Wave Payroll is a payroll processing software for small businesses. It lets users compute and manage payroll for salaried workers and handle local, state, and federal taxes. We compiled Wave Payroll reviews from our website and around the web and found that it has generally positive ratings. We also shared its available subscription options.
Want to know the top payroll software for small business? Read our Wave Payroll alternatives guide.
Summary of Wave Payroll User Reviews
What Wave Payroll does well:
According to positive reviews online, Wave Payroll has a great dashboard interface and is easy to use. Others are pleased with its efficient bookkeeping and reporting features. Some users also say that they like using it for invoice processing.
What Wave Payroll does not do well:
According to negative reviews online, Wave Payroll can sometimes freeze up while you are using it — causing users to lose unsaved data. Others mentioned that the software has some issues with federal, state, and tax compliance accounting.
Which Payroll Provider is Right for You?
Most Helpful Positive User Review:
“I’m a huge fan of Wave. I primarily use it for invoice processing. I’ve been with them for over a year now and watched their features grow and change directly based on user feedback — which is always heartening to see when it comes to any software. I regularly recommend them to clients who do direct billing.”
– Kelly M. Christensen
Most Helpful Negative User Review:
“I recently came across two critical issues that were in violation of the employment law that they seemed completely oblivious to. Employers terminating employees would have done so in a manner that violated the Act. With so many state/provincial and federal laws to be aware of, an employer needs to have 100% confidence that their payroll software is providing the correct amounts when dealing with terminations.”
– Chris
Wave Payroll Pricing
Wave Payroll has a single subscription plan that ranges from $20 to $35/month depending on a user’s business location. On top of the software subscription fee, users need to pay an additional $4/month for each employee enrolled in the system.
| States/ Locations | ($/month) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| CA, FL, NY, TX, IL, WA States | |||
| All Other US States | |||
| Canada |
Tax service states include California, Florida, New York, Texas, Illinois, and Washington. Self-service states include the other 44 remaining states.
Wave also offer a 30-day free trial for those who want to try their services before paying for a subscription.
Wave Payroll Features
Check out the list below of some of Wave Payroll’s features.
- Data Migration
- Vacation, Benefits, and Bonuses Computation
- Automatic Filings and Payment
- Payroll Journal
- Direct Deposit
- Self-Service Pay Stubs and Tax Forms
Useful Wave Payroll Resources
How To Do Payroll: The Ultimate Guide – Do you want to know how to do payroll for your employees? Are you interested in learning about the specific details of payroll processing? Check out our ultimate guide to learn how to do your own payroll management.
How to Do Payroll Accounting: A Step-by-Step Guide – Need to know the difference between regular payroll and payroll accounting? Interested in learning how to perform your own payroll accounting? Here is our step by step guide on how to do it.
Other Payroll Resources – Want to learn more about payroll services? Wondering how to do it on your own using the latest software? Find out more using our in-depth guides, resources, and articles here.
Wave Payroll FAQ
Does Payroll offer a free trial?
Yes. Wave offers a 30-day free trial for those who want to try their services before paying for a subscription.
Can I pay contractors using Wave Payroll?
No. Wave Payroll is currently designed to pay your regular salaried employees only.
Will I still pay monthly fees if I don’t have any payroll needs at the moment? For example, I’m restructuring my company and hiring new people.
You can pause your subscription by deactivating it in the billing section. Once you are ready to use Wave again, you will be billed accordingly.
Popular Integrations
When choosing a payroll software, it’s important that the software integrates with other applications your business is currently using. Here is a list of some of Wave Payroll’s popular integrations.
Top Wave Payroll Alternatives
Not sure if Wave Payroll is the right fit for you? Read our reviews of the top payroll software for comparison or check out one of these three Wave Payroll competitors.
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Caroh Kiarie
Review SourceOrganic
I love that this app is free! If you want to receive payments through the app there is a fee, but for keeping track of income and expenses, it’s free, which is all I need as a small freelancer
Uploading a receipt takes a long time to process (like I’ve always given up on waiting and the next time I come back it’s finally there). And I can’t edit/enter any of the receipt into until it’s done processing. So that’s annoying.
NA
joseph ngari
Review SourceOrganic
They are so personable and their customer service is the best! They do an excellent job and save my clients money at the same time. Every new bookkeeping client I work with – I recommend using On-Pay.
Can’t think of one thing! They are always so helpful with any question or issue that comes up
NA
Susan Mwangi
Review SourceOrganic
Simple invoicing for small businesses and its hosted so it seeks the ease of small businesses for developing a invoice software and hosting that. its quite simple and easy to use for a normal employee with sort-cut popups.
Employee payroll is not available in Indian currency. Also most of the things can not be deleted, like configured taxes ( It may be because of dependency ) as tax configurations been used for existing invoices.
NA
vero vero
Review SourceOrganic
First of all the user interface is the best ,themes are very attractive especially color backgrounds including tint and videos
the support is also very quick and helpful in managing the problems.
overall it has great performance but one of the disadvantage I usually encountered with is I cannot use more than one audio line at time
How this works.
Review SourceOrganic
Steve Vundi
Review SourceOrganic
The search function for stock photos, videos, and music/audio is great. I have found some very high quality videos that enhanced my marketing video. The text animation features are limited, but do the trick. The best feature of Wave is the one-click changes to the size of the video to fit various social media assets — square for Insta, FB header dimensions, etc.
I wish there was search filter for free photos/videos/audio. I need to keep my costs low so I usually have to use the free assets, though I’m glad to have such high quality free assets. The music search can be cumbersome since I am very discerning about the quality of the music I use, so I wish there was a way to save favorite music, or be shown more music by the same composer.
That it existed.
Review SourceOrganic