Short answer
If you keep your books in Wave, its Receipts plan ($8 a month or $72 a year when we checked) puts scanned receipts straight into your bookkeeping. NexaLink Scanner is the alternative if you want a free plan, receipts read and stored on your phone, and CSV export that works with Wave or any other tool.
Key takeaways
- Wave Receipts: $8/month or $72/year (USD); Pro: $19/month or $190/year. Mobile receipt scanning needs one of them.[1]
- Wave reads receipts with OCR and supports mobile, desktop upload and email forwarding.[1]
- NexaLink Scanner is free for 50 receipts; Pro $4.99/mo or $39.99/yr.
- Wave is the better pick if your bookkeeping lives in Wave; NexaLink suits people who want a separate, private record.
How Wave handles receipts
Wave is accounting and invoicing software. Its receipts page explains that receipt scanning uses OCR to create a bookkeeping record from a photo, an upload or a forwarded email, with bulk upload of up to ten receipts at a time. Mobile receipt scanning requires an active Receipts plan or Pro plan.[1]
Why look for an alternative
- You only need receipts, not invoicing or bookkeeping, and don't want to pay for a receipt add-on.
- You're outside the US and Canada and your accountant uses different software.
- You want your own record of receipts with categories and projects, separate from the bookkeeping file.
- You want the data to stay on your phone until you choose to export it.
Wave Receipts vs NexaLink Scanner
| Wave Receipts | NexaLink Scanner | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $8/month or $72/year[1] | Free (50 receipts); Pro $4.99/mo or $39.99/yr |
| Bookkeeping | Built in (Wave accounting) | No — exports to your accounting tool |
| Email forwarding | Yes[1] | No |
| Where receipts are stored | Wave's cloud (backed up)[1] | Your phone |
| Projects / jobs | Via Wave's bookkeeping | Projects and tags on Pro |
| Export | Within Wave | CSV free on every plan; PDF expense report on Pro |
Using NexaLink Scanner with Wave
Wave does not appear on NexaLink's connection roadmap (Xero first, then QuickBooks Online; FreeAgent, Sage and Zoho Books planned). If you keep books in Wave and like NexaLink's capture, the route is the CSV: export each month and bring the transactions into Wave in whatever way your Wave setup supports, keeping the receipt images as your evidence.
Honestly, if Wave is your accounting system and you are in the US or Canada, Wave's own Receipts plan is the more integrated choice. NexaLink makes more sense when you want a private, separate record, or when your accounting lives elsewhere — see accounting integrations.
Key facts about NexaLink Scanner
- What it is: NexaLink Scanner is a private receipt and expense organiser for iOS and Android, built for freelancers, sole traders, contractors and small businesses. It is not accounting software and does not file tax returns.
- How it reads receipts: text is read on the phone (on-device OCR) and capture works offline. Merchant, date, total and tax are filled in; any value it is unsure of is flagged, and a low-confidence total cannot be saved until you confirm it.
- Where data lives: receipts are stored on your phone and do not sync to the web. Data leaves only when you export it.
- Free plan: 50 receipts, on-device reading, search, 5 default categories and CSV export. CSV export is free on every plan, always.
- Pro: $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year — unlimited receipts, custom categories, projects and tags, a PDF expense report in the app, tax and multi-currency reports. Image ZIP export and Xero / QuickBooks import files are coming soon.
- Accounting connections (none live yet): Xero — First · V1.1 · QuickBooks Online — Next · V1.2 · FreeAgent — Planned · Sage Accounting — Planned · Zoho Books — Planned · TallyPrime — Import file first. CSV export works with any accounting tool today. Status as of 2026-11-10; see accounting integrations.
Frequently asked questions
Is Wave receipt scanning free?
No. Wave's page says mobile receipt scanning requires an active Receipts plan ($8/month) or Pro plan.[1]
Does NexaLink Scanner connect to Wave?
No, and it is not on the current connection roadmap. Use the free CSV export.
Which is cheaper for receipts only?
NexaLink Scanner is free for 50 receipts; Pro is $39.99 a year. Wave Receipts was $72 a year when we checked.[1]
Can I forward email receipts to NexaLink?
No. NexaLink captures receipts with the phone camera. Wave supports email forwarding.[1]
Is NexaLink available outside the US and Canada?
Yes. It is an iOS and Android app, and keeps each receipt's own currency.
Does NexaLink do invoicing?
No. It organises receipts and exports them; invoicing stays in your accounting tool.
Sources
- Wave — Receipts — checked on 2026-11-10