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Create & Import Forecast Drivers

Bring in non-financial metrics and other data for driver-based forecasting

Updated over 2 weeks ago

This feature is included with Fathom Pro - the plan with access to all of Fathom's features. Companies on Portfolio can be upgraded to Fathom Pro at any time.

What are forecast drivers?

Drivers include non-financial metrics or data outside of your chart of accounts that can be used to forecast financial projections.

Many business owners think about their revenue in terms of how much of a product or service they are delivering, and using drivers can help you model these outcomes closely.

Some examples of drivers include:

  • Number of expected product sales
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  • Number of employees
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  • Number of contractors
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  • Interest rates
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  • Prices of products
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  • Number of customers or subscribers

With drivers, you can build out complex formulas to forecast your Profit & Loss values. You can also set up drivers to reflect seasonality to capture these nuances in your forecast.

How to create forecast drivers

To add driver data to your forecast, you’ll want to click on the Drivers tab in the main grid.


From the Drivers area, you can create drivers, define driver categories, and add values for your drivers. You can have as many as 500 drivers displayed in the Drivers grid.
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You can add or update drivers in four ways:

Import or update drivers from Excel

You can import up to 200 drivers at a time into your Fathom Forecast.

To import or update drivers from Excel:

  1. In the upper-right corner of the Drivers area, select the Excel icon.
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  2. Download the appropriate import template:
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    1. If you haven’t added any drivers to your forecast, choose the 'Import from Excel' option and download the blank ‘Drivers template’.
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    2. If you need to update data for existing drivers, select the option to download the ‘Drivers - Company Name’ template, which includes data for existing drivers.
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  3. After downloading, open the template.

  4. Fill out the following fields, as needed:

    1. Driver Name: The name of the driver as it would appear in the Drivers Grid and in reports. This is required.
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    2. Category: The category the driver will be assigned to in the Drivers Grid and in reports. If no category is specified, it will default to ‘No category’, and the driver will not be placed in a category.
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    3. Unit of Measure: You can choose from one of the standard units of measure (Number, Currency, Percentage, Days, Times) or type in a custom unit of measure (a maximum of 8 characters). If a unit of measure is not specified, it will default to ‘Number’.
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    4. Aggregation Type: How the driver will be displayed for quarterly and yearly results. If an aggregation type is not specified, it will default to ‘Summative’.

      1. Balance: The driver’s value for the most recent month will be used as the value for the quarter and year. For example, the ‘Number of Employees’ is often measured as the number of employees at that point in time.

      2. Summative: The driver’s value for all months in the quarter or year will be summed or totalled for the quarterly and yearly results. For example, ‘Number of Completed Projects’ is often measured as the total number of projects completed during the quarter or year.

      3. Average: The driver’s value for all months in the quarter or year will be totalled and then divided by the number of months in the quarter or year. For example, ‘Revenue per Project’ would usually be measured as the average revenue per project throughout the quarter or year.
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    5. Driver values: The monthly values for your driver. The value can be a maximum of 15 numbers long.
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  5. Save the template
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  6. Return to Fathom and select Click to upload.

💡Smart Tip: If you only need to update the values for your drivers or only update the attributes (e.g. category, unit of measure, aggregation type), then, before uploading the template, you can select the option you need by clicking on the bolded ‘Values and attributes’ to reveal a dropdown menu.

What will happen to my existing drivers when importing?

Driver imports are designed to be additive, meaning empty fields will not remove data; imports will only create new or update existing drivers, their values, and/or their attributes.

If you are updating existing drivers and leave the attribute fields blank, they will not reset to the defaults, but will instead retain their current in-Fathom attributes.

To modify attributes, you must specify the new attribute choice in the Excel import or edit the driver's settings in Fathom.

To access a driver's settings:

  1. Click on the name of the driver in the Drivers grid.
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  2. Click Settings at the top of the right-side menu.

Enter driver data manually

To add a driver and/or driver data manually:

  1. Click the green Create driver option.
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  2. In the menu that opens, specify the name of the driver, driver category, unit of measure, and aggregation type.
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  3. Click Create driver.
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  4. Once the driver has been created, you can double-click the cells of the driver:
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    1. Enter values for the driver directly in the cells.
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    2. Or use a value rule to calculate the driver’s results.

Calculate drivers using formulas and other value rules

After you have created a driver in the Drivers Grid, you can calculate the values for the driver by using a driver value rule. Using a value rule can be more efficient than manual entry.

Rule

When to use it...

Constant/Growing

  • The value for the driver is constant or the same across all periods.
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  • The value of the driver increases or decreases by a constant amount from period to period.
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  • The value of the driver increases or decreases by a constant percentage from period to period.

Formula

  • The values for the driver can be calculated based on other drivers' results and/or constant values.
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    Example:
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    ​Driver C = (Driver A + Driver B) / 2

To calculate a driver with a value rule:

  1. Click on the cell for the month you want to begin calculating the driver.
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  2. In the right-side menu, click Add rule.

    1. If a rule already exists and you want to edit it, clcik the Three dots icon next to the rule.
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  3. From the drop-down, choose the rule type.
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    1. If using a ‘Constant/Growing’ rule:

      1. Enter a constant amount for the driver

      2. If desired, enter a monthly, quarterly, or yearly increase or decrease.
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    2. If using a ‘Formula’ rule:

      1. Build a formula to calculate the driver's values.

      2. Use other drivers as variables in the formula by typing the ‘@’ symbol or the name of the driver.
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  4. Select Create rule.

💡Smart Tip: To see the rule(s) used to calculate a driver, click on the name of the driver. This will open a menu on the right-hand side where you can view a timeline of all of the value rules used to calculate the driver. Both manual entries and imports from Excel will appear as direct entries in the rule timeline. Learn more from our 'Audit your forecast' article.

Organise, re-order, delete, and duplicate drivers

To duplicate a driver, change its name or category, delete it, or re-order the driver on the grid:

  1. Hover over the name of the driver on the Drivers Grid.
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  2. Click on the Three dots icon.
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  3. From the drop-down menu, choose to:
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    1. Move the driver up or down in the grid
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    2. Rename the driver
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    3. Change the category of the driver
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    4. Delete the driver
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    5. Or duplicate the driver.

To edit a driver category:

  1. Hover over the category name in the Drivers Grid.
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  2. Click on the Three dots icon.
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  3. From the drop-down menu, choose to:
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    1. Move the category up or down in the grid
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    2. Rename the category
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    3. Or delete the category.

How can I use drivers to calculate my forecast?

Drivers can be used in value rules and loan repayment schedules to calculate Profit & Loss accounts.

For more information about driver-based forecast calculations, see our 'Forecast Revenue, Cost of Sales, and Expenses' article.

For calculating Interest Expense and Interest Revenue accounts with drivers, see our 'Journals & Schedules in Forecasting' article.

Next steps

Continue building your forecast's baseline:

Forecast the Baseline Workflow

Entered drivers for a microforecast? Continue forecasting what-ifs.

Learn more

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