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vs · Wave Accounting

When free stops being free enough.

Wave is famously free, and for a US-based solo freelancer with one currency and no inventory it is genuinely good. The problem is the walls: no multi-currency on the free tier, no inventory accounting, US/CA only for payroll, no multi-branch, single user. The moment your business needs any of these, Wave stops being the right shape. Nonari\'s free tier covers all of them.

Free → $35
Nonari free tier covers 100 invoices/mo with full features. Wave is free but capped.
Global
Nonari supports 6 currencies on free. Wave restricts multi-currency to paid Pro.
Multi-user
Nonari includes 3 users on Starter (PKR 4,500/mo). Wave is single-user on free.
Multi-branch
Native in Nonari from day one. Wave has no concept of locations.
Side by side

Nonari vs Wave, feature by feature.

FeatureNonariWave
Free tier (real)
Multi-currency on free tier
Multi-userPARTIAL
Multi-branch
Inventory with WAC / FIFO
Manufacturing / BOM
POS (cashier shifts)
AI bookkeeper
FBR Digital Invoicing (PK)
Shopify two-way syncPARTIAL
Free invoicing foreverPARTIAL
US/CA payroll add-on
Free receipt scanning + email-to-billPARTIAL
The playbook

How to move from Wave to Nonari.

Realistic timeline — most teams are running a parallel close within two weeks. Numbers below are based on what other Nonari customers actually took, not optimistic vendor estimates.

STEP 01

Export Wave data

Wave → Settings → Data Export. Wave exports customers, vendors, products, transactions, journal entries as CSV. Total time: 20 minutes.

STEP 02

Import into Nonari

CSV import wizard reads Wave column names. Trial balance comes over as opening balance. Customers, vendors, products land in their original buckets.

STEP 03

Add the things Wave was missing

Multi-branch, inventory, AI bookkeeper, multi-currency on lower tiers, regional e-invoicing where available. ~30 minutes to configure all.

STEP 04

Stop using Wave

No parallel close needed for most teams — Wave's feature set is a subset of Nonari's. The moment your imported trial balance reconciles, you are running.

Where Wave wins

The honest part.

No software wins on everything. If any of these matter more than what Nonari does well, stay with Wave — we will not pretend otherwise.

Truly free invoicing forever

Wave's core invoicing + bookkeeping is free with no usage cap. Nonari's free tier caps at 100 invoices/month. If you do under 100 invoices/month and need nothing else, Wave wins on price.

US/Canada payroll add-on

Wave has integrated US + Canada payroll (paid module). Nonari does not yet have full integrated payroll for these jurisdictions. If you need US payroll, Wave + Wave Payroll is still better.

Frictionless receipt scanning

Wave's receipts app + email-to-Wave inbox is one of the smoothest receipt workflows in SMB accounting. Nonari's AI bookkeeper covers similar ground but Wave's mobile receipts UX is genuinely good.

Common questions

Migration questions, answered.

I am a freelancer with under 100 invoices a year. Why would I leave Wave?

You should not. Wave's free tier is genuinely good for solo freelancers with no inventory, no multi-currency, no multi-branch needs. Come back to us when you hit one of those walls.

Will I lose my Wave history?

No. The CSV export contains everything — customers, vendors, transactions, journal entries. Nonari's import handles Wave's format. Trial balance reconciles to the penny.

I run Wave Payroll for my US team. Can Nonari replace it?

Not yet for US/Canada payroll. We have an Employees + Payslips module that handles other jurisdictions (PK, UK, India patterns), but full US payroll-tax filing is not in our scope today. If US payroll is critical, keep Wave for payroll and use Nonari for everything else.

How does Wave's receipt scanning compare to your AI bookkeeper?

Wave Receipts is purpose-built for one thing — getting a receipt into the system. It is great at that. Our AI bookkeeper is broader — it reads invoices, receipts, bank statement lines, and emails, then drafts journal entries with full categorisation. For raw receipt-to-line-item, Wave is faster. For full bookkeeping automation, ours is broader.

What if I need a free tier with inventory?

That is exactly the gap Wave does not fill. Nonari's free tier includes inventory tracking (WAC, basic), multi-currency, and multi-branch. If you are a side-hustle product seller this is genuinely useful at PKR 0.

Wave Pro is $16/mo. Why is Nonari's Starter PKR 4,500/mo (~$16) too?

Comparable price for paid tiers. The difference is what you get for $16: Wave Pro adds invoicing+payroll polish on a single-business single-currency engine. Our Starter gives you multi-currency, 3 users, AI bookkeeper basics, FBR, Shopify integration — a fundamentally bigger feature surface.

Ready when you are

Outgrown Wave? Free gets bigger.

Nonari\'s free tier covers the things Wave gates behind Pro: multi-currency, multi-user, inventory. Import your Wave CSV, see if the new shape fits.