QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) vs. Wave Accounting

QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)

Wave Accounting

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)	Score 8.9 out of 10	N/A	A now discontinued accounting solution, QuickBooks Self-Employed featured tools to help the self-employed drive growth and financial stability. It is replaced by the more advanced QuickBooks Solopreneur.	N/A
Wave Accounting	Score 8.2 out of 10	N/A	Wave Accounting is a free, cloud-based accounting platform exclusively for small businesses. It supports double-entry bookkeeping and permits unlimited user access, invoicing, and expense management. Wave Accounting integrates with Wave's invoicing, receipt scanning, payment processing and payroll apps.	$0

Pricing

QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)

Wave Accounting

Editions & Modules

No answers on this topic

Starter: $0
Pro: $16
per month
Pro - billed annually: $170
per year

Offerings

Pricing Offerings
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)	Wave Accounting
Free Trial
No	No
Free/Freemium Version
No	Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No	No

Entry-level Setup Fee

No setup fee

Additional Details

—

More Pricing Information

Community Pulse
	QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)	Wave Accounting
Considered Both Products	QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) Jonathan Palance Owner Chose QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) Freshbooks limited my ability to categorize transactions, specifically removing duplicates or excluding them. I selected QuickBooks Self-Employed because it allowed me to be in control of items. Sometimes accounting is just making sure things are organized the way YOU think, … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) Wave is extremely easy to use. Quick Books has several features that WAVE does not include, i.e. 1099 reporting. Incentivized Helpful? Paul Lipman Headhunter / Managing Director - IT Infrastructure Solutions and Services Chose QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) I selected Quickbooks because it was free for a year when I had TurboTax. Incentivized Helpful? Aaron Metzger Founder Chose QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) Honestly, this was the only option for me when I launched my business. I didn't even look at different companies for account services, since QuickBooks Self-Employed had the features and benefits that I needed to run daily operations of my business. Eventually, I will need to … Incentivized Helpful? Tim Vahsholtz Producer Chose QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) Alternatively, I use Quicken to manage bank entries and create reports for tax purposes. Incentivized Helpful? Benjamin E. Jerew Senior Content Manager Chose QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) To be honest, I haven't shopped around for a bookkeeping package. I've been using TurboTax for well over a decade, and adding on QuickBooks Self-Employed (once I made the switch to freelancing) was a no-brainer. I probably could have used the program to help me keep track of … Incentivized Helpful? Nathanial Holt Co-owner Chose QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) We just trust QuickBooks more than CloudBooks because it's been on the market longer and it's not a net-based service. Incentivized Helpful? Lawson Brooks III President/Client Strategy Partner, Business Development/Government Relations Services Chose QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) I selected QBSE because no other system fit my needs as a freelancer and as of now, I've not become aware of a program like this that I would opt out for. Incentivized Helpful?	Wave Accounting Nikki Brandt, CPCU, AU, AIS, AINS President & Founder Chose Wave Accounting I used to have Quickbooks and it was very expensive and had functions I just didn't need. This is simple and easy to use. Perfect for small business owner. Incentivized Helpful? DJ Daniel Jaworski Certified Public Accountant Chose Wave Accounting It is a useful solution but not designed for the UK market. For a businesses that want to see their debtors, creditors, profit and loss and balance sheet it is a great solution, however with those needing legal UK compliance the software will not work as well and the other free … Incentivized Helpful? Lisa A Lewis Owner Chose Wave Accounting Albeit Xero is much more robust and does require a monthly subscription payment. Wave Accounting is perfect for the very small client that does not have funds to pay for accounting subscriptions nor the high level of transactional/account management required of some clients. Incentivized Helpful? Allen Eshmoili President/CEO Chose Wave Accounting quickbooks seems to be more feature rich and can connect to my POS. At some point i may witch over if my accounting becomes too complicated for Wave Accounting Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Wave Accounting Wave is easier to understand for the accounting illiterate Wave is free Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Wave Accounting Xero, Facebook Business Manager (formerly Pages Manager), Google Search Console, DataCamp and BuildSmart Incentivized Helpful? Tony Rayl Chief Executive Officer Chose Wave Accounting It doesn't in anyway due to the fraud that is inflicted on so many companies! Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Wave Accounting This was my first invoice company. I had seen Freshly before. Venmo is far less of an accounting tool. QuickBooks seems terrible with a monthly cost. Which is why I hadn't moved companies yet. But I just learned my Website host, Wix, offers it right through my site and Clients … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Wave Accounting Wave's price point was in line with what my company needed to manage basic accounting (payable and receivable accounts). It made it easy for me to issue monthly invoices to clients and track when invoices were paid. The software makes these tasks easy to manage and inputting … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Wave Accounting I shopped Wave and Quickbooks. I loved Wave's interface and ease of use. It had everything I needed for the free version. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Wave Accounting The best feature about wave is that they let you use it for free for basic accounting and pay per use payments. But based on my horrible experience with how they cancelled my payments feature, I would never use them again! Incentivized Helpful? HA Harry Abell Treasurer Chose Wave Accounting Wonderful, great support, and many videos on how to do it. Fast response to emails. Does "Fund Accounting" that is required for many non-profits. Incentivized Helpful? Magdalene van der Walt Managing Director Chose Wave Accounting As I stated previously, Wave is a free system. It serve you well as non-resident of USA/Canada for your basic bookkeeping needs, as a micro-business. If you are a resident of those countries, you will benefit immensely from the payroll function as well. If you are looking for a … Incentivized Helpful? Vin Campbell President Chose Wave Accounting Circling back to the "free" thing again. For a small business, I am getting for free what QuickBooks online charges no less than $40/month. Moving away from "free," these other solutions I listed above do more, and these would be the right solutions for the right needs. All of … Incentivized Helpful? JaCoby Marston, CPA Chief Financial Officer » Finance Management \| Accounting \| Taxation \| Cost Controls Chose Wave Accounting Wave Accounting is very similar to QuickBooks Online. The functions of Wave Accounting are very similar to QuickBooks Online. The major difference is that with the low pricing of Wave Accounting, it lacks all of the bells and whistles that QuickBooks Online has like … Incentivized Helpful? SM Stephanie Majeran Owner Chose Wave Accounting I was not impressed with Xero or Zipbooks simply because they were expensive and still as, if not more, confusing than QuickBooks. QuickBooks is, unfortunately, the standard. I dislike it, and I think it is just a huge corporation trying to steal small businesses money, but … Incentivized Helpful? Ashley Mumm Owner Chose Wave Accounting Wave feels more geared toward a younger generation. QB feels very old and stuffy, though they're slowly coming around. QB feels much more powerful than Wave but Wave did what I needed it to do. My CPA had never heard of it before so I ended up needing to have both, but Wave … Incentivized Helpful? Andrea Mitchell, MSW, APSW Owner Chose Wave Accounting I chose to keep Wave first because it is free and easy to use but I also could not find anything else that allowed me to create customer categorizations at least not with a free account. There have been a lot of improvements to Wave over the years so the reasons I was looking … Incentivized Helpful? Patrick Contreras Creative Executive Chose Wave Accounting Basically, we selected Wave because it was a free accounting system. We have not tried another accounting system that is so much better than Wave Accounting that we should leave Wave Accounting. Every time, we find another online accounting system we do a review of the system … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Wave Accounting Invoicing is the only feature I was looking for and for that Wave had a better UI, which is why I selected it versus Stripe. I believe Stripe has more functionality, but it was more than I needed for my purposes. That being said, I do use Stripe in conjunction with Wave … Incentivized Helpful? Marc Garcia President Chose Wave Accounting Honestly, it stacks up pretty good except for the ACH transactions. With QuickBooks, ACH transactions were in my account in 2 business days at the 1% charge (that both companies charge). The support is similar on both sides. I spent 18 days trying to cancel my QuickBooks … Incentivized Helpful? SS Sean Stewart Partner Chose Wave Accounting Unfortunately we did not do our due diligence before selecting Wave. We came across them through our payroll provider (ADP) and assumed that it was good since we have had a great experience with ADP. In the future I would strongly recommend others to not just read online … Incentivized Helpful? David Schwartz IT Director Chose Wave Accounting I trialled Freshbooks a while back but they pack too much into the system for what it is. Wave has a super simple UI and dashboard and doesn't feel overly complicated to navigate yet offers all the features everyone is looking for. Being able to customize the system to brand … Incentivized Helpful? J.P. VanderLinden Owner Chose Wave Accounting For the pricing arrangement, the ease of use and the user-friendliness of the app, Wave crushes Quickbooks Online and Zoho Books. Freshbooks was a little bit closer as the two are more of an apples-to-apples comparison, but Freshbooks doesn't offer a non-paid option and they … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Wave Accounting I was using Billings Pro, and On the Job. I did trials of Due and Sighted. But I didn't like the UI and features of those 2. After testing out Wave, I liked the features, UI, and customization better than the other options. Wave is much easier, and the user interface is very … Incentivized Helpful?

TrustRadius Insights
	QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)	Wave Accounting
Highlights	Research Team Insight Published April 30, 2020 QuickBooks Self-Employed and Wave Accounting are both accounting software designed for very small businesses. QuickBooks Self-Employed focuses on expense tracking, mileage tracking, and tax management for individuals who run their own business, particularly single-person businesses. In contrast, Wave offers a wider range of features necessary for small businesses with multiple employees. Features Both QuickBooks Self-Employed and Wave offer accounting features and pricing structures tailored for very small businesses, but there are some key features that set them apart. QuickBooks Self-Employed stands out for its extensive and robust tax management and preparation capabilities. Its native integrations with the rest of Intuit’s tax preparation services, such as TurboTax, as well as its support for quarterly tax filings, help simplify time-intensive tax processes. It also provides other mechanisms, such as mileage tracking, to help self-employed individuals maximize their tax savings. Wave offers a wider range of accounting capabilities that multi-employee businesses in particular will utilize. For instance, Wave offers payment processing features, including credit card processing and bank payments. Wave also provides payroll capabilities, with accompanying tax services in a selection of U.S. states. Limitations While both Wave and QuickBooks Self-Employed offer strong features for very small businesses, they also have some relevant limitations. QuickBooks Self-Employed’s lack of features designed for multi-employee businesses can constrain businesses that attempt to expand. The lack of payment processing or payroll features requires purchasing additional add-on products in addition to QuickBooks, which adds extra costs for small businesses mid-growth. Wave has limitations on the quantity and range of banks and external financial accounts that users can connect to the accounting system. Before committing to Wave, buyers should make sure that Wave can connect to any financial accounts or services they use. Reviewers also struggle with using Wave’s reporting capabilities, which can become a pain point for businesses that develop a need for routine accounting reports. Pricing Both QuickBooks Self-Employed and Wave Accounting allow some free access to their services. QuickBooks gives users a 30-day free trial for the Self-Employed product, while Wave’s core accounting features are free to use, with optional paid add-ons. QuickBooks Self-Employed has three tiers of pricing. The “Self-Employed” package, for $15/month, includes invoicing, expenses management, provides quarterly tax estimations, and helps you identify tax deductions through features like automatic mileage tracking. The Tax Bundle, for $25/month, includes TurboTax, lets you natively pay quarterly taxes online, and includes 1 state and 1 federal tax return filing. The Live Tax Bundle, for $35/month, includes all of the Self-Employed Tax Bundle and access to live CPAs year-round, and CPA review of your return. Wave’s core accounting features, including invoicing and receipt management, are free to use. Its payment processing is pay-per-use: credit card payments cost30¢+2.9-3.4% per transaction depending on the card, and ank payments are charged 1% with a $1 minimum. Payroll costs $6 per active employee or contractor, plus a $35 monthly base fee for states with tax service or a $20 monthly base fee for non-serviced states.

Features

QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)

Wave Accounting

Payroll Management

Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
	QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) 7.8 Ratings 1% above category average	Wave Accounting 6.2 Ratings 22% below category average
Pay calculation	10.00 Ratings	7.10 Ratings
Benefit plan administration	5.00 Ratings	7.50 Ratings
Direct deposit files	8.00 Ratings	1.20 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management	8.00 Ratings	7.70 Ratings
Reimbursement management	8.00 Ratings	7.40 Ratings

Customization

Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
	QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) 10.0 Ratings 27% above category average	Wave Accounting 8.5 Ratings 11% above category average
API for custom integration	10.00 Ratings	9.90 Ratings
Plug-ins	10.00 Ratings	7.00 Ratings

Security

Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
	QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) 10.0 Ratings 18% above category average	Wave Accounting 6.4 Ratings 26% below category average
Single sign-on capability	10.00 Ratings	6.40 Ratings
Role-based user permissions	10.00 Ratings	6.40 Ratings

Reporting & Analytics

Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
	QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) 10.0 Ratings 24% above category average	Wave Accounting 6.3 Ratings 22% below category average
Dashboards	10.00 Ratings	6.00 Ratings
Standard reports	10.00 Ratings	8.00 Ratings
Custom reports	10.00 Ratings	5.00 Ratings

General Ledger and Configurable Accounting

Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
	QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) 10.0 Ratings 25% above category average	Wave Accounting 7.0 Ratings 11% below category average
Accounts payable	10.00 Ratings	7.10 Ratings
Accounts receivable	10.00 Ratings	7.10 Ratings
Cash management	10.00 Ratings	8.50 Ratings
Bank reconciliation	10.00 Ratings	8.50 Ratings
Expense management	10.00 Ratings	7.50 Ratings
Time tracking	10.00 Ratings	9.80 Ratings
Fixed asset management	10.00 Ratings	9.80 Ratings
Multi-currency support	10.00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Multi-division support	10.00 Ratings	7.10 Ratings
Regulations compliance	10.00 Ratings	5.00 Ratings
Electronic tax filing	10.00 Ratings	5.90 Ratings
Self-service portal	10.00 Ratings	8.00 Ratings
Global Financial Support	10.00 Ratings	9.00 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers	10.00 Ratings	9.00 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting	10.00 Ratings	4.00 Ratings
Localizations	10.00 Ratings	5.20 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations	10.00 Ratings	8.50 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting	10.00 Ratings	4.00 Ratings
Configurable Accounting	10.00 Ratings	5.00 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework	10.00 Ratings	1.00 Ratings
Standardized Processes	10.00 Ratings	7.00 Ratings

Inventory Management

Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
	QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) 10.0 Ratings 31% above category average	Wave Accounting 8.1 Ratings 10% above category average
Inventory tracking	10.00 Ratings	5.60 Ratings
Automatic reordering	10.00 Ratings	9.90 Ratings
Location management	10.00 Ratings	8.10 Ratings
Manufacturing module	10.00 Ratings	9.00 Ratings

Order Management

Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
	QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) 10.0 Ratings 26% above category average	Wave Accounting 7.6 Ratings 2% below category average
Pricing	10.00 Ratings	9.90 Ratings
Order entry	10.00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Credit card processing	10.00 Ratings	2.30 Ratings
Cost of goods sold	10.00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Order Orchestration	10.00 Ratings	5.80 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility	10.00 Ratings	8.20 Ratings
Order exception Resolution	10.00 Ratings	7.00 Ratings

Best Alternatives
	QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)	Wave Accounting
Small Businesses	Zoho Books Score 9.0 out of 10	QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued) Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies	Zoho Books Score 9.0 out of 10	Zoho Books Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises	Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management Score 10.0 out of 10	Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management Score 10.0 out of 10
All Alternatives	View all alternatives	View all alternatives

User Ratings
	QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)	Wave Accounting
Likelihood to Recommend	10.0 (0 ratings)	6.0 (0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew	10.0 (0 ratings)	7.8 (0 ratings)
Usability	9.4 (0 ratings)	7.0 (0 ratings)
Availability	- (0 ratings)	6.7 (0 ratings)
Performance	- (0 ratings)	2.9 (0 ratings)
Support Rating	10.0 (0 ratings)	2.1 (0 ratings)
Online Training	- (0 ratings)	4.7 (0 ratings)
Product Scalability	- (0 ratings)	3.0 (0 ratings)

User Testimonials
	QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)	Wave Accounting
Likelihood to Recommend	QuickBooks is a great tool for new SoleTraders that need basic accounting software and require digital invoicing for their clients to send via email and access key features via a mobile app on the go. QuickBooks is a straightforward tool to use with a simple design and learning curve for business owners that are not very tech-savvy. For businesses that operate on a larger scale and need to provide access to other users on their team, QuickBooks is limited. This type of business may also require more insights into the business outside of accounting, and QuickBooks won't be able to supply insights outside of that. Incentivized Ayo Bamgbose Assoc CIPD MSc Online digital business coach Read full review	Wave is free to use, and they have some premium features you can pay for. For someone just starting out as a small business, freelancer or independent contractor, this is a Godsend. You can look professional, have something easy to manage, and yet also have excellent records come the end of the year. You won't spend a bunch of time having to learn the program, it's very intuitive and you get a host of great features that will make getting paid easy. Incentivized J.P. VanderLinden Owner Read full review
Pros	Tracking expenses is as simple as swiping left and right, it couldn't be easier. Running invoices through QuickBooks is simple and effective. Allowing clients to pay by card or check allows you to get paid faster and give the clients multiple ways of paying invoices, which helps everyone. Automatically tracking estimated quarterly taxes is very helpful and it keeps it top-of mind for each month. Incentivized Aaron Metzger Founder Read full review	The dashboard provides instant views of month-by month income & expenses for the past 12-24 months, a breakdown of current year expense by category, and net income for the past year and year-to-date. Invoicing has easy templated set up has lots of per invoice options such as single/recurring payment options, due dates. Year end reports are easy to generate in either pdf or csv format. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Cons	There are a number of unnecessary and ongoing prompts to do small tasks, like creating a rule for certain transactions. I could do without those. There are also occasional glitches with bank setup that produce duplicate transactions which can be a pain to deal with. I also haven't been able to find a way to effectively edit transactions. I also wish that QBSE integrated with software like Freshbooks, Tripit and Expensify. Lawson Brooks III President/Client Strategy Partner, Business Development/Government Relations Services Read full review	One area of improvement for Wave would be combining the various mobile applications into one app. Another room for improvement would be on the dashboard level. It would be great if they could use more bar graphs and get away from pie charts for things like expenses. Some of the other areas from improvement have been addressed by recent updates so I am excited to see what else Wave brings out. Incentivized Lukas Sundahl, MBA Co-Founder Read full review
Likelihood to Renew	No answers on this topic	Easy to use for clients with no accounting background and the price is right. Jeanne Harris President Read full review
Usability	I have been using this software for several years now and it has always put out my data in beautiful generated reports that I can use for verification purposes with my financial institute and the IRS. It has all the tools I need to run my business without loosing track of anything Incentivized Shannon Allen Independent Recruiter Read full review	Wave [Accounting] is very simple and easy to use. Minimal training was required for all our users as the interface is very user-friendly, especially for small businesses looking to use something to track their financial data, Invoice and make payments. I loved using Wave [Accounting]. It lookes professional and [has] all the features we were looking for. Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Reliability and Availability	No answers on this topic	WAVE is always available when we need it ! Peter Peter Cullen Partner at Core Performance Read full review
Performance	No answers on this topic	Wave does tend to slow down when filtering your transactions screen especially by date. This is more of an issue when trying to trouble shoot certain transactions or clean-up a set of books. Melissa Whaley Owner Read full review
Support Rating	I have never faced any difficulties that required me to contact QuickBooks customer service. QuickBooks has plenty of online tutorials, blog posts, and helpful tips and advice for almost any issues you may face using the desktop or app version of the software. Even if you can not find the right answer on the QuickBooks webpages, there are loads of YouTube videos from experts. Incentivized Ayo Bamgbose Assoc CIPD MSc Online digital business coach Read full review	I've only had to reach out to support once and they were quick to respond and offered valuable insight to resolve my issue quickly. The team is knowledgeable and if the person you're dealing with doesn't have an answer for you, they get back to you quickly with an answer. It was clear that the support team is genuinely concerned about users making the most of the software. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Online Training	No answers on this topic	easy to use and east to train on ! Our WAVE clients enjoy the ease of use Peter Cullen Partner at Core Performance Read full review
Alternatives Considered	To be honest, I haven't shopped around for a bookkeeping package. I've been using TurboTax for well over a decade, and adding on QuickBooks Self-Employed (once I made the switch to freelancing) was a no-brainer. I probably could have used the program to help me keep track of employee expenses as I was working for others in the past. Incentivized Benjamin E. Jerew Senior Content Manager Read full review	Wave's price point was in line with what my company needed to manage basic accounting (payable and receivable accounts). It made it easy for me to issue monthly invoices to clients and track when invoices were paid. The software makes these tasks easy to manage and inputting data for accurate accounting and invoicing is a breeze. It really offers a lot of flexibility, so you can use the software the way you need it. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Scalability	No answers on this topic	Once they out grow what is ability to move up to a more robust system? Penny Breslin Account Manager Read full review
Return on Investment	A positive impact on my business is, of course, keeping track of income and expenses, and approximate quarterly taxes. QuickBooks is a little better at this than Quicken, I think. By using QuickBooks (and Quicken) it saves me having to spend money on an accountant. (At least up to this point.) However, the time I spend on daily or weekly entries takes billable time away from other things. Incentivized Tim Vahsholtz Producer Read full review	Wave has enabled our accounts payable to maintain a 99% closure rate by leveraging auto reminders through the email system. Our quote to invoice process is a single click, saving time and effort. Even minor changes during that transition occur simply and easily. Aside from payments, Wave has been free for our usage. Our bottom line is better because we're not investing in software but instead embracing an entire ecosystem. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
ScreenShots

Features

Limitations

Pricing