For the Cash Flow Statement and Cash Flow Analysis tool, Fathom utilises an 'indirect method' by calculating movements in accounts from the P&L and Balance Sheet to determine cash flows.

As such, Fathom requires a closing balance from the previous period and a balance for the current period in order to calculate changes in balance sheet items to display the impact on cash flow.

When viewing results for the earliest period that you have imported, Fathom isn't able to find an opening balance sheet from prior period data and will always return the following error message:

To update the opening balance, you must import balance sheet data for the month before the earliest imported month.

For companies imported from Xero or QuickBooks, you can change the company start date to an earlier period. If the earlier period has no data, add a journal with a .01 cent value to ensure Fathom recognises it when you add the earlier period.

For companies imported from Excel, you can add all-zero data to the Excel import for the prior period and update the company in Fathom to bring in the prior period.

Unfortunately, for companies imported from MYOB, it is not possible to change the start date to an earlier period after a company has already been imported. You will need to delete and re-import the company to your account.

For companies imported from Xero, you can change the start date in the Xero file to the first of the month. For example, when you change the start date to April 1st in Xero, the conversion balances for 31 March are all set to zero automatically.

By deleting the file in Fathom and then re-importing it in the 'Update Data' step of the company settings, the 31 March zero balances are recognised, and the cash flow will work correctly.

For companies imported from QuickBooks Online, importing a prior period will fix the issue.

Learn more