Wave gets into small business payroll!

More exciting news to share with you: Wave is now getting into small business payroll.

Since our launch in November, we’ve focused our in-house development resources exclusively on our accounting application. That way:

1. We’ve been able to keep our attention on features that matter to the greatest number of Wave Accounting customers; and
2. We’ve been able to keep Wave Accounting 100% free.

This focus (and the free price point) is something we intend to keep.

At the same time, we knew that some portion of our Wave Accounting customers would also need a payroll solution. While evaluating our options on that front, we came across a great startup that was doing for payroll what we were doing for accounting: Taking something complicated and expensive, and making it easy and affordable. That startup was called Small Payroll, and we’re thrilled to announce today that we’ve acquired it and will be relaunching it shortly as Wave Payroll.

We’re also thrilled that Sean Walberg, the founder of Small Payroll, is joining the Wave family. He’ll spearhead all new development on Wave Payroll, and is already busy integrating it into the accounting application.

Here are some of the important details we want you to be aware of:

• Wave Accounting will continue to be 100% free.
• Wave Payroll will function as a stand-alone application, or it can be integrated into Wave Accounting. In either case, there is a fee for Wave Payroll. We’re working out the exact details, but Wave Payroll customers can expect to pay just a couple of bucks per employee per payroll cycle, with no nickel-and-diming. (See below for details.)
• Wave Payroll is currently in private beta, while we finesse some of our features. For an advance invitationto the public beta, go to Wave Payroll. The Canadian version will launch before year’s end; the U.S. version of Wave Payroll will launch in 2012.

More about Wave Payroll

Sean launched his payroll app in 2009, after trying to manage payments, deductions and government filing requirements for his childcare provider. “Even though I understood what needed to be done, it was a huge pain to use the government’s online calculators and then keep track of things on spreadsheets,” he says. “And on top of it, there were monthly reports and payments to the government, and the whole headache of Records of Employment, and year-end employee tax records. And the payroll companies are too expensive, especially for the little guys.”

So he did what came naturally: He built an app that took away the headaches.

Wave Payroll looks after all the otherwise-painful parts of payroll processing:

• direct deposit to employees’ bank accounts
• calculations of wages and overtime
• withholding deductions; and monthly remitting to the government
• income tax forms (including the Canadian T4) and Records of Employment.

And to make it even sweeter, all of this and more is included in a very simple pricing model. Customers pay a flat rate (just a few dollars per employee per payroll), and that’s it. There’s no nickel-and-diming for services you know you’ll eventually need.

To sign up for an advance beta invitation to Wave Payroll, just visit Wave Payroll. We look forward to sending those invitations out and hearing your feedback.