That free invoicing app I was sure would be junk - actually works great

I needed something quick for a side gig and grabbed Wave invoicing, figured I'd upgrade later. Three months in and zero issues, even the payment tracking is solid. Anyone else find a free tool that surprised them?

3 comments

3 Comments

fionat5514d ago

Just dive right in with Wave and see how far it takes you honestly. I've been using it for almost a year now for my freelance design work and the invoicing part has been flawless. The payment tracking is actually BETTER than some paid tools I tried before because it updates in real time without any lag. People get scared when they hear free but Wave puts all the important stuff right up front with no annoying upsells. I even started using their receipt scanning feature and it feels like cheating for how easy it makes tax season prep. Honestly I'm sticking with it until something actually breaks which hasn't happened yet.

ruby_bell4714d ago

Hang on a second, I've got to disagree hard with this. I tried Wave for about three months last year and it was a total mess for me. The free part sounds great until you realize the payment processing fees are actually higher than what you'd get with a paid tool that bundles everything together. And that receipt scanning feature you're loving? It messed up half my receipts - scanned them as the wrong amounts or just flat out refused to read some of them. I spent more time fixing errors than I saved. Plus when I had a question about a payment that was stuck in limbo, their customer support took five days to get back to me. I'd rather pay $20 a month for something that actually works and has a real support team.

bell.jessica14d ago

Totally fair points @ruby_bell47. I had a similar bad time with Wave a couple years ago for my side gig. The receipt scanning thing was a nightmare for me too - kept misreading totals and had to manually fix almost everything. After a few weeks of that I just gave up on it. For customer support, yeah that wait time is brutal when you've got money stuck somewhere. I ended up switching to a paid option that's like $15 a month and the fee difference actually evens out once you factor in all the headaches. Sometimes free just isn't worth the hassle when it comes to your actual income flowing through it. I'd tell anyone to just test it carefully before fully committing with real client payments.

-2