tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26886042362192727572011-10-27T13:43:00.791-07:00Romano P.C. is a CPA firm in Beaverton, Oregon that provides bookkeeping, accounting and payroll support to small businesses and non-profit organizations throughout the Pacific Northwest. We focus primarily on non-profit developers and owners of Affordable Housing units.Janice Romanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02246386686474900375noreply@blogger.comBlogger151100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688604236219272757.post-66856677503520969932011-10-27T13:39:00.000-07:002011-10-27T13:43:00.835-07:00

It is probably too much to say that accounting is really a haven of balance in a world of chaos.  But I honestly believe this is true.  I am going to try and explain why. The underlying foundation of our bookkeeping and reporting system is the idea of double entry accounting or more commonly, debits and credits. Every transaction that is recorded has a debit and a credit.  This is a brilliant

Janice Romanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02246386686474900375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688604236219272757.post-50796112530692902122011-10-09T13:54:00.000-07:002011-10-09T17:10:50.615-07:00

I was interested to read in the newspaper last Monday that we are now in a recession. Apparently, the last one ended in June 2009 and a new one has now begun.  Leaving aside the technical definition of recession, I mentioned this to several people and no one felt they had been a part of any period of economic expansion.  "What?  It ended? When?" If we can't tell the difference between recession

Janice Romanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02246386686474900375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688604236219272757.post-90000917422702226332011-10-07T10:23:00.000-07:002011-10-07T10:25:25.097-07:00

There is nothing instant about finding a CPA that both understands your business and that, ahem, you can afford.  Well, I am going to let you in on a little secret, from the CPA side, there is also nothing instant about getting the good referrals - the clients that match your personality, your skill set and that, ahem, want to pay you. CPA's are continually targeted by people that want to help

Janice Romanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02246386686474900375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688604236219272757.post-42334625609695912782011-10-05T07:48:00.000-07:002011-10-05T07:48:54.169-07:00

Some time ago, I was speaking briefly with a Board Member of an organization and he mentioned that “we don’t ever record depreciation during the year.  Do whatever you need to get the books in shape, but don’t ask or make us look at depreciation.” “Depreciation doesn’t matter.”“GAAP entries?  Oh, you mean like depreciation.”  (Big sigh follows.)Depreciation is technically the recognition of a

Janice Romanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02246386686474900375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688604236219272757.post-63392732256896279982010-04-19T20:56:00.000-07:002010-04-19T21:40:53.032-07:00

I am taking a break from the affordable housing information today.  I was out searching for information on converting a sole proprietorship to an S-Corporation, and everything I read was pushing the LLC structure.  It turns out that I have things to say about LLC's. Limited Liability Company's, known as LLC's, are the hottest corporate entity out there.  They are easy to set up.  They are

Janice Romanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02246386686474900375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688604236219272757.post-75960894517197901352010-04-15T08:46:00.000-07:002010-04-15T08:50:06.272-07:00

When you own a real estate project, affordable or not, you will have to determine how you are going to manage it.  The majority of owners look to third party management companies to assist in the collecting of rents, paying of expenses and dealing with tenant issues.  In addition, for affordable housing units, a third party management company can assist in meeting compliance requirements around

Janice Romanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02246386686474900375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688604236219272757.post-52897517701708129462010-03-30T12:09:00.001-07:002010-04-19T21:24:19.467-07:00

Note: This post is technical in nature and not necessarily intended for the accounting faint of heart. In today's finance world, developers of affordable housing often leverage LIHTC projects with other forms of public financing. (For more information on LIHTC's see previous posting "What the Heck is LIHTC? (Lie-Tech)".) One form of financing that is commonly used it the tax exempt bond. Tax

Janice Romanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02246386686474900375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688604236219272757.post-4440948253074428112010-03-26T04:09:00.000-07:002010-03-26T04:40:09.665-07:00

Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC's) are a tax program used commonly over the past 15 years for affordable housing developments. Pronounced most recently Lie-tech, these so-called tax credit deals are responsible for pushing affordable housing out of the old Section 8 stigma and into a world where you don't always know that you are walking into affordable housing. With notable exceptions, the

Janice Romanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02246386686474900375noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688604236219272757.post-66263895215614430092010-03-24T16:15:00.000-07:002010-03-24T17:38:13.464-07:00

NOTE: Every so often, I write about a different topic than accounting/affordable housing. This is one of those times. I personally believe thinking about other things is relevant to a well rounded business approach and I hope you enjoy my thoughts. However, I feel compelled to disclaim that most of my blogs are of a more business oriented nature. For whatever that is worth.On my personal page, I

Janice Romanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02246386686474900375noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688604236219272757.post-31513115651873334052010-03-14T10:24:00.000-07:002010-03-26T04:56:44.155-07:00

Real estate development has slowed over the past years and the focus for developers and owners of Affordable Housing has turned to managing the assets that they do have. Frankly, the cost of managing projects was never contemplated as a Company cost and was never underwritten when the deal was put together. In the past, the Managing Member or General Partner just provided administrative support

Janice Romanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02246386686474900375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688604236219272757.post-29905415674577421762010-02-26T12:35:00.000-08:002010-02-26T13:45:24.478-08:00

How often does your organization perform strategic planning? How much of it happens in the shower in the morning? If you run a small or even medium sized business, you are probably in a constant state of strategic planning, at least in your head. I am here to plug making time to formalize this process.At least annually, I have connected with a marketing professional that has helped me think

Janice Romanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02246386686474900375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688604236219272757.post-64764361827725897612009-09-29T08:19:00.001-07:002009-09-29T09:25:48.619-07:00

There is some question about whether business plans are a good use of your time and energy. They do eventually go on a shelf and there they gather the dust. I don't know all the answers, but I can share my story. I started my firm on October 15, 2007. For the months of July and August, I spent every spare second working on a business plan. I started with a template from http://www.score.org/ and

Janice Romanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02246386686474900375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688604236219272757.post-8302812922828491132009-09-23T13:55:00.000-07:002009-09-23T14:35:46.064-07:00

I was at lunch today with my husband who works for another CPA firm as their IT Director. As often happens when we lunch, our discussion turns to firm management (yes, we are an exciting couple). One of the things we discussed was the companies we know that appear to be "overpaying" for audit and tax services. In each of those cases, the CFO at the company is alumni from a Big Four firm that "

Janice Romanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02246386686474900375noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688604236219272757.post-28546127455652348302009-09-21T09:44:00.000-07:002009-10-03T18:18:32.931-07:00

The first year for a public accountant can only be described as extremely difficult. (It sucks!?!?!?) An over-acheiver with excellent grades and superior intellect is the type of person that is going to land in public accounting. And then they are going to find out that they don’t know much. And they are not going to like that part. And even if they are doing really well for a first-year

Janice Romanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02246386686474900375noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688604236219272757.post-5872848554624331752009-09-17T12:21:00.000-07:002010-03-26T14:18:51.915-07:00

How much should you pay for a bookkeeper? And how do you find a good one? A quick look at Craigslist will show a "million" bookkeepers with rates from $25 per hour to $50 per hour. In my mind, I think $35 per hour is average. But there are a lot of factors here.First of all, you know you can hire an employee for a rate of between $12 and $20 per hour for basic bookkeeping services. This is less,

Janice Romanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02246386686474900375noreply@blogger.com1