WAVEAPPS.COM One of the many wonderful things offered online is free software. Everything from word processing to the software that powers this website. For businesses, there has never been a time where owners can be more productive for less money than today. One powerful business tool is accounting software. The biggest player for small business software is Intuit’s Quickbooks.
Back in the days before Microsoft and laptops, the technology leader was IBM. There used to be a saying that “You never get fired for going with big blue,” meaning that as long as you go with the leader, you won’t get fired for going with a cheaper less-productive alternative. Obviously, those days are gone with IBM, but there’s something to be said about Quickbooks. It’s a great program with lots of fans and accountants so if you do use it, you’ll likely be as happy with the product as you will with any.
But for some small businesses, especially the smaller businesses that are operating on a shoestring budget or small revenue, Quickbooks might be an expense that’s not warranted. A great alternative solution is Wave Accounting from Waveapps.com. It happens to be the same software 1 Reason uses for accounting and works great. Is it as good as Quickbooks? I’m not sure because I think the two are close enough for most small businesses that it may come down to personal preference.
In my book, when two solutions are so close that there isn’t a clear winner, but one is free and the other is hundreds of dollars a year, the free one is the winner. If you haven’t picked your business accounting software yet, or are looking for a way to save some cash, Wave might be the solution you’re looking for.
According to Waveapps (and/or my own experience) you can do the following all for free:
- Accounting and reports
- Creating and sending invoices and estimates
- Receipt scanning
- Personal finance
- Client tracking
Waveapps offers payroll, credit card processing, and assistance for extra. I currently don’t use any of the value-added offerings so I can’t speak to the value, but I can say every interaction with the company has been pleasant. For a free service, that’s impressive. I think the receipt scanning could be improved, but again, it’s free and pretty good