Keeping a pulse on Amos Rome Winery

Together with his wife Teddi, his daughter Briana and his son-in-law Travis, Tom started Amos Rome Vineyards and Amos Rome Winery in 2017.  Tom also recognized a need in the valley for a quality vineyard services company and so partnered with long-time valley resident Eduardo Rodriguez to start Eddie’s Vineyard Management. Both businesses are thriving.

According to Tom, “Our businesses here in the Chelan Valley have grown in complexity and volume and have become too much for me to keep up with.  Knowing that Rachel Smith and her team have extensive experience with wineries and decisions made my decision an easy one.  They are professional, accurate and timely, and give great advice. The Winery CPA is doing a great job for us as we build our winery and vineyard management operations.”

Tom came to us when he wasn’t getting the service he wanted from his former bookkeeper. They were hard to reach, uncommunicative, and there were too many errors. They also didn’t have a good system for keeping Tom up to date. It would take weeks before he got a copy of his file back, and then he had to convert it to a new format on his Mac.

The first thing we did for Tom was to convert his books to QuickBooks Online. This meant he no longer had to worry about transferring QuickBooks Desktop files back and forth. “Now I have access to my books and my reports wherever I need them.  I can login and drill down into any detail I need.  And if I have any questions, The Winery CPA has quick answers. No more waiting for weeks for my accountant to call me back.”

With weekly bookkeeping and monthly financial statements, Tom can easily keep a pulse on his business.  “Plus, when I call with a question or quick request, I get a response,” Tom adds.

Eddie, his partner in the vineyard services business, isn’t much of a computer guy.  “The Winery CPA team worked with us to make sure that it was still easy for Eddie and the vineyard team to submit their documents electronically. The phone app for sending docs works great. We also still need to print physical checks for our vineyard workers. Direct deposit is great, but isn’t always practical in this industry."

"The Winery CPA worked with us to make sure we had a solution that fit our reality.”

Tom has also chosen to structure his business across several entities for tax purposes.  “They keep it straight.  Intercompany transactions are no problem.  We are able to see which costs belong to which entity--to what vineyard block even--so that we can make decisions about our different cost centers and income streams.  This is the data we need.  We’re happy we have these guys on our team.”