Customer story
How Fieldwork Studio signed off March in one afternoon.
A case study of twelve people moving month-end work into the month itself.
March 2026
- Studio
- Fieldwork Studio
- Founder, Fieldwork Studio
- Plan
- Studio · £49/month
- 12 people · Bristol
Before Alder
The evidence went cold before the close began.
Fieldwork described a recognizable pattern, not a measured benchmark.
- Close window
- First working weekFounder recollection, prior quarter
- customer-reported
- Ledger questions
- Found at closeTravel and licence lines had lost their context
- unresolved
- Accountant pack
- After sign-offPrepared after the books were agreed
- manual
The walkthrough
Four moments, and March is signed off.
Four chapters follow Fieldwork Studio’s March 2026 close across 3 accounts.
Sample content
00:00 · 1 March
Connect the feeds, then leave it alone.
Read-only open banking for the current account, Stripe for payouts, and the card that nobody can find the statements for. Four minutes of clicking, then Alder reads two years backwards while you make a coffee.
- Connected
Monzo Business
Current account
- Connected
Stripe
Payouts and fees
- Reading
Barclaycard
24 months of history
01:10 · 9 March
A queue of questions, not a ledger to read.
Everything routine is already filed. What reaches you is the handful of lines a rule cannot settle, each one phrased as the question behind it. Six of them this week.
To review6 left · ≈ 4 min
Northbank Rail · £118.40
Client travel, or getting to the studio?
Travel · billableTravel · overhead
Ardent Type · £96.00
One licence, or the studio’s?
SoftwareFreelance costs
02:20 · 22 March
Runway, answered in one sentence.
Fieldwork Studio asked what a fourth designer does to the line. Alder reads the real burn: payroll, software and the VAT bill in April. It answers before the conversation cools off.
With one more designer6.1 months MarAprMayJunJulAugSolid bars are booked. Faded bars carry the new salary from May.
03:40 · 31 March
Signed off 31 Mar, 16:12, on a Tuesday.
The close is a checklist with four lines already ticked. Fieldwork Studio did the rest in an afternoon, and their accountant had the pack before she asked for it.
- Feeds reconciledautomatic
- Queue cleared6 items
- Payroll journalledautomatic
- Accountant pack sent1 click
March signed off31 Mar, 16:12 · 3h 40m active
Close timeline
Six sittings across March, not one long close.
Active work totals 220 minutes. Calendar time remains the full month.
| Date | Work session | Active | Running |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connect the feeds and leave them alone | 4 min | 00:04 | |
| Forward receipts as they arrive | 16 min | 00:20 | |
| Clear the first review queue | 50 min | 01:10 | |
| Invoice the work you finished | 30 min | 01:40 | |
| Read the runway line | 40 min | 02:20 | |
| Tick the checklist and sign off | 1h 20m | 03:40 | |
| Signed off 31 Mar, 16:12 | 220 min | 03:40 | |
Outcome evidence
Every result carries its measurement boundary.
Fieldwork observations and Alder-wide medians are labelled separately.
- Fieldwork sample
Starting close
First working week of each quarter → Thursday afternoon
Founder recollection of the prior and latest quarter
Source: Sample founder interview · Period: Prior quarter
- Fieldwork sample
March active work
Not timed → 3h 40m
Six timed work sessions across March, not elapsed calendar time
Source: Sample March activity register · Period: 1–31 March 2026
- Product median
Payment time
Not measured for Fieldwork → 19 days median
Site-wide median time from invoice to payment
Source: Sample Alder product aggregate · Period: Current quarter
Team voices
Owner and accountant, in their own words.
The founder who signed March off and the accountant who received the pack.
Sample content
“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.”
“I run books for nine studios. Alder is the first tool where I have not had to teach the client anything before it works.”
Sign off month-end in one afternoon.
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.
- Bank and card feeds reconcileddone
- Uncategorised queue cleared6 items
- Owner draws and payroll journalleddone
- Prepaid software spread across the yeardone
- Accountant pack exported1 click
- Set-up time
- Under 10 minutes, on your own
- If you would rather ask
- hello@alder.co