Image
Top
Navigation
January 31, 2011

Wave Accounting – Spend Less Time Managing the Books

If you’ve ever spent a sleepless night worrying about a potential accounting error that could cost your small business thousands of dollars, then it’s time to sign up for Wave Accounting and get a good night’s rest. The super simple accounting application can reduce the errors that entrepreneurs make by getting rid of manual entry accounting systems and automating as many facets of the bookkeeping process as possible.

If you already use Mint.com to track your personal spending and savings plans, then getting started with Wave Accounting should be a breeze. Sign up for a free account and type your various bank logins and credit card information into Wave Accounting’s secure system. Once Wave Accounting has connected with your banks, there’s very little for you to do. Instead of manually entering all the business-related transactions that come through each month into a ledger or an Excel spreadsheet, you can just sit back and relax while Wave Accounting imports all that same data right from your banks and credit card companies. Wave Accounting will automatically categorize the expenses it recognizes from certain vendors, and then use that data to create balance sheets, ledgers, income statements, and sales tax reports.

Just because you sign up for Wave Accounting doesn’t mean you have to dump your private accountant, either. With the “Guest Collaborator” feature, Wave Accounting makes it possible to give bookkeepers and business partners their own limited logins to view or edit the accounting data stored in the site. For small businesses, managing money with Wave Accounting is safer, more accurate, and cheaper than any of the alternatives.

Practical Uses:

  • Create profit/loss statements to distribute to business partners
  • Keep track of deductable expenses
  • Review your business finances from anywhere, at any time
  • Track incoming invoices and see who has and hasn’t been paid

Insider Tips:

  • Wave Accounting keeps its user data secure with bank-quality protection
  • Businesses can use a limited version of the app without inputting banking information
  • In the future, Wave Accounting will recommend custom savings opportunities, such as investment accounts or mobile phone services
  • Wave Accounting’s expenses recognition tools get “smarter” over time

What we liked:

  • People who use Wave Accounting can spend more time growing their business
  • Wave Accounting is completely free to use
  • Separate guest logins allow accountants to see what is going on
  • Transmitting financial data to bookkeepers through Wave Accounting is safer than through email

What we didn’t like:

  • Nothing

Alternatives:

Company Info:

  • Launched: November 2010
  • Privately Held
  • Headquarters: Toronto, Canada
  • Founded by: Kirk Simpson
  • Web site: http://waveaccounting.com

Costs:

  • Free

Comments

  1. Thanks for the writeup! We appreciate the help in getting the word out to more freelancers and small businesses looking for an accounting and bookkeeping tool.

    I’d like to elaborate on one sentence: “Businesses can use a limited version of the app without inputting banking information.”

    Just to be clear: All the same small business accounting and bookkeeping functionality is available for free, whether a business connects its bank or not. The only difference is that you’ll need to import your transactions in a different way.

    You can upload a bank or credit card statement, which allows you to avoid sharing your login info if you want, and at the same time avoid manual entry of each individual transaction.

    Or you can go old-school, and manually input each transaction as you would have done with most accounting programs out there.

    If you need any help getting sorted out, contact our support team (also free!) at support@waveaccounting…
    Thanks. –Rob

  2. Debra Dooley

    So does that mean no more balancing with a bank statement?

Submit a Comment