Also, to be clear, the cost of alternatives is likely higher.  One reason I stayed with QB for so long was that I didn't think I could justify the added cost of more appropriate software.  Then I had a project where it was such a struggle to keep up with tracking projects in Excel and trying to match everything in QB that I had no visibility of how my projects were performing in terms of financials from day-to-day.  I had a $40K project that went over by budget by $40K and I didn't see the signs until it was too late.  If I had BQE from the beginning, it would have saved my company a $21K loss (at cost, not billing).  So, I was penny wise and pound foolish sticking with QuickBooks.  I now can see exactly how my projects are doing, even at the task level, on any given day.  I can see problems coming before it is too late to make an adjustment and prevent such ridiculous losses.  I can also invoice time and materials the way my clients expect in terms of format and EVEN GET A PROJECT NAME ON THE INVOICE (QB still can't get a project name on an invoice!  It is one of those features they have on their list apparently. Shocker!).  

Cheers,

Justin