Hey @Jemex . Our discontinuation of importing transactions through Bank Connections will not prevent you from receiving Stripe payments through the invoices themselves.
I'm imagining that these connections take a huge bite out of your servers - without any return. Please take into consideration that we would pay for that service, and as a courtesy you should offer it considering the amount of free marketing you received from your international users.
Aussies - Wave is owned by H&R Block so it might be helpful if you contact them asking for integration to be added at least in Australia- https://www.hrblock.com.au/contact-us#email
A disappointing decision but I understand the considerations @PaulC has explained below.
I've tested most of the 'free' services listed by others on this thread & reviewed or trialled most of the well known paid services. So perhaps you'll find this useful...
The number 1 criteria for Australian SME's is the service must allow for CASH Accounting - you certainly don't want Accrual! And of course it must allow for bank connections...
Free Services
None of the free services were really 100% suitable for various reasons. But let's face it – neither is WAVE but to be fair, it was not written to facilitate AU accounting/BAS rules.
Paid Services
Out of all of the paid versions I reviewed, only Reckon & Zoho had an offering that met my base requirements and that I considered to be a fair price (e.g. under $20.00 per month).
I was unable to post a full review of these (assume there is a word limit here) so I'll just get to the point. ZOHO (surprisingly) won hands down, although Reckon does handle employee's better.
Light Bulb Moment...
With this exercise (thanks WAVE) I've come to realise, that the number one reason to use a paid service is that these have been developed to work with your local requirements. WAVE was and is brilliant to start a business with, but for those that are successful after the start up period, you must at some stage come to the realisation that for the sake of efficiency and accuracy (you don't want those ATO fines), you've got to move on to a professional system that conforms to your local tax system.
I would have been happy to pay around $10 p/m for WAVE to include the bank connection even without it being 100% suitable. But for a little more I now have a localised system that will support our business 100%. And most importantly this will be for the life of the business as any regulation or tax rule changes are added to comply automatically. There's also little chance of them closing the doors or downgrading any service they offer. It's just piece of mind and a whole lot less hassle for a few bucks a month (Zoho Basic $7.50 but I went with the Standard service for $15.83 – both paid yearly or a little more if you pay monthly).
Lastly - do your own research & evaluation! What suits my business is not necessarily right for yours but this might cull a few of the others out to save you some time. Good Luck!
Hey Wave - will I still be able to go through and reconcile receipts from the bank feed up until 31st Dec from 1st Jan?
Essentially I need to know if even thought the connection will be severed, if the old bank transaction information from the last couple of years will continue to be there, as I've begun the process of going through and matching up receipts to invoices.
Hey @Larah, thanks for that question. Your historical transaction information is absolutely going to continue to be accessible in Wave. The changes to the connection will not remove that data.
To all who continue to share your input and suggestions, we appreciate it.
Is there perhaps a 3rd party bank feed plugin for Wave?
Or, a third party bank feed plugin for Google Sheets. We could then use the existing Google Sheets to wave connection..
Passionate about Wave as a small business enabler we have developed a GSuite Marketplace App to connect Banks to Wave via Tiller, This provides an alternative to those affected by the recent Bank to Wave changes.
Hi Wave,
Thank you for your great program, its a shame to loose bank connections and I am afraid that we will no longer be using Wave, as our bank only has PDF bank statements that we cant import? Or is there another way? Thank you for your help.
This is such a shame... for what has been a great program alternative for small business and sole traders like me... Can you please advise if the current bank transactions (up to 31 Dec 2019) will still be available...
Ideally for me, it would be really great if it is possible to convert these in bulk to purchases... is this possible..?
My bank also only does pdf statements... so from here on in, i am going to need to manually input my purchases... which is a real shame..
First of all, I believe the explanation for why Wave is discontinuing this ability should be put in the main article so that when we as users read about this decision, we understand why it is being taken, and not included just as a link as it is now). Making that information easily accessible helps people from getting angry (like I was having to scroll down and read through comments and then finally finding the link!)
Second of all, why would you not accept excel or CSV? It seems like Wave is trying to make it purposely difficult. Our bank only gives us the option of QIF for Quicken or other Microsoft Money formats. Will QIF work? If it doesn't, we will have to switch.
This is really disappointing, I'm now going to have to go and find a whole new accounting program/ software. Probably will also mean forking out for a paid system which, as many others have said here, is pretty tough for small businesses, creatives and sole traders. Starting to regret all the recommendations I've made to people about Wave now...
For Aussie users, I came across an Australian product called Pocketbook that supports syncing with Aussie Banks. It is possible to download a csv file with all transactions that you can then process through the Wave google sheet upload. I've also managed to get the same sort of thing with mint.com, but mint doesn't have a Ubank link. I also tried Moneybrilliant which even has links to super funds and my car loan account, but you have to pay to download transactions from them.
So, i'll be trying the Pocketbook route to semi automate the bank import. Definatley better than going to each bank and then dowloading individual statements.
An update from autofile.ML Bank2Wave, The GSuite Marketplace App which connects Banks to Wave via Tiller Money is currently being reviewed by Google and will be released as soon as Google approves the Addon. There is a demo video on https://www.autofile.ml/
I guess no business owes us anything when it gets down to it. Nevertheless a very disappointing decision, communicated without giving much time for customers to investigate alternatives. It has the taint of an ‘up yours’ to non Nth American users.
I would urge Australian small business/creative types to check out rounded.com.au. A paid solution, the help is top class...I exported all my Wave info and they imported it into their system, and spent time cleaning it up. Nice clean interface and good iOS app.
Have an Australian account that's apparently been 'severed' - Banking no longer exists in my business under the left menu, however I've had multiple imports from the 5th, 7th of January etc - How severed is this connection, and how my data still being imported??
It is very confusing and frustrating that bank transactions are still being imported! I just got rid of all the duplicate transactions between imports and app transactions (invoice payments and receipt allocations) and now it's still happening! Wave support, please respond to these comments and provide a solution?!
Another disappointed Aussie. My goal is to cut my time down not increase it. I used Wave not because it was free (although that certainly did help) but because it didn't hurt my head like some accounting apps. I see so much potential here but I think I'm going to have to start searching for an alternative. Rounded is a nice platform and they charge an extra $5AUD for bank feeds (also tax tracking and BAS prep).
I've tested several 'free' services (all listed by others on this thread) and reviewed or trialled the top 4 paid services. So perhaps you'll find this useful...
The number 1 criteria for Australian SME's is the service must allow for CASH Accounting - you certainly don't want Accrual! And of course it must allow for bank connections...
Free Services
None of the free services were really 100% suitable or had some form of 'catch'. But let's face it – neither is WAVE as it was not written to facilitate AU accounting/BAS rules along with some other quirks that need a work around.
Paid Services
Out of all of the paid versions I reviewed (XERO etc.), only Reckon & Quickbooks had an offering that met my base requirements and that I considered to be a fair price (e.g. under $20.00 per month).
Reckon One - $13.00 p/m or $18 p/m with Payroll
Good price and does it all well, not the best GUI (no biggie) but has one major flaw (for my business anyway). You cannot add a contact name to a company (supplier or customer). So even emails sent from the system can only say 'Dear Company Name' and of course if someone in your organisation was unfamiliar with the business in question, they can't make a direct enquiry to the person it relates too. Nor could you sort/search invoices by a persons name. To me this was just a dumb omission by Reckon (I discussed this with their support) and one that could make your organisation look less than professional. The features were basic but as expected.
Quickbooks $15.00 p/m includes Payroll for 4 employees but not *billing
For a little more, Quickbooks (QB) has a cleaner/more intuitive GUI and a few more features. The only failure I found was that even if you do not accept credit cards / PayPal through their gateway, the 'Review & Pay Now' buttons remain on emailed invoices. If the customer clicks on these it opens a page that just tells them to check with your business on payment options. Ok so this seems just as dumb as Reckon but at least there's a work around. I spoke with QB (got a call back within 5 mins of request – wow!) and asked them to put in a request to have these buttons removed – they agreed it would be a good thing but who knows if they'll action it? I'm sure it's just there to force you to use their gateway for additional income (commissions). To the work around – as you can add notes etc. to the invoice I simply added a disclaimer that the buttons don't work and QB is working on removing them. Yep blame was hand balled - so now my business doesn't look like we've not set things up correctly and have laid the issue purely at the feet of QB.
Aside from this, the flexibility of QB in terms of customisation and ease of use was by far the best (even compared to the free ones) and more than worth the extra $2 per month when compared to Reckon. Banking connections are a breeze – I loved the fact that you can choose to import from just 1 day and beyond. So once WAVE dies on the 31st, I'll only import transactions from Jan 1st this way I don't have to sort through & allocate any previous transactions for the past quarter. So I can close WAVE with the Oct – Dec quarter and begin 100% fresh Jan 1 for a clean BAS period. Which reminds me, QB has another advantage – you can also connect your account directly to the ATO for automated BAS reporting.
*No Billing?
I pay upon invoice for every service/product so this didn't effect me. In other words, if you pay a supplier when they invoice you – no problem. Just allocate the payment when you review your bank statement or add the payment manually if paid by cash/cheque. Bills are there if you have trading accounts (e.g. Due in 30 days or need to manage Purchase Orders) – QB will keep track with scheduled payments, recurring billing etc. Not something for me now but I'm sure it'll be worth it in the future if I grow to that level - it costs an additional $15 p/m but also adds more features like more employees, multiple currencies etc.
Conclusion
I've now come to realise, that the number one reason to use a paid service is that these have been developed to work with your local conditions/requirements. WAVE was and is brilliant to start a business with, but for those that are successful after the start up period, you must at some stage come to the realisation that for the sake of efficiency and accuracy (you don't want those ATO fines), you've got to move on to a professional system that conforms to your tax system.
I would have been happy to pay around $10 p/m for WAVE to include the bank connection – but for just a little more I now have a localised system that will support our business 100% without the little quirks of WAVE. And most importantly this will be for the life of the business as any business or tax rule changes are added to comply automatically and there's very little chance of them closing the doors or downgrading any service they offer. It's just piece of mind and a whole lot less hassle for a few bucks a month.
And lastly - do your own research & evaluation! What's suits my business is not necessarily right for yours and there's little time left before WAVE is nuked so get onto it fast!
Comments
So will payments made in wave by credit cards, still go into our bank accounts? Or is that also severed?
Hey @Jemex . Our discontinuation of importing transactions through Bank Connections will not prevent you from receiving Stripe payments through the invoices themselves.
I'm imagining that these connections take a huge bite out of your servers - without any return. Please take into consideration that we would pay for that service, and as a courtesy you should offer it considering the amount of free marketing you received from your international users.
Aussies - Wave is owned by H&R Block so it might be helpful if you contact them asking for integration to be added at least in Australia-
https://www.hrblock.com.au/contact-us#email
A disappointing decision but I understand the considerations @PaulC has explained below.
AU Businesses - Please Read
I've tested most of the 'free' services listed by others on this thread & reviewed or trialled most of the well known paid services. So perhaps you'll find this useful...
The number 1 criteria for Australian SME's is the service must allow for CASH Accounting - you certainly don't want Accrual! And of course it must allow for bank connections...
Free Services
None of the free services were really 100% suitable for various reasons. But let's face it – neither is WAVE but to be fair, it was not written to facilitate AU accounting/BAS rules.
Paid Services
Out of all of the paid versions I reviewed, only Reckon & Zoho had an offering that met my base requirements and that I considered to be a fair price (e.g. under $20.00 per month).
I was unable to post a full review of these (assume there is a word limit here) so I'll just get to the point. ZOHO (surprisingly) won hands down, although Reckon does handle employee's better.
Light Bulb Moment...
With this exercise (thanks WAVE) I've come to realise, that the number one reason to use a paid service is that these have been developed to work with your local requirements. WAVE was and is brilliant to start a business with, but for those that are successful after the start up period, you must at some stage come to the realisation that for the sake of efficiency and accuracy (you don't want those ATO fines), you've got to move on to a professional system that conforms to your local tax system.
I would have been happy to pay around $10 p/m for WAVE to include the bank connection even without it being 100% suitable. But for a little more I now have a localised system that will support our business 100%. And most importantly this will be for the life of the business as any regulation or tax rule changes are added to comply automatically. There's also little chance of them closing the doors or downgrading any service they offer. It's just piece of mind and a whole lot less hassle for a few bucks a month (Zoho Basic $7.50 but I went with the Standard service for $15.83 – both paid yearly or a little more if you pay monthly).
Lastly - do your own research & evaluation! What suits my business is not necessarily right for yours but this might cull a few of the others out to save you some time. Good Luck!
Hey Wave - will I still be able to go through and reconcile receipts from the bank feed up until 31st Dec from 1st Jan?
Essentially I need to know if even thought the connection will be severed, if the old bank transaction information from the last couple of years will continue to be there, as I've begun the process of going through and matching up receipts to invoices.
Hello everyone,
Maybe you can check SAGE Cloud Accounting Software. They have the bank connection feature that you want.
https://www.sage.com/en-my/sage-business-cloud/accounting/features/connect-my-bank/
By the way, I have no connection or affiliate with them.
Hey @Larah, thanks for that question. Your historical transaction information is absolutely going to continue to be accessible in Wave. The changes to the connection will not remove that data.
To all who continue to share your input and suggestions, we appreciate it.
Is there perhaps a 3rd party bank feed plugin for Wave?
Or, a third party bank feed plugin for Google Sheets. We could then use the existing Google Sheets to wave connection..
I've just had a look, and spotted Tiller. Anyone have any luck with this? https://gsuite.google.com/marketplace/app/tiller_splitter/554509332459?pann=cwsdp&hl=en-US
Passionate about Wave as a small business enabler we have developed a GSuite Marketplace App to connect Banks to Wave via Tiller, This provides an alternative to those affected by the recent Bank to Wave changes.
https://www.autofile.ml/
Hi Wave,
Thank you for your great program, its a shame to loose bank connections and I am afraid that we will no longer be using Wave, as our bank only has PDF bank statements that we cant import? Or is there another way? Thank you for your help.
This is a shame. I was just about to do this. It's a nifty thing that u have here. Why stop it?
This is such a shame... for what has been a great program alternative for small business and sole traders like me... Can you please advise if the current bank transactions (up to 31 Dec 2019) will still be available...
Ideally for me, it would be really great if it is possible to convert these in bulk to purchases... is this possible..?
My bank also only does pdf statements... so from here on in, i am going to need to manually input my purchases... which is a real shame..
First of all, I believe the explanation for why Wave is discontinuing this ability should be put in the main article so that when we as users read about this decision, we understand why it is being taken, and not included just as a link as it is now). Making that information easily accessible helps people from getting angry (like I was having to scroll down and read through comments and then finally finding the link!)
Second of all, why would you not accept excel or CSV? It seems like Wave is trying to make it purposely difficult. Our bank only gives us the option of QIF for Quicken or other Microsoft Money formats. Will QIF work? If it doesn't, we will have to switch.
Hey there @Tegwaan
Quicken and CSV should be viable options for uploading your bank statements. You can read more about it in this article
This is really disappointing, I'm now going to have to go and find a whole new accounting program/ software. Probably will also mean forking out for a paid system which, as many others have said here, is pretty tough for small businesses, creatives and sole traders. Starting to regret all the recommendations I've made to people about Wave now...
I don't understand bank accounts still working ???? Hope you leave it on today 2-01-2020
For Aussie users, I came across an Australian product called Pocketbook that supports syncing with Aussie Banks. It is possible to download a csv file with all transactions that you can then process through the Wave google sheet upload. I've also managed to get the same sort of thing with mint.com, but mint doesn't have a Ubank link. I also tried Moneybrilliant which even has links to super funds and my car loan account, but you have to pay to download transactions from them.
So, i'll be trying the Pocketbook route to semi automate the bank import. Definatley better than going to each bank and then dowloading individual statements.
An update from autofile.ML Bank2Wave, The GSuite Marketplace App which connects Banks to Wave via Tiller Money is currently being reviewed by Google and will be released as soon as Google approves the Addon. There is a demo video on https://www.autofile.ml/
I guess no business owes us anything when it gets down to it. Nevertheless a very disappointing decision, communicated without giving much time for customers to investigate alternatives. It has the taint of an ‘up yours’ to non Nth American users.
I would urge Australian small business/creative types to check out rounded.com.au. A paid solution, the help is top class...I exported all my Wave info and they imported it into their system, and spent time cleaning it up. Nice clean interface and good iOS app.
Have an Australian account that's apparently been 'severed' - Banking no longer exists in my business under the left menu, however I've had multiple imports from the 5th, 7th of January etc - How severed is this connection, and how my data still being imported??
It is very confusing and frustrating that bank transactions are still being imported! I just got rid of all the duplicate transactions between imports and app transactions (invoice payments and receipt allocations) and now it's still happening! Wave support, please respond to these comments and provide a solution?!
Another disappointed Aussie. My goal is to cut my time down not increase it. I used Wave not because it was free (although that certainly did help) but because it didn't hurt my head like some accounting apps. I see so much potential here but I think I'm going to have to start searching for an alternative. Rounded is a nice platform and they charge an extra $5AUD for bank feeds (also tax tracking and BAS prep).
AU Businesses - Please Read
I've tested several 'free' services (all listed by others on this thread) and reviewed or trialled the top 4 paid services. So perhaps you'll find this useful...
The number 1 criteria for Australian SME's is the service must allow for CASH Accounting - you certainly don't want Accrual! And of course it must allow for bank connections...
Free Services
None of the free services were really 100% suitable or had some form of 'catch'. But let's face it – neither is WAVE as it was not written to facilitate AU accounting/BAS rules along with some other quirks that need a work around.
Paid Services
Out of all of the paid versions I reviewed (XERO etc.), only Reckon & Quickbooks had an offering that met my base requirements and that I considered to be a fair price (e.g. under $20.00 per month).
Reckon One - $13.00 p/m or $18 p/m with Payroll
Good price and does it all well, not the best GUI (no biggie) but has one major flaw (for my business anyway). You cannot add a contact name to a company (supplier or customer). So even emails sent from the system can only say 'Dear Company Name' and of course if someone in your organisation was unfamiliar with the business in question, they can't make a direct enquiry to the person it relates too. Nor could you sort/search invoices by a persons name. To me this was just a dumb omission by Reckon (I discussed this with their support) and one that could make your organisation look less than professional. The features were basic but as expected.
Quickbooks $15.00 p/m includes Payroll for 4 employees but not *billing
For a little more, Quickbooks (QB) has a cleaner/more intuitive GUI and a few more features. The only failure I found was that even if you do not accept credit cards / PayPal through their gateway, the 'Review & Pay Now' buttons remain on emailed invoices. If the customer clicks on these it opens a page that just tells them to check with your business on payment options. Ok so this seems just as dumb as Reckon but at least there's a work around. I spoke with QB (got a call back within 5 mins of request – wow!) and asked them to put in a request to have these buttons removed – they agreed it would be a good thing but who knows if they'll action it? I'm sure it's just there to force you to use their gateway for additional income (commissions). To the work around – as you can add notes etc. to the invoice I simply added a disclaimer that the buttons don't work and QB is working on removing them. Yep blame was hand balled - so now my business doesn't look like we've not set things up correctly and have laid the issue purely at the feet of QB.
Aside from this, the flexibility of QB in terms of customisation and ease of use was by far the best (even compared to the free ones) and more than worth the extra $2 per month when compared to Reckon. Banking connections are a breeze – I loved the fact that you can choose to import from just 1 day and beyond. So once WAVE dies on the 31st, I'll only import transactions from Jan 1st this way I don't have to sort through & allocate any previous transactions for the past quarter. So I can close WAVE with the Oct – Dec quarter and begin 100% fresh Jan 1 for a clean BAS period. Which reminds me, QB has another advantage – you can also connect your account directly to the ATO for automated BAS reporting.
*No Billing?
I pay upon invoice for every service/product so this didn't effect me. In other words, if you pay a supplier when they invoice you – no problem. Just allocate the payment when you review your bank statement or add the payment manually if paid by cash/cheque. Bills are there if you have trading accounts (e.g. Due in 30 days or need to manage Purchase Orders) – QB will keep track with scheduled payments, recurring billing etc. Not something for me now but I'm sure it'll be worth it in the future if I grow to that level - it costs an additional $15 p/m but also adds more features like more employees, multiple currencies etc.
Conclusion
I've now come to realise, that the number one reason to use a paid service is that these have been developed to work with your local conditions/requirements. WAVE was and is brilliant to start a business with, but for those that are successful after the start up period, you must at some stage come to the realisation that for the sake of efficiency and accuracy (you don't want those ATO fines), you've got to move on to a professional system that conforms to your tax system.
I would have been happy to pay around $10 p/m for WAVE to include the bank connection – but for just a little more I now have a localised system that will support our business 100% without the little quirks of WAVE. And most importantly this will be for the life of the business as any business or tax rule changes are added to comply automatically and there's very little chance of them closing the doors or downgrading any service they offer. It's just piece of mind and a whole lot less hassle for a few bucks a month.
And lastly - do your own research & evaluation! What's suits my business is not necessarily right for yours and there's little time left before WAVE is nuked so get onto it fast!