How to use templates

Templates are useful if you wish to save a specific report for reuse. Templates can be used within a single company or shared across companies and groups in a Fathom account.

Templates can also be used to create reports for a group of related companies in a consolidated group or a benchmark group. This is particularly useful for multi-entity and franchise groups.

Types of Templates

There are two types of templates within the Reports Centre.

Custom - Custom templates are specific to you or your organisation. These are templates that either you have created, or another member of your organisation has created.
Predefined - Predefined templates are report templates created by Fathom. It is not possible to edit a predefined template or add new predefined templates.

💡 Pro Tip: You can edit a report created from a predefined template, which is a great place to start when creating your own report or a custom template.

Creating a Custom Template

You are able to create a custom template:

Completely from scratch or
From an existing report

Creating a template from scratch

To create a template from scratch,

Select Templates from the left sidebar of the Reports area for the company or group.
Select the green Create template button.
Type in a name for the template
Choose the reporting period for the template.
Next, you can choose a landscape or portrait orientation, which will influence the orientation of the template's first page.

💡Pro Tip: Once your template is created, you can change the orientation of each section.
Select Create

Creating a template from an existing report

To create a custom template from an existing report,

Select Reports from the left sidebar of the Reports area for the company or group.
Hover over the report name
Click on the Three dots icon that appears at the right of the report row
From the drop-down menu, select Save as a template.
Type in a name for the template.

💡Pro Tip: The template name is separate from the report title. For example, a company’s report could be titled ‘Company A Monthly Performance’ while the template could be named ‘Monthly Performance Report Template’.
Select Create Template

You’ll now be able to find the template under the ‘Custom’ templates section in the Report Centre.

Using templates to create reports and other templates

To create a report using a template, you can hover over the template and select the Create Report option.

Please see our ‘Creating Reports in Fathom’ article for more detailed instructions on creating reports from templates.

💡 Pro Tip: Templates shared with 'All companies/groups' can be used to create a report for only one of the companies or groups using the templates or for all companies or groups using the template.

Using an existing template to create a new template

To use an existing template as a base for creating a new template,

Go to Reports for the company or group
Select Templates from the left sidebar
Hover over the existing template you want to create a new template from
Select the Three dots icon that appears at the right of the template row
If you are using a Predefined template, select Create a custom template. If you are using a custom template, select Duplicate.

The created or duplicated template can then be customised.

Editing a template

❗Notice: If you edit a template that is shared with other companies in your account, then any changes will impact the template for all of the shared companies.

Renaming a custom template

After creating a custom template, you can change the template's name as it appears in the Reports area. To change a template's name,

Go to Templates in the Reports for the company or group
Hover over the custom template and select the Pencil icon. Acknowledge the warnings in the subsequent window and proceed to edit the template.
Once inside the Report Editor, click the Cog/Gear icon at the bottom of the menu bar on the left of the screen.
In the subsequent Properties panel, type in the name of the custom template in the Template Name field as you would like it to appear in the Report Centre.
Select Apply Changes

📝 Note: Renaming a template will only affect how it appears in the Report Centre and not the name of the actual report.

Which users can edit custom templates?

The ability to edit each template can be restricted to certain groups of users.

In the Reports area, go to Templates
Select Custom
Hover over the template you want to check
Select the Three dots icon at the right of the template row.
Choose to Edit template sharing
In the menu that opens, you can limit the template to be shared with:
- Just me (only available for the creator of this template).
- Only 'admin' users
- Only 'editor' and 'admin' users
- All users

Sharing a template with other companies

Custom templates can be shared with other companies in your Fathom account.

Go to the Templates section of the Report Centre
Select Custom
Hover over the template you want to share with other companies or groups
Select the Three dot icon that appears on the right of the template row
Select Copy to another company or Edit template sharing

📝 Note: When you copy a template to another company, both companies have their own copy of the report template. When the report template is edited, it is only edited for one company.

If the template is shared across companies, then edits made to the templates will carry across to all companies using the template. Sharing templates is a great way to ensure all companies are using a standardised report.
In the menu that opens, you may select to share the template with all companies and groups or only certain benchmarking groups of companies.

Next Steps

Congratulations on learning about templates! Now you can create reports from templates and schedule future reports to be generated from custom templates. Choose from the options below for your next step:

What you want to do:	Where to go next:
Share your reports with others or enable them to comment on reports	Share and collaborate on reports
Schedule future reports to be created automatically	Schedule Reports
Invite others into your Fathom account to share insights	Invite a New User into Fathom
Create custom reports for your company	Create a Custom Report
Download an Excel Report	Excel Reports