Wave Handles Your Books. Reise Handles the Math Behind the Business.
Wave is genuinely good free accounting software for freelancers and small businesses. Reise Tools is something different: planning calculators for rates, taxes, and margins — with every formula step shown. They serve different needs and work well together.
🧮Try Contractor vs Employee Break-Even Calculator →Contractor vs Employee Break-Even Calculator
What hourly rate do you need as a contractor to match your current W-2 salary? Enter your employer's exact benefits package (health, 401k match, PTO), expected contractor expenses, and billable hours to see your break-even rate and contractor premium.
| Feature | Wave Accounting | Reise Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Free with no account required Both are free — Wave requires account creation | Free (core) | |
| Freelance rate calculator | ||
| W-2 vs 1099 financial comparison | ||
| SE tax formula shown (15.3% on 92.35% net) | ||
| Quarterly estimated tax with safe harbor logic | ||
| Formula shown for every result | ||
| Home office deduction calculator | ||
| Mileage deduction calculator | ||
| Client invoicing with online payments Core Wave feature — Reise doesn't invoice clients | ||
| Double-entry accounting and bank reconciliation | ||
| Receipt scanning and expense tracking |
To be honest: this is a widely-used tool for good reasons. Here's what it does well.
- Wave's core accounting and invoicing are free — hard to beat $0 for double-entry bookkeeping
- Bank connections, receipt scanning, and reconciliation tools work well for most freelancers
- Wave handles actual client invoicing with online payment acceptance (2.9% + $0.60 per transaction)
- Wave Payroll ($40/month base + $6/employee) handles W-2 employees and contractor payments
- ▸Wave records what happened, not what should happen — there's no rate calculator, no break-even analysis, and no answer to ‘what rate do I need to charge?’
- ▸No formula transparency — Wave shows your P&L but doesn't show SE tax math, QBI deduction logic, or quarterly safe harbor thresholds needed to avoid underpayment penalties
- ▸No freelance-specific tax planning — SE tax (15.3% on 92.35% of net income), quarterly estimated payments, home office deduction, and mileage log calculation aren't part of the Wave platform
- ▸No W-2 vs contractor comparison — Wave is built for people already in business, not for employees deciding whether to go independent
- ▸No rate-setting tools — Wave tells you what you earned but not whether you charged enough to cover SE taxes, health insurance, retirement contributions, and non-billable time
Every Reise calculator has a ShowMath panel — expand it and you see the exact formula with your actual numbers substituted in. Not just a result. Not a black box. The full derivation, step by step.
Wave and Reise Tools are complementary, not competing. Wave is retrospective: it tracks what happened financially and produces clean books. Reise is prospective: it models what will happen if you charge X, set aside Y for taxes, and contribute Z to retirement. The right setup for most freelancers is Wave for accounting, Reise for planning.
Your salary ÷ 40 hours isn't your real rate. Factor in taxes, commute, decompression, and work expenses to find what an hour of your life actually earns.
Calculate your quarterly IRS payments with QBI deduction (Section 199A), safe harbor, and all 4 due dates. Adds the 20% pass-through deduction that most freelancers forget to claim.
100+ free calculators. Every result shows the formula. No account required.