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Adding Charts to a Report
Adding Charts to a Report

Use line, bar, area, pie, breakdown, scatterplot, and key numbers charts to customize your Fathom report

Pamela Salunga avatar
Written by Pamela Salunga
Updated over a week ago

Contents

Adding and editing a chart in your report

To add or edit a chart in your report:

  1. From the content library on the left sidebar, select 'Charts.'

  2. By default, you will see a range of Revenue charts to select from. You can use the bolded smart text filter at the top to find your desired chart metric type.


    💡Pro Tip: You can start with any chart and customise it to display your desired information. For example, you do not have to add an 'Expense' chart to your report to be able to report on expenses. You can start with a 'Revenue' chart and edit it to show expense metrics.

  3. Add a chart to your report by clicking on the chart in the menu or dragging and dropping the chart into the report.

  4. To edit the chart, double-click anywhere on the chart or hover your mouse over the chart and select the green 'Pencil' icon.

  5. This will open the Properties menu for the chart, which offers several editing options for each chart.

Types of charts

Fathom has five main types of charts that you can add to a Fathom report and customise. Choose from the options below to learn about the specific customisations available for each chart type:

Chart type & description

Example

Trend

Trend charts include line, bar, and area charts. You can use trend charts to compare any KPI (financial or non-financial), any item from the financial statements, or any account from the Chart of Accounts.

You can display trends of past performance and projected performance for metrics.

Pie

Pie charts are helpful in analysing a composition of accounts, such as crucial expense or revenue accounts.

Pie charts can be customised to include any metric and can also be displayed in a doughnut shape instead of a pie.

Breakdown

Breakdown charts are useful for comparing key accounts within a company or comparing the performance of divisions, classes, locations or other segments within your business.

For a consolidated group, you can use Breakdown charts to compare the results of underlying companies.

They can be recognised by the horizontal bar chart option in the 'Charts' menu.

Key Number

Highlight any KPI, item from the P&L or Balance Sheet, or any account in your Chart of Accounts.

A trend line and a description can be included underneath the highlighted number.

They can be recognised by the '123' icon in the 'Charts' menu.

Scatterplot

Scatterplot charts are only available to report a company's performance in a Benchmark Group.

For more information on scatterplot charts, please review our article on 'Referencing Benchmark Group Data in Reports'.

Trend Charts

After adding a trend chart to your report, double-click or hover over it and click the green 'Pencil' icon.

You'll be able to access the chart's 'Properties' panel, where you can customise the following:

  • Title of the chart

  • Series or variables being analysed. You can select a maximum of 6 series. You can add or remove variables using the 'Add or remove variables' link under the 'Series' field. You can also rename a series by double-clicking on a series heading or using the 'Three dots' icon that appears when hovering over a series name.

  • Filter series or variables by class, location, tracking category, or division. Please see our 'Using Divisions in Reports' article for more information.

  • Type of each series (e.g. line, bar, or area). Click the 'line' icon next to a series to change its type. You can 'combine' two types of charts to create unique visualisations. You can combine all three (line, bar, or area) chart types within one chart.

  • Colour of each series

  • Comparative for each series. By hovering over a series name and clicking the 'Three dots' icon that appears, you can select to compare that variable against Target, Last Year's Results, and the Rolling 12-month Average.

  • Frequency of results (e.g. monthly, quarterly, annual). This will impact the x-axis.

  • Date range. Select the current financial year, a custom date range, or view all-time results.

  • Additional options. Select from a range of options, including stacked bar charts, highlighting the current period, showing the legend for the chart, and more.

    📝 Note: The stack results option is only available for bar and area charts.

Advanced series or variable settings

Each series or variable in a trend chart can be further tailored within that series's 'Advanced Settings'. You access these using the 'Three dots' icon next to the series colour and type.

The 'Advanced Settings' panel allows you to:

  • Change your line style (e.g. dashed, dotted or solid)

  • Display or hide the circle markers for each point in a line chart

  • Add a shaded fill underneath a line.

  • Show a future projection. This can use any budget data that has been loaded, or it will take the previous 12 months' average and use that to project a straight line into the future.

  • Cumulate results across time

  • Provide a shaded fill when a series or variable drops below zero.

Adding labels to data points

You can add labels to data points in a Trend chart when editing the table. To do so,

  1. Double-click the Trend chart or hover over it and select the green 'Pencil' icon

  2. Scroll down to the bottom of the menu and check the option to 'Show data labels'

  3. If you want to disable or enable labels for specific metrics and not the entire chart:

    1. In the 'Series' section of the menu, click the 'Three dots' icon next to the metric you want

    2. Select 'Advanced settings'

    3. Check/Uncheck the option to 'Show data labels' in the 'Other settings' section

Pie or Donut Charts

After adding a pie chart to your report, double-click or hover over it and click the green 'Pencil' icon.

You'll be able to access the chart's 'Properties' panel, where you can customise the following:

  • Title of the chart

  • Period frequency (e.g. month, quarter or year)

  • Chart type (e.g. pie or doughnut chart)

  • Segments in the chart (maximum of 20)

  • Colour code of each segment

  • Filter segments by class, location, tracking category, or division. Please see our 'Using Divisions in Reports' article for more information.

Breakdown Charts

After adding a breakdown chart to your report, double-click or hover over it and click the green 'Pencil' icon.

You'll be able to access the chart's 'Properties' panel, where you can customise the following:

  • Title of the chart

  • Period frequency (e.g. month, quarter or year)

  • Component for breakdown. By default, the chart will show the breakdown of a classification across accounts. If you've imported divisional (e.g. class, location, tracking category, etc.) data, then you can filter by division or show the breakdown by division. If you would like more information, you can see our 'Using Divisions in Reports' article.

    If you're reporting on a consolidated group, you can show a breakdown by company. If you would like more information, you can see our 'Consolidated Group Reporting' article.

  • The classification of accounts being broken down.

  • The colour of the chart

  • How results are displayed or sorted (e.g. alphabetically or by result)

  • If all or only the top or bottom results are displayed

  • If nil or accounts will all zeros are hidden

    📝 Note: While a comparative (e.g. prior period) can be displayed in the Breakdown tool in Analysis, it is not possible to add a comparative to a Breakdown chart in a custom Fathom report. You can download the Breakdown tool from Analysis as a PDF, and that PDF report will include the comparative.

Key Number Charts

After adding a key number chart to your report, double-click or hover over it and click the green 'Pencil' icon.

You'll be able to access the chart's 'Properties' panel, where you can customise the following:

  • Title of the chart

  • The metric (e.g. KPI, classification, heading, account) being displayed.

  • The range and type of results (e.g. the current period, a prior period, cumulative results, the rolling 12-month average, or the target amount for KPIs).

  • If the results are rounded and how they are rounded

  • The sparkline under the key number. Choose if it should be displayed and, if so, the line's colour and fill underneath.

    📝 Note: The sparkline shows the results for 'All time'. The date range for the sparkline cannot be customised.

  • Choose to display a description of the metric underneath the key number. You can also edit the description.

Next steps

Now that you've learned about the different charts available in a custom Fathom report and how they can be customised, choose to learn about one of the other areas of reporting to continue creating your custom report:

What you want to do next:

Where to go next:

Want to add financial statements or other tables to your report?

Financial Statements & Data Tables

Want to add commentary and other text options to your report?

Text & Commentary

Want to organise your report?

Outline & Organise

Want to add several charts and tables or some of the Analysis tools with page layouts?

Using Page Layouts

Ready to white label or add a logo to your report?

Branding your report

Or is your report complete and ready to be shared or turned into a reusable template to generate scheduled reports?

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

Turn your report into a custom template to generate future reports from

Create a Template

Invite others into your Fathom account to share insights

Invite a New User into Fathom

Additional knowledge & common questions:

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