Resources · Make integration

Wave Make integrationAutomate Wave with Make.

Could your Wave invoices, customers and bookkeeping entries take care of themselves? The Wave Make integration gives you 21 modules: one trigger, 16 actions and four searches. This guide connects your account, then walks you through a first working scenario.

Try the Wave integration on MakeSee the 21 modules

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What you can automate

What can the Wave Make integration automate?

The Wave Make integration links your Wave business to Make, a no-code tool where you build a scenario: the automation itself, a chain of modules that runs on a schedule. Each module is one brick of that chain. With Wave, those bricks create customers and invoices, record money in and out, and watch for new invoices.

Bill a client the moment a deal closes elsewhere. A sale lands in your CRM or your online form. Make runs Get a Customer by Email to see whether that person already exists in Wave, uses Create a Customer if not, then builds the invoice with Create an Invoice and sends it with Send an Invoice. Nobody retypes a name or an amount.

Keep your books fed without copy and paste. Payouts from a payment tool or a spreadsheet of receipts can become entries in Wave through Create an Income / Expense or Create a Transaction. Your accountant opens Wave and finds the lines already there.

Hold one product catalogue. When a price changes in your shop, Update a Product/Service carries it into Wave, and Create a Product/Service adds the new items, so invoices always pull the right label.

Know the limits before you start. Wave has a single trigger, Watch Invoices, and it is scheduled: Make checks Wave at intervals rather than hearing from it instantly. There is no generic Make an API Call module either; Execute a GraphQL Query is the way to reach what the other modules skip. If you also weigh n8n, the n8n vs Make comparison lays out the criteria, the Make pricing page covers plans, and Make training helps if scenarios are new to you.

Connect

How do you connect your Wave account to Make?

  1. 01

    Add a Wave module

    In a scenario, add any Wave module, for example Watch Invoices, and click Create a connection. A connection is your Wave account linked to Make once, then reused by every Wave module you add later.

  2. 02

    Pick OAuth and name it

    Choose Wave OAuth 2.0 as the connection type. Giving the connection a name is optional, but a clear one such as the business it points to saves confusion when you manage several Wave accounts.

  3. 03

    Authorize and save

    Make opens a Wave page where you sign in and allow access. Accept, come back to Make and click Save. The module can now read your Wave data and list what it finds.

First scenario

Your first scenario: approve and send new Wave invoices

GoalWhen a new invoice shows up in Wave, Make approves it and sends it to the customer.

  1. 01

    Create the scenario

    Open the Scenarios page, create a new scenario and click the big + to place your first module on the empty canvas.

  2. 02

    Add Watch Invoices

    Search for Wave, pick Watch Invoices and select the connection you made earlier. Fill in the fields the module asks for; Make lists what it can read from your account.

  3. 03

    Chain the approval

    Click the + on the right of the trigger, add Approve an Invoice and map the invoice ID coming from Watch Invoices into it.

  4. 04

    Send it out

    Add Send an Invoice after the approval and map the same invoice ID. Each invoice travels as a bundle, one item passed from module to module.

  5. 05

    Test with Run once

    Click Run once. Make runs the scenario a single time and shows the bundles each module received, so you can check the right invoice went through.

  6. 06

    Schedule and switch on

    On the first module, open the clock: a new scenario checks every 15 minutes by default. Keep it or change it, then turn the scenario on.

Triggers

What starts a Wave scenario

1 module starts a scenario when something happens in Wave. A scheduled trigger is checked by Make on the scenario's schedule; an instant one is called by Wave as soon as it happens.

Wave1Watch Invoices

Watch Invoices

Scheduled trigger

In Make“Returns invoices since the last check.”

You get every invoice added to Wave since the previous check, handed to the rest of your scenario one by one so it can file, approve or report on each of them.

How it fires
scheduled. Make checks Wave on the scenario's schedule, every 15 minutes by default, down to one minute on a paid plan, and the module carries a clock badge.
When to use it
when an invoice created by a teammate in Wave should reach a spreadsheet, a chat channel or a follow-up task without anyone copying it.
Watch out
each check returns the invoices added since the previous one; to work on invoices that already exist, use List Invoices.
Modules

What the Wave modules do

Wave gives you 20 modules in 2 groups. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

Connecting Wave to Make

2 modules

This connection type is deprecated. Please select the Wave OAuth 2.0 as your connection type. If the Connection Type section doesn't appear, click Save and authenticate your Wave account.

Wave1

Connecting Wave to Make Using OAuth

ActionIn the docs only

This is the connection method that keeps your scenario running: you sign in to Wave once through an authorization page, and every Wave module reuses that access afterwards.

When to use it
for any new Wave scenario, since it is the connection type the Make documentation points you to.
Watch out
if the Connection Type section stays hidden, click Save and authenticate your Wave account first.
Wave2

Connecting to Wave through Wave Dev Key (Deprecated)

ActionIn the docs only

You will still spot this older way of linking Wave with a developer key, mostly on scenarios someone built a while ago, but the documentation marks it as deprecated.

When to use it
only to recognise it on an existing scenario before you replace that connection.
Watch out
switch to Wave OAuth 2.0 as the connection type, and create the new connection before you edit the modules that depend on it.

Other modules

18 modules
Wave3

Approve an Invoice

Action

In Make“Approve an invoice by ID.”

Moves one invoice past approval in Wave from its ID, so it is ready to go out without anyone opening the invoice screen.

When to use it
right after a module that produced the invoice, for example Create an Invoice, when your process allows automatic sign-off.
Watch out
it needs the invoice ID, so map it from the previous module rather than typing it, and only approve what someone would have approved by hand.
Wave4

Create a Customer

Action

In Make“Creates a new customer”

Adds a new customer record to your Wave business, which gives every later invoice a proper name to attach to.

When to use it
when a signed quote, a form entry or a closed deal in another tool means a new client to bill.
Watch out
run Get a Customer by Email first, otherwise a returning client ends up in Wave twice.
Wave5

Create an Account

Action

In Make“Creates a new account.”

Opens a new account in your Wave chart of accounts, the categories your money is sorted into, so a fresh line of activity has somewhere to land.

When to use it
when a new project, a new sales channel or a new cost centre in another system should get its own bucket in Wave.
Watch out
accounts shape your reports, so agree on the naming with whoever keeps your books.
Wave6

Create an Income / Expense

Action

In Make“Create an Income/Expense”

Records money that came in or went out, so your Wave books reflect a sale or a cost without a manual entry.

When to use it
when a payout, a paid receipt or a row in a spending spreadsheet should appear in Wave as income or as an expense.
Watch out
a scenario that runs twice on the same item records it twice, so test with Run once and check the bundle before switching on.
Wave7

Create an Invoice

Action

In Make“Creates an invoice.”

Builds a Wave invoice for a customer from data another module hands over, which removes the retyping between your sales tool and your billing.

When to use it
when an order, a finished job or a won deal elsewhere should turn straight into an invoice in Wave.
Watch out
an invoice is addressed to a customer, so check with Get a Customer by Email first and add Create a Customer for newcomers.
Wave8

Create a Product/Service

Action

In Make“Creates a new product or service.”

Puts a new product or service into your Wave list of items, so it can be picked on an invoice straight away.

When to use it
when your shop, your price sheet or your booking tool adds an offer that Wave should know about too.
Watch out
if the item may already exist, check with List Products first and use Update a Product/Service instead.
Wave9

Create a Sales Tax

Action

In Make“Creates a new sales tax”

Adds a new sales tax to your Wave business, so the tax list in Wave matches the one you already use.

When to use it
when you set up a Wave business from another source and want its tax list created in the same scenario as its products.
Watch out
have your accountant confirm the tax details before the scenario goes live.
Wave10

Create a Transaction

Action

In Make“Creates a transaction.”

Writes a transaction into your Wave accounting, which keeps your ledger in step with what happened in another tool.

When to use it
when movements from a payment platform or a bank export need to show up in Wave as transactions rather than as simple income or expense lines.
Watch out
pick either this module or Create an Income / Expense for a given flow, never both, or the same money counts twice.
Wave11

Delete a Customer

Action

In Make“Deletes a customer”

Removes a customer from your Wave business, which clears out records that no longer belong there.

When to use it
when a contact marked as deleted in your CRM, or a duplicate you found, should disappear from Wave as well.
Watch out
treat every deletion as final: add a filter before this module and test it with Run once on a single test customer.
Wave12

Execute a GraphQL Query

Action

In Make“Performs an arbitrary authorized GraphQL query.”

Sends a query of your own to Wave's GraphQL interface with your connection's rights, which opens up whatever the ready-made modules do not cover.

When to use it
when you need a piece of Wave data or an operation that none of the other Wave modules offers.
Watch out
you write the query yourself, so this is the one Wave module where some developer knowledge helps.
Wave13

Get a Customer by Email

Action

In Make“Returns a customer by email.”

Finds the Wave customer that matches an email address, which tells your scenario whether the person is already a client.

When to use it
at the start of any flow that bills a person known only by the email they typed into a form or a checkout.
Watch out
plan the branch where nobody matches, usually by following with Create a Customer.
Wave14

Send an Invoice

Action

In Make“Sends invoice.”

Sends an existing Wave invoice to its customer, so billing ends without a click in Wave.

When to use it
as the last step after Create an Invoice or Approve an Invoice, once the amounts have been checked.
Watch out
the customer really receives it, so point your Run once tests at an invoice addressed to yourself.
Wave15

Update a Customer

Action

In Make“Updates existing customer”

Changes the details of a customer who already exists in Wave, keeping your billing contacts in line with the tool where they are maintained.

When to use it
when a client changes address, company name or contact in your CRM and the next invoice should show the new details.
Watch out
the module changes a customer that already exists, so find that customer first with Get a Customer by Email or List Customers.
Wave16

Update a Product/Service

Action

In Make“Updates a product or service.”

Edits an item already in Wave, so a new price or a new description reaches your next invoices.

When to use it
when your price list or online shop is the reference and Wave should follow each change made there.
Watch out
the module edits one item that already exists, so find it first with List Products.
Wave17

Get a Customer

Search

In Make“Returns details about particular customer by ID”

Returns the full details of one Wave customer from its ID, handy when a previous step only passed along the identifier.

When to use it
after Watch Invoices, if the invoice it returns carries the customer's ID and you want the customer's name and contact next to the invoice in a report or a message.
Watch out
without an ID, use Get a Customer by Email instead.
Wave18

List Customers

Search

In Make“Lists customers from Wave account”

Pulls the customers of your Wave account into the scenario, each one as its own bundle that the following modules handle in turn.

When to use it
for a clean-up pass, an export to a spreadsheet, or to compare your Wave clients with the ones in your CRM.
Watch out
every customer returned runs the next modules once, which adds operations to your plan.
Wave19

List Invoices

Search

In Make“Lists invoices.”

Brings back the invoices stored in Wave, including the ones that existed before your scenario started watching.

When to use it
for a report of what you billed, or a copy of past invoices into a sheet.
Watch out
a long history means many bundles, and each one counts as operations further down the scenario.
Wave20

List Products

Search

In Make“Lists products.”

Fetches the products and services defined in Wave, which gives your scenario the IDs it needs to update or compare them.

When to use it
before Update a Product/Service, or to check which items from your shop are missing in Wave.
Watch out
the search can return zero, one or many items, so plan for the empty case.
Need help

Need help automating Wave with Make?

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FAQ

Questions about the Wave Make integration

01Is the Wave Make integration free?
Yes, Wave is a standard app in Make, so it works from the Free plan. That plan has limits: two active scenarios, at least 15 minutes between scheduled runs, five minutes of execution per run, files up to 5 MB and 512 MB of data transfer. Paid plans (Core, Pro, Teams and Enterprise) remove the cap on active scenarios, allow runs every minute and up to 40 minutes of execution. Make counts usage in operations, one per module run on one item, so a scenario that lists many invoices spends more than one handling a single new invoice.
02What do you need to connect Wave to Make?
You need a Wave account you can sign in to and a Make account. The Make documentation lists no other prerequisite. Add a Wave module, click Create a connection, choose Wave OAuth 2.0 as the connection type, authorize Make on the Wave page and click Save. Avoid the Wave Dev Key option, which the documentation marks as deprecated. If the Connection Type section does not appear, click Save and authenticate your Wave account, and the choice becomes available. The connection is then shared by all 21 Wave modules in your scenarios.
03Does Wave alert Make instantly when an invoice is created?
No. Watch Invoices, the only Wave trigger in Make, is scheduled: Make asks Wave for new invoices on the scenario's schedule instead of being called by Wave. A new scenario checks every 15 minutes by default, the Free plan cannot go below that, and paid plans can check every minute. Each check returns the invoices added since the previous one. If you need a scenario to start from another event, such as a form submission or a CRM update, put that app's trigger first and use the Wave actions after it.
04What if the Wave module you need is missing in Make?
It depends on what you need. Wave has no Make an API Call module, but it has Execute a GraphQL Query, which sends a query you write yourself to Wave with your connection's rights. That reaches data and operations the other Wave modules do not cover, provided someone on your side can write GraphQL. If that is out of reach, check whether another app in your stack holds the information, or ask a Make agency to build the scenario with you. Keep in mind the Dev Key connection is deprecated, so any workaround should rely on Wave OAuth 2.0.
05Should you use Make or n8n for Wave?
It depends on your criteria rather than on a winner. On Make, Wave comes with 21 ready modules, including one scheduled trigger and a GraphQL module for the rest, and it runs from the Free plan with its limits on active scenarios and intervals. Before choosing, list the Wave actions your process needs and check each tool offers them, then compare how each one counts and bills usage for your volume. The n8n vs Make comparison sets out those criteria side by side, without declaring a single answer for everyone.
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