The burning question is how much do you want the softwear to do ?
My customer files are in a Filemaker data base which also prints out invoices
The accounting side is done with Best Books , the early verson of MYOB.
SO all I do with it is add the customers accounts as a sales item with 2 lines , parts & labour .
Inventory is only done , again in File Maker for belts & blades only as I work alone so I don't need to know how many Zama pump diaphragms I have in stock at any point in time.
For tax purposes I reduce the "parts in stock" item by 75% of the amount I billed as parts & increase it by what ever I have bought in that year .
It is a little fiddley but takes no more time than using one single programe that does everything and of course reduces the chances of a hacker holding me to ransom .
It never needs to be upgraded and I bought Best Books in 1991 when I bought my first computer.
Down side is it won't run on the Intel or Apple chipped macs but I do my accounting on the 1998 G5 which will probably run forever .
Because I use filemaker for repairs, I can attach photos to any individual repair so I can reffer to it latter rather than hoping I can find the images on my phone .
It is very easy to get caught up in technology that is supposed to make your life easier but n reality just makes you 100% dependent upon the softwear supplier and has you spending your hard earned money in the continuing spiral of upgrades till like you have found they discontinue .
In many cases it is cheaper to buy a couple of old laptops that have bought softwear on them so it never needs to be authenticated or upgraded .
If I had gone on the upgrade with MYOB from Best Books, through First Accounts & Now into MYOB Proper I would have spent over $ 6,000 on softwear and another $ 10,000 to $ 20,000 on computers .
I am not a luddite but I don't work to make billionairs even richer .
You are obviously not using all that Quick Books offers so ask yourself do I need the upgrade ?
As for customer support, you should never need it and usually you will get better & faster results from You Tube.
All accounting packages are nothing more than a spread sheets or data bases with some fancy input screens so you put the numbers in the right places .
FWIW.
I do not do internet banking , it is the most risky thing you can do with your money
The accounting computer ( G3 Mac ) is turned on 24/7 & is not connected to anything other than it's own printer & Maxtor back up disc
When I get the mail. it sits on the keyboard till I am ready to deal with it & nothing is opened till I am at the computer , with a coffee .
Then the envelopes are opened & data entered .
Occasionally I go to the main computer & download a bank statement which can be anything from a day to a month, print out the statement then update the accounting computer
It is easy to get sucked into the instant update vortex but it really does not matter if you know an account was paid yesterday, the day before or a week before that.
All you need to know is at the EOM the account was paid and if not to sent out a reminder to your customer .
I find phoning works best because you can start with " doing the monthly banking & it appears that your account has not been paid ,,,,,,"
Even better is as I have been using the same softwear for 30 years I don't need any sort of customer support .
The other trick is I make copies of my accounts & contacts ( customers & suppliers ) with no data in them so I can run each financial year as a stand alone file
Thus I can keep 2020 open till the tax man is up my rectum for the return to be lodged
It also makes it very difficult for the tax auditors as they can not understand what I am doing so most give up.
On top of that everything is paid into the cheque account and a cheque is drawn for every payment ( even if they are to me because the vendor will not accept cheques )
