Wave Reviews 203

My 5 stars is for the older Wave. I understand sometimes things need to change, but to the original team - thank you.

I would give zero stars if I could.
Where do I start? First, you won’t ever be able to cancel, so don’t sign up! No way to email or get support to cancel. My old accountant created my account but I kept it after changing accountants. It wouldn’t let me cancel because he didn’t take his name off. So I stayed on years after I wanted to get off. There was no option to cancel as a result and no way to get help from Wave. I finally had to cancel the card that was the attached payment and they promptly cut me off. Also expense categories are not intuitive and again, no one to help. Don’t get yourself in this mess. It’s not worth it to sign up for a scam program. Save yourself the headache!

I have been using Wave Accounting for years. I recently tried to cancel my payroll and they refuse to let me do this. They wont let me cancel or remove my bank account and continue to bill me. My only recourse is to close my bank account so they cannot bill me and open a new one. Avoid this company, there are better ones at a similar price out there.

Wave is an accounting company that is yet to firmly establish itself and build momentum for future prospects.

Tech is supposed to remove friction. Not create it.

This week I needed to file 1099-NEC forms for independent contractors. Simple task. No W-2 employees. No payroll. Just contractor reporting.

Under Wave’s new structure, 1099 filing is locked behind full Payroll activation.

That means:
• Employer tax enrollment
• State unemployment rates
• Prior payroll history
• Workforce development tax setup
• Compliance screens meant for companies with employees

For a small LLC with zero payroll employees, that workflow creates unnecessary complexity and compliance anxiety. The system assumes payroll infrastructure even when payroll does not exist.

When platform design forces users into irrelevant regulatory pathways, support turns into friction. Execution slows down. Deadlines get tighter. Confidence drops.

This is a good example of how bundling features can unintentionally penalize small businesses.

I ended up using Track1099 and finished in minutes.

The broader lesson is not about one tool. It is about product design.

If tech gets in the way of support and execution, it is not serving the user. It is serving the architecture.

Small businesses do not need more systems. They need cleaner ones.

I used to be impressed with Wave. In the past year or so I have noticed many duplicate transactions even though my bank connection was fine. I have a couple of different pages on Wave for different businesses and have found transactions from one business showing up on another page, This has created a lot of headache and extra work for me. Once I am done with my 2025 transaction updates I will also be done with Wave!

Horrible banking app. Zero customer service. Needs to be investigated and shut down.

I’ve been a long-time user of this payment platform (over 7 years) and unfortunately my recent experience has forced me to move my business elsewhere.

Without any warning or notification, my online payment processing was suspended for weeks during a critical time when client payments were due. I received no emails or alerts explaining what was happening. This caused confusion with my clients, delays in payments, and unnecessary stress for my business. We even contacted customers about unpaid invoices, only to later discover they were unable to pay online.

My business address and bank information have remained unchanged and valid for years. When I finally received a response, it took several days and did not clearly explain why the shutdown occurred or why I was never notified. The support agent was polite, but appeared unable to resolve the underlying issue.

Because I teach and advise small businesses (and have recommended this platform to hundreds of them in the past), this experience was especially disappointing. Reliability and communication are critical for any payment processor. Based on this incident, I cannot recommend this service to businesses that depend on consistent payment access.

I subscribed because I couldn't try importing my bank account to use the accounting portion of their software without a paid subscription. I wanted to see if it would work better than QuickBooks self-employed online. The second I subscribed I tried categorizing my expenses and discovered it is the worst. Literally I couldn't automatically select and categorize all of my expenses from the same vendor so I would have to go through one at a time and do it. It was even worse and less intuitive than QuickBooks. Then to cap it off when I emailed the customer service to request a refund (I only tried to use it for less than an hour) customer service literally said "refunds are not issued solely based on dissatisfaction with the product." Do not pay for this product.

Like everyone says here this company sucks. All was great for 2 months and then boom out of nowhere the say I can no longer accept payments other than ACH. USELESS COMPANY. THEY WILL SCREW YOU AT EVERY TURN. THEY WILL MAKE SURE YOU LIKE IT FOR A SECOND AND THEN SHAFT YOU

We have been using Wave for about 10 years. It was working very well for our small business. Then a few years ago we started using the payroll feature. It was working fine until in the middle of 2025 Wave switched to a company called “Check” to process payroll. Then it went down-hill fast.
Wave payroll made several frustrating and expensive mistakes after "Check" took over. First they took money from our account to pay taxes that we had already paid. (we are still waiting for a refund check from the IRS) Then they failed to file and pay both our state unemployment and withholding tax on time. We were charged penalties and interest on both and still have received no response from the "payroll team" let alone any compensation for their mistake. There is basically no customer service. No phone number or person to talk to. When we send a message through the web site all we get is a response saying Wave is to overwhelmed with support requests to respond. Then nothing. No support. No refund for the penalties and interest incurred. We had to give up a switch to another payroll processing site.

What a nightmare. I've been freelancing while between jobs to pay the mortgage. I switched to Wave for invoicing and receiving payments because PayPal was taking too large a cut. At first, it was going great. Then, I sent my biggest invoice yet. My client paid the invoice and now Wave is holding the money hostage. They sent me an email 10 days ago that I'd been flagged as a risk because I only have one client in my roster (the same company has given me lots of projects since I've switched to Wave, they are my only customer at the moment). Wave requested a lot personal information which I sent and now I'm regretting it majorly. I've sent 6 emails asking for updates or for them to confirm they have what they need to investigate my case. No responses. I asked that they just refund my customer and let me be on my way. As embarrassing as it will be explaining what happened to my client, it's better than my money being in no-mans-land. No response. Whatever you do, don't use Wave.

They are completely worthless as an organization. No customer support whatsoever!!!! We recently had to change a payroll day and cancel an existing payroll, there was absolutely no help coming from them, despite multiple email attempts and an online chatbot. Never had such a bad experience with any other company like this before!!!!

Compared to Hnry in NZ I would NOT recommend this company. All they offer you on a ‘free’ account is customer invoicing which you can totally do yourself in Canva… And you can make it look pretty! When I wanted to have my client pay into my Canadian account as it was easier than me sending through Wise (or so I thought) they charged me firstly a massive $41 fee (about 3% fee)… I would have been better getting charged the wise fee which would have been about $2-$3 on the same amount 🤦🏼‍♀️ when the client paid into the account wave asked me for a whole bunch of documentation which seemed extra extravagant and was never required when receiving payments through my Hnry account. I couldn’t be bothered dealing with the hassle of this for one client and so refunded them onto their card for which then they were charged a $50 New Zealand fee! For what?! Wave told me they would be refunded the same invoice amount and they simply weren’t. When we found out I refunded the card they told me they were disabling my account. BIG JOKE. Luckily my client waived the fee. I will be continuing to get direct bank payments into my New Zealand account and sending over. These guys don’t even offer to do your taxes which Hnry did. Please don’t use them, you deserve better.

This Wave app is terrible.
We tried it for one day, and it does not allow you to set up bank feeds unless you pay at least one month of subscription. We paid for it, and it is still terrible.
We have a Bank of America corporate credit card with multiple cards under the same corporate account. Wave does not pull transactions from the individual cards under the corporate account. It only shows transactions from the main corporate card, which are mostly payments or fees.
We contacted them through chat because they do not offer any other support option, canceled the subscription, and they refused to issue a refund.
They are dishonest. The only good thing is that our bank opened a dispute and will recover our money.

Wave was semi decent with several drawbacks (as all the other big names have too) up until the recent migration that occurred this past year. They botched everything and caused our emplyess to miss several payrolls and then double debited tax payments to which they still refuse to reimburse us for. Customer service is completely unhelpful and they refuse to get on a live phone call forcing us to only communicate through emails and messaging. Our state AG office and IRS has been made aware and will be investigating. Do yourself a favor and RUN away from these clowns.

Worst possible choice I made switching from quick books. Was thinking I would save couple of bucks but what a worthless product and even worse support if that was possible. I am surprised they are still in business. Its amazing

Extremely poor experience. Wave’s policies and support team demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of how legitimate, product-based businesses operate.

Despite our client completing payment through Wave’s secure portal before any product was shipped, we were subjected to unreasonable, impractical, and poorly explained demands — including requests to prove “customer satisfaction” before delivery and to obtain additional documentation that is neither standard nor feasible for physical goods sales.

What made this situation unacceptable was not just the policies themselves, but the complete lack of clear legal or compliance-based explanation from Wave representatives. We were effectively asked to go back to a paid client with unjustifiable requests, placing our company in a position that could easily damage client trust and make us appear unreliable or unprofessional.

Wave’s support failed to provide coherent guidance, meaningful escalation, or defensible reasoning for their requirements. Instead of supporting legitimate businesses, their approach creates unnecessary friction, delays, and reputational risk.

As a result of this experience, we have terminated all Wave services and moved our businesses elsewhere. We would strongly caution any company selling physical products against using Wave, as their processes are poorly aligned with real-world commerce and can seriously disrupt client relationships.

Horrible service. I have been in business for 15 years and have never experienced downright disgraceful and abhorrent services. I can't even begin to find the words to describe this. They are basically stealing the money paid to me by a client, not allowing the funds to be distributed. I have answered all of their questions. They have answered NONE of mine.

If it's a fraudulent transaction, they need to tell me this so that I can deal with the client. I've been waiting for hours in chat only to be bounced, then to have their bot reply with disrespectful questions.

Later on 12/29/25 - I did get a notification that my business could not be verified and my payments would not be processed. When asked for clarification, it was explained that the industry (Wedding Videography) is too risky for 'Wave' and my client's payment method. Which I do understand.

Still, this could have been handled so much better and professionally. I will add a star (2 stars instead of 1) as they did respond.

Horrible experience. I’m a sole proprietor, consultant. They advertise instant access, let me sign up, pay their subscription fee, invoice my client, but then as soon as my client paid they locked my account and made me send them a ton of personal info, before denying me, now I have to go back to my client and explain this and re invoice them This is the worst bait and switch ever and now they are holding my money and won’t give it to me.

It seems like Wave is maybe a scam. Buyers be aware.