I don't know where You live, but I can tell for sure that software for accountant working in Italy MUST be an Italian software made by an Italian software house. This because we have a kind of burocracy (the burocracy works good very often, I mean the list of tax obligations) that is possible to find only here; so, the international softwares like Quickbooks are insufficient.
I think, in general, that the best solution is to use cloud software; in the past I tried a solution of one my private server in cloud were I installed my software (it was another Italian software for accountant ready to use also in Linux) but it was not a good experience for two reasons :
1) having your private server means that You must do also the work of a software administrator;
2) the software was born to be on a local pc, it is not optimized for internet, here the connection quality is low, so You can imagine.......
If You want to have a Windows pc I think that the best solution (I hate virtual machines) is to buy a desktop pc with Windows Pro, install it in Your local lan (without any monitor, mouse and keyboard) and control it from Your Linux machine through remote desktop technology; now You can find good desktop pc (even mini pc) with € 300 / 400.
I think, in general, that the best solution is to use cloud software; in the past I tried a solution of one my private server in cloud were I installed my software (it was another Italian software for accountant ready to use also in Linux) but it was not a good experience for two reasons :
1) having your private server means that You must do also the work of a software administrator;
2) the software was born to be on a local pc, it is not optimized for internet, here the connection quality is low, so You can imagine.......
If You want to have a Windows pc I think that the best solution (I hate virtual machines) is to buy a desktop pc with Windows Pro, install it in Your local lan (without any monitor, mouse and keyboard) and control it from Your Linux machine through remote desktop technology; now You can find good desktop pc (even mini pc) with € 300 / 400.