Nonari vs Wave, feature by feature.
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.
Export Wave data
Wave → Settings → Data Export. Wave exports customers, vendors, products, transactions, journal entries as CSV. Total time: 20 minutes.
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.
Add the things Wave was missing
Multi-branch, inventory, AI bookkeeper, multi-currency, regional e-invoicing where available. ~30 minutes to configure all.
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.
The features Wave does not have.
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 is $29/month after a 15-day trial. If you only need invoicing and nothing else, Wave wins on price.
US/Canada payroll add-on
Wave has integrated US and Canada payroll (paid module). Nonari runs payroll records and payslips and posts the expense to the ledger, but it does not file US payroll tax. If you need US payroll, Wave plus Wave Payroll is the better tool for it.
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.
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 for US and Canada payroll tax. The Employees and Payslips module handles payroll records and posts wages to the ledger; payroll-tax filing in those jurisdictions is out of scope by design. If US payroll is critical, keep Wave for payroll and run 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 does Nonari cost once I outgrow Wave?
Basic is $29 a month for one location with every feature — inventory at weighted-average cost, multi-currency, POS, the AI bookkeeper — and unlimited users. Pro is $70 a month for up to 3 locations. Both start with a 15-day free trial, no card.
Wave Pro is $16/mo. Why pay $29 for Nonari?
Wave Pro adds invoicing and payroll polish on a single-business, single-currency engine. Nonari Basic at $29 gives you multi-currency, unlimited users, real inventory, a POS with cashier shifts, the AI bookkeeper, Shopify integration and a branch ledger — a fundamentally bigger feature surface for the extra $13.
Outgrown Wave? No walls.
One $29 plan covers the things Wave gates or lacks: multi-currency, multi-user, inventory, branches. 15-day free trial, no card. Import your Wave CSV and see if the new shape fits.