THE PEOPLE AT THE HELM

Meet your crew.

Curious about what’s possible. Serious about following through.

FOUNDER · ADMIRAL

Tamra Helton

Tamra combines accounting experience, small-business roots, and a love of better processes. She guides our work with businesses and firms—and brings that same care to animal welfare and youth sports.

Read Tamra’s full story

The founder asking “could this work better?” Tamra shapes the direction, standards, and relationships behind Tied Out Books.

Tamra brings an Economics degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and more than five years as a staff accountant in CPA offices. Her earlier education includes Moreau Catholic High School in Hayward, California, and St. Clement’s. Today, she connects bookkeeping, business operations, and practical AI to help business owners and other firms make everyday work clearer.

Small business was part of her life long before Tied Out Books: her family ran a sports-card and memorabilia shop in Hayward, and her mother owned a craft store in Union City and a tea shop. Her interest in accounting took hold in Mr. Alcott’s junior- and senior-year classes.

Working with Tom French at Supply Chain Coach shaped her interest in process flows, Lean, and Six Sigma. Lori-Jo’s mentorship and her experience in accounting offices deepened her love of the work and the personal care behind it. She brings those lessons, early sales experience, and her dad’s never-give-up spirit to the way she supports business owners today.

Beyond the books, her interests include animal welfare and helping make youth sports accessible to kids regardless of financial circumstances. She currently serves as Treasurer of Golden Wolves Sports Association and previously served as Treasurer of the Humane Society of Stanislaus County. Dogs and cats hold a special place in her heart.

FIRST MATE

Yenhat Tran

Yenhat keeps business bookkeeping moving—from customer payments and bills to payroll and month-end checks. She leads client follow-through, helps build clearer AI-assisted routines, and joins Tamra on The AI List weekly calls.

Read Yenhat’s full story

Yenhat joined Tied Out Books in November 2025 after earning a B.S. in Managerial Economics from UC Davis, with a minor in Technology Management.

Her background includes property-management administration and guest-services supervision. She enjoyed the hands-on work of processing invoices and credit-card reconciliations and wanted to build on those skills through bookkeeping.

As First Mate, Yenhat primarily supports our business clients. Her hands-on work spans sales and customer payments, vendor bills and credits, payroll support, sales-tax support, and month-end reconciliation. She traces deposits back to sales, follows up on payment questions, gathers supporting records, and investigates items that do not tie out.

She is experiencing the shift from manual bookkeeping to structured, AI-assisted work firsthand: organizing source records, checking what the tools produce, and bringing unresolved questions to Tamra. Alongside client communication and day-to-day bookkeeping, she is becoming more involved in our work with other bookkeeping and accounting firms.

CREW MEMBER

Logan Zook

Logan provides backup bookkeeping support for business clients, including invoicing, payroll-related work, and month-end preparation. He brings a creative background and firsthand experience learning AI-assisted workflows.

Read Logan’s full story

Logan joined the crew in May 2025, bringing experience in marketing, graphic design, website management, and customer service.

Working with the Atascadero Chamber of Commerce helped him discover an interest in supporting business owners through more analytical work. That led him toward accounting studies and hands-on bookkeeping experience.

His bookkeeping experience includes customer invoicing, payroll-related support, membership accruals, and month-end tie-outs prepared for review. He has also worked on turning ledger reports into usable spreadsheets and organizing the records behind the numbers.

Today, Logan provides backup support for our business clients as a Crew Member. He is learning firsthand how manual, time-intensive tasks can become more structured with AI assistance, while still checking source records, identifying questions, and handing work over for human review.

LEARNING BY DOING

Real work.
Better ways to do it.

We are moving from manual bookkeeping to AI-assisted workflows in our own client work. The tools help organize and prepare; our crew checks the records, handles questions, and stays responsible.

See how we work ↗

MEET US ON THE AI LIST

Curiosity, shared.

Tamra and Yenhat are part of The AI List weekly calls, joined by Rosie and Snugs. Come learn about practical AI and bring your questions—everyone is welcome.

Explore the weekly calls ↗

CURIOUS PEOPLE WELCOME

What are you working on?

We’d like to hear where your work gets tangled—and what you want to make possible.

Find your path