A lot of small businesses started their bookkeeping on Wave. It was free, it sent invoices, and for a while that was enough. If you’ve outgrown it, the thing that usually stops you moving is the thought of rebuilding your customers, products and invoice history somewhere else.
You don’t have to. Fastbooks now imports your Wave business directly. Connect it, check what’s there, and Fastbooks copies it across, then brings every balance sheet account into line with Wave so your books pick up exactly where they left off.
How it works
- Connect your business. In Fastbooks, go to Settings → Import → Wave and sign in to Wave. Pick the business you want to bring over. Fastbooks only reads from Wave, so nothing in your Wave account changes.
- See what’s there. Before anything is copied, Fastbooks counts what the business holds: accounts, sales taxes, customers, vendors, products and services, invoices and estimates. You’ll also see the business currency, and a warning if your Fastbooks organisation would need to switch to it.
- Choose how to import. Add to these books keeps everything already in Fastbooks and adds the Wave records alongside. Start fresh clears out your transactions, contacts and products first, then imports. You’ll be asked to type your organisation’s name to confirm. Your chart of accounts, tax rates, bank accounts and team stay put either way.
- Carry on working. The import runs in the background. We’ll email you when it’s finished, along with a summary of anything that needs a look.
Only owners and admins can run an import.
One thing to check first: Wave only lets businesses on its Pro or Advisor plan connect to other apps. If you’re on Wave’s free Starter plan, you’ll need to upgrade before you can connect.
What comes over
Your chart of accounts, sales taxes, customers, vendors and products and services all come across, including archived ones, so older invoices still point at the right place.
Then your sales history:
| In Wave | In Fastbooks |
|---|---|
| Invoices | Invoices (drafts stay as drafts), with discounts kept as a discount line |
| Invoice payments | Payments on their invoice, into the same account Wave recorded them in |
| Estimates | Quotes |
| Bank and credit card accounts | Bank accounts under Bank |
Invoices keep their numbers, and new invoices carry on from where your Wave numbering left off. Invoices in a foreign currency keep their currency and amounts.
Sales tax: a Wave line can carry more than one tax (GST and PST, for example). Fastbooks uses one rate per line, so each combination you’ve used becomes a single rate that adds them together. If any of your Wave taxes are compound (charged on top of another tax), we’ll flag the invoices where that made a small difference.
The bit Wave doesn’t share, and how we handle it
This is the important part, so we’ll be straight about it. Wave’s API doesn’t give other apps access to your bank transactions, bills, expenses, transfers or journal entries. No importer can bring those over line by line, because Wave doesn’t hand them out.
Rather than leave your books incomplete, Fastbooks reads the current balance of every Wave account and posts one journal entry, dated the day of the import, that brings each bank, asset, liability and equity account to exactly what Wave shows. The difference goes into an equity account called “Wave conversion balance”.
What that means in practice:
- Your balance sheet matches Wave on the day you switch. Bank balances, what customers owe you, what you owe, loans and equity all line up.
- Your invoice history is complete, so you can still look up, resend or chase any past invoice.
- Profit and loss for periods before the import only shows invoiced income. Expenses you recorded in Wave aren’t there line by line. For past years’ reports, your Wave exports or your accountant’s year-end figures are still the source of truth.
From the import date onwards, everything you record in Fastbooks is complete. Upload a bank statement to start reconciling, and your reports build up properly from there.
What doesn’t come over
- Bank transactions, bills, expenses, transfers and journal entries, for the reason above. Their effect on your balances is covered by the conversion entry.
- Refunds of invoice payments aren’t recreated as separate records. The conversion entry covers the money involved.
- Exchange gains and losses on foreign-currency invoices aren’t recreated.
The import summary lists anything that was left out, so nothing disappears silently.
Importing again
If you want to keep using Wave for a little while as you settle in, just import again. Fastbooks adds only what’s new and leaves records you’ve already imported (and any changes you’ve made to them in Fastbooks) alone. If an import was interrupted part way, Start fresh gives you a clean run.
When you’re done, disconnect Wave from the same screen. Fastbooks gives up its access, and everything already imported stays in your books.
Coming from QuickBooks Online instead? That import brings over your full transaction history. See how the QuickBooks import works.
Ready to switch?
If you’re still weighing it up, our Fastbooks vs Wave comparison covers the differences feature by feature, and we’ve rounded up the best free alternatives to Wave too. Pricing is simple: the free plan includes unlimited invoices and bills, and Pro is $20 a month.
Create your Fastbooks account, head to Settings → Import, and bring your business with you.
Wave is a trademark of Wave Financial Inc. Fastbooks is not affiliated with or endorsed by Wave.
