Finance & accounting · checked 2026-10-19

Can I vibecode Wave?

KINDA· weekend project

Wave's core is invoices, a few reports and a ledger that never goes out of balance. An agent builds that in a weekend on SQLite, and importing bank CSVs replaces most of what Pro's bank connection does. The gaps are the parts with other people's money: card and bank payments need Stripe and its fees, live bank feeds need an aggregator contract, payroll and tax rules change by state, and receipts on a phone want an app. Wave's free Starter plan already covers the basics, so a DIY build is mainly worth it for control and for moving away from Wave's own limits.

$19/moprice

$228you'd save a year

weekendbuild time

—people replaced it

Before you start

What you need on hand.

DifficultyIntermediate · Some system setup or keys.

TimeA weekend, plus an evening writing categorisation rules

Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
Node.js 22better-sqlite3 compiles a native module, so build tools must be installed.
Bank and card statementsCSV exports, as far back as your bank allows.
Your Wave data exportThe Accounting export for journal entries, customers and vendors, so you can check opening balances.
SMTP credentialsA transactional email provider's free tier covers a few invoices a month.

Before you buildWave Starter already costs nothing: invoices, bills, reports and manual statement uploads. Only Pro's bank sync and extra users are paid, so build this only if those limits or Wave's own terms are the problem.

1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.

The prompt

Build me a small-business invoicing and bookkeeping app to replace Wave. Requirements:

- Node.js 22 + TypeScript: a Fastify server with server-rendered pages (Eta) and a little
vanilla JS. `npm start` serves http://localhost:4860.
- Storage: better-sqlite3 in ./data/books.db. Money is integer cents with one currency per
business; every invoice payment, bill and bank line becomes a balanced journal entry. Seed an
editable chart of accounts (income, expenses, assets, liabilities, equity).
- Invoicing: customers, products, estimates that convert to invoices, line items with tax rates,
sequential numbers, a PDF with my logo (`pdfkit`) and email through nodemailer (SMTP in .env).
Reminders go out 3, 7 and 14 days after the due date until the invoice is marked paid.
- Payments: "record payment" posts the entry. Optionally a Stripe Payment Link per invoice
(`stripe`, STRIPE_SECRET_KEY and STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET in .env) whose webhook verifies the
signature, records the payment and books the fee as an expense.
- Bank lines: upload CSV statements (map the columns once per account and remember them), skip
duplicates by a hash of date, amount and description, apply rules such as "contains UBER ->
Travel", and leave the rest in a review queue.
- Receipts: drop a photo or PDF on a transaction; `tesseract.js` suggests the total and date for
me to confirm; files are kept in ./data/receipts/.
- Reports for any date range, exportable as CSV: profit and loss, balance sheet, sales tax
summary and receivables aging.
- Single user. No accounts, no telemetry, local-first: only SMTP and Stripe, if configured, are contacted.
- Out of scope: live bank feeds, payroll, tax filing, multiple users and roles.
- README: setup, backing up the .db file and the receipts folder, and a note that this is not
tax advice and an accountant should check the first year-end.

Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.

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Then keep going

Next prompts, same folder.

The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own Wave.

Add a Wave importer to the bookkeeping app in this folder. Requirements:

- A command `npm run import:wave <folder>` that reads the four files from Wave's Accounting
  data export: the accounting file (journal entries), bill items, customers and vendors.
- Create accounts from the account names it finds, import customers and vendors, and rebuild
  each transaction as a balanced journal entry; stop and report any that don't balance.
- Print counts and the opening balance of every account, and require --write before saving.
- Skip anything already imported by an external id, so running it twice is safe.
- Update the README with the Wave export steps.

Add recurring invoices to the bookkeeping app in this folder. Requirements:

- An invoice can repeat weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly from a start date until an end
  date or a count, using the same customer, lines and terms.
- A scheduler creates the next invoice as a draft or sends it automatically, per template,
  and never creates a duplicate after a restart.
- Show the next five run dates and let me pause or end the series.
- Add tests for month-end dates and leap years.
- Update the README.

Add a year-end export to the bookkeeping app in this folder. Requirements:

- A command `npm run pack -- --year 2026` that writes a ZIP with the trial balance, profit and
  loss, balance sheet, general ledger, receivables aging and a list of all invoices as CSV and PDF.
- Add a folder of receipts named by transaction date and amount, and a manifest.csv mapping
  each file to its journal entry.
- Warn about unreviewed bank lines and unbalanced entries before writing anything.
- Update the README.

What you lose

Bank connections that import and match transactions on their own
Online card and bank payments with processing handled for you
Payroll, and Wave Advisors bookkeepers
Receipt scanning from the mobile app
Accountant access with roles, plus chat and email support on weekdays

Why people still pay

The free plan is enough to send invoices, so Pro pays for hours of data entry: bank transactions arriving and categorising themselves, a bookkeeper or accountant logged in beside you, and a cheaper rate on every card payment. On 1 June 2026 Wave moved older businesses that don't use payments or payroll to Starter, which put bank connections and collaborators behind Pro.

Moatintegrations compliance & regulation switching costs

Do the math

Wave or your own copy?

Over

Your usage

Count my time12h ×$/h

Wave, 1 yr$228

Your own copy, 1 yr$46running + build session

You keep$182pays for itself in the first month

Estimate · Runs on your machine for nothing. Stripe's processing fee applies per payment, and a live bank feed through an aggregator would add a monthly fee. The build is token usage on your agent plan.

Leaving Wave

Take your data, then cancel.

1 · Take your data out of Wave

1Log in at waveapps.com, click your business name in the top right and open Business settings, then Other > Data Export.
2Choose Accounting, Receipts or Payroll: Accounting gives four XLS or CSV files (journal entries and transactions, bill items, customers, vendors), Receipts gives a ZIP of the original images, and Payroll exports are for Canadian businesses only.
3Wave emails a link to the primary address; it stays active for 24 hours, so export again if it expires.
4For transactions between two dates, export an Account Transactions report with those dates. Invoices, products and the chart of accounts can also be pulled with Wave Connect for Google Sheets.

2 · Cancel Wave

1On the web, click your business name, then Business settings > Other > Manage Subscriptions.
2Under your current plan choose Manage subscription, select the plan and click Cancel Subscription.
3Pro stays active until the end of the period you paid for, then the business returns to the free Starter plan.
4Subscribed in the mobile app? Cancel in your iOS settings or the Google Play Store; Wave can't do it for you.

Viewer and Editor roles can't export data, so ask the owner or an admin.
Exports include only the business profile you are in: repeat the steps for each business.
There is no free trial for Pro; if the first-three-months promo applies, cancel before the full price starts.
For a web subscription, a refund goes through Wave support, and the help center says refunds follow Wave's paid subscription terms.
Dropping to Starter keeps your books, so it's the safe first step before closing anything.

Checked 2026-10-19 against Wave's docs: 1, 2, 3, 4

The escape hatch

Don't feel like building it? These are already free.

InvoiceShelfOpen sourceAGPL-3.0 open-source invoicing for individuals and small businesses with estimates, payments, expenses and PDF export; aimed at invoicing rather than full bookkeeping.★ 1.9k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗BigcapitalOpen sourceAGPL-3.0 accounting and inventory for small businesses with financial statements and an API; its own description calls it a Wave alternative.★ 3.9k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗AkauntingFreeLaravel accounting with invoices, bills and reports; source-available under the BSL, free to self-host, with an app store for extras.★ 10k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗

All 5 free alternatives to Wave ›

The numbers

Wave pricing

Plan	Monthly	Annual, per month	What you get
Starter	$0	$0	Unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, optional online payments, mobile app, dashboard; bank transactions come in by uploading statements.
Pro	$19	$15.83	Starter plus automatic bank imports through Plaid with auto-merge and categorisation, late-payment reminders, extra users with admin, editor or viewer roles, no Wave branding in invoice footers, discounted online-payment rates.
Wave Advisors	$149	—	Pro features plus a dedicated bookkeeper, monthly financial statements and expert support.

Free tier: No automatic bank imports and no extra users; payments carry a $0.60 fee per card transaction.
Billing: Pro is monthly or yearly, and there is no free trial. After cancelling you keep Pro to the end of the paid period and then return to the free Starter plan. Web purchases are refunded through Wave support; app purchases through Apple or Google.
Hidden costs: Card and bank payments carry processing fees (2.9% plus a fixed fee, higher for Amex). Receipt capture is an add-on listed at $8 to $11 a month depending on plan, and payroll is a separate paid subscription. Pro discounts the payment fee, so the more you collect online, the more the plan matters.
Source: www.waveapps.com

Also on the list

QuickBooks Online$38/mo · Finance & accountingKINDA

FreshBooks$23/mo · Finance & accountingKINDA

Invoice Ninja$14/mo · Finance & accountingYES

Questions

Wave, briefly

Not answered here? Tell us and we'll add it.

Ask a question ›

Starter is free: unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and bookkeeping records, manual statement uploads, reports and the mobile app.

Kinda. The core is a weekend build with the prompt on this page, but real gaps remain: Bank connections that import and match transactions on their own, Online card and bank payments with processing handled for you.

About $19 a month on the Pro plan, $228 a year (checked 2026-10-19).

Bank connections that import and match transactions on their own; Online card and bank payments with processing handled for you; Payroll, and Wave Advisors bookkeepers; Receipt scanning from the mobile app; Accountant access with roles, plus chat and email support on weekdays. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.