Wave Payroll Review: Cost, Features, Alternatives

Its pay processing solution, QuickBooks Payroll, comes with unlimited pay runs, fast direct deposits, and access to employee benefits. Read our QuickBooks Payroll review to help you gauge if its features fit your business needs. Wave Payroll is best for small businesses with very simple payroll needs. As a Wave add-on, it integrates all the information into your Wave Accounting software, making bookkeeping and payroll accounting a breeze.

• Wave Payroll is designed for smaller businesses and is ideal for those with no experience processing payroll.
• For small-business owners focused on merely keeping people paid, Wave is a great choice.
• If you unpause your subscription in the middle of the billing cycle, then you’ll be charged a prorated amount.
• Our payroll software is seamlessly connected with the rest of your Wave account to reduce the time you spend on manual bookkeeping.
• Your data is always available, and backed up for extra peace of mind.

Create beautiful invoices, accept online payments, and make accounting easy—all in one place—with Wave’s suite of money tools. You don’t have to wait for a new quarter or year to start using payroll software—you can start running payroll at any time! And if you’re switching providers, you can make the transition easily by importing all the necessary forms and information in just a few minutes.

What We Recommend Wave Payroll For

Any connections between you, your bank accounts, and Wave are protected by 256-bit SSL encryption. Create beautiful, free invoices that reflect your business branding. Automate overdue reminders, set up recurring bills, and add notes or terms of service with ease. Doing payroll manually involves confusing and time-consuming calculations. Not to mention the stress of worrying about making errors and winding up in a tax audit (yikes!).

Processing payroll through its platform only takes a few clicks. After you have approved the pay run, Wave Payroll takes three business days to send the payments to your employees’ bank accounts (via direct deposit). Wave Payroll is designed for smaller businesses and is ideal for those with no experience processing payroll. The setup process is completed in easy-to-follow steps, but you only have the option to choose one payroll schedule, which includes weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, and monthly options. Wave Accounting can be a great option if you run a very small service-based business or don’t need more advanced features that alternatives might offer. For small businesses any larger than that, however, Wave is limited.

• 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.
• No worries—just check out our list of the year’s best payroll companies for small businesses.
• Can manage multiple businesses for free under one account; lacks project tracking tools, industry-specific reports and transaction tracking tags.
• If you’ve narrowed your search down to a few payroll providers but still can’t decide, read our guide on choosing the best payroll solution for help.

While tens of thousands of Americans who served in the global conflict are still living, many are well into their 90s or have even surpassed their 100th birthdays. As World War II veterans age, historians at the center have been desperately collecting their first-hand accounts “any chance we get” before they’re gone, Siry said. QuickBooks Online’s detailed reporting and transaction tracking is ideal for growing businesses. He comes to Wave with decades of executive experience, most recently as General Manager for Afterpay North America, and previously as Executive Vice President at Mastercard. The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually.

Developed with smaller businesses in mind, Wave Payroll offers basic payroll capability. Designed to be used in conjunction with Wave Accounting, Wave Payroll lets small business owners easily pay their employees. Unlike Wave Payroll which has limited HR functionalities, Gusto offers a more comprehensive suite. This array includes performance management, time-tracking and tools for employee onboarding. Plus, the competitor supports global operations beyond the U.S. and Canada. Wave generates revenue through payment processing; when a client pays an invoice created with the platform, the company charges a credit card fee.

The Best Cheap Payroll Services for 2023

Track your income and expenses, easily and for free, with Wave’s accounting software. FreshBooks is an affordable option for freelancers and small service-based businesses that operate mostly on the go. Moreover, you can integrate QuickBooks with hundreds of third-party tools available in the app marketplace.

It has separate tabs for hourly workers and salaried employees. For your hourly staff, you use it to enter their total hours worked, overtime hours, and PTO information. For salaried employees, you can add in their overtime and PTO details, if any. Overtime pay is also automatically calculated at either time-and-a-half or double time, depending on when employees are eligible for it.

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And similar to Wave Payroll, Gusto also showcases a beautiful, user-friendly interface. This perk means you don’t have to sacrifice functionality for visual appeal. In these areas, Wave calculates your tax liability for you, though you still need to submit your tax paperwork manually.

Wave Payroll’s ease of use

Although accounting and invoicing are separated into two different product sections on the Wave website (shown similarly below), they don’t require separate accounts. These solutions are integrated within your dashboard and you’ll access them both through your single Wave login. When you reconcile your books, you’ll navigate to the “Reconciliation” tab within the Accounting menu. If you need to manually edit, add or remove any transactions, you can do so on the Reconciliation or Transactions pages. Next, you can add sales tax (if necessary), create customer profiles and customize your invoice templates. Pay stubs generally show how an employee’s income for a particular pay period was derived, along with line items of the taxes withheld, voluntary deductions and any other benefits received.

However, its processing timeline is three days (many payroll companies have a two-day processing time). If you decide to resume pay processing, simply go to Wave Payroll’s billing menu to activate your subscription and immediately start using the software’s payroll tools. Note that Wave Payroll’s pricing will automatically switch from “Limited Access” to either its full-service or self-service option, depending on the plan you selected before pausing payroll. Wave Payroll, an add-on option available from Wave Accounting, offers basic payroll services, with full-service payroll available in 14 states.

But for growing entities desiring next-level support, the platform falls short. accounting system explained in simple words isn’t just beautiful for small-business owners — it also offers a rich experience for staff members. Wave Payroll stands out with its simplified dashboard and intuitive design. This beautiful approach is invaluable for small-business owners who might not be payroll experts.

Wave through the years

For less urgent inquiries, you can also submit a support request directly from the Wave website. This option works great for businesses that only pay certain staff during part of the year, such as the holiday season or the summer months. One of the more convenient features available in Wave Payroll is the ability to create a payroll journal entry that will be automatically posted in Wave Accounting. Employee garnishments are not supported in the application, and it only offers a single payroll report. Imputed income capability is not available in the application either, and currently, Wave Payroll does not offer an app for iOS or Android devices. At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations.

Learn more about how we rate small-business accounting software. Wave’s invoicing is free and unlimited, with three customizable templates and a user-friendly interface, putting it on par with some of the best invoicing software solutions for small businesses. Other capabilities include recurring invoicing and the option to let repeat clients opt into automatic credit card billing.

For example, QuickBooks Online doesn’t have a free plan, but offers four paid plans, each with additional features, making it a great choice for scalability. With the higher-tier QuickBooks plans, you have access to inventory management, billable expenses and project profitability tools, none of which are offered with Wave. Strong invoicing feature competes with that of paid products; app lets users send invoices on the go; offers significantly fewer reports than competitors; no inventory tracking.