Wave: Small Business Software

I am a small electrical contractor In California. I have no employees so I don’t need any payroll type service but this app is great for everything else I need. Sending estimates, converting them to invoices, recording payments, bank and credit card transactions, etc... it’s made running my small busy super easy and clean. Two things I’d like to see improved: 1) When your bank account is connected and it tracks your transactions, it double records the money collected from jobs. For instance, if I have a job for $500, when I collect the money and record a payment from the invoice it adds that to my transactions. Then when I deposit the money in the bank from the job, it records it again which essentially makes it seem like I made $1,000 instead of $500. We usually just go in and delete the deposit transaction and keep the invoice deposit. Not a huge deal, just an extra step we have to take. 2) You can pre-fill what your estimates and invoices say so you don’t have to do it every time. However, when I write an estimate, the wording is different than my invoice. When converting the estimate to an invoice, it doesn’t automatically change the pre-filled wording from the estimate to the invoice. I have to do it manually and I always forget :D. Again, not a huge deal but would be a big help. Thanks wave team!

I use Wave for invoicing. This app has been incredibly helpful for times when I’ve been away from my desk but needed to refer to an invoice, check on payment status, record a payment, or any other of a number of additional tasks. For me, it isn’t a replacement for the full suite of tools and data available when accessing Wave from a computer. But isn’t trying to be — and that’s what makes the app great. In other words, the app seems to have been developed as a tool for accessing specific data or completing common tasks when you’re not at a computer. That clarity is evident when you use the app: it does what it’s supposed to do, and it does it well. One more thing: I’m a freelancer who does work in two separate fields, and I manage the invoicing separately (a neat feature offered by Wave, where you can configure sub-accounts within one Wave account). I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the app supports switching between my two sub-accounts. That kind of functionality — the little stuff that’d be easy for them to overlook — is how you know this is a thoughtfully-developed app from a company that knows what it’s doing.

After a horrible customer experience with Square I decided to try Wave. They have better invoicing options and much better support and service. I have now been using them for around 6 months and it has been a great experience. Their templates are well designed and professional. Regarding Square - a disgruntled business partner started disputing any charges associated with the business (including mine for a website) and Square shut my account down and held my funds for 90 days. All of the disputed charges were returned when the bank ruled in my favor (had signed contracts and communication). It didn’t matter to Square, still held my funds (even after being returned by the bank) and insisted they would not reopen my account. Their reason? Because it states in the contract they can shut it down for any reason. All they would say over and over is we have that right. There are countless stories out there saying the same thing, so I would advise anyone considering Square to stay away.

There’s little quirky things I don’t dig, but it’s enough for 3 stars. I was going to just send an email to support, but couldn’t find it, which ties into my first issue: the app does not really flow and feels like it’s lacking something. The 2nd issue, when trying to save/send an invoice, it kept saying “can’t be saved, invalid format” but wouldn’t tell me the issue. Apparently my description was too long, but the alert didn’t tell me that and there’s no character count in the typing area. I do construction, so there’s times I have long descriptions, having a character count or allowing them to be as long as I need, either would be helpful, but the ladder would be best. My third issue, when I click preview I have yet to be able to find a PDF preview. I like to review my work before I submit, and most of the companies I work for would be using the pdf attached in the email, which it would be nice for there to be an option in settings for that to just be turned on all the time so I don’t have to remember. Oh, one last thing, you also can’t add files to send with an invoice (receipt, work order, timesheet, etc)

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This service is not trust worthy. When things work the app is fine, however if you have any problem don’t expect resolution - expect to be disregarded. I coordinate work for myself and several (7) independent contractors. We all need to be able to send invoices and get paid by credit card. After a successful trial run I suggested this app to my entire team. One of us had a problem with a $3,000 invoice; wave did not contact him and refunded the money back to his customers credit card. Since he was in a pickle that was the result of my suggestion, I offered to help him sort it out. Unfortunately there was no sorting it out. It is not possible to speak to a human when you need to. You must email or text chat, which would be okay except that through both communication channels we were dismissed. Wave was completely unhelpful. The problem was never explained, much less solved. Difficult to express the situation this created without cussing like a sailor, but just imagine a $3,000 problem with no attempt at resolution. My entire team has switched to the service named after a geometric shape. Wave lost 8 accounts because they treated my worker as insignificant. Don’t get screwed over - don’t use wave !!!!