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Creating a Custom Forecast
Creating a Custom Forecast

Set up your Fathom forecast from scratch

Updated over a year ago

Contents:

What is a 'Custom Forecast'?

If you want to begin customising your forecast in Fathom from the start, then the ‘Custom Forecast’ onboarding option may be for you.
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It is important to note that all of the onboarding options end at the same forecasting tool. No option is more or less customisable once the forecast has been created and you are in the tool. The onboarding process is simply how you want to initially set up your forecast.

During the custom forecast onboarding process, you’ll begin tailoring value rules and timing profiles at the classification level so all accounts within the classification use your chosen value rule and timing profile. This helps you tailor large sections of the forecast to your business so that you start off with the default value rules and timing profiles you want to use.
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You’ll also start customising account linkages, taxes, and loans & depreciation as part of the onboarding process.

Once the onboarding process is complete and the forecast is created, you’re able to further customise and change value rules at the individual account, heading, or classification level. Any decisions you make during the onboarding process can be changed in the Forecasting tool.

Onboarding Process

To set up a ‘Custom Forecast’,

  1. Select the ‘Forecasting’ option for the company on the ‘My Companies’ page. If a forecast has not yet been created for the company, then you’ll be taken to a short overview video.
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  2. Select ‘Let’s get started’
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  3. Choose the ‘Custom Forecast’ option
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  4. Set the default value rules for your Revenue, Expense, and Cost of Sales accounts. They will all start with the ‘Smart Prediction - Linear Regression’ option selected. You will also be able to set up default timing profiles for these account classifications. You can edit these value rules and timing profiles at the individual account, heading, or classification level once the forecast is generated.
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  5. Select ‘Next’ in the lower right corner
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  6. Choose the main accounts for your Balance Sheet classifications (e.g. choose a ‘Cash & Equivalents’ account to be your main or default cash account).
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  7. Select ‘Next’ in the lower right corner
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  8. Review and set up any taxes and select ‘Next’ in the lower right corner once done.
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  9. Review and set up loans and depreciation accounts in your forecast (linking the correct asset account to the P&L loan account and choosing the depreciation method).
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    ​❗Note: If you have loan or depreciation accounts in your chart of accounts but they are not showing up during that step of the onboarding, then they may not be identified as loan or depreciation accounts.
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  10. Select ‘Create Forecast’ in the lower right corner

Once you’ve reviewed all of the above, select ‘Create Forecast’ and you’ll be taken to the forecasting main grid.

💡Pro Tip: Any decisions you make during the onboarding process can be changed once you are in your forecast.

Identifying loan & depreciation accounts

Loans

Fathom will identify any Long Term Debt and Short Term Debt accounts based on their account classification. To ensure we’re not setting up loan schedules for debt accounts that are not loans, Fathom will identify debt accounts with a positive balance that has consistently decreased over the last 3 months. Using the accounts’ historic values, we will calculate a blended Interest Rate. Schedules will be created for all of the identified accounts, posting to the Interest Rate Expense account with the greatest value.

The loan repayment amount will be based on the average monthly decrease in the debt accounts over the last 3 months.

Fathom assumes a default loan term of 20 years.

Depreciation

Fathom identifies the three Fixed Asset accounts with the greatest value based on their most recent balance and account classification. We then use the historic values in these accounts to form an average depreciation percentage, and use this as the percentage applied to the top 3 fixed asset accounts. Then, the calculated depreciation amount will be added to the depreciation account with the largest balance.

Next steps

Congratulations on completing the 'Custom Forecast' onboarding! You should now be in the main grid of your forecast. Continue the 'Forecast Creation & Setup Workflow' by choosing from one of the next steps below:

What you want to do:

Where to go next:

Navigate the main forecasting grid

Forecasting Main Grid

Tailor and customise your forecast with value rules

Setting up Value Rules

Additional knowledge & common questions:

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