Contents:


Adding and editing a chart in your report

To add and/or edit a chart in your report:

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

  2. By default, you will see a range of Revenue charts to select from. 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 the information you desire. 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, simply 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’re able to 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 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 charts are useful for the analysis of a composition of accounts, such as key expense or revenue accounts.

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

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.

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

Underneath the highlighted number, a trend line will be displayed and a description can be included.

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

Scatterplot charts are only available for reporting on a company’s performance in a Benchmark Group.

For more information on scatterplot charts, please see 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 on the green 'Pencil' icon.

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

  • 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 dot' icon that appears when hovering over a series name.

  • Filter series or variable by class, location, tracking category, or division. For more information on this, please see our 'Using Divisions in Reports' article.

  • 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're able to 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 dot' 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 current financial year, a custom date range, or view all time results.

  • Additional options. Select from a range of more 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 charts.

Advanced series or variable settings

Each series or variable in a trend chart can be further tailored within the 'Advanced Settings' for that series. You access these using the 'Three dot' 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 for any time a series or variable drops below zero.


Pie or Donut Charts

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

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

  • 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. For more information on this, please see our 'Using Divisions in Reports' article.


Breakdown Charts

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

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

  • 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. For more information, see our 'Using Divisions in Reports' article.

    If you're reporting on a consolidated group, then you can show a breakdown by company. For more information, 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


Key Number Charts

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

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

  • 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 colour of the line and fill underneath.

  • Choose to display a description of the metric underneath the key number and/or sparkline. 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 and/or other tables to your report?

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

Want to organize your report?

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

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

Or is your report complete and ready to be shared or turned into a re-usable 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

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

Invite others into your Fathom account to share insights


Additional knowledge & common questions:

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