Wave: Small Business Software

The phone end of a desktop accounting system. Wave's mobile app lets US and Canadian small business owners send invoices and estimates, see which have been paid, viewed or gone overdue, and capture receipts, with everything syncing to the Wave account on the desktop where the full accounting lives.

Invoices carry a logo and branding, estimates convert to invoices with a tap, a dashboard shows profit and loss and what's due, and optional online payments take card and bank transfer from clients. Receipt scanning costs extra on the Starter Plan but comes bundled with Pro, as do bank imports, reminders for late payers, additional users and live chat.

A freelancer's week: send an estimate from the van, convert it to an invoice when the job's agreed, get a notification when the client views it and another when the money lands. Receipts get photographed at the till and read by OCR into expenses. The dashboard answers the Friday question of what's overdue.

The heavy work, reports and reconciliation, happens on the desktop; the app is for the moments between, and it's designed to be opened and closed in under a minute.

Existing Wave users, mostly, who want their invoicing in a pocket. Freelancers, contractors and consultants in the US and Canada search for it because the desktop product is established and the app extends it. The paid-viewed-overdue status on each invoice is the feature that saves awkward follow-up emails. Receipt capture matters at tax time.

Business apps of this kind are forms, lists and a dashboard, and the five screenshots on the page should show an invoice, the status list and the profit and loss view. Expect a clean, corporate layout with status colours doing the work of telling you what's paid and what isn't. Branding on invoices means your logo appears, but the app's own look is likely neutral.