A buddy of mine is working on a YC-funded company (https://www.keeper.app/) that's designed around assisting the lives of bookkeepers using quickbooks. I think it's a great angle because I agree with you that quickbooks is the most logical option for an average company. Where software could really be improved in my eyes is SAP. Boy does their software make me want to hurl... But they have such a strong hold in the industry.
This is a bit tangential, but my biggest insight when conducting walkthroughs with the client's accountants was that there is so much valuable knowledge that is internalized in singular individuals. I'd have an accountant show me their month end close process with links between 5 Excel worksheets. Totally illogical flow and only that person understood how to follow the process from start to finish. There would be situations like randomly multiplying a line item by 32 because of some piece of paper on their desk that they had written down years ago. These people had been at the company for 20+ years. I have to think there's a better system for handling accounting processes like that. Weeding through a messy code base can be a nightmare, but going through someone else's accounting worksheets that are crucial for tying out the financial statements can be nearly impossible. I suppose eventually the audit team has to decide what's material, make a judgement call, and move on.
