Cohousing-L Mailing List: Friendly Audit / Accountant or CPA Advice Needed

[lamaiacoleman [at] yahoo.com (lamaiacoleman]

Hi,At Southside Park Cohousing, in Sacramento, CA we self-manage our HOA 
including our bookkeeping, accounting and taxes. Wonderful, dedicated 
volunteers do the books, etc, but they have no formal training, so we 
(including them) are seeking someone to: look at how we are keeping the books; 
make sure it makes sense and if not recommend changes to the way we do it; and 
make sure we aren't doing anything unintentionally totally wrong. 
 I've been trying to research what we need is called and where we'd find 
someone to hire to do this. I assume we need a CPA?  And I'm guessing we need 
an audit, although the intent might be different than a typical audit?  
However, I've also discovered that there are many different types of financial 
review and don't know what level we need.  I've gone through the archives and 
it seems some communities have hired people to do something similar, but they 
didn't say what exactly the service was or how they chose who to hire for it.  
In terms of costs related to audits mentioned in the archives, I've seen a 
range from $500 to $5000- a huge range!  I'm not sure what accounts for the 
difference.
 I'd really appreciate any advice or recommendations along with approximate 
costs.
 Thanks!
Lamaia PS- I contacted ECHO-CA and we aren't members so they won't advise us.