Wave Payments: Is Wave’s Invoicing & Payment Processing Service A Good Solution For Contractors?

There’s no shortage of payment processing options for sole proprietors and contractors. When you’re running a business by yourself, however, you’re probably going to look for labor-saving conveniences whenever you can get them. Wave, a popular accounting tool for freelancers, now offers integrated credit card processing with its (almost) free-to-use software.

Below, we’ll take a closer look at Wave’s payment system, what it has to offer small businesses, and how it stacks up against its competitors.

What Is Wave Payments?

Wave Payments is a payment processing service built into Wave, a software-as-a-service platform for freelancers and other self-employed workers.

Wave’s accounting features are well-suited to eCommerce and contract work, and its payment services are primarily geared toward accepting remote, card-not-present transactions as well as ACH payments.

How Do Wave Invoices Work?

Wave invoices can be created through the Wave web app under the Sales & Products heading. You’ll get three basic template choices, the ability to add your logo and choose an accent color. Simple, but effective.

Recurring invoices are created using a separate tool that sets specific customer and service information, along with how quickly payment is expected. You can also set a custom footer.

Invoices can be sent through Wave by email, exported as a PDF, or through a checkout link. There’s no limit to the number of invoices you can send through Wave.

Wave Fees & Pricing

Wave Payments allows you to accept the following types of payments:

• Visa
• Mastercard
• Discover
• American Express
• ACH transactions

Wave uses a flat-rate pricing model similar to what you’d find with Square, Stripe, or PayPal. That means card payments are processed at the same rate, regardless of interchange fees, type of transaction, transaction size, or volume. In general, flat-rate is the most beneficial to smaller businesses that don’t process a large volume of transactions, but it’s expensive for higher-volume businesses.

Unfortunately, Wave’s pricing comes up a little short compared to Square and Stripe. Visa, Mastercard, and Discover transactions are $0.30 more expensive. Additionally, American Express is processed at a higher fee. Keep in mind that it’s possible to integrate Stripe with Wave. Wave’s support for cheap ACH transactions is nice here, especially if you’re sending recurring invoices.

How Does Wave Pay Compare To Other Options?

Wave’s credit card processing services are part of the larger Wave platform. How Wave stacks up to other services is highly dependent on how valuable the platform as a whole is to your business.

Should You Use Wave Payments?

When it comes to using Wave Payments, a better question is whether you should use Wave in general. Wave’s processing fees generally aren’t competitive with those of the best payment processing companies. On the other hand, if you’re an existing Wave user or a freelancer/sole proprietor who makes use of Wave’s accounting tools, Wave’s payment processing services should be good enough to meet your modest transaction needs without signing up for a whole new service.

New to Wave and curious about how it works? Check out our Payroll By Wave Review to learn more about Wave!