A few hundred transactions read and grouped, each proposal stating what it matched on. The repeating merchants settle themselves; the genuinely ambiguous ones come to you.
Once a month somebody sits down with a few hundred uncategorised transactions, guesses at eleven of them, chases four invoices, and calls it done. The guessing comes back at year end.
A companion does the reading half. It reads businesses, customers, invoices and transactions, proposes the categorisation with reasons, and drafts the chasing. You are left with the eleven that need a decision.
01
What can a companion prepare for month end?
A categorisation proposal with reasons.
It reads the transactions, groups the ones that clearly repeat, and for each group states what it matched on, so a merchant that has been the same category eleven times is treated as settled.
The flagged pile is the output that matters. Eleven transactions to think about is a manageable evening; three hundred is why it gets postponed.
02
How does the chasing work on a small ledger?
A companion reads the overdue invoices with customers and amounts and drafts one message per customer. On a small business the tone matters more, because half your customers are people you will see again.
Check the action list before you build the routine
A connection reaches what Wave’s public API offers, which is narrower than the interface.
Confirm the object you care about is there before planning a monthly routine on it.
A companion prepares and hands back. Nothing it produces is accounting or tax advice, which for a business without an accountant is the sentence to take seriously.
04
A short standing routine beats a heroic quarter
Overdue invoices with drafts, transactions that need a decision, and anything that looks like a duplicate charge from a subscription you forgot about, every month, on a schedule.
It proposes categories with the reason it matched on, settles the obviously repeating merchants, and flags the ambiguous ones. Applying the proposal needs your confirmation.
Yes. Connect the account and a companion reads businesses, customers, invoices and transactions, and turns a few hundred month-end lines into the eleven you actually have to think about. The available actions follow Wave’s public API.
It drafts one message per customer covering their overdue invoices. On a small ledger the tone matters more than the mechanics, which is why sending stays with you.
It prepares the boring half and flags what needs a decision. Closing a period and advising on it stay with you and your accountant, and nothing it produces is accounting or tax advice.
Add a monthly routine that prepares the categorisation and the chasing, and keep Wave underneath it as the ledger. Strawberry is free to download with credits included to start, and paid plans begin at $20 per month. Download it and try one month.
Wave Accounting Strawberry