Wave Financial is offering a small-business bank account with a twist: built-in bookkeeping.
The Toronto-based financial software provider, which is owned by H&R Block, already helps entrepreneurs with accounting, invoicing, payments and payroll.
On Thursday it announced an iOS app-based offering called Wave Money that will include a bank account with no monthly fees or account minimums and a debit card. Both are provided by Community Federal Savings Bank in Woodhaven, N.Y.
The account also folds in some business-friendly benefits.
It will automatically import the owner’s transactions, categorize expenses and reconcile their bank accounts. Wave Money users can pay vendors and contractors using an email money transfer, and can include a Pay Now button on invoices created in Wave’s invoicing software to help facilitate bill payment. Users can also push money to their accounts nearly instantly, including on evenings, weekends and holidays, using their debit cards, through the Visa and Mastercard debit networks.
Later on, users will be able to deposit checks remotely. Data-driven budgeting recommendations are also in the works.
“Few first-time entrepreneurs have accounting expertise,” Kirk Simpson, co-founder and CEO of Wave, said in a press release. “Wave Money is made specifically for the entrepreneur who loves their work, not bookkeeping.”
The pandemic didn’t change the timing of Wave Money’s launch, but “it definitely reinforced how important it is to make small-business ownership as easy as possible for entrepreneurs,” Simpson said.
Simpson said he expects the account to be widely available to single-owner businesses — along with an Android version — by the end of the summer.
