Towne Bookkeeping

Category: Software

  • My First 3 Months Using Wave (And Why I’m Impressed)

    First, I want to applaud the marketing team over at Intuit. They’ve done an amazing job positioning QuickBooks Online as the number one choice for bookkeeping software for small businesses. And to be fair, it’s powerful and widely used.

    But there’s an issue I’ve watched play out over and over. Business owners sign up at a promo rate, find out it’s much harder to use than they think, and before they know it, the regular price kicks in. They think in frustration, “Why am I paying for expensive software I can barely use?”

    Recently, a new client decided to try Wave, which meant I got to use it hands-on for the first time. After three months inside Wave, here’s what stood out, and why I’d genuinely recommend it for many small business owners.

    First: Pricing (Canada)

    Let’s talk dollars, because that’s usually the first question.

    • Wave: Free Starter plan, and Wave Pro is $25 CAD/month (at the time of writing).
    • QuickBooks Online: Plans typically range from $30 to $220 CAD/month. The most comparable tier to Wave is $110/month.

    If your bookkeeping needs are fairly straightforward, that price difference adds up fast.

    Yes, Wave can handle “normal” small business books

    Here’s the simple answer most people want: For many small businesses, Wave does the job just as well as QuickBooks Online does. You can invoice, accept payments, track income and expenses, reconcile bank accounts, and run the reports you need to understand how the business is doing.

    Both also offer auto-importing bank transactions and digital receipt capture, but Wave offers these features at a better price point.

    Ease of use: Wave is built for business owners (not just bookkeepers)

    Wave’s interface is just beautiful. It has a modern font, pleasing colours, and an intuitive left-side menu. The wording is more “business owner friendly” than “bookkeeper jargon.”

    QuickBooks Online has recently been rolling out interface changes, and I’ll just say it politely: a lot of bookkeepers spend more time clicking around than we’d like. The new menu is non-intuitive, and the only thing that keeps me sane these days is the Bookmarks menu I manually set up for each client.

    Particularly for first-time users, Wave is easier to use.

    Invoices: Wave makes you look polished with almost no effort

    This surprised me (in a good way).

    When we uploaded the client’s logo, Wave automatically pulled colours from it and applied a matching colour scheme to the invoice. The result looked clean and professional in seconds without any design work.

    QuickBooks Online has limited default invoice layouts, and customization options can feel restrictive if you want a more modern look. The only way around this is a custom-designed invoice template with coding to make it work in QuickBooks. It would be very difficult for an average user to achieve this, so most users are stuck with less polished invoices out of the box.

    If you care about looking legit when you bill, Wave allows you to do that with almost no effort.

    Reports: Wave understands presentation

    QuickBooks Online reporting is strong, especially when the chart of accounts is well set up. But the layout has a basic font, minimal visual formatting, and the logo slapped on the upper left corner like a misaligned stamp.

    But Wave reports are genuinely easier on the eyes. Modern font, nice spacing, shading, and excellent logo placement. The reports look modern and presentable out of the gate. For many owners, that matters, because if the reports are easier to read, you’re more likely to actually review them.

    Also notable: Wave lets you switch between “Summary” and “Detail” repots with one click, while QuickBooks Online usually requires running two separate reports.

    Bottom line

    I’m not here to bash QuickBooks Online. It’s still my go-to for many clients, and it’s often the better fit when things get more complex (inventory, deeper integrations, larger teams, heavier reporting needs, etc.).

    But if you’re a small business owner with standard bookkeeping needs, Wave is a better-value option, and it’s priced in a way that doesn’t punish you for simply wanting your books up to date.

    Want help choosing between Wave and QuickBooks Online?

    If you’re not sure what fits your business, we can help. Reach out and let’s talk.