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A Review of Wave Accounting Software

Did you know Wave Accounting Software is a free alternative to more expensive accounting software like QuickBooks and Sage? Despite its lack of capabilities, Wave’s boundless expenditure tracking and free invoicing make it a perfect choice for many freelancers. 

Most things in life, including Wave Accounting and Wave’s other free programs such as Wave Invoicing and Payments by Wave, have some limits. In general, its free accounting and bookkeeping software provide freelancers and solopreneurs with accurate, uncomplicated accounting support for the wonderful price of zero dollars.

When you work for yourself, you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars a month on pricey accounting software. Wave accounting software could be a good fit. It crunches numbers and handles payments swiftly.

In addition to freelancers and independent contractors, Wave might also be utilized by small businesses with employees. Payments for payroll or customer payments are not included. Some of its accounting software is updated with new features, but the corporation is continually making subtle internal tweaks that could improve your day-to-day accounting operations. Customer statements and cash basis reporting are among the new features Wave has implemented since our last study. Earlier this year, H&R Block bought the Wave software company.

What are the other costs to use Wave?

Whereas other firms charge for their services, Wave’s primary accounting operations are free.  Payment processing charges per transaction are 2.9 percent + 30 cents (3.4 percent plus 30 cents per transaction for American Express). Bank payments are subject to a 1 percent fee, with a $1 minimum. As a base service, Wave Payroll costs $35 per month, plus $6 per employee or contract. For freelancers and others who cherish every dollar, Wave’s free status is a big plus.

For small businesses, Wave’s lack of a monthly fee may not be a problem. A four-tiered price structure is available for QuickBooks Online users. If you want to start small, you can do so, and then upgrade to a full-featured version when you need it. QuickBooks Simple Start costs $25 a month, while QuickBooks Advanced costs $150 a month, according to the company’s website. QuickBooks Plus ($70 a month) is the most popular product in the line. They all offer 30-day free trials and 50 percent off the first three months of service.

Great Setup Tools

While registering for Wave, you’ll be taken through Wave’s onboarding process. What is the first step in the setup process? You submit your name, company name, and industry. In the beginning, I chose accounting. Following this, the wizard asks you some questions about your work efforts. Using drop-down choices, you enter your responses before moving on to options such as connecting your bank or controlling your transactions and setting up sales tax, among others. A step that requires further preparation will be directed to this page. Click the Launchpad button to return to the original setup options if you’ve completed all the essential steps in one segment.

About this step, there’s conflicting feelings. If you click on it, you will be sent to your Chart of Accounts. Depending on which categories you create, you can add, amend, or archive the accounts you create. Bank and credit card accounts are a given.    

In addition to utilizing the website’s toolbar and Settings menu to set up Wave, you’re less likely to make a mistake by using the dedicated setup procedure. Around the fact that the settings menu is always available; you can add and change information as needed and read through Wave’s options before you start, especially if you haven’t completed the entire setup procedure.

The fact that Wave is built on data sharing makes it essential that you link to your financial account. You can enter transactions manually, but it’s nearly impossible to run a business this way because you won’t know whether deposits and withdrawals have cleared until your monthly statement comes. Transactions can be downloaded for both corporate and personal use. Use the categories Personal Expenses or Withdrawal and Deposits from Personal to categorize these transactions for bookkeeping purposes. When you log in, the site updates your information every time you log in.

Smooth operation

Simple to use is a claim made by all online accounting services. Wave lives up to its billing and delivers on its promises. In many ways, it’s even easier to use than FreshBooks. While Wave adheres to the concepts of double-entry accounting, it does the grunt labour behind the scenes. As such, QuickBooks Online has the same limitations as QuickBooks Desktop. Although it has a wide range of features, non-accountants may quickly learn how to use it and keep track of their accounts, despite its comprehensive capabilities.

Wave pros and cons

A week-long Starz trial on Amazon Prime is not Wave—you won’t be hit with an unexpected credit card charge a month later because you forgot to cancel. When you sign up with Wave, you don’t need to supply any credit card information; just your email address and a password.

Aside from freelancers and solopreneurs, Wave can also be beneficial to other small business owners. For starters, the company’s payroll plans are affordable: It costs $20 per month to subscribe to Wave’s self-service plan (see below). As a result, if you’re looking to package accounting and payroll, Wave’s full-service payroll plan starts at $35 per month.

There are 14 states in which Wave’s full-service payroll is not available at this time. All 50 states are covered by most other major payroll firms, like Gusto and QuickBooks Online, so if you need payroll tax service, you’ll want to seek elsewhere.

If you’re self-employed, you won’t have to worry about paying your employees. Both freelancers and small-business owners with employees will find that Wave’s only mobile apps are its invoicing and receipt apps, which is a downside for both. It has garnered positive reviews on both the Apple App Store and Google Play (which is pretty rare in the world of small-business accounting apps). You’re out of luck, however, if you were hoping to use Wave to do accounting on the go.

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Etsy Listing Fees, Shipping Fees & Other Charges: What Does It Cost to Sell Here?

For artists and designers, Etsy is no less than a blessing. It is the best place for creative people to turn their hobbies into an online business. With Etsy, sellers don’t have to worry about paying any rent, taking care of inventory, or even hiring employees to manage their store. 

Sellers on Etsy can only focus on making creative designs. They don’t need to know how to make a website or market their products to people. Etsy does it all for them. 

However, one problem that many sellers face with Etsy is their complex fee structure. We will break down all the different types of Etsy fees so you can have a clear idea of the cost involved before starting your online store on Etsy. 

The Standard and Plus Plans on Etsy

The standard plan does not cost anything monthly. However, there are additional listing fees, payment processing fees, delivery fees, and many other kinds of fees that you need to pay. 

The plus account would cost sellers $10/month. You get all the advantages of the standard plan along with some additional benefits. 

Some of the additional benefits are:

  • 15 free listings monthly (worth $3)
  • $5 Etsy ads credit
  • Special discounts on custom domains
  • Additional tools for better shop customization

Various Fees that Etsy sellers have to pay

Etsy requires the sellers to pay fees for various purposes. Some of the charges are flat fees, while others are percentage-based. We will talk about all of them so you can estimate the cost of running an Etsy store. 

Listing Fees

The fee for listing each item on Etsy is $0.2. It doesn’t mean that you can sell multiple identical items for just one listing fee of $0.2. For example, if you are selling five identical signboards on Etsy, you would have to pay a listing fee of $1 combined for them.

Transaction Fees

Transaction fees in Etsy are different from what sellers pay for payment processors. Transaction fees of 5% per sale are Etsy’s commission for using their platform. The transaction fees don’t cover wrapping and product customization. 

There is also a shipping transaction fee that sellers need to pay. The charge is 5% of the shipping price. 

You don’t have to pay 5% fees on your sales tax if you are from the USA or Canada. For sellers from other countries, additional charges may be applicable on sales tax. 

Payment Processing Fees

Etsy has payment processors you will use if you belong to one of the 36 eligible countries that support the system. The fee for each Etsy payment processing is 3% of the total payment plus $0.25.

If you are not from one of the 36 eligible countries, you can use PayPal or Square, which typically costs 2.9% plus $0.30 processing for each payment.

Etsy Pattern Fees

If you are looking to create an online store, you should check out Etsy Pattern. It costs $15/month and allows you to list products for free for an unlimited time. 

The pattern store links with your Etsy seller account. You can also try it for free for 30 days to see if it suits your needs.  

Square In-Person Selling Fees

Etsy has teamed up with Square to provide sellers an option to collect in-person payment. It is necessary to own a square card reader to be eligible for this option. 

Everything is like usual, except instead of the 5% transaction fees, you would be paying Square processing fees. For each transaction, the Square processing fee is 2.6% plus $0.10.

Currency Conversion fees

Sellers should set the listings in the same currency as their payout currency. However, if sellers don’t do that, the cost of currency conversion is 2.5% of the total amount. 

You can also avoid this if you are using PayPal as a payment processor.

Etsy Ad Fees

You can choose to market your listings on Etsy using in-house ads. The cost for advertisement follows a pay-per-click system. The PPC is determined depending on the demand of the ad space. Sellers have the option to set a maximum budget for each day. The ads would stop running when that budget is reached.

Offsite Etsy Ads

The Etsy offsite ads are a new feature for all to use. It is mandatory for all sellers, and the only sellers who are given the option to opt-out who made sales less than $10,000 in a year. 

The ads are displayed on platforms like Facebook, Google, Bing, and others. The sale counts if someone clicked on an ad for one of your products and buys products from your online shops. 

The fees for these ads can be between 12% and 15%, depending on your sales. For sellers crossing annual sales of $10,000, the fee is 15%, while sellers who make sales below that have to pay 12% advertising fees.  

How can you start your online store on Etsy?

After knowing all the associated fees and you are still willing to open an online store with Etsy, you will need the following things.

Etsy Account

You would need to create an Etsy account. It can be a standard or a plus account. You can then choose the currency for your shop, the name of the shop, and set up other preferences.

Products

You should have products available to list on your Etsy shop. To make an Etsy listing, you would need product photos, title, and product description. 

Billing Account

You need to verify your billing account to confirm your identity and also allow Etsy to charge your fees automatically. 

Payment Account

You can use Etsy’s payment processor, or you can choose other payment processors like PayPal and Square. It is also possible to use the mail to receive payments as checks from your customers. 

Conclusion

Etsy takes care of the many needs of creative design sellers, but are the fees they charge worth it? Is it better to sell on eBay? Those are answers that you have to find for yourself. We hope that our breakdown of Etsy fees helped you get a clear picture of what you would manage.

Merchant Services: Statement Sleuth

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The Official Merchant Services Blog is here to share information with merchants to get them better prepared to understand how the payment processing industry works. This premise stems from Host Merchant Services and its philosophy to bring trust to the industry.

Payment processing can be confusing. And nowhere is that more evident than in a merchant’s processing statement. One of the ways some processors make their money is by hiding fees within the arcane labyrinth of a monthly statement, making the fees and the numbers difficult to understand.

Host Merchant Services believes that when one of its merchants receives their statement every month, that merchant should understand the items on the statement and that the fees should match what was promised in the sales process.

So in an attempt to help everyone understand that process better, The Official Merchant Services Blog is going to shine a spotlight on statements and see what there is to see.

What Is a Merchant Statement?

Every month, you receive a Merchant Statement from the company that processes your transactions. These transactions include Debit and Credit Card Transactions. This statement summarizes your net sales for all the cards that you process. It also provides your monthly transaction volume as well as provides you with an itemized list of your daily transactions. You can also see the majority of your debit and credit card processing fees. This is where we’re going to shine the spotlight, as this is where fees get hidden. Your fees on your statement include:

  • your transaction fee
  • your monthly discount rate for your Credit Cards
  • your monthly terminal fee (if you do not own your credit/debit card machine).
  • your Interchange charges
  • any chargebacks
  • third-party transactions
  • credit adjustments

The tricky part about these fees is that each company assembles their statement in a different way. Each payment processing provider has a unique statement layout structure, so most of the characteristics of the statement are the same but are put there in a different order. It forces merchants –– especially those who have used more than one processor in their time in business –– to do all of the eagle-eyed investigating themselves.

We’ll stick to the basics and then when that’s done, we’ll take a moment to explain why Host Merchant Services might be a little less confusing than other Payment Network Providers.

Card Deposit Summary

It’s pretty common for the Card Deposit Summary to be prominently displayed in a merchant statement. A lot of times it’s the first item a merchant will see on their statement. The phrasing may be a tad different –– perhaps it’s called a fund summary –– but for the most part it’s the opening line on each merchant services provider’s statement. The summary tends to include a laundry list of statement data, such as:

  • Amount of transactions incurred in that month
  • The dollar amount of those transactions
  • What credit cards were used
  • Any discount or coupon usage charges

Often this information is presented as individual daily line items, but some payment processors may combine all the data into one section.

Credit Card Fee Summaries

After the deposit summary information, most statements provide some sort of variation of how much the credit card issuer charged per transaction. This is usually called the Summary of Card Fees. As we explained in a previous blog series, a lot of payment processors offer a tiered pricing plan. And this is the section of the statement where you will see fees being charged for “qualified transactions.” That term specifically relates to your qualified tier in the pricing plan you signed up for. This section should include any fees, discounts and rates applied to transactions made through your merchant count. Most payment processors provide a complete list of card fee categories in this section, since qualified and non-qualified pricing tiers differ. Also included should be a listing for gross sales amounts per credit card and any fees and discounts applied to specific card transactions.

Transaction Fees

This section is an extension of the Summary of Card Fees section. This section lists each fee related to card transactions in dollar amounts. This can be a daunting section to sift through as the terminology used in this section is extensive. There is no shortage of card fee categories, and you’ll see chargebacks and batch header fees and ACH return fees mentioned here. This is why Host Merchant Services says payment processing can be confusing. The statements sometimes overwhelm merchants with tiny fees and cryptic buzzwords. Within that morass, the black hat companies will hide fees that some merchants aren’t aware they are paying or –– even worse –– aren’t aware they don’t even need to pay.

No Hidden Fees Guarantee

Now that some light has been shed upon the statement, and we can see where the fees get hidden and where the confusion takes place, it’s time to take a look at a much simpler way of doing this: Host Merchant Services offers a processing plan with no hidden fees. The company offers its merchants an Interchange Plus pricing plan. So right off the bat, there are no tiered pricing plan issues, so its merchants are not hit with “non-qualified” tier penalties and fees. Host Merchant Services also eschews a long-term contract. So there is no application or set up fee. No annual fee. No Non AVS Adjustment fee. Host Merchant Services does not penalize you with termination fees. Host Merchant Services also does not lock its merchants into contracts for equipment. The company provides free equipment, including free terminal paper. The prices that the company quotes during the application process are grandfathered, and will not increase at all during the lifetime of the business relationship.

It’s a simple and straightforward plan, really. Host Merchant Services shows you exactly what you will be charged on your monthly statement. The company has swept away many of the added charges that other companies hide on statement fees. And then the company sticks to the plan they quoted its merchant. The company will be happy to review your statement and help you find areas where you can save money each month.

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For more information contact the company here.

So monthly statements may be extremely confusing –– to the point where one thinks it is being done on purpose. But using some of the guidelines put forth here, or using Host Merchant Services itself, you can find your way through the puzzle that is payment processing.