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Quick answer: Wave accounting integrations connect Wave’s invoicing and bookkeeping data to outside tools that handle what Wave can’t do on its own, like printing or mailing a paper check. Connect Wave to OnlineCheckWriter.com to pull your invoices and payees on demand. Then print the check yourself on blank stock, or have it mailed starting at $1.25. That’s the kind of gap a marketing agency in Charlotte, North Carolina can run into: paying a freelancer who won’t take a card, or refunding a client, without leaving Wave for its books.
Updated August 2026.
Key Takeaways
Does Wave Accounting Print Checks?
No. Wave is built for invoicing, bookkeeping, and tracking income and expenses. It does not print physical checks, mail them, or hand you a way to pay a vendor who insists on paper. Wave’s own app directory covers jobs like payroll and online payments. Check printing and mailing isn’t one of them. That’s where a dedicated tool like OnlineCheckWriter fits in. That gap is normal for a bookkeeping tool, but it becomes a real problem for a small agency the moment a client wants a refund check instead of a card credit, or a freelancer refuses to hand over bank details for direct deposit.
Picture a five-person marketing agency in Charlotte, North Carolina, that keeps its books in Wave. A client cancels part of a retainer and wants the overage back as a physical check for their own records, not a card reversal. A freelance video editor who works with the agency won’t share a routing number and asks to be mailed a check instead. Wave can show the agency what it owes and to whom. It cannot produce the check itself.
What Do Wave Accounting Integrations With OnlineCheckWriter Actually Do?
A Wave accounting integration connects your Wave account to OnlineCheckWriter.com so the invoices and payees you already track in Wave don’t have to be typed in twice. OnlineCheckWriter handles the part Wave isn’t built to do: producing and delivering the actual check. Here is where each tool’s job starts and stops.
| Task | Wave | OnlineCheckWriter.com |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing and bookkeeping | Yes, this is Wave’s core job | No, it reads your Wave records instead |
| Printing a physical check | No | Yes, on blank check stock with a laser printer and MICR toner |
| Mailing a check to a payee | No | Yes, starting at $1.25 per check |
| ACH, wire, or card payment | No | Yes |
| Pulling in Wave invoices and payees | Source of the data | Imports it on demand, not a live sync |
| Managing more than one company or bank account | Generally set up around a single business | Multiple companies and bank accounts in one place |
How Do You Import Wave Invoices and Payees Into OnlineCheckWriter?
The import is a short, on-demand process, not a background sync that updates itself. If you add a new payee in Wave today, it won’t show up in OnlineCheckWriter until you run the import again.
- Connect your Wave account to OnlineCheckWriter.com from your dashboard.
- Choose which Wave invoices or payees you want to bring over.
- Review the imported payee details, like name and mailing address, before you use them.
- Start printing or mailing checks, or sending ACH, wire, or card payments, for the payees you imported.
Because the import is something you trigger yourself, it’s worth running it right before a check run rather than assuming your Wave and OnlineCheckWriter records already match. The import also only moves data one direction, from Wave into OnlineCheckWriter. Once a check clears, log it in Wave the same day. Tie it to the check number as the expense or refund it represents. That way your books don’t show an invoice still open, or a credit still unresolved, after the cash is already gone.
When Should a Client Refund Go Out as a Check Instead of a Card Credit?
Use the pattern below as a starting point, then decide case by case.
| Refund situation | Check usually fits better | Card credit usually fits better |
|---|---|---|
| Client’s card is expired or closed | Yes | No |
| Client originally paid by check | Yes | No |
| Client wants a paper record for their own books | Yes | No |
| Small, routine adjustment on an active card | No | Yes |
The same logic applies on the vendor side. A local Charlotte contractor might be fine with ACH. An out-of-state freelance editor who doesn’t want to share banking details, or a one-off vendor the agency will likely never pay again, is often easier to settle with a mailed check.
What Do You Need to Print a Bank-Compliant Check for a Vendor or Freelancer?
Most checks in the US now move through electronic check processing rather than a physical trip between banks. The routing and account number line at the bottom of a check, called the MICR line, has to be readable by a bank’s check-processing equipment. That requires magnetic ink or magnetic toner and a laser printer. A standard inkjet printer, or a laser printer loaded with ordinary black toner, can print a MICR line a bank’s system misreads, rejects, or charges back. The check can look correct on screen and still fail at the bank.
Before printing a client refund or vendor check yourself, an agency needs the items below on hand. If any one is missing, mailing the check through OnlineCheckWriter’s own printing and mailing service is the more practical option, since it removes the printer and toner requirement from the agency’s side entirely.
| You need | Why it’s required |
|---|---|
| A laser printer | Only a laser printer can fuse magnetic (MICR) toner onto the check the way bank equipment needs |
| MICR toner | Ordinary black toner or inkjet ink is not magnetic and will not produce a compliant MICR line |
| Blank check stock | Must match the bank account the check is drawn on |
| A fraud control like positive pay | Blank check stock lacks the built-in security features of pre-printed checks, so this helps catch an altered or forged check before it clears |
Bring Your Wave Payees Into OnlineCheckWriter
Connect your Wave account, import the invoices and payees you already track, then print or mail the check without re-entering a thing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Wave have any built-in way to send a physical check?
Wave tracks invoices, income, and expenses, but it has no feature for printing or mailing a paper check. That is why agencies that need to pay by check connect a separate tool for that piece.
Does the Wave import happen automatically?
You trigger it yourself. It is an on-demand import, not a live sync that updates in the background, so a payee added in Wave won’t appear in OnlineCheckWriter until you run the import again.
Can I mail the check instead of printing it myself?
You can. OnlineCheckWriter.com will print and mail the check for you, starting at $1.25 per check, which is a practical option if you don’t have a laser printer with MICR toner on hand.
Can I print checks with a regular inkjet printer?
A regular inkjet printer, or a laser printer loaded with ordinary toner, cannot produce a MICR line a bank’s equipment reads correctly. A laser printer loaded with magnetic (MICR) toner is what the job requires.
Do I still need Wave once I connect OnlineCheckWriter?
Yes. Wave stays your bookkeeping and invoicing system. OnlineCheckWriter only adds the check printing, mailing, and payment delivery Wave doesn’t have.
Can I pay a vendor by ACH or card instead of a check?
OnlineCheckWriter also supports ACH, wire, and card payments, so a vendor who’s fine with electronic payment doesn’t need a check at all. The check option is there for payees who prefer or require one.
Does connecting Wave to OnlineCheckWriter cost anything beyond what I already pay for Wave?
OnlineCheckWriter.com runs on its own account and pricing, separate from Wave. Mailing a check starts at $1.25 per check; printing on your own blank stock with a laser printer and MICR toner avoids that per-check mailing cost. Confirm current plan pricing before you sign up.
Is it secure to connect Wave to a third-party check tool?
OnlineCheckWriter.com holds security certifications including PCI-DSS, SOC 1, SOC 2, and ISO 27001. Only the invoices and payees you choose to import are pulled over, and the import only runs when you start it, not through a login handed over to a third party.
Keep Wave for what it does well, and add a check-printing tool for the one job it isn’t built to do. The habit that keeps both records straight is a small one: run the import right before you need it, print or mail the check, and log it back in Wave the same day rather than at the end of the month.
Connect Wave and Handle Your Next Check Run
Import your Wave payees, then print on blank check stock or have OnlineCheckWriter mail the check for you.
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