Tools
Wave Invoicing Alternative: Bundled Accounting or Just the Document
Wave is an accounting product that includes invoicing, with card and bank payment processing alongside it. Comparing it to a browser-based invoice generator is really a question about how much software you want between you and a PDF.
By Arshad Hossain · Published
The short version
- Wave's invoicing sits inside an accounting product — the bookkeeping is the point.
- Payment processing is where bundled products make their money, and it is priced per transaction.
- A generator produces the document and nothing else, which is sometimes exactly right.
- Verify current pricing and availability on Wave's own page; both have changed before.
What bundling buys and what it costs
The argument for a bundled product is real. An invoice that already exists in your bookkeeping does not need re-entering, payments reconcile against it automatically, and at tax time the numbers are already in one place. If you are running a business that needs books, that integration is worth more than the invoice itself.
The cost is that you are adopting an accounting system, with the setup, the account, the learning and the hosted data that implies. For someone issuing a handful of invoices a year, that is a lot of product for one document.
Where the money is
Products that offer free invoicing alongside payment processing generally make their money on the processing, charged as a percentage of each payment plus a fixed fee. That is a normal and transparent model — but it means "free invoicing" and "free to get paid" are different claims, and only the first one is usually being made.
If most of your clients pay by bank transfer, processing fees may never apply to you and the bundled product is genuinely free at the point of use. If you want clients paying by card from the invoice, price that in per transaction on the volume you actually expect.
When you do not need any of it
A generator does one thing: it produces the document. No account, no books, no processing, nothing stored on a server. For occasional invoicing, or for someone whose accounting already happens elsewhere, that is not a reduced version of a bundled product — it is the whole requirement.
It is also the answer when your accountant already handles the books. Adopting a second accounting system so you can send an invoice is a strange trade, and it is one people make surprisingly often because the invoicing was the thing they searched for.
| Bundled product (Wave) | Browser generator (QuillBill) | |
|---|---|---|
| Sign-up | Account required | None |
| Bookkeeping | Built in | Not included |
| Take card payments | Yes, per-transaction fees | No |
| Where documents live | Vendor infrastructure | Your browser |
| Reconciliation | Automatic | Manual, elsewhere |
| Setup effort | Meaningful | None |
Checking the current position
Pricing, regional availability and which features sit behind a paid tier have all moved in this category before, and Wave is no exception. Anything this page said about specific figures would be stale before you read it.
Wave's pricing page is the source to act on, and it is worth checking availability for your country as well as price — payment processing in particular is not offered everywhere.
Choosing between them: common questions
What is a good alternative to Wave for invoicing?
If you want the bookkeeping, you need another accounting product. If you only ever wanted the invoice, a browser-based generator removes the account and the setup entirely, at the cost of tracking and reconciliation.
Is free invoicing software really free?
The invoicing usually is. The money is generally made on payment processing, charged per transaction, so "free invoicing" and "free to get paid" are separate claims. If your clients pay by transfer, the fees may never reach you.
Do I need accounting software to send invoices?
No. An invoice is a document; accounting software is a system for recording what happens to it. If your books are handled elsewhere or you invoice rarely, adopting an accounting product to send one document is a poor trade.
What happens to my invoices if a free tool shuts down?
With a hosted product you depend on exporting in time, which is why checking the export format before you commit matters. With a browser-based tool the PDFs and JSON files you already saved are unaffected by anything the vendor does.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I accept card payments through QuillBill?
Which should a brand new business pick?
Sources
- Wave pricing — Wave Financial
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