Accounting & bookkeeping Invoicing & billing Payments

Wave review

by Wave (H&R Block)

Free and low-cost accounting and invoicing software that lets a trade owner send invoices, track income and expenses, and take card or bank payments without paying much (or anything) for the books.

What it costsas of August 2026

Starter: $0/moUnlimited invoices, estimates and bookkeeping
Pro: $16/moBilled annually at $190/yr; $19 month to month

Payments cost 2.9% + $0.60 per card charge (3.4% + $0.60 for Amex) and 1% for bank and ACH payments with a $1 minimum, though Pro waives the per-transaction fee on the first 10 card charges each month. Payroll is a separate add-on at $40/mo plus $6 per active employee or contractor paid.

Read our full Wave review

What Wave does

Pricing & terms

Starts atThe real monthly cost to get in the door, before add-ons.

Free forever on Starter; Pro is $16/mo billed yearly or $19 month to month

How pricing worksFlat tiers, per user, or per job. This decides how fast the bill grows as you add people.

Free tier plus one flat paid tier, not per user; payroll and payments cost extra

Free trial or planCan you try it with your own jobs before paying?

The free Starter plan is real and unlimited, so you can run on it as long as you like

ContractMonth-to-month vs a year-plus commitment you can't easily leave.

Month to month, cancel anytime; pay yearly on Pro to save a little

Fit & support

Ease of useHow hard it is to get a non-technical crew actually using it.

Invoicing is simple; squaring up the books is more on you, with no demo account

SupportWhat owners say about reaching a human when something breaks.

Live chat and email only if you pay; free users get a chatbot and help articles

What it does

Bank feedsPulls transactions from your bank so the books stay current without typing.

Automatic bank imports need Pro; on the free plan you key transactions in yourself

Expenses & receiptsSnap a receipt from the truck and have it land in the right place.

Expense tracking is free, but photo receipt capture needs Pro or an $8/mo add-on

Profit & loss reportingSee whether the year is actually making money, by job or overall.

Profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow and sales tax reports; filters are basic

Tax prep & filingGets you ready for tax time without a shoebox of paper.

Tracks and reports sales tax, but files nothing unless you buy the payroll add-on

Syncs with job softwareTalks to your field-service tool so invoices are not entered twice.

No direct tie-in to Jobber or Housecall Pro; only Zapier workarounds

Alternatives to Wave

Other tools that do the same job for a trade business. Prices are what each vendor publishes, dated when we checked.

FreshBooks

Cloud accounting built around invoicing and time tracking, so a trade owner can bill customers, log hours, track expenses, and take card payments from one account.$23/mo Lite, but that caps you at 5 billable clients

QuickBooks Online

Cloud accounting that tracks your income and expenses, sends invoices, and takes card and bank payments so your books stay current without a spreadsheet.Solopreneur $20/mo; Simple Start $38, Essentials $75, Plus $115, Advanced $275

Xero

Cloud accounting software that handles the books, invoicing, bill payment, and bank reconciliation for a trade business, and connects to field-service tools your bookkeeper or accountant can log into.$25/mo Early (20 invoices, 5 bills); Growing $55, Established $90

FieldEdge

Established HVAC and plumbing field-service software with strong QuickBooks integration.Quote only. Owners report about $100 to $150 per user per month.

FieldPulse

A growing mid-tier field-service platform pitched as a step up from starter apps without enterprise cost.About $99/mo for 1-3 users, up to ~$399/mo at 10+ users

GorillaDesk

Field-service software popular with pest-control and lawn-care operators.From about $49/mo (Basic), priced per route

Housecall Pro

Field-service management for home-service trades, strong on dispatching, service agreements, and customer marketing.$59/mo (Basic, billed annually)

Jobber

Simple, well-liked field-service software for solo operators and small crews.$29/mo (Core, 1 user, billed annually)

How we research this

Pricing comes from Wave (H&R Block)'s own pricing pages and is dated at the time we checked it. Features are taken from the vendor's documentation, not from a sales call. We are independent and rank on fit, never on what a tool pays us. See how we review.