Bookkeeping for small studios
Alder keeps the ledger for two-to-twenty person studios. It categorises as the money moves, tells you how many months of runway you have, and turns month-end into an afternoon instead of a weekend.
| Date | Description | Category | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 04 | Wren & Co — March retainer | Income | +4,200.00 |
| Mar 06 | Bramble Coworking | Workspace | −980.00 |
| Mar 09 | Hollis Studio — invoice #114 | Income | +6,750.00 |
| Mar 12 | Northbank Rail | Travel | −118.40 |
| Mar 14 | Adobe, Figma, Linear | Software | −214.00 |
| 5 of 47 lines · March 2026 | +9,637.60 net | ||
Keeping the books for 1,400+ studios, including
How it works
Alder earns your attention about four times a month, and stays quiet the rest of it.
Link your bank, card and Stripe account. Alder pulls twenty-four months of history so your first report has something to say.
Typically 4 minutes
Everything routine is categorised the moment it lands. What is left arrives as one short queue, grouped by the question behind them.
≈ 6 items a week
A checklist, not a spreadsheet archaeology dig. Tick through it, sign off, and your accountant gets the pack without another email.
One afternoon
This is the whole list. Alder does the three marked auto before you sit down, which is why March closed in under four hours.
Read the month-end guideRunway
Alder reads your real burn — payroll, software, the quarterly VAT bill you keep forgetting — and answers a single question in plain language: how many months until this gets uncomfortable.
Solid bars are booked. Faded bars are projected from committed costs and signed work.
Hollis Studio
#114
Wren & Co
#115
Northbank
#116
Ardent Type
#117
Getting paid
Alder sends the reminder you would have written on day three, then again on day ten, in your own wording. You only hear about it when an invoice needs a human — which, for most studios, is roughly once a quarter.
Everything else
Quarterly returns prepared from the ledger you already reviewed, submitted straight to HMRC under Making Tax Digital.
All plans
Send the email to receipts@ your studio address. Alder reads the total, matches it to the transaction, and stops asking.
All plans
Invoice in dollars, bank in pounds, and still get a P&L that reconciles. Rates are locked at the date of the transaction.
Studio and up
Free, permanent, read-and-adjust access. They see the same ledger you do, so nothing gets re-keyed in March.
All plans
Connect Deel, Gusto or a spreadsheet. Wages, employer tax and pension land in the right accounts every run.
Studio and up
CSV, a proper double-entry ledger export, and a documented API. Leaving should be as calm as arriving.
All plans
Proof
“We used to lose the first week of every quarter to the books. Last quarter I did the whole close on a Thursday afternoon, and the only thing my accountant asked for was a coffee.”
Marguerite Osei
Founder, Fieldwork Studio
12 people · Bristol · with Alder since 2024
“The runway number is the only dashboard I look at. It has been right within a fortnight every time, including the quarter we hired two designers.”
“I run books for nine studios. Alder is the first tool where I have not had to teach the client anything before it works.”
Pricing
Every plan files your VAT, gives your accountant a seat, and keeps your data exportable. The difference is how many people and how many ledgers.
Yearly pays for ten months. Switch either way, any month.
One person, one set of books.
£18/month
Billed monthly. Yearly pays for ten months.
What you get
Outgrow it the month you put someone on payroll.
Two to twenty people, one set of nerves.
£49/month
Billed monthly. Yearly pays for ten months.
Everything in Solo, plus
Most studios never leave this plan. That is the intention.
Accountants running books for many studios.
£129/month
Billed monthly. Ten client ledgers included.
Everything in Studio, plus
Fifty ledgers or more? Ask us about the flat rate.
Prices exclude VAT. Switching plan is immediate and prorated, and we refund the first month if Alder is not for you — no form to fill in.
Questions
If yours is not here, write to hello@alder.co and a person will answer within a day.
No. Alder keeps a proper double-entry ledger underneath, but everything you touch is phrased as a question about your business — who was this payment to, was this personal, is this invoice really unpaid. Your accountant gets the formal view.
Yes. Connect the account and Alder imports up to twenty-four months of transactions, contacts, invoices and your chart of accounts. Most studios are looking at a complete prior year within ten minutes.
They get a free seat with adjustment rights, a real trial balance, and a one-click accountant pack in the format they already ask for. Around a third of our new studios arrive because their accountant suggested it.
You export everything — transactions, attachments, invoices and a full journal — as CSV and JSON, at any time, without asking us. We keep your ledger readable for ninety days after cancellation and then delete it.
Because a bookkeeping app that pings you is a bookkeeping app you start ignoring. Receipts are handled by forwarding an email, and the web app is built to work properly on a phone when you need it.
Thirty days, all of Studio, no card. Import last year while you are there — it takes about ten minutes and tells you more than this page can.