Comment by MichaelRo
Congrats on completing a rather involving project. Accounting isn't easy, I know coze I got a degree in it, although haven't pursued a CPA: I make a lot more as software dev and competition is way lower. Like, for every software company a few accountants would do, while it takes hundreds of developers, QA, HR, IT and other stuff to run it.
But I digress. There's no shortage of accounting software, I know coze my wife works for a company selling one :) But to survive and succeed the key is not in the software per se as in support. Continuous support for all the dumbass questions the clients may ask and continuously updating the software to keep up with the incessant small changes in the legislation. Updates without which one cannot even submit a balance sheet to the IRS and are only available upon subscription.
Without those the software is dead in the water.
Except every company needs accountants. Only software companies need developers. There are roughly the same number of accounting jobs in the US as developer jobs. So it may just be due to a lack of software developers that cause the higher pay for developers. Although, outside of FAANG and similar software companies, my guess is that CPAs make more.