How an Accounting Expert Uses AI to Organize Small Business Finances

**Kelli Lewis** (0:00)
I made the decision when I lost that team member, I never ever again was going to do any training or any review without AI near me, recording it or documenting it. Because you find yourself in that cycle where you're just explaining it over and over. I had a client who was a little bummed out because they lost a team member. I said, it's okay, train the next one, and simply bring the recorder in on the meeting, and now you have your SOP. You can literally take the meeting transcript and turn it in to the SOP.

**Brooke Gramer** (0:31)
Welcome to How I AI, the podcast featuring real people, real stories, and real AI in action. I'm Brooke Gramer, your host and guide on this journey into the real world impact of artificial intelligence. For over 15 years, I've worked in creative marketing, events, and business strategy, wearing all the hats. I know the struggle of trying to scale and manage all things without burning out. But here's the game changer, AI. This isn't just a podcast. How I AI is a community, a space where curious minds like you come together, share ideas, because AI isn't just a trend, it's a shift. And the sooner we embrace it, the more freedom, creativity, and opportunities we'll unlock. Hello everyone, and welcome back. Today we're talking money, systems, and the future of accounting with Kelli Lewis. She's an author and founder of Kelli Works. She's supported over 300 businesses in accounting across industries like real estate, medical operations, supply chain and logistics. And she's all about making finance feel less intimidating and more empowering. In today's episode, Kelli breaks down how she's using AI to tighten client communication, train her team faster, and turn meetings into action. If you're a small business owner or you've been thinking, I need to get my finances together, but I don't know where to start. This episode is for you. All right, let's get into it. Kelli, it's so wonderful to have you. Thank you for joining us on How I AI.

**Kelli Lewis** (2:08)
Thank you for having me.

**Brooke Gramer** (2:09)
Pleasure to be here. Before we dive in, I like to always ask if you could share with listeners a little bit about yourself.

**Kelli Lewis** (2:17)
Okay. I'm an accountant. We focus at my firm on the day-to-day work for small businesses. So what that means is really all of the steps that include finances in a business. So from invoicing, collecting revenue, to processing payroll, paying bills, tracking bills, sales tax for e-com. So we're really involved in the day-to-day work. At the end of the year, we do taxes, but that's not the main focus. We do more of the accounting.
And I'm here in Miami. I have two sons.

**Brooke Gramer** (2:54)
And I would also like to say you have a passion for financial empowerment. Is that correct?

**Kelli Lewis** (3:00)
Oh, yes, for sure.

**Brooke Gramer** (3:01)
Yes, I've been in some local workshops here with you, and you're doing such amazing work, and it's such an inspiring space to be supporting other women, especially who are wanting to take control of their finances and have those difficult conversations around managing debt and things like that.

**Kelli Lewis** (3:18)
Yeah, I noticed very early on in business that this whole area, when you mention accounting, when you mention organization and that structure of business, a lot of folks, their initial reaction was like, oh, I'm not good at that. Oh, I'm a mess. I don't know how to do that. So it's always been a really almost tense industry, and I've been told by people that I bring a lightness to it. So that's kind of like my passion. It's to assess the problem and let's figure out how to fix it and ultimately get you to your goal. Because at the end of the day, sometimes we wish that we've done better with money. Sometimes we wish, but it's where we're at today and where we're trying to go.

**Brooke Gramer** (3:59)
All right. So question number one, when did you start integrating AI in your business?

**Kelli Lewis** (4:05)
This is a funny story, and it had to be around the time that Chad GPT came out. And people were like, oh, you can type and this thing is going to write for you.

**Brooke Gramer** (4:14)
Yeah.

**Kelli Lewis** (4:14)
So I had just lost one of my hips. I mean, and any entrepreneur knows when you have someone that works with you that really finishes your sentence or like your right hand, you know? Yes. She had just left, and I used to have her write my emails because I would say, oh, we have to figure this out, but just write it up for me. Around the same time that she left, I started, and when things like that happen in business, it gives you an opportunity to, like you said, kind of reassess the SOPs and the workflow and things like that. So I was kind of just like pulling up the hood under everything. But I remember that was the time that I started to use ChatGPT for the typing, for the writing. And I just said, wow, this is really, really impressive, like how it took my simple little two words and turned it into like a long love letter, and it sealed it nicely.