Wave Payroll Review 2023: Pricing, Features, Pros and Cons

It’s also a good fit for businesses that pay seasonal employees. If you go to the dashboard, you’ll be able to track wages and taxes you’ve paid or assess payroll benefits and deductions. You’ll have more robust reporting options if you use Wave Accounting as this app allows for cash flow statements, sales tax reports, profit and loss statements and more.

• Read our QuickBooks Payroll review to help you gauge if its features fit your business needs.
• Wave Payroll offers a hybrid manual and automated payroll service.
• Wave Payroll’s state new hire reporting service is only limited to businesses located in one of the 14 states covered by its tax filing services.
• If you use Wave Accounting, you can view even more reports, such as profits and loss, cash flow, sales tax, and account transactions.
• Unlike other payroll solutions, Wave Payroll doesn’t have relationships with benefits providers.
• It lets you run payroll in a matter of minutes and provides you with the information you need for filing taxes—or, if you are in one of the states it services, it files them for you.

With a base price of $40.00 per month, Gusto is the costlier option compared to Wave’s base price of $20.00. Gusto is a reliable software, as is Wave, but Gusto features multi-state payroll functions, automatic net-to-gross calculations, and lifetime accounts for employees, which Wave Payroll lacks. Wave Payroll is cloud-based payroll software designed to help small business owners simplify and automate payroll processes while remaining compliant with taxes and deductions. This is an additional service that is only available in the U.S. and Canada. You can also use its self-service payroll with do-it-yourself tax filings for only $20 plus $6 per worker monthly. Wave Payroll automatically calculates, withholds and pays federal and state taxes for businesses in 14 U.S. states.

Wave Payroll

If you include an employee’s email address when entering their information in Wave Payroll, they’ll receive an invitation to connect to it. Since Wave Payroll was specifically created for startups and small businesses with limited to no payroll processing experience, the interface is easy to use. No matter how tech-savvy you are or aren’t, you’ll find the setup process simple as there are step-by-step instructions and a 24/7 chatbot to guide you. Wave Payroll is fairly basic with minimal features so you shouldn’t get overwhelmed as you might with more comprehensive payroll solutions. TriNet Zenefits is also more affordable than Wave Payroll, with a base monthly price of $10.00 for its payroll-inclusive plan, compared to $20.00.

• Our payroll software makes it easy to pay yourselves, your employees and contractors accurately and on-time.
• You’ll use the same process when entering hours worked for hourly employees, though you’ll also be filling out the regular hours line.
• You may also use filters and choose the data you need to customize the reports you need.
• Wave Payroll also offers plan downgrade and cancellation options, including a Limited Access tier that allows you to temporarily pause payroll.
• The Square Payroll is a perfect companion if you already use the company’s popular point-of-sale (POS) system.

Wave Payroll’s dashboard offers a quick summary of payroll-related information, including upcoming start and end pay dates as well as a pay date. Also included on the dashboard is a Things to Do list as well as quick access to payroll setup and approved payroll. Wave Payroll also lacks benefits add-ons beyond workers compensation packages. Gusto, for instance, offers not only workers compensation plans but also health benefits administration and other employee benefits add-ons.

Manage your money like a boss

Essentially, running payroll yourself just means reviewing the numbers and pressing a button on the software to pay out your employees. But nothing can match the convenience of scheduling automatic payroll runs, so if you’re looking for more thorough automation, Paychex or ADP could be a better fit. The easiest payroll software depends on what your company’s needs are. Some of the best payroll services that are also easy to use include OnPay, Gusto and ADP RUN. Time tracking is available through timesheets, which can give you the chance to keep tabs on the hours your employees and independent contractors work. Unfortunately, there is currently no way for workers to fill out timesheets on their own.

What are some Wave Payroll alternatives?

And luckily, these other tools are similarly user-friendly and visually stunning. If a super easy-to-use payroll software is your dream, Wave Payroll delivers. Its user interface is gorgeous and focuses on point-and-click simplicity. Wave Payroll currently only offers chat support, though a good knowledge base with numerous payroll-related articles and step-by-step instructions is also available.

How Wave Payroll Works

Create beautiful invoices, accept online payments, and make accounting easy—all in one place—with Wave’s suite of money tools. We totally get it—running payroll for your small business can seem like a daunting task, especially when you’ve got so much on your plate. That’s why a payroll software like Wave’s can help ease the burden of doing payroll on your own. G2 shows more than 25 customer reviews of Wave Payroll with a 4.1-star rating.

Both packages come with the same payroll features, like multiple pay schedules, free direct deposits, paid time off (PTO) accruals, employee self-service tools, and tax payment reminders. Its plans, prices, and features are fairly standard, comparable to competitors like SurePayroll and Square Payroll. But impairment of assets‚s full-service payroll plan is only available in 14 states, so if you want fully automated tax filing in all 50 states, Wave might not be right for you. While Wave Payroll is a basic payroll solution without all the bells and whistles, OnPay is more robust. Plus there’s a handy mobile app employees can use to track and manage their PTO. If you like it, you provide your payment info then and you’ll pay monthly to use the software.

Taxes? Tackled. Now make payroll pain-free.

While Wave Payroll isn’t the most robust payroll solution on the market, it will get the job done if you’re a startup or small business in search of basic payroll capabilities. It’s particularly ideal if you operate in one of the 14 states it files taxes in automatically and appreciate an easy-to-use interface without a lot of extras or clutter. Wave Payroll is a good option for very businesses with simple payroll needs. It lets you run payroll in a matter of minutes and provides you with the information you need for filing taxes—or, if you are in one of the states it services, it files them for you.