Glossary of Terms

A complete glossary of all terms and abbreviations used within Fathom.

Updated over a week ago

Alert - Found in step 6 of the Fathom settings for your company, you are able to set monthly alert thresholds. You can turn on alerts that you wish to monitor and specify a MONTHLY alert threshold. Alert notifications are shown in the KPI Summary tool and in the Alerts dashboard.

Balance Sheet - The Balance Sheet is a financial statement that lists each asset, liability or equity account and the corresponding balance for the close of a selected period.

Benchmark Group - Within Fathom, you can create a peer defined benchmark group for the purpose of comparative analysis. Typically this represents a franchise group or a group of related companies. For advisors, a benchmark group may represent a group of clients which operate in a specific industry vertical (ie. retailers). A benchmark group may also represent all the clients of a firm.

Breakdown Analysis - The Breakdown Analysis tool is designed to compare performance across the different areas of your business. This analysis provides insight into the performance of either all of your divisions, departments (or other business segments) within a single company, or all of the companies in a consolidated group.

Budget - An estimate of financial figures for a given period. To upload a budget to Fathom, navigate to ‘Settings > Step 1 - Update Data > Budgets > Add a Budget’. You can then use the budget figures as a comparative throughout Fathom. 

Cash Flow Statement - The Cash Flow Statement is a financial statement that provides information about cash generated from general operations alongside cash raised or used for financing and investing activities.

Cash Flow Tool -  A waterfall visualisation that depicts inflows and outflows of cash, and helps to answer the question ‘Where has my cash gone’?. This visualisation is available in the Analysis tools. It can also be added as a component in Fathom’s customisable reports.

Chart of Accounts (COA) - Contains a complete list of all accounts contained on the P&L and Balance Sheet. The Chart of Accounts can be found in Step 3 of company settings within Fathom. You are able to reclassify accounts here, as well as create custom headings and subheadings. 

Compare Tool - The compare analysis tool is only available for companies in a Benchmark Group. It enables the comparative analysis of multiple entities on a single metric. This tool helps you to see the big picture - by enabling you to compare, rank and benchmark all of your companies / clients / franchisees. 

Consolidation - The process of combining the financial results of two or more entities. Fathom enables consolidations of up to 200 entities, and multi-currency up to 50 entities. To create a consolidation use the ‘Add a group’ button on the ‘My Companies’ page (note: you must have two or more companies connected to have access to this button).

Copy Settings - within Fathom, settings can be copied to one company from another company, or to a consolidated group via the copy settings link at the bottom-left of the company settings screen. This link is available in the company settings, in steps 3-6 (Chart of Accounts, Select KPIs, Set Targets, Set Alerts).

Custom Templates - Fathom allows you to save draft or published reports as custom templates. These templates enable you to quickly create a report from template for new periods.

Divisional analysis - Divisional analysis allows you to leverage your ‘Tracking categories/classes/jobs’ from your underlying source accounting system. 

Financial Statements - Reports prepared on behalf of a company to present financial performance. Typically presented as a Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Statement of Cash Flow.

Financials Tool - This Analysis tool provides a summary of the company's financial statements (Profit & Loss, Cash Flow Statement and Balance Sheet) in various formats. In addition, this tool also includes variance analysis and common size analysis.

Formula Builder - For formula KPIs, you can define the calculation using the formula builder. You can select from a range of different variables when building a Formula KPI. This includes: Accounts from your source accounting system, Custom headings/groupings created in your Fathom Chart of Accounts, Non-financial KPIs, Summary financial items i.e. 'Gross Profit' and 'EBITDA', and Default rates (specified in Step 2 of company settings).

Goalseek Tool - The Goalseek tool helps to answer the question, "How do we get there?". This scenario analysis tool helps to design strategies to achieve a desired outcome. It also helps to identify the sensitivity, or importance, of key business drivers in achieving a given performance goal.

Growth Tool - The Growth tool is designed to help you understand and assess a company's trajectory from a selected starting period to the current period. Monthly, quarterly and annual growth can be visualised in this tool.

KPI - Key performance indicator, a type of performance measurement allowing you to evaluate the success of an organisation. Fathom allows you to track financial and non-financial KPIs. 

KPI Explorer Tool - The KPI Explorer provides an overview of the performance of all of your KPIs (Financial and Non-financial alike) – in one simple view. The KPI explorer helps to identify areas of strength or weakness in the business. You can sort by different perspectives to get further insights.

KPI Library - The KPI library is an account-wide library that stores all KPIs that you wish to save. It allows you to store all KPIs in a single location, and apply them to any company. Only ‘Admin’ level users have access to create or edit Library KPIs.

KPI Results Tool - This tool shows a summary of the results for each of your selected KPIs (both financial and non-financial). The KPIs shown here are selected in ‘Step 4 - KPIs’ in company settings.

My Companies Page - The ‘My Companies’ page is the central location where you are able to access all the entities you have integrated with Fathom. From this screen you can import a new company, create a consolidated group or benchmark group and access all Fathom tools for each connected company. 

Operating Income - The amount of income realised through the normal course of business. Calculated by taking the revenue earned from the regular course of business, less operating expenses, wages, depreciation and COGS. 

Period Selector - You can now make any quarter or year a 'partial period'. This aligns with our reporting and gives you more flexibility in your financial analysis, by giving you the ability to define the ending month for quarter-to-date and year-to-date periods.

Profit & Loss (P&L) - The Profit and Loss is a financial statement typically presented alongside a Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flow. Usually produced monthly, the Profit and Loss (P&L) measures a company's sales and expenses over a specified period of time. The P&L will inform whether the business made or lost money for the period under review.

Profitability Tool - This tool is designed to evaluate a company’s ability to generate profits. It also serves to visualise a company's breakeven point and the margin of safety between current revenue levels and the breakeven point.

Properties Panel - Any trend chart you add can be easily customised to your liking. Simply hover over the chart and click 'Edit' to bring up the properties panel. From the properties panel, you can customise the charts title, the series included in the chart, the frequency of results, and the date range. You can also customise other settings relating to the visual presentation of the chart such as colours, lines styles, and fills.

Rank Tool - The rank tool enables the comparative analysis of multiple companies across multiple KPIs - in one view. This tool helps to rank the performance of each company / client / franchisee relative to its peers. 

Report Centre - The 'Report Centre' is where you manage all draft and published reports, schedules and templates. There are four sections, Reports, Templates, Scheduled Reports, Excel Reports. You can access the Report Centre via the 'Reports' icon next to a company or consolidated group in the My Companies screen. 

Report Editor - The 'Report Editor' enables you to create and edit reports and report templates. Using the Report Editor, you can build reports that are engaging on screen and effective when printed on paper. 

Sidebar - The Sidebar is available within the Analysis tools, and within the Fathom Report Editor. In the Analysis tools, you can use the sidebar to navigate between the different tools available. In the Report Editor, use the sidebar to access text, charts, and tables to add into your report.

Targets - In 'Step 5: Targets', you can set targets for each KPI that has been selected in 'Step 4'. Targets can be applied on fixed or variable bases. In a fixed basis, the same fixed target will be applied each month for a KPI. Fathom will automatically calculate the target for each quarter (or QTD period) and year (or YTD period) based on the KPIs aggregation type.

Trend Analysis Tool - The trend analysis tool is designed to help track trends in business performance over time. It enables the comparison of any financial KPI, custom KPI or line item from the financial statements.

Variable Selector - The variable selector is available when editing charts, graphs and other components from the content library. You can select any KPI, any item from the P&L or Balance Sheet, or any item from the source Chart of Accounts for the company. 

Financial Trends Table - Table that can show you monthly financial results for a 12 month period, or create a forward projection with the budget . Find this table in your custom reports, under ‘Tables & Financials > Financial Trends’. 

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