Wave is the best free accounting option for a Canadian sole proprietor who is just starting out: the Starter plan costs CAD $0 and covers unlimited invoices, bills, and bookkeeping records. Once you need bank feeds, an accountant who logs in, card payments at volume, or payroll in Quebec, the costs change and other tools are worth comparing.

This review is for self-employed Canadians and very small businesses trying to decide whether Wave is enough, what it will actually cost once the business grows, and when it is time to move to QuickBooks Online or Xero.

How we evaluated

This is a research-based review. We did not use Wave hands-on. We read Wave's Canadian pricing page, its payroll page, and its help centre articles on payment fees, surcharging, sales tax setup, the sales tax report, bank connections, statement uploads, user roles, and subscription fees. We checked the tax rules against canada.ca.

We focused on the questions a Canadian owner has to answer before committing:

  • What the free plan includes, and what starts on Pro
  • What Pro, payments, and payroll cost in CAD
  • How GST, HST, PST, and QST are set up and reported
  • Whether your accountant can get in, and what that costs
  • What changes for Quebec businesses

Prices are regular list prices in Canadian dollars, checked September 2026. Tax information here is general, not advice. An accountant can tell you how to set up and report sales tax for your own business.

Pricing in Canada

Wave has two plans: Starter at CAD $0 and Pro at CAD $25 per month, or CAD $250 per year billed annually. Payroll and online payment fees are charged on top of either plan.

FeatureStarterPro
Price (CAD)$0$25/month or $250/year
Unlimited estimates, invoices, bills, bookkeeping records
Mobile app invoicing
Automatic bank transaction imports (via Plaid)
Auto-merge and categorize bank transactions
Unlimited receipt capture
Automated late payment reminders
Invite admins, editors, viewers (e.g. your accountant)
Remove Wave branding from invoices
Visa/Mastercard fee2.9% + $0.602.9% + $0 on first 10 a month, then 2.9% + $0.60
Bank payment fee1% (min $1)1% (min $1)
Payroll add-on (CAD/month)$25 + $6/employee + $6/contractor$25 + $6/employee + $6/contractor
Wave plans in Canada at regular list price in CAD, checked September 2026.

Paying annually for Pro saves CAD $50 a year compared with twelve monthly payments of CAD $25. In September 2026, Wave was also advertising a promotion for new monthly Pro subscribers: CAD $9.50 per month for the first 3 months, then the regular price. Budget for CAD $25, since that is what renews.

Wave's help centre says the subscription fee is per business profile. If you run two businesses in Wave, you pay for Pro twice. It also says you can switch plans, cancel, or reactivate at any time.

Wave also sells receipt scanning as a separate add-on for Starter users, and a paid bookkeeping service called Wave Advisors. We left both prices out because Wave's pages did not show them consistently in CAD when we checked.

What starts on Pro instead of the free plan?

Automatic bank imports, receipt capture, late payment reminders, and invited users start on Pro rather than the free Starter plan. For a new sole proprietor, bank imports matter most.

On Starter, every bank and credit card transaction reaches Wave in one of two ways: you type it in, or you download a statement from your bank and upload it. Wave accepts OFX, QBO, QFX, and ASO files, plus CSV (which Wave calls the more complex option). The statement must be in the same currency as the account you upload it into.

That is workable at low volume. If your business account sees 20 transactions a month, a monthly upload is a small job. If it sees 200, you are spending time that Pro, at CAD $25 a month, is meant to save.

The other difference is access. Wave's help centre says only Pro Plan subscribers can invite admins, editors, and viewers. The only role available on every plan is payroll manager, which has no access to your accounting or reports. On Starter, your accountant works from reports you export.

What does Wave cost once you need bank imports, payments, and payroll?

Wave costs nothing until you want automation or money movement. Bank feeds cost CAD $25 a month (Pro), payments cost a percentage of each invoice, and payroll starts at CAD $25 a month plus per-person fees.

Bank imports. Pro connects to your bank through Plaid. Wave's help centre says there is no limit on the number of bank accounts you connect, transactions generally update every 24 hours (up to 7 days depending on the bank), and you may be able to import up to 18 months of history. Wave's pricing page also says not all financial institutions are supported and it cannot guarantee a connection. Check that your bank and credit card connect before relying on Pro for bank feeds.

Online payments. Wave's fee schedule for Canadian businesses is:

  • Visa and Mastercard: 2.9% + $0.60 per transaction
  • American Express: 3.4% + $0.60 per transaction
  • Bank payment: 1% per transaction (minimum $1)

On Pro, the $0.60 is waived on your first 10 card transactions each month. Card payouts reach Canadian businesses in 1 business day and bank payments in 1 to 6 business days. Wave does not permit surcharging, so the fee comes out of your revenue.

On a CAD $1,000 invoice paid by Visa, Wave keeps CAD $29.60 on Starter, or CAD $29.00 if it is one of your first 10 card payments of the month on Pro. The most the Pro discount can save you is 10 times $0.60, or CAD $6 a month, so it does not pay for Pro on its own. The same invoice paid by bank payment costs CAD $10.

Payroll. Wave Payroll costs CAD $25 a month plus $6 per active employee and $6 per independent contractor paid, with a 30-day free trial. Wave's help centre says an employee counts as active if they work for you and are not on leave, even if they were not paid that period.

Here is what a year of Wave looks like at three stages:

StageMonthly cost (CAD)Yearly cost (CAD)
Starter only, no online payments$0$0
Pro, billed annuallyabout $20.83$250
Pro monthly plus payroll for 2 employees$25 + $25 + $12 = $62$744

Card and bank payment fees come on top, and they scale with your revenue rather than your plan.

How does Wave handle GST/HST?

Wave lets you set up each sales tax you charge, apply it to invoices and bills, and run a sales tax report. It does not prepare or file a GST/HST return.

You create each tax in your business settings with a name, rate, and your tax number, and you can show the number on invoices. So an Ontario business sets up 13% HST, an Alberta business 5% GST, and a Quebec business sets up both 5% GST and 9.975% QST. When a rate changes, you enter the new rate with an effective date, which matters when a province changes its HST (Nova Scotia's HST fell from 15% to 14% on April 1, 2025).

Two settings deserve care:

  • Recoverable. Mark GST/HST as recoverable so the tax you pay on business purchases (your input tax credits) reduces what you owe. Wave says you cannot change this setting after the tax is created.
  • Compound. Tick this only for a tax charged on top of another tax. Check with your accountant before using it for any Canadian tax.

Wave calculates sales tax per item, rounded to two decimal places. Rates by province are in our GST/HST and PST rates guide.

What does a "summary" sales tax report mean at filing time?

It means Wave gives you the numbers, and you do the filing. Wave's report totals your sales, tax collected, purchases, recoverable tax paid, and net tax owing for each tax over the dates you choose, and you copy those figures into your CRA return.

The report has two parts. The top section shows, per tax: sales subject to tax, tax on sales, purchases subject to tax, tax on purchases (only for recoverable taxes), and net tax owing. The bottom section tracks the starting balance, payments to the government, and the ending balance, which matches the tax account on your balance sheet. You can run it on an accrual or cash basis and export it as CSV or PDF. It is only available on the web version of Wave.

What to know about the report:

  • It is not laid out by CRA line numbers. You map Wave's totals to the return yourself.
  • It does not file. The CRA says GST/HST registrants with reporting periods beginning in 2024 or later must file electronically (charities and some financial institutions excepted). With Wave, that usually means typing the numbers into GST/HST NETFILE or My Business Account.
  • It does not pay. You pay the CRA outside Wave, then record the payment as a "Sales Tax Payment to Government" transaction so your balance clears.
  • It assumes the regular method. Net tax owing is tax collected minus recoverable tax paid. If you elected the quick method, you work out your remittance separately.

The CRA also expects a return for every reporting period, even when you had no sales. Monthly and quarterly filers file and pay 1 month after the period ends. Annual filers generally have 3 months after year end, but a sole proprietor with a December 31 year end files by June 15 and pays by April 30. Our tax deadlines calendar lists the dates and lets you add them to your calendar.

For a sole proprietor filing once a year with a few dozen transactions, a summary is usually enough. For a business filing quarterly, the manual mapping and payment recording each period is one of the better reasons to move to software with a GST/HST return screen.

Payroll, users, and support

Wave Payroll handles CRA remittances and year-end slips for employers outside Quebec. Your accountant can only log in on Pro, and support runs through Wave's chatbot and live agents.

When you use Wave's payroll direct deposit, Wave withdraws the payroll taxes along with wages, holds them in trust, and remits them to the CRA by the due date. It creates T4 slips for employees and T4A slips for contractors at year end, which its help centre says you then file outside Wave. Wave can also submit Records of Employment once you sign an authorization in your account. Our best payroll software in Canada review compares Wave with standalone payroll tools.

For help, Wave's help centre directs you to Mave, its automated chatbot, where you can request a support agent. The payroll page lists priority live chat Monday to Friday and email support for payroll customers.

What we like and what to know

Wave's strength is price: real double-entry bookkeeping and unlimited invoicing at CAD $0, with paid plans billed in CAD. As your business adds volume, people, or a Quebec payroll, paid features and other tools come into play.

Wave

Strengths

  • Starter plan is CAD $0 with unlimited invoices, bills, and bookkeeping records
  • Pro is CAD $25/month or CAD $250/year, billed in CAD
  • Separate GST, HST, PST, and QST taxes with effective-dated rate changes
  • Payroll from CAD $25/month with CRA remittances handled
  • Foreign currency invoices, bills, and bank accounts supported

Good to know

  • Automatic bank imports and invited users start on Pro
  • Bank feeds run through Plaid, so check that your institution connects
  • Sales tax report gives summary totals that you transfer to your GST/HST return
  • Payroll covers every province and territory except Quebec
  • Surcharging is not permitted, and the Pro card discount is up to CAD $6/month

Wave

3.5
Visit Wave (opens NorthVetted redirect)

Who Wave is for (and when another tool fits better)

Wave suits a sole proprietor in their first year or two, with modest transaction volume, no staff in Quebec, and an accountant happy to work from exported reports.

Wave is a good fit if you:

  • Are self-employed and not yet registered for GST/HST, or file annually
  • Send a manageable number of invoices and can upload a bank statement once a month
  • Want free double-entry books rather than a spreadsheet
  • Plan to hire outside Quebec and want payroll in the same system

Another tool may fit better if you:

  • Have or expect employees in Quebec
  • File GST/HST monthly or quarterly and want a return screen instead of a summary
  • Need inventory, job or class tracking, or budgeting, none of which Wave's plans list
  • Work with an accountant who uses QuickBooks or Xero and bills for time spent on your books

When to move to QuickBooks or Xero

Move when the time or accountant fees around Wave start to cost more than a subscription would. These are the triggers to watch for.

  1. You hire in Quebec. Wave Payroll does not cover it, and a second payroll system next to Wave adds reconciliation work.
  2. You are about to pay for Pro to get your accountant in. At CAD $25 a month, compare Wave Pro with the system your accountant already uses. Our Wave vs QuickBooks comparison lays out the plan-by-plan costs.
  3. Your bank does not connect through Plaid. Check whether your bank connects to QuickBooks or Xero before paying for Wave Pro.
  4. You start filing GST/HST quarterly. Mapping a summary to the return four times a year adds up. Our best accounting software in Canada review covers which tools produce a GST/HST return report instead.
  5. Your year-end cleanup bill is higher than a year of subscription. Wave Pro costs CAD $300 a year billed monthly, or CAD $250 on annual billing. If your accountant charges more than that to fix your books, a paid tool is likely the better value.

Time a switch to a quarter end or year end so your GST/HST periods do not split across two systems.

Alternatives to Wave

If Wave is not the right fit, QuickBooks Online is the most common next step in Canada, Xero is the choice if you want reconciliation-focused books, and Zoho Books is the lowest-cost paid option with bank feeds.

  • QuickBooks Online. Plans start with Lite at CAD $20 a month (one user, two bank connections, no accountant access), and QuickBooks Payroll supports Quebec employees. See Wave vs QuickBooks in Canada.
  • Xero. Starter is CAD $25 a month with 20 invoices and 5 bills a month; Standard at CAD $60 removes the caps. See Xero vs QuickBooks in Canada.
  • Zoho Books. Its free plan includes an accountant login and GST/HST return reports while revenue stays under C$50,000. See Zoho Books vs Wave.
  • Sage and FreshBooks. Compared in our best accounting software in Canada review.
  • Standalone payroll. If you like Wave's books but need Quebec payroll, see our Wagepoint review.

Our verdict

3.5

Wave is the right starting point for a Canadian sole proprietor who wants real bookkeeping for CAD $0 and is comfortable uploading bank statements, sharing reports by export, and filing GST/HST from a summary. Pro at CAD $25 a month adds bank feeds and accountant access, but check that your bank connects through Plaid first. Once you hire in Quebec, file GST/HST quarterly, or pay an accountant to rebuild your books, QuickBooks Online or Xero is worth the move.

Frequently asked questions

Is Wave really free in Canada?

Wave's Starter plan costs CAD $0 and includes unlimited estimates, invoices, bills, and bookkeeping records. You pay only for extras: Pro at CAD $25/month, online payment processing fees, payroll, or bookkeeping services.

Does Wave import my bank transactions for free?

No. Automatic bank imports are a Pro feature, and Pro's bank connections run through Plaid, which Wave says does not support every financial institution. On Starter, you can upload statements from your bank (OFX, QBO, QFX, ASO, or CSV files) or enter transactions yourself.

Does Wave file my GST/HST return?

No. Wave's sales tax report gives you totals for tax collected, recoverable tax paid, and net tax owing for each tax you set up. You transfer those numbers to the CRA yourself, for example through GST/HST NETFILE or My Business Account.

Can my accountant log in to Wave?

Only if you are on Pro. Wave's help centre says only Pro Plan subscribers can invite admins, editors, and viewers. On Starter, you export reports (CSV or PDF) and send them instead.

Does Wave Payroll work in Quebec?

No. Wave says its payroll is available in all provinces and territories except Quebec, so a Quebec employer on Wave needs a separate payroll provider.

Can I add a surcharge to cover Wave's card fees?

No. Wave's help centre says it does not have a feature to add processing fees to an invoice and does not permit surcharging.

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