Wave Payroll Review

Pros

• Easy to use
• Inexpensive
• Integration with Wave’s free accounting software

Cons

• Full service not available in all 50 states
• Limited features and integrations
• Poor customer service
• No built-in time tracking

What Is Wave Payroll?

Wave Payroll is a simple payroll solution for small businesses needing basic payroll features, such as direct deposit, deductions, check-printing, and much more. Wave Payroll’s seamless integration with Wave Accounting makes it one of the best payroll software options for businesses in need of a combined accounting and payroll solution.

Wave Payroll offers many basic payroll features and works seamlessly with Wave’s accounting features like invoicing, expense tracking, and basic inventory reporting. Its full-service model is a definite rival of Intuit QuickBooks, but Wave offers a more modern and basic interface at a cheaper price point.

Wave Payroll Pricing

Wave’s 3.5/5 star rating in the pricing category is actually among one of the highest scores awarded in this category. The software’s score was boosted by its pricing, free trial, selection of add-ons, and pricing transparency.

Compared to other payroll solutions, Wave Payroll’s pricing is on the lower end — as is the number of features it supports.

Wave Payroll’s two pricing packages, Tax Service States and Self-Service States, respectively, offer full-service and self-service payroll.

Here’s a look at Wave Payroll’s pricing plans:

Wave Payroll’s full-service payroll package is only available in 14 states, including Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Customers in the other 36 states are consigned to Wave Payroll’s self-service package by default and must handle payroll taxes by themselves.

In addition to offering a free 30-day trial, Wave Payroll’s subscription-based pricing model is transparent, with no setup fees or hidden charges.

Wave Payroll Self-Service States

Wave Payroll’s Self-Service States plan costs $20/month + $6 per person paid and includes:

• Direct deposit
• Scheduled payroll runs
• Calculates paychecks
• Self-service check printing
• Employee self-service portal
• Calculations for vacations, benefits, PTO

Wave Payroll Tax Service States

Full-service is $35/month + $6 per person and includes everything from Self Service States, plus:

• Tax filing and reporting services

Extra Wave Payroll Costs & Fees

Outside of worker’s compensation insurance through Next Insurance, there are no extra costs or fees associated with Wave Payroll’s services. However, if your business intends to use any of Wave’s other software tools, you’ll need to cover the costs associated with each tool or service.

More specifically, Wave Payments pricing starts at 2.9% + $0.60 per credit card transaction and 1% per transaction for AHC payments. If your business needs tax, bookkeeping, or accounting advisory services, Wave Advisor will provide them at a starting price of $149/month.

Is Wave Payroll Easy To Use?

Wave payroll earned a low 2.9/5 star rating in the ease of use category, as the software can be tedious to set up, lacks many integrations, and doesn’t offer any white glove set up options.

However, if you’re already familiar with Wave Accounting, Wave Payroll’s cloud-based system will seem familiar and easy to get used to. Wave Payroll is great for those needing a simple interface, intuitive categories, and not a ton of ways to get turned around inside of a program.

However, despite its simplicity, onboarding new employees can be a bit cumbersome, although Wave has a self-onboarding option for companies to offer to employees. Further, Wave Payroll’s integration options are very limited compared to other software and require the use of Zapier, rather than offering direct integrations.

Features

Compared to other payroll software, Wave Payroll offers a very limited feature set, which ultimately drove the software’s feature rating down to a 3.2/5 stars.

While the software provides just enough features to run payroll, there are so many basic features missing that you’d expect from payroll processing software. Wave Payroll doesn’t support off-cycle payroll runs, multistate payroll is a technicality, full-service tax support is nonexistent in 36 states, built-in time-tracking isn’t a thing, and the list goes on. What you may gain in affordability, you lose in functionality.

However, that’s not to say that Wave Payroll is bad payroll software. On the contrary, it’s a great payroll software for businesses with basic payroll needs. Additionally, Wave is perfect for small businesses already using Wave products or businesses looking to integrate simple accounting software with payroll software.

Drill down to learn more about Wave Payroll’s specific features.

Wave Payroll Customer Service

Unfortunately, Wave Payroll has a lot of room for growth in its customer service offerings — earning a low 2.1/5 stars in the category. Wave Payroll lost points in this category due to its very limited support options and self-service resources.

While Wave Payroll lacks phone support, users can access live support through text and email from 9 AM to 5 PM EST. For the busy business owner, Wave Payroll’s customer service options are limited and may not be useful in an emergency.

Here’s a full look at Wave Payroll’s support options:

However, Wave Payroll’s help center is fully-fledged and consistently updated. Additionally, posts in Wave’s community forum get addressed quickly.

Wave Payroll Reviews

Wave Payroll earned a solid 4.1/5 stars in the review category, as users generally approve of the software.

Businesses that use Wave Payroll are generally happy about their experience. The software earned an average of 4.2/5 stars across popular user review collection platforms.

While the complaints are few, some negative experiences include frustration at the lack of features and reporting options, plus an inability to talk to a real human (compounded by Mave the Bot’s occasionally confusing responses to questions).

Negative Wave Payroll Reviews & Complaints

• Limited integrations
• Limited features
• No phone support

Positive Wave Payroll Reviews

• Easy to use
• Affordable

Wave Payroll Integrations

Wave Payroll doesn’t publish a list of its integrations but does integrate with Google Sheets and Zapier, which functions as a bridge to over 1,000 applications. It also has an open API and, of course, integration with native Wave software.

Is Wave Payroll Secure?

Wave Payroll’s security measures are on par with those of banking institutions. The platform works hard to keep your data safe.

Wave Payroll’s security features include:

• 256-bit data encryption
• Read-only bank connection
• Internal fraud prevention system
• PCI-DSS compliance
• Tokenization

Final Verdict: Is Wave Payroll Worth It?

Wave is an excellent option for payroll and accounting software for small businesses. Wave’s entire mission is to bring robust accounting, payments, and payroll programs to more small businesses. If you already love using Wave’s free accounting software and don’t mind a simple payroll system without a ton of robust features, Wave’s payroll software could be a solid, inexpensive fit.

However, any business looking to offer healthcare options, a 401(k), or that needs to send garnishments will find Wave Payroll lacking. And if you have more than 20 employees, Wave Payroll isn’t your best choice.

Check out our Gusto review or SurePayroll review for comparable options with stronger payroll features and HR support. Each of these Wave Payroll alternatives offers more support and operates in more states than Wave.

Payroll Software Review Methodology

We research, evaluate, and test each payroll software app that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on key characteristics to generate granular ratings.

Our exhaustive, 76-point rubric guides the star rating of each payroll provider we review, examining pricing, ease of use, features, customer service, and user reviews. Each section is weighted differently.

• Pricing (10% of the overall rating)
• Ease of Use (20% of the overall rating)
• Features (40% of the overall rating)
• Customer Service (20% of the overall rating)
• User Reviews (10% of the overall rating)

When rating payroll software, we are looking for very specific qualities. The speed and cost of payroll runs and the availability of tax filing services are given high weight, as are the quality and availability of accounting, time-tracking, HR integrations, and user onboarding services. We also look for the presence of client and employee portals, benefits administration, PTO and time management tools, and many more vital features.

Learn more about how we rate payroll software providers.

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