Of course Microsoft Access is powerful enough to do everything that QuickBooks does as long as you know enough about access to program it to do all of that. I guess the major thing is how complicated your accounting is. If you're not using all the crazy accounting features of QuickBooks and you can easily replicate that in access then go for it. However if you're accounting is very detailed and you don't have the skills to replicate that in access then you'll have to stick with QuickBooks. Me personally I haven't used QuickBooks since like 2006, so I really can't tell you what any of the new features are.

Hi Wayne
Rick is absolutely correct. In fact, one of my customers has a small 1 man machine shop and his wife was using Quickbooks but found it too complicated, as she was getting older and it had too many features. It was also costly to maintain. Once it was written in Access, her task was much simpler and much more manageable. They are using it!  John

Thank you both for your candor.  My admin. uses QB to enter orders, and run reports for me, when needed.  But my small business accounting is done in MS Excel.  I am NOT a fan of QB, but I do know mid-7 figure firms, still using it.  The reason I asked was NOT FOR MY BUSINESS.  I am a business manager for another small firm, who was looking to implement a CRM, for at a minimum the 4 member team, and possibly the outside, independent reps.   I am learning ACCESS, and currently only track calls in the database with it.  I recommended that the firm I consult for, look into ACCESS.  There big issue, was bringing historical data, from QB into ACCESS.  (They were looking at Zoho and or Method, or others for that, but I m not a fan for small business to get into a 'locked in proprietary software'" .  Again, thank you.  Wayne  Actually Richard, this would be a very good point for you to highlight as a point of information with third party CRM  vendors:  After an period with some like SalesForce or others, the historical data, might not be easy to convert.  (I found this out, studying NAS units, which while a different topic, also write code at front end, that makes taking a drive and using outside of original environment, near impossible!  (CONFIRMED by vendors!)