Wave invoicing and Wave payments solve two related but different problems.
Invoicing tells a customer what they owe. Online Payments gives that customer a way to pay electronically.
Wave links those workflows so that a customer payment can flow into the same accounting system that created the invoice.
That connection is one of the more important reasons to understand the two products together.
Creating an Invoice Does Not Automatically Mean Processing a Payment
Wave’s accounting plans allow businesses to create invoices and estimates.
Businesses can customize invoices, add customer and product information, record payments, and maintain invoice history inside Wave.
Online payment processing is optional.
Once a business applies for and activates Wave Online Payments, supported invoices can provide customers with a Pay Now option for card or bank payments.
The business then pays transaction-processing fees.
This model is similar to the distinction between writing an invoice and operating a merchant account: the document itself is accounting functionality, while electronically moving the customer’s money is payment processing.
Sending Through Wave Can Depend on the Business Setup
Wave’s current rules make another distinction between creating an invoice and having Wave send it.
Wave documents direct invoice sending through Wave for businesses that subscribe to Pro, accept Wave online payments, or use Wave Payroll. Other businesses can still create invoice documents and use links or PDFs according to the available plan functionality.
This is an example of why older tutorials can be misleading.
An instruction written during the earlier all-free Wave era may not match a newly created Starter account.
Card Payment Fees
For US Starter businesses, Wave currently lists:
Visa, Mastercard and Discover: 2.9% + $0.60
American Express: 3.4% + $0.60
On Pro, the percentage remains the same, but the first ten qualifying card transactions during each monthly subscription period currently have a $0 fixed component. Transactions after the first ten return to Starter’s fixed-fee structure.
That can make the Pro discount more significant for businesses sending relatively small invoices, because the $0.60 fixed component represents a greater percentage of a small transaction.
ACH Bank Payments
Wave also supports bank payments.
The current US fee is 1% with a $1 minimum, under both Starter and Pro.
For a high-value invoice, ACH may therefore have a different cost profile from a card payment.
A $2,000 invoice processed at 1% creates a materially different processing cost from the same invoice paid with a credit card.
That does not automatically make one method better: client convenience, timing, payment risk, and the customer’s preferred method also matter.
But it illustrates why “What does Wave charge?” cannot be answered with one percentage.
How Quickly Does the Business Receive the Money?
Payment authorization and bank deposit are not the same event.
For US businesses, Wave currently lists standard processing timelines of:
credit cards: 2 business days
ACH bank payments: 2–7 business days
Wave states that these timelines cannot be expedited. Bank holidays can also affect the schedule.
Payments submitted before Wave’s current 8:00 PM Eastern processing cutoff can begin processing that business day. Later payments, weekend payments, and bank-holiday payments begin the next business day.
A business should therefore avoid promising that an electronic invoice payment will appear in its bank account instantly.
What Happens in the Books?
This is where Wave’s integrated model becomes useful.
When an online invoice payment is processed through Wave, the payment information connects back to the business’s accounting records.
That reduces the separation between:
accounts receivable, customer payment history, and bookkeeping.
A business still needs to understand deposits, fees, and reconciliation, but the information originates inside the same financial ecosystem.
Recurring Invoices
Wave also supports recurring invoice schedules.
Businesses can create schedules with frequencies including daily, weekly, monthly and yearly arrangements as well as custom patterns such as biweekly, quarterly, or semiannual billing.
Automatic sending of recurring invoices requires online payments or Pro.
Wave can also support automatic payment arrangements in eligible circumstances.
One important bank-specific exception is Chase: Wave states that automatic recurring bank payments from Chase accounts are not supported, although customers can still make manual bank payments.
That is exactly the kind of detail that can make a workflow appear broken when the limitation actually comes from the payment method.
Payment Reminders
Late invoices are another point where plan structure matters.
Businesses using online payments or Pro can schedule Wave payment reminders.
Wave currently allows scheduled reminders based on the invoice due date, helping businesses automate part of their accounts-receivable follow-up.
Manual reminders are also available in supported account configurations.
For a business with repeat customers, reminders and recurring invoices together can eliminate a surprising amount of administrative work.
Estimates and Deposits
Wave’s invoicing workflow begins before the invoice itself.
Businesses can create estimates, present expected work or pricing to customers, and convert accepted estimates into invoices.
Wave’s current product also supports requesting deposits through estimates for businesses using online payments.
That makes Wave potentially useful for service businesses where work begins after a customer approves an estimate and pays an initial amount.
Mobile Invoicing
The Wave mobile app extends several invoicing functions away from the desktop.
Wave currently documents mobile invoice creation, customization, invoice-status monitoring, payment recording, payment notifications, estimates, and access to online-payment functionality.
The mobile app should not be assumed to contain every desktop accounting feature, however.
Wave explicitly notes that some features remain web-only or depend on subscriptions.
A Practical Invoice-to-Cash Model
The easiest way to understand the workflow is:
Estimate
A potential customer agrees to proposed work.
Invoice
The business records the amount owed.
Payment method
The customer pays by card, bank transfer, check, cash, or another accepted method.
Wave Online Payments
If enabled, Wave processes supported card or bank payments.
Payout
Wave transfers processed funds to the business’s connected bank according to the applicable schedule.
Accounting
The invoice and payment information become part of the business’s books.
That is the real value of the integration.
Wave is not merely producing a PDF invoice; it can connect the receivable, payment, and accounting stages of the same transaction.