Accounting software

QuickBooks for desktop is a wonderful program with rich features that get the accounting job done. Unfortunately, Intuit is deprecating it and moving users to much more costly cloud-based accounting services.

Alternatives to QuickBooks

FreshBooks: It should be sufficient for small businesses. It cannot create paychecks.

Open Source:

GNUCash is well maintained. One can get help from StackExchange.

Odoo is well maintained with thousands of contributors.