Keep Wave for invoicing and your books, and save the receipt chase: every receipt read in seconds, matched to its bank line, and ready to import.
Wave receipts are no longer free. On the free Starter plan in Canada, receipt scanning is an add-on at C$11 a month or C$96 a year, and it comes included with Pro at C$25 a month. SparkReceipt reads what you buy from your phone, your inbox and your bank statements, matches each bank line to its receipt, and on Elite builds a file you can import into your Wave books. Plans start at $8.25/month billed annually.
Business Owners in 175 Countries Trust SparkReceipt
At a glance, October 2026
On Starter, receipt scanning is a paid add-on in Canada: C$11 a month or C$96 a year. Pro, at C$25 a month or C$250 a year, includes it.
Free invoicing, estimates and bills on Starter, and full small-business accounting on Pro. SparkReceipt doesn't create invoices, so many owners keep it for that.
Capture from the phone, a connected inbox (including past emails) and bank statements, each bank line matched to its receipt, and the lines with no receipt flagged.
SparkReceipt Elite exports an import file in the format Wave's transaction upload expects: date, description and amount. The receipt images stay in SparkReceipt.
SparkReceipt reads the GST, HST, PST or QST on each receipt and handles 190 currencies. Wave's business currency can only be CAD or USD.
Prices and features checked on the vendor's own site and help centre on 5 October 2026 (CAD).
| Wave | SparkReceipt | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Canadian and US small businesses that want free invoicing and simple accounting | Sole proprietors, small businesses and the accountant who works with them |
| Receipt scanning price | Starter: C$11/month or C$96/year add-on. Pro: included at C$25/month or C$250/year | Pro from $8.25/month billed annually; Elite $14.92/month billed annually |
| Receipt limit | Unlimited scans on the add-on and on Pro | Pro: 50 documents a month. Elite: unlimited documents (fair use) |
| Documents come in by | Mobile app, web upload (10 files at a time, 5 MB each), email forwarding | Mobile app, connected Gmail, Outlook or IMAP inbox (including past emails), upload of up to 100 documents at once |
| Line items | Not mentioned on its receipt pages | Every line read on Elite |
| Bank transactions | Automatic import through Plaid on Pro; manual statement upload on Starter | Upload bank and card statements (PDF, CSV, Excel); live bank feeds for Canadian banks |
| Matching receipts to bank lines | Pro only: merges once a day when a receipt and an imported transaction share the account and amount | Every statement line matched to its receipt, unmatched lines flagged, on Pro and Elite |
| Invoicing | Yes, on Starter and Pro | No. SparkReceipt doesn't create invoices |
| Sales tax on receipts | Not described on its receipt pages | GST, HST, PST and QST read from each receipt |
| Free trial | No free trial of Pro; Starter is free | 7 days, full access |
Wave has two plans in Canada. Starter is free and covers invoices, estimates and bills, manual bank statement uploads, categorizing and reconciling transactions, and the mobile app. Pro is C$25 a month, or C$250 a year billed annually, and adds receipt scanning, automatic bank transaction imports, and automatic merging and categorization of transactions. There's no free trial for Pro. US prices are lower (US$19 a month for Pro), so make sure you're reading the Canadian page.
On Starter, receipt scanning is an add-on at C$11 a month or C$96 a year in Canada. Both the add-on and Pro include unlimited receipt scans. You can photograph a receipt in the app, uploaded in the browser (up to 10 files at a time, JPG, GIF, PNG or PDF, up to 5 MB each) or forwarded by email, and each receipt becomes an expense transaction where you can edit the date, amount, account and category.
Automatic bank imports through Plaid are a Pro feature. If you want your bank transactions in Wave without uploading statements, the real price is C$250 a year. Wave's payroll add-on starts at C$25 a month on either plan.
Take a Canadian sole proprietor who invoices five clients a month through Wave and collects about 40 expense documents a month: 25 photographed, 15 arriving by email, all paid from one business chequing account.
| What the month needs | List price | |
|---|---|---|
| Starter + receipt add-on | Invoices free; 40 scans; statement uploaded by hand; no automatic receipt-to-bank merging | C$96 a year (C$11 a month billed monthly) |
| Pro | Invoices, 40 scans, bank feed through Plaid, merging with transactions that share account and amount | C$250 a year (C$25 a month billed monthly) |
| Starter + SparkReceipt Pro | Invoices free; 40 of 50 SparkReceipt documents; email bills picked up from the inbox; every statement line matched to its receipt | $99.00 a year for SparkReceipt, Starter free |
| Starter + SparkReceipt Elite | As above, unlimited documents, line items, and an import file | $179.00 a year for SparkReceipt, Starter free |
If all you need is expenses inside Wave, the add-on is the cheapest route. The difference shows when the paperwork has to prove something: which bank line each document belongs to, which charges have nothing behind them, and what your inbox adds up to.
Keep Wave for invoices. Let receipts file themselves.
Start Free TrialMatching. Wave's matching is a merge rule. On Pro, once every 24 hours, it merges an uploaded receipt with an imported bank transaction when they share the same account and amount, and it leaves the transaction alone when there is more than one possible match. SparkReceipt starts from the statement instead: you upload a bank or credit card statement, it reads every line, matches each one to its receipt, and lists the lines that have nothing behind them. That list is what an accountant asks for at year end.
Email. Wave accepts what you forward to it. SparkReceipt connects to the inbox itself, through Gmail, Microsoft or IMAP, so new bills and invoices are picked up as they arrive. Email history extraction also goes back through older mail, which is where a year of software subscriptions and online orders usually sits.
Detail on the receipt. Its receipt pages describe capturing the date, amount, account and category of each one. SparkReceipt reads the merchant, date, total and GST/HST on every plan, and every line item on Elite, so a mixed purchase can be split across categories. AI Fields on Elite pull out anything else you name, such as a project code or a client.
Where the records go. Wave keeps the receipt inside its own books. SparkReceipt publishes to QuickBooks Online and Xero, exports PDF, Excel and CSV reports with the images, and on Elite builds an import file for Wave, Sage 50, Sage 200/300 or DATEV. Your accountant joins your account free and never takes a paid seat.
Most people looking for a Wave receipts alternative don't want to leave. Invoicing is free there, and the books already live there. A setup that works:
If you don't need the transactions there at all, the PDF or Excel report with the images is often what your accountant wants anyway.
Every bank line, matched to its receipt.
Start Free TrialWave, which started in Toronto, is a good deal for a small Canadian business that invoices clients and wants simple books for free. Its receipt scanner does the basic job: photograph a receipt, forward an email, and a categorized expense appears. If you already pay for Pro, scanning costs nothing extra, and its daily merge handles the simple case of one receipt for one bank charge.
It's less of a fit when your records need to stand up on their own: when you want to see which card charges still have no receipt, when bills arrive in your inbox faster than you can forward them, when a purchase mixes business and personal items, or when you buy in several currencies. That is the part SparkReceipt is built for. If you need a full Wave alternative for invoicing and accounting, look at an accounting suite instead; SparkReceipt replaces only the receipts part.
The CRA expects you to keep business records for at least six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to (see CRA record retention). Changing tools doesn't change that.
Prices, plans and features come from the Wave pricing page, its receipts page and its help center articles on the receipts add-on, bank imports, transaction merging, statement uploads and the June 2026 plan changes, read on 5 October 2026 (Canadian prices in CAD). Prices and features change, so check before you buy. SparkReceipt is not affiliated with or endorsed by Wave Financial.
Full access to everything on this page. Cancel any time before the trial ends.
Each extra user: $1.17/month, billed $14 annually. Accountant access is free.
The essentials for keeping your receipts and expenses organized.
Total for 1 user · $99.00 billed annually
+ VAT/GST where applicable
Get Started7-day free trial
50 documents / month
For receipts and invoices
More receipts, more automation. Less to do yourself.
Total for 1 user · $179.00 billed annually
+ VAT/GST where applicable
Get Started7-day free trial
Unlimited documents*
Everything in Pro, plus:
Elite, with hands-on setup from a SparkReceipt founder.
$550 one-time setup + $179.00/year Elite for 1 user
+ VAT/GST where applicable
Get the Founder packAnnual plan only · No free trial
Everything in Elite
Plus a working session with a founder:
Unlimited linked accounts on every plan.
Unlimited document scanning on Elite is subject to fair use. Bank statement extraction uses monthly renewable credits. Historical email imports include a free allowance; larger imports use credits, with the cost shown before you start.
“I needed a solution to organize and process my personal and business receipts. I'm thrilled I found SparkReceipt. It saves me a lot of time!”
Frédéric Thériault
Productions Locavores · Canada
Join 38,283 businesses that chose SparkReceipt — 4,620,044 receipts processed and counting.
Start Free TrialNo longer. As of October 2026, receipt scanning on Wave's free Starter plan is a paid add-on at C$11 a month or C$96 a year in Canada. Wave Pro, at C$25 a month or C$250 a year, includes receipt scanning at no extra cost. Both include unlimited receipt scans.
In Canada, Wave Starter is free and covers invoicing, estimates, bills, manual statement uploads and reconciliation. Wave Pro is C$25 a month or C$250 a year and adds receipt scanning, automatic bank imports and automatic transaction merging. There's no free trial for Pro.
Yes. Wave app receipts live inside the main app on iPhone and Android, under Accounting and then Receipts. You can also upload receipts in the browser or forward them by email.
On Wave Pro, yes, in a limited way. Once a day Wave merges an uploaded receipt with an imported bank transaction when both share the same account and amount, and it skips the transaction when there is more than one possible match. SparkReceipt matches every line of an uploaded bank or card statement to its receipt and flags the lines with none, on both of its plans.
Yes. Keep Wave for invoicing and your books, and capture receipts in SparkReceipt. On Elite, SparkReceipt exports a CSV in the format Wave's Upload transactions screen accepts (date, description, amount), so the expenses can be imported into a Wave account. The receipt images stay in SparkReceipt.
Yes. SparkReceipt reads the GST, HST, PST or QST on each receipt, so the sales tax you can claim back as input tax credits is recorded with the expense. Wave's receipt pages describe capturing the date, amount, account and category.
No. SparkReceipt handles the receipts, bills and bank statements that come in, not the invoices you send. That's why many owners keep Wave's free plan for invoicing and use SparkReceipt for receipts.
Yes. Every SparkReceipt plan includes 1 user, and your accountant or bookkeeper joins free on top without taking a paid seat. They see every receipt with its image and can export reports themselves.
Yes. SparkReceipt starts with a 7-day free trial with full access, bills monthly or annually, and you can cancel any time.
If you invoice through Wave and only need receipts inside it, its own add-on is the simplest choice. If you want receipts picked up from your inbox, every bank line matched to its receipt, and records that work outside Wave, SparkReceipt is the Wave receipts alternative built for that, and it can still feed Wave on Elite. Try it free for 7 days.
