How to Use Wave: A Step-By-Step Guideline in 2025

Are you finding it hard to keep track of your business money?

It can feel like a big problem, right?

You’re trying to grow your business, but keeping up with invoices, bills.

And knowing where your money is going can be a real headache. 

This guide will show you, step by easy step, how to use Wave in 2025.

Let’s get started with Wave!

Getting Started with Wave

Ready to use the wave for easier business money?

Let’s get you set up!

• A. Signing Up: Go to the Wave website and click “Sign Up Free.” Fill in your business details (name, email, etc.) and create a password. Click to create your account – you’re in!
• B. Your Wave Dashboard: This is your main control center. You’ll see different sections for things like invoices and bills. The Wave icon might be on your screen or browser tab so you know you’re in the right place.
• C. Connect Your Bank: Want Wave to automatically track your money? Go to “Connect Bank Accounts” (or similar) and log in to your online banking through Wave’s secure connection. This helps Wave see your transactions.
• D. About Accessibility: Wave tries to make sure everyone can use the wave, focusing on accessibility so people with different needs can use their tools. You can usually find more info on their website.

You’re all set with the basics!

You’ve signed up, seen the dashboard, and maybe connected your bank.

Now you’re ready to really start using Wave. Let’s look at making invoices next!

Mastering Wave’s Core Features

Now that you’ve got the basics down.

Let’s look at the main things you can do with Wave.

Think of these as the essential tools in your money-managing toolbox.

• A. Invoicing Made Easy: Need to send bills to your customers? Wave makes it pretty simple.
  • Click on the “Sales” tab (or something similar) in the menu. Then, look for “Invoices” and click on “Create Invoice.”
  • You’ll see a form where you can fill in your customer’s info, what they bought, how much it costs, and the date.
  • You can add your business logo to make your invoices look professional. You can also write little notes to your customers.
  • Got customers who get the same bill every month? You can set up “Recurring Invoices” so Wave sends them out automatically. Super handy!
  • Wave also helps you keep track of which invoices have been paid and which haven’t. You can even send reminders if someone hasn’t paid yet.
• B. Managing Your Bills: Just like you send out invoices, you also get bills from other people. Wave helps you keep those organized too.
  • Click on the “Purchases” tab and then “Bills.” Click “New Bill.”
  • Fill in who you owe money to, how much, and when it’s due.
  • If you have a paper bill, you can usually take a picture of it and upload it to Wave. This way you have a digital copy.
  • Once you pay a bill, you can mark it as “Paid” in Wave so you know you’re all set.
• C. Tracking Your Income and Expenses: Want to see where your money is coming from and where it’s going? Wave does this for you!
  • Wave usually tries to automatically put your bank transactions into categories (like “Sales Income” or “Office Supplies”).
  • If Wave doesn’t categorize something correctly, you can easily change it. You can even create your own categories if you want.
  • This helps you see a clear picture of your business finances.
• D. Understanding Wave Accounting Reports: Wave can create reports that show you how your business is doing financially. Think of these reports as simple summaries of your money.
  • Look for the “Reports” tab. Some important reports to know are:
    • Profit & Loss: This shows how much money your business has made or lost over a certain period.
    • Balance Sheet: This provides a snapshot of what your business owns (assets) and what it owes (liabilities) at a specific point in time.
  • You can usually pick the dates you want to see the reports for. These reports can help you make smart decisions about your business.
• E. Thinking About Web Accessibility Evaluation: Just like we talked about general accessibility, something called web accessibility evaluation is important for websites and tools like Wave. This means checking how easy it is for everyone, including people with disabilities, to use a web page. There are different ways to do this evaluation. One way a user might check web accessibility is by using a browser extension.
• F. Using a Browser Extension for Accessibility: A browser extension is like a little add-on you can install on your chrome (or another browser) to give it extra powers. There are browser extension tools specifically designed to help check web accessibility.
  • You can usually find these by searching for “accessibility issues checker” or “web accessibility extension” in the chrome extension store (or your browser’s store).
  • Once you install one, you’ll usually see its icon in your browser extension bar.
  • When you go to a web page (like your Wave dashboard), you can click on the extension icon. It will then scan the web page and might highlight potential accessibility issues.
• G. Understanding ARIA: You might hear the term “aria” when talking about web accessibility. ARIA stands for Accessible Rich Internet Applications. It’s like extra information added to the code of a web page to help assistive technologies (like screen readers that people with visual impairments use) understand what different parts of the web page are and how to interact with them. While you don’t directly use aria as a regular user, it’s something that the people who build Wave (and other websites) use to make sure their site is more accessible.

Expanding Your Capabilities

Here are some other helpful things Wave can do:

• A. Wave Payroll (If You Have Employees): If you have staff, Wave may offer payroll to help pay them, handle taxes, and set up direct deposit (in some areas, this may incur an extra cost).
• B. Wave Payments (Get Paid Faster): Turn on online payments for your invoices so customers can pay you quickly with a card or transfer (small fees usually apply).
• C. Connect with Other Apps (Work Together): Wave can link with other tools you use, like Etsy, to share information and save you time automatically.
• D. How Wave Improves Accessibility: Wave tries to improve accessibility so more people can use the wave, making it easier for everyone.
• E. Learning from WebAIM: WebAIM is a helpful website with info on how to make websites accessible, which companies like Wave might use.
• F. Understanding Accessibility Panels: Developers may use an accessibility panel in their browser to check the accessibility of a web page while they work to improve it. Regular users usually don’t see this.

Tips and Tricks for Wave Success

Want to get even better at using Wave and save yourself some time and trouble?

Here are a few handy tips and tricks!

A. Making Wave Your Own:

Did you know you can change some things in Wave to make it work better for you?

• • Look for a “Settings” or “Setup” area. Here, you can usually change things like the emails Wave sends to your customers, the money symbol you use (like $ or £), and how your invoices look.
  • Take a few minutes to look through the settings and see if there’s anything you want to change to fit your business.

B. Using the Wave Mobile App:

Wave often has a mobile app you can put on your phone or tablet.

• • Search for “Wave Accounting” in your app store (like the Apple App Store or Google Play Store) and install it.
  • With the app, you can often do things like send invoices, check your balances, and see recent transactions right from your phone. This is super useful if you’re out and about.

C. Staying Neat and Tidy in Wave:

Keeping your Wave account organized will make it much easier to find things later.

• • You can often add “tags” or “notes” to your transactions. Think of tags as labels you can put on things (like “Advertising” or “Client Meeting”). Notes let you add extra details.
  • Try to regularly go through your transactions and make sure they are categorized correctly. This will make your reports much more accurate.
• D. Getting Help When You Need It (Wave’s Resources): If you ever get stuck or have a question about how to do something in Wave, don’t worry – they have help resources.
  • Look for a “Help” or “Support” section. They usually have articles and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) that can answer common questions.
  • If you can’t find what you need, they usually have a way to contact their support team for more help.

E. Thinking About Website Design (CSS):

You might hear about something called CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) when people talk about how websites look.

CSS is like the code that tells a website how to style things.

The colors, fonts, layout, and more. While you don’t directly use CSS in Wave as a regular user.

The Future of Wave

Things online are always changing.

Just like your phone gets new updates, software like Wave keeps getting better too.

Let’s think a bit about what the future might hold for Wave.

• A. What Might Be Coming Up: It’s hard to say exactly what Wave will add next, but companies like this usually try to make their software even more helpful. They might add new features that people have been asking for, or they might improve the current features, making them even better and easier to use. Keep an eye on the Wave blog or their announcements – that’s where they usually share news about what’s coming.
• B. How Wave Might Keep Getting Better: The way we do business online is always changing, so Wave will probably change too. They might add new ways to connect with other online tools, or they might find even easier ways to help you track your money and get paid. They’ll likely continue working on ensuring their software is safe and does what you need it to do.
• C. Thinking About Accessibility in the Future (WCAG): In the future, Wave and other online tools will likely continue to work hard to follow WCAG guidelines, making their functionality available to as many people as possible. This includes ensuring you can use the website with just a keyboard if needed, and that features like alerts are easy to understand.
• D. Making Things Easier to Find (Navigation Order): We talked about navigation order before – how you move around a website using the “Tab” key on your keyboard. In the future, website designers will likely continue to focus on making the navigation order really clear and logical. This will make it easier for everyone to find what they need on the page, especially if they aren’t using a mouse.
• E. Tools and Add-ons (Toolbars and Extensions): You know how you can add extra little tools to your web browser, like Chrome or Firefox (we used to call them extensions)? These little add-ons, sometimes called toolbars or extensions, can give your browser extra powers. 

Navigation order, and maybe even offering more toolbars or extensions for your browser, like Firefox or Chrome.

They’ll likely keep trying to make managing your business money as smooth as possible!

Wrapping Up

Wave is a helpful tool for managing your business money. 

It can help you send invoices easily. You can also keep track of your bills.

Seeing where your money goes becomes clearer.

Wave can even automate some tasks, saving you time.

We looked at how to get started. We explored the main features.

You learned some tips and tricks to use Wave well. We also thought about what might come next for Wave.

Wave tries to make things easy to navigate. 

Why not check it out and see if it’s right for you?

Frequently Asked Questions