ZipBooks vs Wave Comparison: Which Is Best for You in 2021

ZipBooks and Wave both offer a free option and are cloud-based accounting software, but ZipBooks is better for service firms that bill clients by the hour. Wave is a better choice for companies that have transactions in multiple currencies. While ZipBooks doesn’t currently have a mobile app, Wave has two mobile apps that allow you to create invoices and accept payments. Also, while ZipBooks allows you to track time and track income and expense by project, Wave does not.

ZipBooks and Wave are not the only free accounting software available. For others, be sure to check out our article Best Free Accounting Software.

When to Use ZipBooks

ZipBooks is a web-based accounting software that provides an accessible and user-friendly way for small business owners to manage their essential bookkeeping and accounting tasks. Ideal for sole proprietors and microbusinesses who are looking for an affordable accounting software option, ZipBooks offers a free plan and two fee-based plans. ZipBooks has features that support basic income and expense management, such as the ability to manage unlimited vendors and customers and send unlimited invoices.

Service-based businesses and those that bill by the hour will appreciate the time tracking feature, which Wave lacks. It also can manage 1099 contractors. The ZipBooks project and document sharing tools make it much easier to collaborate with your team than with Wave.

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When to Use Wave

Wave is a cloud-based accounting solution that offers free invoicing and receipt scanning. It is a great option for businesses that need to accept online payments because of its built-in integration, Wave Payments. Because of its simplicity, sole proprietors and freelancers on a budget may find that this software suits their needs. Wave also offers credit card processing and payroll services for an additional fee.

Wave has a user-friendly interface and the ability to send unlimited invoices and auto-reminders, which is a beneficial feature for contractors who send invoices frequently. It lacks a time-tracking feature as well as the ability to track inventory. But unlike ZipBooks, it can handle multiple currencies for businesses with international clients. We selected Wave as the best free option in our guide to the best small business accounting software.

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ZipBooks vs Wave at a Glance

ZipBooks Pricing vs Wave Pricing

Businesses that are looking for an affordable option will be satisfied with both ZipBooks and Wave, which offer free pricing for the most basic bookkeeping services. But while ZipBooks’ pricing increases based on the number of users and available features, Wave opts instead to provide free accounting, invoicing, and receipt scanning and focuses its charges on credit card processing, bank payments, and payroll services.

ZipBooks Pricing

ZipBooks’ pricing may make it attractive to sole proprietors and microbusinesses. It offers a free starter plan and three paid plans, including an accountant version, which start at $15 per month, depending on the number of users and features required. The Accountant version allows you to manage clients from one dashboard.

• Starter: $0 for 1 user
• Smarter: $15 for 5 users
• Sophisticated: $35 for unlimited users
• Accountant: Custom priced for unlimited users
• Assisted bookkeeping and 1099 services: Starting at $125 per month

Wave Pricing

Wave’s basic accounting functions, which include invoicing and receipt scanning, are absolutely free. There are additional charges for credit card and payroll processing, which are described below:

• Accounting, invoicing, and receipt scanning: $0
• Credit card processing: 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction for most cards, 3.4% + 30 cents per transaction for American Express
• Bank payments: $1 per transaction
• Wave Advisors: Starting at $79 per month for assisted bookkeeping
• Payroll: Starts at $20 plus $6 per employee, per month, in self-service states and starts at $35 plus $6 per employee per month in states where federal and state payroll taxes can be filed electronically

Takeaway: ZipBooks charges for plans with more sophisticated features, some of which are available for free with Wave. However, other features in the ZipBooks advanced plans are not found in Wave.

ZipBooks vs Wave: Features

Takeaway: Many of the features are the same for both ZipBooks and Wave, the major distinction being that ZipBooks can track time and tag by location. Neither software can track the cost of inventory. If you have inventory, I highly recommend a more sophisticated software like QuickBooks Online or Xero.

ZipBooks vs Wave: Ease of Use

Designed for the accounting novice, both ZipBooks and Wave make it easy to find what you’re looking for without the need to spend much time learning the software.

ZipBooks Ease of Use

Upon sign-in, ZipBooks displays a financial performance dashboard that provides a summary of all recent expense and invoicing activity. An intuitive user interface means less time learning the application. Navigation is easy, with the vertical menu to the left of the main screen offering quick access to all system functions:

1. Home: The navigation bar on the left side gives you access to Invoices, Transactions, Reports, Contacts, Tracking, and Payroll. You can also access the same pages at the top of the page.
2. Financial Performance: This report is shown in graph format and is a summary of your business’ revenue, expenses, and net income.
3. Finish Set-up: Displayed to show your progress with setting up your account, tasks include adding an address and phone number, adding a logo, and connecting a bank.
4. Expenses: After you connect your bank account, your transactions will be downloaded automatically and displayed here.
5. Tracked Time: This feature summarizes your unbilled time so that you can see the status of what is yet to be invoiced. There is also a timer at the top of the page, which you use and then import into ZipBooks.

Sending a Simple Invoice

Because the Starter version doesn’t use items on its invoices, you type the description you want on each line of the invoice. For this reason, we included it as the best free software for simple invoices in our review of the best free accounting software. However, while it is simple, it is also inefficient because you’ll need to retype product and service descriptions in each invoice.

Wave Ease of Use

Wave also has a dashboard that displays current business performance along with a cash flow graph, a two-year net income summary, and a graph that illustrates expenses by category. You accept credit cards on invoices by going through the setup process on this page:

1. Left navigation bar: Use this section to navigate to various sections of the software, including Sales, Purchases, Accounting, Banking, Payroll, Reports, Wave Advisors, and Tax Filing.
2. Accept payments: This feature walks you through accepting credit card payments on your invoices and signs you up for Payments by Wave.
3. Cash flow: This report reflects the cash going in and out of your business.
4. Profit and Loss: This report shows income and expenses only, including unpaid invoices and bills.
5. Payable and Owing: This section summarizes both invoices payable to you and unpaid bills, broken down by aging periods.
6. Net Income: A two-year comparison that shows income, expense, and net income figures.
7. Expense breakdown: This graph illustrates your expenses by category so that you can view what percentage is spent in each.

Takeaway: Both ZipBooks and Wave are easy to use and offer new users an accessible interface, but Wave goes one step further by guiding users through the entire setup process.

ZipBooks vs Wave: Assisted Bookkeeping

ZipBooks Assisted Bookkeeping

ZipBooks offers bookkeeping and tax services for an additional monthly fee, which provides you a dedicated bookkeeper and support team. Prices range from $125 per month for simple bookkeeping to $145 per month for more advanced bookkeeping. Form 1099 reporting and preparation starts at $175 per month.

Wave Assisted Bookkeeping

Wave Advisors assist with bookkeeping, accounting coaching, and taxes. Here’s a breakdown of the services Wave Advisors offer, along with the associated costs:

• Bookkeeping and payroll support: $79 per month, includes 30 minutes of live coaching per month and 30 days of email support
• Accounting and payroll coaching: $229 per month, includes 1 hour of live coaching per month and 30 days of email support
• Tax service: $1,500 per year, includes filing federal and state tax returns, quarterly reviews, and planning

ZipBooks vs Wave: Integrations

Neither ZipBooks nor Wave offer an extensive list of integrations, but with the addition of Zapier, Wave has significantly more offerings. However, the dozen integrations that ZipBooks offers cover some of the basic business needs like business management, payment acceptance, and appointment scheduling.

ZipBooks Integrations

ZipBooks currently has 12 integrations, which include:

• Payments and ecommerce: PayPal, Square POS, Square for Retail, and Square Payments
• Customer relationship management (CRM): Spiceworks Network Monitor
• Appointment scheduling: Square Appointments
• Business management and automation: Slack, Asana, Google Drive, and Google Workspace
• Payroll and human resources (HR): GrandMaster Suite and eNETEmployer

Wave Integrations

Wave offers a limited number of integrations that include PayPal, Etsy, and Shoeboxed. It also supports a Zapier integration, which connects Wave with more than 1,000 add-ons. These include:

• Payments and ecommerce: Shopify, Square, Stripe, PayPal, and Etsy
• CRM: HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Harvest
• Email marketing: Automational, Mailchimp, and SendPulse
• Appointment scheduling: Calendly and Acuity Scheduling
• Business management and automation: Slack, ShipStation, FormStack Document, Google Sheets, and Approval Donkey

Takeaway: Thanks to the assistance of the Zapier platform, Wave has the edge over ZipBooks for available integrations.

ZipBooks vs Wave: Mobile App

While ZipBooks previously had a mobile app, it is no longer in use until new improvements are made. Because the software is cloud-based, you can still access it on any mobile device. Wave’s mobile solution is also a bit disjointed as there are not one but two apps to achieve what one app could do. Even with two apps, Wave doesn’t allow app users all the features available in the web version. If you’re looking for a more comprehensive mobile app that is both user-friendly and has powerful features, we suggest QuickBooks Online.

ZipBooks Mobile App

Until ZipBooks updates its mobile app, you can use your device’s browser to access ZipBooks, which is very mobile-friendly. For an extra timesaver, you can create a shortcut on your phone for easier access.

Wave Mobile App

Rather than one central full-featured mobile app, there are two Wave apps for both Android and iPhone: Wave Invoicing and Wave Money. Wave Invoicing allows you to create invoices and provides access to your customers and item records. It works well with Wave Money, which allows you to accept all major credit cards and bank payments.

Takeaway: Neither ZipBooks nor Wave offer a comprehensive mobile app, but Wave’s multiple apps allow you to perform tasks such as invoicing, accepting payments, and recording expenses.

ZipBooks vs Wave: Customer Support

Support options are limited for both ZipBooks and Wave users, with neither offering a live phone support option for basic users. ZipBooks only has a live chat support option available, but both offer a searchable knowledge base. However, what these software lack in customer support, it makes up for in assisted bookkeeping as users of both ZipBooks and Wave users can hire an advisor for an additional fee to assist with bookkeeping tasks and tax services.

If customer support is important to you, FreshBooks has the best reputation in the industry for quality customer care. It offers a direct customer support telephone number that it encourages users to call.

ZipBooks Customer Support

ZipBooks only offers chat support, which is available from the website or within the application. A searchable knowledge base is also available, but you can only access it on the ZipBooks website, not from within the application itself.

Wave Customer Support

While there are several support options offered by Wave, Starter plan customers are not given access to live support via phone or chat. These are the options available:

• Support form: Wave has an in-software support form that allows you to contact its customer support team.
• Phone and chat: Phone and chat services are available for payroll, credit card processing, and lending inquiries.
• Help center: Wave provides a comprehensive help center with helpful how-to articles and guides.
• Community: You can interact with Wave users to find answers to questions from other people who have used the software.
• Wave Advisors: Available for an additional fee, this virtual bookkeeping service gives you extra support.
• YouTube: Wave has a dedicated YouTube channel with more than 25 videos, many demonstrating how to use the software.

Takeaway: Users that anticipate a need for assistance with either setting up or using the software may not find the customer support experience that useful. While both ZipBooks and Wave do have limited support for free, you’ll need to pay for assisted bookkeeping for personal support.

Bottom Line

Both ZipBooks and Wave offer free plans for basic accounting needs, but ZipBooks has paid plans for more advanced features. ZipBooks also can track time and manage 1099 contractors, two features that aren’t available with Wave. Wave can handle multiple currencies while ZipBooks cannot. While Wave has two mobile apps for functions such as invoicing customers and receiving payments, the app for ZipBooks is currently discontinued.