HI, I am looking for a service that provides services to a small
business at a reasonable rate related mainly to bookeeping.  They
person can be located anywhere in the contury, but should be
comfortable answering questions over the phone for a reasonable rate. 
They should be able to answer these kids of questions:

For Item X what GL catagory is most approiate?
Explain in detail what a P&L is?  / A Balence Sheet, etc.

Basically things that most bookeepers would know.  I am just looking
for someone that we can either pay per hour or for a monthly retainer
(small) or something to that affect.  We have a miniumal amount of
??'s but it seems silly to pay our accounting $175 /hr to answer these
questions, when a person with a much lower skill level should be able
to handle it.

Hi jamiedolan-ga,,

I think you should contact a local temp agency. They should be able to
set you up with someone.

Another good choice would be to post your job to craigslist. They
started out in San Francisco but now how a local site in most major
cities. Here's a list of bookkeeper jobs that were posted when I
checked a couple of minutes ago.

http://www.craigslist.org/cgi-bin/search?areaID=1&subAreaID=0&catAbbreviation=acc&group=J&type_search=&query=bookkeeper&cat=23

Good luck.

~ czh ~

Greetings.

I'd like to offer you a comment.

It really depends on the quality of answer you're seeking to find and
the types of questions you're asking.  While both a bookkeeper and
accountant are fully qualified to 'keep the books', if you ask both to
explain something, you're likely to get two answers that vary
significantly.

If you're looking for a very simple understanding of accounting
principles, a bookkeeper would probably do just fine (and of course,
you can get bookkeepers for much less than $175/hr.).

However, if you're looking for analytical answers, information that
will help you to understand the financial results and impact of your
business decisions, then it probably makes sense to stay with an
accountant.

Or perhaps, in your case, it may make sense to hire both, reserving
the more analytical questions and financial recommendations for the
accountant, and leaving the simpler questions for the lower-priced
bookkeeper.  Alternatively, you could ask 'all' your questions to the
bookkeeper, and if you're not satisfied with the answer, ask the
accountant.  This would seem like the best way to minimize cost and
maximize service.

Hope this information helps.

It is most important that the bookkeeper and accountant work together
to streamline the financial records so that the various stakeholders
can get the information they require. The Government (tax and audit)
are not the only stakeholders and the owners of the business must be
able to understand the information contained in the Balance Sheet
(which shows the financial position of what is owned and owed by the
business) and the Profit or Loss (which shows the operations of the
business for a set period). The accountants role is to interpret
current requirements in financial reporting which they get from
attending their professional associations and research. The bookkeeper
is more practical and should be able to assist in capturing
appropriate information (what original documents you are using) and
recording information correctly. I have set-up a National Bookkeeping
Service in Australia and will soon be doing the same in Canada. I am
able to use MSN Messenger and NetMeeting to communicate with clients
and make appropriate changes to their accounts (under supervision of
the owner). I would be happy to offer bookkeeping support via this
means if you are interested.