables)

Free Receipt Scanning

• Mobile app OCR for receipts
• Attach receipts to transactions
• Unlimited scans

This is legitimately impressive for a free product. When I tell people about Wave, they always ask “what’s the catch?” The catch is payment processing fees and payroll — that’s how Wave makes money. But if your clients pay by bank transfer or check, you can use Wave forever without spending a dime.

Wave’s Invoicing: Good But Not Great

Wave’s invoicing handles the basics well. I sent about 40 invoices through Wave during my 8 months on the platform. Clients received professional-looking invoices, could pay online, and I got notified when they viewed or paid them.

What worked:

• Clean, professional invoice design
• Clients could pay by credit card or bank transfer directly from the invoice
• Payment reminders actually worked — I set them at 3, 7, and 14 days overdue
• Recurring invoices for my one retainer client saved me time every month

What was missing:

• No proposals or estimates (I used Google Docs for those, which felt janky)
• No built-in time tracking (I used Toggl free tier separately)
• Invoice customization is limited — you can change colors and add your logo, but the layout is fixed
• No deposit or partial payment requests on invoices (this was a dealbreaker for a $5K project)

The invoicing isn’t bad. It’s functional. But compared to FreshBooks, which I switched to later, Wave’s invoicing feels like a Toyota Corolla next to a BMW 3 Series. Both get you there. One is just a more pleasant experience.

Wave’s Accounting: Surprisingly Solid

Here’s where Wave shocked me. The accounting features are genuinely good — not “good for a free tool” but actually good.

Wave uses real double-entry bookkeeping. When you record a payment, it properly debits and credits the right accounts. This matters when tax time comes because your reports are accurate and your accountant won’t have to untangle a mess.

Bank connections: Wave connects to most major banks and automatically imports transactions. In my experience, transactions appeared within 24-48 hours. Not instant, but fast enough. The connection dropped twice in 8 months and I had to reconnect — annoying but not catastrophic.

Categorization: Every transaction needs to be categorized (office supplies, software, meals, etc.). Wave suggests categories based on the merchant, and it’s right about 70% of the time. The other 30% you manually fix. This gets tedious if you have a lot of transactions, but it’s necessary for accurate tax reporting regardless of what tool you use.

Reports: This is where Wave really delivers for a free tool. The Profit & Loss report is clean and accurate. The tax summary groups expenses by IRS Schedule C categories, which my accountant loved. I exported the annual reports as PDFs and handed them over at tax time. She said they were “better organized than half the QuickBooks exports I see.”

Wave’s Payment Processing: Where They Make Money

Wave offers two payment methods for invoices:

These rates are comparable to competitors. FreshBooks charges 2.9% + $0.30 for credit cards. PayPal charges 2.99% + $0.49. Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30. So Wave’s credit card rate is slightly higher on the per-transaction fee ($0.60 vs $0.30), but it’s not dramatic.

My approach: For invoices under $1,000, I accepted credit cards (convenience > fees). For invoices over $1,000, I encouraged bank transfers to save on fees. A $3,000 invoice via credit card costs $87.60 in fees. Via ACH, it’s $30. That difference adds up.

Some freelancers skip Wave’s payment processing entirely and use separate invoicing + payment methods. That works, but you lose the automatic reconciliation — Wave marks invoices as paid when it processes the payment. If payments come through another channel, you have to manually match them.

The Mobile App

Wave’s mobile app is actually better than FreshBooks’ app, in my opinion. It loads faster, the receipt scanning is quick, and the interface is cleaner. I used it daily to:

• Snap receipt photos
• Check if invoices were paid
• Quick-categorize new transactions

The app doesn’t do everything the web version does — you can’t run reports or manage your chart of accounts from mobile — but for daily receipt tracking, it’s great.

Where Wave Falls Short

After 8 months, here’s why I eventually moved to FreshBooks:

No Time Tracking

If you bill hourly, you need a separate time tracking tool. I was using Toggl’s free tier alongside Wave, which meant two apps, two logins, and manually transferring hours to invoices. It worked but it was clunky.

No Proposals or Estimates

When a potential client asked for a proposal, I had to create it in Google Docs, then create a separate invoice in Wave once they accepted. FreshBooks lets you send a proposal and convert it to an invoice with one click. That workflow difference saves 15-20 minutes per project.

No Project Tracking

Wave treats everything as transactions. There’s no concept of “projects” where you can group related income and expenses. When I wanted to know if a specific project was profitable, I had to manually tag and filter transactions. In FreshBooks, I create a project and everything is grouped automatically.

Limited Invoice Customization

I wanted to add a deposit line to an invoice — “50% due upon signing, 50% due upon delivery.” Wave doesn’t support this natively. I had to create two separate invoices. Not a huge deal, but it adds friction to a common freelance workflow.

No Tax Estimates

Like FreshBooks, Wave doesn’t calculate quarterly tax estimates. But at least FreshBooks’ expense reports make it easy to export and calculate manually. Wave’s exports are slightly less intuitive for this purpose.

Customer Support

Wave’s free plan has email-only support. I submitted a ticket once about a bank connection issue and got a response in 3 days. Not terrible for a free service, but when your bank connection is broken and you can’t reconcile transactions, 3 days feels like a long time.

Wave vs. FreshBooks: The Real Comparison

I used both extensively. Here’s my honest breakdown:

The $33/month question: Is FreshBooks $33/month better than Wave? For me, yes — the time tracking, proposals, and project features save me 3-4 hours per month. At my hourly rate, that’s well worth $33. But if you’re just starting out and every dollar matters, Wave handles the essentials perfectly.

Wave vs. QuickBooks Self-Employed

QuickBooks Self-Employed costs $15/month and its killer feature is automatic quarterly tax estimates. If tax anxiety is your main problem, QuickBooks SE might be worth $15/month even though Wave is free. The tax calculator alone provides $15/month of peace of mind for many freelancers.

But for pure accounting and invoicing? Wave is better than QuickBooks SE in my experience. QuickBooks SE’s interface feels cramped and its invoicing is basic. Wave’s is cleaner and more intuitive.

Who Should Use Wave

Wave is perfect if you’re:

• A new freelancer still building your client base
• Making under $50K/year and watching every expense
• Working with fewer than 10 clients
• Comfortable using separate tools for time tracking and proposals
• Not billing hourly (removes the time tracking need)

You’ll outgrow Wave when:

• You’re sending more than 10 invoices/month and need efficiency
• You bill hourly and are tired of juggling Toggl + Wave
• You want proposals integrated with invoicing
• You need project-level profitability tracking
• Your time is worth more than the $20-33/month a paid tool costs

My Recommendation

Start with Wave. Seriously. Even if you can afford FreshBooks or QuickBooks, starting with Wave for your first 3-6 months teaches you the fundamentals of freelance bookkeeping without any financial pressure. You learn how to categorize expenses, reconcile bank transactions, send invoices, and run reports.

Then, once you’re established and your income is consistent, evaluate whether the time savings of a paid tool justify the cost. For most freelancers, that tipping point comes around $50-75K in annual revenue, or when you’re juggling more than 5-7 active clients.

Wave got me through my most financially stressful period — the first year. For that, I’ll always recommend it. And honestly, if FreshBooks ever raises prices to the point where it’s not worth it, Wave is where I’d go back to.

It’s free. It works. For a lot of freelancers, that’s enough.