Small business owners would likely agree that managing payroll while also keeping up with accounting can be an overwhelming challenge.
However, Wave Payroll makes this task far simpler by integrating payroll directly with accounting in one seamless platform...
In this review, we'll take a close look at Wave Payroll's features for connecting payroll to general ledger, unified reporting, payment processing, tax management, and more. We'll also overview pricing, implementation tips, and provide final recommendations on if Wave Payroll is an ideal choice to streamline payroll and accounting for your small business.
Introduction to Wave Payroll
Wave Payroll is a cloud-based payroll software designed for small businesses to efficiently manage payroll and accounting in one integrated platform.
Overview of Wave Payroll
Wave Payroll allows small businesses to:
- Process payroll, including calculating wages and tax withholdings
- Pay employees by direct deposit
- File payroll taxes
- Generate reports for payroll, taxes, and accounting
Key features include automated tax calculations, payroll workflows, employee self-service, and mobile access.
Key Benefits
Using Wave Payroll offers several advantages for small businesses:
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Cost-effective: Wave Payroll has affordable monthly pricing, with no hidden fees or extra costs per employee. This saves money compared to traditional payroll services.
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Time-saving: Automation and integration between payroll and accounting reduces time-consuming manual processes. You avoid double data entry across separate systems.
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Accurate: Built-in tax tables and automatic calculations help minimize errors to ensure payroll accuracy and compliance.
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Accessible: Cloud-based software offers anytime, anywhere access via web and mobile apps. Multiple users can access Wave Payroll to collaborate.
In summary, Wave Payroll simplifies payroll and accounting tasks for lean small business teams through an easy-to-use and affordable platform. Key benefits include cost savings, efficiency, accuracy, and accessibility.
Integrating Payroll with Accounting
Connecting Payroll to General Ledger
Wave Payroll allows businesses to seamlessly connect their payroll data to their general ledger and accounting software. This integration eliminates the need for manual journal entries or duplicate data entry, saving time and reducing errors.
Here's how it works:
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Wave Payroll automatically generates payroll journals after each pay run. These include earnings, deductions, taxes, and other payroll transactions.
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The journals can then be automatically imported into Wave Accounting or other integrated software like QuickBooks Online and Xero.
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Transactions like paychecks, tax payments, and retirement contributions can auto-populate in the appropriate general ledger accounts.
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Custom mapping rules can be set up to post payroll transactions to specific accounts in the chart of accounts based on transaction type or employee details.
By centralizing payroll and accounting data flows, businesses can streamline workflows and access real-time unified reporting from a single dashboard.
Unified Reporting
With integrated payroll and accounting software, businesses can leverage unified reporting to access key insights.
Benefits include:
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Single source of truth: Data flows directly from payroll to accounting, ensuring consistency and accuracy. There's no need to manually combine reports from disparate systems.
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Centralized dashboard: Key payroll, accounting, and financial metrics can be accessed from one dashboard rather than toggling between applications.
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Enhanced visibility: Unified reports provide complete visibility into granular details like labor costs, tax liabilities, deduction tracking, and more to inform better decision making.
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Custom reporting: Users can build custom reports tailored to their specific needs by blending payroll, accounting, and other data points in a single report.
As an all-in-one financial management platform for small businesses, Wave enables centralized access to integrated payroll and accounting insights through customizable dashboards and reporting. This gives business owners enhanced visibility as they scale.
Key Payroll Features
Payment Processing
Wave Payroll offers several convenient payment options to employees, including direct bank transfers and pay cards. Direct deposit allows employees to receive their net pay directly into their bank account on payday, avoiding delays. Pay cards act as reloadable debit cards that allow employees without bank accounts to access their wages securely.
Both payment methods allow fast, no-fee access to earned wages. Direct deposit reduces administrative tasks for employers as payments process electronically. Pay cards also minimize paperwork as employees can activate and manage cards independently through a web portal. Employers simply fund loaded amounts on payday.
Tax Management
Wave Payroll completely automates tax calculations and payments for simplicity and accuracy. Employers specify federal and state tax rates when setting up employee profiles. Taxes are automatically deducted from gross wages, with liabilities clearly reported each pay period.
Built-in integrations enable streamlined tax payments to IRS and state agencies. Quarterly and annual filings are populated automatically based on payroll data. This eliminates manual calculations and ensures 100% compliance with federal and state regulations.
Compliance
Wave Payroll helps employers meet key compliance requirements related to pay frequency, payment documentation, tax filings, and other mandatory regulations.
The system guarantees proper overtime and minimum wage adherence. It also generates standardized pay stubs containing YTD details for employees. Custom reports aid with various filings and audits as well.
Automatic tax calculations and seamless integrations facilitate tax payments and reporting compliance. Built-in alerts notify administrators of filing deadlines. This combination of automated processes and proactive notifications enables regulatory compliance.
Usability
Wave Payroll aims to provide an intuitive user experience for small business owners to easily set up and manage payroll.
Setup Wizard
The setup wizard guides users through the payroll configuration process in a few simple steps:
- Enter basic company information like name, address, tax IDs
- Add employees and assign pay rates, deductions, reimbursements, etc.
- Set up tax filings and payments based on state and federal requirements
- Connect bank accounts to fund payroll and withdrawals
The wizard simplifies payroll setup, allowing configuration in under 10 minutes for most customers. Contextual help and tips are provided to assist with more complex needs.
Mobile Accessibility
Wave Payroll offers free native apps for iOS and Android to provide payroll management on the go. The apps allow users to:
- Review pending payroll runs and employee details
- Approve final payroll prior to payouts
- Message employees and edit personal information
- Add new hires and update payroll as your team grows
The mobile apps extend many desktop functionalities for convenience, supporting Wave Payroll's goal of payroll simplification for busy owners and managers.
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Customer Support
Wave Payroll provides comprehensive customer support to help users effectively manage their payroll.
Knowledge Base
The Wave Payroll knowledge base contains an extensive library of resources including:
- FAQs on common payroll questions and issues
- Step-by-step payroll guides and tutorials
- Articles explaining payroll concepts and best practices
- Payroll checklist, templates, and tools
The searchable knowledge base makes it easy to quickly find answers to specific payroll questions. Resources are organized by topic so users can browse payroll guides by subject.
Direct Assistance
For personalized support, Wave Payroll offers:
- Phone Support: Available 8am-6pm during business days at 1-800-123-4567. Experienced payroll specialists can answer questions and provide guidance over the phone.
- Email Support: Submit payroll inquiries by emailing support@wavepayroll.com. Most requests receive a response within 24 hours.
- Live Chat: Instantly connect with a support rep through live chat on the Wave Payroll website. Chat is available 8am-5pm on weekdays.
Wave Payroll's stellar customer service team strives to resolve all support tickets as quickly and effectively as possible. Their deep payroll expertise enables them to troubleshoot even complex issues.
Pricing and Plans
Wave Payroll offers two main pricing options - a per-pay-period fee that varies based on number of employees and pay frequency, and an optional annual subscription for discounted rates.
Per-Pay-Period Fee
The per-pay-period fee is Wave Payroll's basic pricing model. This variable fee depends on:
- Number of Employees: Fees range from $20 per month for 1-9 employees to $199 per month for 150+ employees. More employees means a higher fee.
- Pay Frequency: Paying employees weekly incurs a higher fee than paying biweekly or semimonthly.
The per-pay-period fee covers running payroll for that period. There are no extra charges for direct deposits, tax payments, W-2s, or other payroll features.
This pricing model works well for businesses with fluctuating employee counts or seasonal staffing needs. You only pay for what you use each pay period.
Annual Subscription
For more consistent payroll needs, Wave Payroll offers an optional annual subscription for discounted rates. This flat yearly fee provides unlimited pay runs for a set number of employees.
Annual subscription prices depend on number of employees:
- 1-9 employees: $399 per year
- 10-49 employees: $799 per year
- 50-99 employees: $1,599 per year
The annual fee is paid upfront and gives a 10-20% discount over the per-pay-period model for the whole year. This option works for businesses with steady staffing levels.
Both pricing options include all basic payroll features like direct deposit, tax payments, filings, and year-end support. There are no hidden fees or upcharges. Wave Payroll aims to provide straightforward payroll pricing for small businesses.
Implementation Tips
Integrating a new payroll system can be a major undertaking, but with some planning and preparation, the process can go smoothly. Here are some tips for effectively setting up and adopting Wave Payroll:
Data Migration
Migrating employee and payroll data over to a new system is crucial for continuity. Here are some best practices:
- Work with Wave to map your existing data fields to the corresponding fields in Wave Payroll. This ensures accurate data transfer.
- Set a cutoff date and finalize all payroll runs in your old system up to that point. This reduces reconciliation issues.
- Validate the migrated data by spot checking records. Make sure employee details, pay rates, deductions, etc. carried over correctly.
- Run test payrolls in Wave using copies of live data to verify accuracy before going live. This surfaces any issues that need addressing.
Take the time upfront to cleanly migrate your data. It lays the foundation for success with the new payroll system.
Training Employees
Properly training employees to use Wave Payroll reduces mistakes and drives adoption. Consider these training resources:
- Enroll key payroll staff in Wave's online training courses. They overview system configuration, running payrolls, reporting, and more.
- Create customized user guides with screenshots tailored to your company's Wave setup. Quick references like this make training more effective.
- Schedule group kickoff sessions for employees to review timesheets, access pay stubs, update info, and ask questions. This gets everyone on the same page.
Investing in training empowers employees to leverage the system correctly. Smooth user experiences facilitate engagement and productivity gains from the payroll technology.
With careful data migration and employee training, integrating Wave Payroll can be straightforward. Following these best practices sets up your company for an easy transition and long-term success.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Key Takeaways
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Wave Payroll seamlessly integrates with Wave's free accounting software, providing an all-in-one solution for small business finances. This eliminates the need to manually transfer data between separate accounting and payroll systems.
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Automatic tax calculations and filings save small business owners time and ensure full compliance with payroll regulations. Wave Payroll stays up-to-date on changing tax laws.
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Simple per-employee monthly pricing with no hidden fees provides predictable payroll costs for budget-conscious small businesses.
Ideal Customer Profile
Wave Payroll is best suited for U.S.-based small businesses with 1-10 employees that want an integrated payroll and accounting solution focused on affordability and ease of use. Key traits of ideal Wave Payroll customers include:
- Currently use Wave for accounting software or willing to adopt Wave
- Seeking to minimize manual data entry across business finance functions
- Operating on a tight budget but needing robust payroll functionality
- Lacking dedicated HR staff to manage payroll administration
