Question 1

Is Wave Accounting really free?

Accepted Answer

Yes for the bookkeeping itself. The base accounting features (invoicing, bank reconciliation, expense tracking, basic reporting) cost nothing in the US and Canada. Wave earns revenue from add-on services: payroll (around 20-40 USD per month plus per-employee fees), payment processing (around 1% per transaction on bank transfers, 2.9% plus 30 cents on cards), and Wave Advisors (paid bookkeeping support). For a client that uses invoicing only, the platform is genuinely free. For a client with payroll and card payments, the total ends up similar to QuickBooks Online.

Question 2

Will Wave stay free under H&R Block ownership?

Accepted Answer

H&R Block acquired Wave in 2019 and the free tier has remained intact through 2026. The acquisition has narrowed Wave's geographic focus (Canada and US only, no UK or Australian expansion plans) and tied the product roadmap more tightly to small-business tax filing. Mid-term risk: any change in the parent's strategy could change pricing, but the free tier is a core part of Wave's customer acquisition model and unlikely to disappear quietly.

Question 3

Is Wave good for an accountant managing client books?

Accepted Answer

Wave fits solo bookkeepers and small firms whose clients are micro-businesses with straightforward needs. It lacks an accountant program with bulk client management, deep multi-entity reporting, or the practice tools that QuickBooks Online and Xero have built for firms. If you manage more than a handful of Wave clients, you spend extra time on administrative tasks the larger platforms automate. For one or two Wave clients alongside a QBO or Xero practice, it works fine.

Question 4

Can I migrate a client from Wave to QuickBooks Online or Xero later?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but plan for some manual cleanup. Wave exports transaction data, customer/vendor lists, and chart of accounts as CSV, which both QBO and Xero can import. Bank-feed history, invoice attachments, and reconciliation lock points do not always survive the migration cleanly. Plan a half-day per client for a clean migration, or use a third-party migration service for clients with more than a year of complex history.

Question 5

What AI features does Wave have?

Accepted Answer

Limited compared to QBO, Xero, or Zoho Books. Wave's automation is rules-based for transaction categorization and recurring invoices rather than AI-driven. Smart receipt capture works through the mobile app but is not as accurate as Dext or Hubdoc for invoice-heavy clients. If your client's bookkeeping volume is mostly bank-feed reconciliation with simple coding, the AI gap matters little. If you want serious AI assistance on coding or anomaly detection, look at QBO or Xero.

Question 6

When was Wave Accounting founded?

Accepted Answer

Wave Accounting was founded in 2009, roughly a decade before H&R Block acquired it in 2019. It has offered a permanently free bookkeeping, invoicing, and financial reporting platform for small businesses throughout that time, with paid add-ons like the Pro plan, payroll, and payment processing covering the vendor's revenue instead of a subscription fee.

Tier	Price	Billing	Features
Starter	$0	Per month	Unlimited invoices, expense tracking, double-entry bookkeeping, and financial reports. Free permanently.
Pro	$19	Per month	Everything in Starter plus automatic bank transaction import, auto-categorization, and receipt capture.

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