QuickBooks vs Wave for Canadian trades (2026 honest comparison)

QuickBooks Online vs Wave compared head-to-head for Canadian trades businesses in 2026. Real CAD prices, GST/HST handling, payroll, where each one fits.

For Canadian trades operators, the QuickBooks Online vs. Wave decision is almost entirely about your revenue stage and whether you carry inventory. Both handle Canadian taxes. Both work. The cost difference (free vs. ~$30+/mo USD) seems big at first but is usually not the real factor.

The 30-second verdict

• Sole-prop trades, under $80K/year revenue, no employees: Wave (free). It’s enough.
• Trades $80K-$200K, 0-2 employees, no inventory: Wave still works for most; QBO if your accountant strongly prefers it.
• Trades $200K+ or with inventory or payroll for 3+: QuickBooks Online. The reporting and ecosystem matters.
• Multi-currency, multi-location, complex inventory: QuickBooks Online or Xero. Wave isn’t enough.

Pricing in CAD (April 2026)

Wave switched to a freemium model in 2024 (formerly fully free). Core invoicing and accounting are still free; advanced features (receipts, multi-business, advanced reports) are now in Wave Pro at ~$22 CAD/mo.

Where QuickBooks wins for Canadian trades

• Reporting depth. Profitability per customer, per project, per service type. Trades doing $300K+ benefit from this.
• Inventory tracking. If you carry parts (HVAC parts, electrical materials, plumbing fittings), QBO Plus tracks SKUs, cost basis, on-hand quantities. Wave doesn’t.
• Payroll integration. QuickBooks Payroll add-on integrates tightly. Worth using if you don’t have an outside payroll tool.
• Class and location tracking. Multi-location trades or operators tracking different revenue streams (residential vs. commercial) get cleaner reporting.
• Accountant familiarity. Most Canadian accountants know QBO inside and out. Some don’t know Wave well — friction at year-end.
• App ecosystem. Hundreds of integrations (Jobber, Housecall Pro, FieldEdge, ServiceTitan, Receipt Bank/Dext) connect natively.

Where Wave wins for Canadian trades

• Free. Genuinely free, forever, for the core. No “you’ll need to upgrade” trap if you stay small.
• Canadian-built (Toronto). GST/HST/PST handled natively. No tax hacks needed.
• Simpler UX. Sole-prop trades operators land faster on Wave than QBO.
• Pay-per-transaction payments. Same Stripe rates as everyone else (~2.9% + $0.30), but no monthly fee for the payment infrastructure.
• Mobile-friendly invoice entry. Snap a receipt, log an invoice from the truck.

What both handle well

• HST/GST/PST per invoice
• Bank feeds via Plaid (Canadian banks supported)
• Customer profiles, vendor profiles
• Estimates and quotes (basic)
• Receipt photos attached to expenses (Wave Pro / QBO Plus)
• Basic project tracking (QBO better; Wave dropped most of this in 2024)
• Year-end CRA tax exports

The HST/GST/PST handling

Both handle Canadian sales tax correctly:

• Single-province trades: both work fine
• Multi-province trades (sell into multiple provinces): both work; QBO’s setup is slightly more polished

The risk: configuring tax rates incorrectly at setup leads to filing problems 6 months later. Have your accountant verify before depending on the auto-calculations.

What QuickBooks does that Wave doesn’t

• True inventory tracking with FIFO/average cost
• Class and location reporting
• Bill payment via Plooto integration
• Native payroll (Wave dropped payroll in their 2022 transition)
• Multi-currency invoicing
• Advanced reports (cash flow forecasts, sales by customer-class)
• Project-level profitability tracking

For a one-person trades operator, you don’t need most of these. For a 3+ employee trades operation with parts inventory and project tracking needs, you do.

What Wave does that QuickBooks doesn’t (at this price)

• Free. QuickBooks doesn’t have a free tier that’s actually usable.
• Simpler entry point — most sole-prop trades operators set up Wave in 90 minutes.

Migration cost

Both export reasonably (CSV). Migration in either direction is doable in a weekend for under-100-customer trades operations. Larger operations should plan 8-15 hours.

The bigger cost is your accountant’s adjustment time. If your accountant has been doing your books in QBO for 3 years and you switch to Wave, expect 2-4 hours of professional time at year-end ($200-$500) to adjust.

The “should I switch from one to the other?” question

Common pattern we see:

• Solo trades operator starts on Wave (free is hard to argue with)
• Hits $150K-$200K revenue, gets a couple employees, starts carrying parts
• Realizes Wave is missing things they now need
• Migrates to QuickBooks Online over a weekend

Rare pattern: established QBO user migrating to Wave. Usually cost-driven, but the accountant friction often exceeds the saved subscription cost.

What’s NOT worth it for Canadian trades

• Generic US-only accounting tools: don’t handle HST/GST/PST cleanly. Avoid.
• Spreadsheet bookkeeping for trades over $100K revenue: error rate compounds, year-end becomes a nightmare.
• FreshBooks for trades carrying parts inventory: FB is great for service-only trades; weak on inventory.
• Bench, Pilot, or other US-only outsourced bookkeeping: most don’t handle Canadian payroll or WSIB cleanly. Stick with Canadian options.
• Building a custom Notion or Airtable bookkeeping system: works for 30 invoices. Breaks at 200. Disastrous at audit.

The accountant question

Talk to your accountant before deciding. Some Canadian accountants charge less for QBO clients (they know the system) and more for Wave (they don’t).

If your accountant doesn’t have a strong preference: Wave for simple, QBO for complex.

If your accountant has a strong preference: defer to them. The marginal cost of fighting their preference for years is much higher than the subscription cost.

Skip the upgrade if…

• You’re under $50K revenue. Wave is fine. Don’t add $40+/mo to your overhead unprovoked.
• You’re a side-hustle trades operator. Don’t add tooling complexity until your revenue justifies it.
• You have a great relationship with a bookkeeper who handles your books in their preferred tool. Use what they use.

Recommendation by stage

Affiliate disclosure

We earn a commission on QBO and Wave Pro signups. Both are legitimately Canadian-friendly. Recommendations are independent.

If you’re stuck on the choice for an unusual situation (multi-province sales tax, US/CA cross-border revenue, complex inventory), reach out — happy to share edge cases.