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Print accounts payable checks from Wave Accounting

DavidDavid Member Posts: 2

I'm not able to find any information regarding the printing of Accounts Payable checks. Does Wave Accounting support this? It's not useful to me if not since many of my vendors do not accept credit card payments.

edited February 22, 2021 in Accounting Technical Support
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    James_HudsonJames_Hudson Member Posts: 121 admin

    Hi David,

    The Bills side of Wave is used to record bills and their payments for your accounting records. It's possible to accept credit card payments for invoices in Wave, but outbound payments to vendors will have to be handled outside of Wave.

    James

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    EmeraldPointeEmeraldPointe Member Posts: 1

    Hi James, This seems like such an odd feature to leave out. You have so many advanced features, I'm surprised this is not considered a basic run-of-the-mill function with Wave. Will there be a future fix for this?

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    AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Hi, @EmeraldPointe.

    Adding the ability to print cheques in Wave isn't currently on our roadmap, but we're always happy to listen to feedback from our users.

    I recommend reading this post about how we choose new features to build for Wave.

    Can you tell me a little bit more about your business and about how you would use this feature in the specific context of that business?

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    nic4001nic4001 Member Posts: 1

    Same, I run a business and we buy stuff from a lot of different person for our small reception shop and most of them want to be paid by check. Printing them is important to me. Is there anyway to do so easily with third party?
    Using sage from simple accounting now and was looking to use a webbased platform that would be easier to do my day to day accounting.

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    lhasegawa22lhasegawa22 Member Posts: 1

    Same! I just bought the special checks online and now discovered that they are only for payroll? I don't have employees on payroll but have a lot of checks to write to vendors and contractors. This is so weird. Please do add this feature asap! Thank you!

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    AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Hi, @nic4001 and @lhasegawa22.

    I don't have a third party software to recommend for printing cheques, but I know there are a few of them out there. If you find one that seems perfect for you, please let us know!

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    RahimRahim Member Posts: 97 ✭✭

    @david @EmeraldPointe @nic4001 @lhasegawa22

    For your vendor payments: If Wave had a way for you to pay them directly from your bank account to their account, would that be a solution?

    If not, I'd love to understand if you feel checks are easy or hard to manage for your business and the ways Wave can help (aside from printing cheques for you, which was already mentioned)

    Thanks,

    Rahim

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    hexishexis Member Posts: 1

    I would say the ability to print checks is definitely a must add feature. While using billpay is nice and can come in handy, it becomes harder to reconcile than actual checks, because there is no record of it in the accounting software.

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    millersfhmillersfh Member Posts: 1

    Yikes!!! I did not know that you couldn't print checks from the software like other programs such as Quickbooks. Being able to print checks directly from the software would definitely ensure more accurate bookkeeping. For example, I need to write checks for overpayments to customers but it won't show up that these payments were ever issued to the customers like it does in other financial softwares. I'm so disappointed :(

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    AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Hi, @millersfh. Thank you for your feedback.

    If you have a bank connection active, the transaction will show up once the money is taken out of your account. We also have a guide on how to transfer overpayments to future invoices (if that ever comes up).

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    PropertyResourcePropertyResource Member Posts: 1

    I agree that this is a very important feature to leave out! I need to pay a vendor by printing a check from Wave. It's the only reason I signed up. I will now cancel my account as it is completely useless without being able to print a simple check to a non-employee. Quickbooks does this, I guess I will have to go with them.

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    AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Hi, @PropertyResource.

    Can you give me a little more information on your business and your vendors? How often do you use cheques to pay vendors? Is this a feature you would use every day? Would you use an online payment system instead, if we offered one?

    The more information on how you use cheques in your business' day-to-day, the better we'll be able to understand the importance of a feature like this one for you.

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    AJ320AJ320 Member Posts: 1

    I'm in the same boat. Unfortunately, I pay subcontractors in my cleaning company instead of employees. In QBs I print vendor checks and mail the checks to my 1099 workers. Without this feature, I can't use this product.

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    upsetbidsupsetbids Member Posts: 2

    There is an app called bank check printer for mac's which only cost $1.00 (app store). I believe there are several apps for windows (ezCheckPrinting, etc.). I saw one app online called checkeeper for $9.99 per month that allows you to print directly from your web browser (unless you are printing a lot of checks monthly, I think that one is too much)

    edited June 12, 2018
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    AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Thanks for the recommendations, @upsetbids!

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    JeremyMorrisonJeremyMorrison Member Posts: 2

    I had no idea you can't print checks with wave. I guess I just assumed this was an obvious function. Every one of my vendors is paid via check.

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    AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Thank you for your feedback, @JeremyMorrison.

    Is that a requirement from those vendors or would they accept other payment methods if they were available (echoing @Rahim's comment from earlier in this discussion)?

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    JeremyMorrisonJeremyMorrison Member Posts: 2

    Thanks for the reply, @Alexia. In my business (film production), the vast majority of vendors and sub-contractors are paid via check.

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    AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Thanks for following up, @JeremyMorrison!

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    ChaseChase Member Posts: 2

    Hi Alexia @Alexia ,

    I think you asked some questions that were not answered, I cannot speak for all but I can address some things from my end. I personally, use both Wave and Quickbooks, but prefer Wave but keep Quickbooks Desktop as a backup and for the check-writing ability. If Wave implemented check-writing, I would highly consider completely switching from Quickbooks.
    1.) Check writing is a must, there are always situations in which direct deposit, autopay, bill pay, etc just cannot work (i.e. new hires, technical difficulties, wrong bank account linked to pay out of, etc). Even though there are better methods of payment then checks, checks are always the fallback for me because they keep a clear and defined record of payment and are manual, so when everything else fails, I can still write a check and its pretty much guaranteed to function as long as the account is open and funded.
    2.) There was some talk about integrating a 3rd party for the check printing process. I am always skeptical about giving anyone access to any banking related information. It was a hurdle for me to connect my info to Wave, it would have to be a well known trusted name for me to trust a 3rd party.
    3.) There was a mention of a feature similar to bill pay for the check writing, to where you submit it and it gets mailed out on your behalf. I would definitely be interested in this, but this is not a replacement for check writing as there are always situations where people need a check now and are not willing to wait even 24 hours.
    4.) It was mentioned that once the check cashes that it will automatically appear in Wave. For me, this isn't good enough, it is leaving me to think that Wave expects businesses to either find a 3rd party to do something basically every other accounting software does or handwrite the checks, which are more subject to errors and look unprofessional.
    5.) It was asked if vendors/customers will switch to other methods than check writing. I can say from my point of view that I am not going to bother vendors or customers to switch their payment method unless there is a large incentive for me and even then I am confident that I would not be able to switch everyone.

    I hope this doesn't come across as malicious, I just wanted to address some of the questions you had asked and shed some light on the importance of having a check-writing feature built in and to request it to please be on the roadmap.

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    AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Thank you so much for sharing your concerns and your feedback, @Chase. This is excellent insight, which I will forward to our product team right away.

    For your second point, I can tell you that Wave takes security incredibly seriously and we would expect the same from any third-party integration. The safety of your data is a priority for us.

    Thanks again, Chase!

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    rentlrentl Member Posts: 8

    Printing cheques is absolutely still important. Many vendors still prefer to be paid by cheque. Wave needs this feature.

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    utopianutopian Member Posts: 1

    I literally just had this conversation with one of my clients, which led me to this forum post. I started using Wave for its features and ease of use. I was going to suggest my client switch to Wave, however I noticed this option was not available so there is no way they would make the switch from Quick-books. I personally do not have the need to issue many checks, however, I know many of my clients prefer to issue them as payments. And depending on the amount of the invoice, I would prefer to receive a check for payment so I do not get charged a large fee to process the payment. :)

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    AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Thank you both for adding your feedback to this conversation, @rentl and @utopian!

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    dritdrit Member Posts: 2

    Like many people..I have used the competing accounting packages..and now cloud based systems for a very long time. I decided to use Wav for a new company I has started. I have been using wave for many months now...but I am dumping it.... because it is ridiculous that a simple feature as printing cheques is not offered. I have brought it up to support..and have been watching this forum for many months thinking it will come. I didn't know this feature is not part of it when I started, so it is my fault for not doing research before jumping into it. All other features are pretty good..expect for cheque printing..which is a show stopper for me..

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    Ad206327stAd206327st Member Posts: 1

    OMG, just spent hours and hours setting Wave up for my business, checked off bills for payment and then noticed no way to print a business check. This is awful. May have to stay with Quickbooks and just have dual backups. Bummer. I write checks everyday and as somebody else stated, handwriting a check just doesn't look professional. Also disappointed that there is no warning if I accidently repost a vendor invoice. It was looking good up until now and from looking at the responses to others in the same boat it looks like it ain't ever gonna happen. And my son told me it does the same as Quickbooks. Wait untol I talk to him tomorrow. Not happy.

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    AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Hi, @drit and @Ad206327st,

    I'm sorry to hear that Wave, as it is now, doesn't fulfil the requirements of your business, but thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. While I can't offer a timeline or guarantee that a cheque-writing feature will be added to Wave, I can tell you that we know how important this feature can be to some businesses. I'll be sure to pass your comments along to our product team. Thanks again for your feedback.

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    dritdrit Member Posts: 2

    Once you write a check...it should automatically be posted under expenses...just like QB. For guys running their own business..we don't have time to manually do things..

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    happybillhappybill Member Posts: 4

    wow. I so wish this was communicated in some manner. I assumed when there was wave-approved checks, then there must be a way to actually use them.... and now not only have i wasted many hours setting up wave, I have also spent $60 on checks that are absolutely useless. it is unfathomable to me that anyone would create accounting software and not have check writing capabilities.

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    AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Hi, @happybill,

    I'm sorry to hear you've lost money because of this. Could you tell me where you found that information on wave-compatible cheques? We do have a cheque-printing feature for printing payroll cheques for Payroll by Wave users. Is this where you read that information? If we failed to clearly communicate that this feature was limited to paycheques created through Payroll by Wave, that's a failure on our part and we apologize. I'll be sure to forward this feedback to the right people on my end.

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