Contents
👋 Haven't started a trial with Fathom yet? Learn more about Fathom's financial analysis software & measure what matters with our KPI tracking software.
What is the Breakdown tool?
The Breakdown tool compares performance across the different areas of your business or consolidated group. This analysis provides insight into the performance of either:
All of your divisions (e.g. classes, locations, tracking categories, etc.) within a single company
All of the companies in a consolidated group
The Breakdown tool can be accessed from the left sidebar of the Analysis tools by selecting the 'Breakdown' icon.
💡Pro Tip: The Breakdown tool is unavailable in individual companies but can be added to a report. The tool will become available once divisions are imported for the company. The tool is available, by default, in consolidated groups.
Using the Breakdown tool
You'll see bolded smart text at the top of the Breakdown tool. You can select these pieces of text to customise the tool. The Breakdown tool can be customised according to the following options:
You can also drill down into the results for a metric by selecting the bar for that metric in the chart.
Choosing a metric
You can select or search for any metric using the menu at the top of the tool. These metrics can be any KPI (default or custom), Chart of Account line item, or any summary classification from the Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet.
Type of division being analysed
This option is only available if multiple types of divisions are imported for a company. For example, QuickBooks allows divisions to be brought in as classes and locations.
The Breakdown tool lets you view the performance breakdown across classes or locations. You are not able to view the breakdown across both classes and locations at the same time.
📝 Note: Any amounts not classified to a division are shown as 'unclassified'.
Sorting of results
With the 'Result' or 'A > Z' smart text option, you can sort results from best performer to worst performer or by alphabetical order.
Adding a comparative
Click the '+' icon to add comparatives (e.g. budget, prior period) for your chosen KPI or financial metric.
To view the specific comparative figures, you can hover over the breakdown bars, click on any of the metrics in the live view, or view these figures directly on the PDF export.
To remove the comparative data, click on the comparative and select 'remove comparative.' It will be removed from the live view and any PDF exports.
📝 Note: If you do not have any budget data present, then budgets will not appear as a comparative option for P&L, Balance Sheet or Chart of Accounts metrics. This will also occur for the 'prior period' comparatives if no prior periods are available.
Changing the period or date range
In the top right corner of the Breakdown tool, you can change the period and date range displayed in the tool. The first bolded smart text option allows you to switch between viewing monthly, quarterly, or yearly results.
The second bolded smart text option lets you choose which month, quarter, or year's results you view.
If you imported data through the current month in 'Step 1 - Update Data', then you can also view results for month-to-date (MTD), quarter-to-date (QTD) or year-to-date (YTD) periods and select the ending month for these periods.
Drilling down into results
Clicking on any row in the breakdown analysis, you can view more details and a trend of recent results.
Download a PDF of the Breakdown tool
You can download the Breakdown tool to PDF from the left sidebar. The download option is located in the bottom left corner.
The Breakdown tool can also be added to custom Fathom reports and downloaded as a PDF.
💡Pro Tip: You can include a 'Basis of Preparation' or disclaimer statement as a page in PDF downloads. You can add or remove this statement in PDFs and customise it. Learn more in our 'Basis of Preparation statement' article.
Next steps
Learn about the following Analysis tools available for other company or group performance insights. Or learn about the other areas of Fathom and share your discoveries with others.
What you want to do: | Where to go next: |
Analyse the company's cash inflows and outflows | |
Analyse the company's growth | |
Invite others into your Fathom account to share insights | |
Create reports for your company | |
Begin forecasting in Fathom |
Additional knowledge & common questions