AI Governance for Small Business
Put simple AI rules in place for a 5 to 50 person office: what data never goes in, which tools are approved, the right account settings, a one-page policy, a policy helper for staff, and a person who approves AI work before it goes out.
Who it’s for: Owners, office managers, ops and HR leads who are rolling AI out to a small team. No legal or IT background needed.
- Module 1 · Stepthrough · Beginner · ~2 min
Start Here: How Stepthrough Works
Welcome to Stepthrough: you learn AI by doing it, on practice copies of real app screens, free and with no risk to your real accounts. Your first practice takes under two minutes.
- Module 2 · ChatGPT · Beginner · ~7 min
Use AI at Work Without Leaking Client Data using ChatGPT
Someone in the office pastes a client’s email into ChatGPT to save five minutes. The email has the client’s full name, home address and new bank account numbers in it. Now those details sit in a chat on a personal account that may be used to train the AI.
- Module 3 · ChatGPT · Beginner · ~7 min
Know What Never Goes into AI: a Four-Level Data Cheat Sheet using ChatGPT
A new hire pastes a client’s payroll file into a chatbot. She wasn’t careless: nobody had ever told her where the line was. In a small office that one paste can mean a breach notice, an unhappy client and a week of cleanup.
- Module 4 · ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot · Beginner · ~8 min
Choose the AI Assistant Your Team Should Use, Tested on ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot
Every office has someone who says ChatGPT is best, someone who swears by Claude, and a manager who has to decide which subscription to pay for and which one staff may use with client work.
- Module 5 · ChatGPT · Beginner · ~10 min
ChatGPT: Keep Client Data Safe, Set Up Your Team’s Data Controls in 10 Minutes
A client emails before renewing: "Can you confirm whether our files are ever put into ChatGPT, and what settings you use?" Their insurer now asks every vendor. You need a short written answer, and right now you do not have one.
- Module 6 · ChatGPT · Beginner · ~10 min
Clear Client Data Out of ChatGPT Before It Becomes a Problem: Delete Chats, Clear Memory and Use Temporary Chat
Last Tuesday someone at your firm pasted a client’s name, an account number and a balance into ChatGPT to tidy a note. Now the client asks what you keep in AI tools. The honest answer is “we’re not sure”, and that is the answer that costs renewals.
- Module 7 · Claude · Beginner · ~10 min
Roll Out a Team AI Policy in One Afternoon using Claude
Your team is already using AI, with or without rules. Someone tried ChatGPT on a proposal, someone used a free tool to tidy a client spreadsheet, and nobody ever said what is okay.
- Module 8 · ChatGPT · Beginner · ~9 min
Someone Pasted Client Data into AI: Contain It in One Hour using ChatGPT
A new hire pastes a client’s payroll export, Social Security numbers and all, into a personal ChatGPT account to get a quick summary. Twenty minutes later he mentions it. Most small offices have no plan, so the next hour goes on panic while the chat sits there.
- Module 9 · Airia · Beginner · ~8 min
Onboard New Clients Without the Back-and-Forth using Airia
Every new client at a small accounting firm asks the same three questions: what do I send, where do I upload it, and can I just email you my Social Security number? Someone answers each one by hand, and on a busy week a client gets a slow reply or, worse, a "sure, email it over."
- Module 10 · Airia · Intermediate · ~10 min
Answer Employee Policy Questions Instantly using Airia
In a 60-person company, HR answers the same questions all week: how many vacation days do I get, when do benefits start, who approves time off. The answers are in the handbook. Someone still types them out, and when they are busy people guess or ask a coworker who is wrong.
- Module 11 · n8n · Advanced · ~14 min
Invoices from Your Inbox to Google Sheets, with Approval
Vendor invoices arrive as PDFs. Someone copies the vendor, invoice number and total into a spreadsheet by hand, then chases the owner for a yes on the big ones. It is slow, typos slip in, and a large invoice can get paid because nobody asked.