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What is Terminology in Fathom?
Terminology is the vocabulary used in Fathom's Reports, Analysis, Forecast and Settings. Changing the terminology will only change the words themselves, not the equations used to calculate financial values or the order in which they appear in financial statements.
Example: The English (UK) terminology uses the term 'Revenue'. By changing a company's terminology to Not-for-Profit, 'Income' will be used instead of 'Revenue', but the value will remain the same.
Revenue $100,000 -> Income $100,000
The terms impacted by the terminology include the financial statement titles, classification names, and financial totals (e.g. Gross Profit). Any custom headings can be edited or changed in 'Step 3 – Chart of Accounts' for the company or group. Individual account names must be changed in the source accounting system.
💡 Pro Tip: If you need to create a financial statement with custom calculations, not custom terms, then you can do so with a KPI Table. For more details, please see our 'Creating a Custom Financial Statement' article.
Where do terminology changes occur?
The terminology changes will primarily appear in the financial statements (i.e., Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement), but you will see changes throughout the Fathom platform.
📝 Note: The titles of the financial statements in the main forecasting grid will not be impacted by terminology changes and will display the English (UK) terminology. The rest of the forecasting grid will include terminology changes.
When using the Analysis tools or editing reporting components, you will also see terminology changes in the metric selector. The terms in the metric selector will be displayed in the tool, chart, or table.
Most of the default financial KPIs will not be impacted by terminology changes. The few that terminology changes will impact are:
Total Revenue
Revenue Growth
Gross Profit Margin
Operating Profit Margin
Operating Cash Flow
Net Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow
💡 Pro Tip: Outside of the terminology changes, it is not possible to change the names of default financial KPIs. However, you can create a custom KPI that uses the same formula as a default financial KPI and give it a custom name. Please see our 'Step 4 – KPIs' article to learn more about creating custom KPIs.
How is the terminology set in Fathom?
When a company is imported into Fathom, or a group is created, the terminology for the company or group will be set according to the default terminology for the Fathom organisation. This is useful if you have a language you want to use for most of your companies or clients.
The default terminology can be overridden for an individual company or group at any time.
Setting the default terminology in Fathom
To set the default terminology for your Fathom organisation,
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📝 Note: The default terminology will not impact companies or groups already in your Fathom account. The default terminology only comes into play when a company is first imported into Fathom or when a group is first created.
What is auto-detection?
When importing a company or creating a group, auto-detection will select one of Fathom's Predefined terminologies as the terminology for the company or group.
The terminology selection for the company or group can be changed at any time in the company's or group's Settings.
The terminology set by auto-detection will be based on:
Company Type
Organisation Country
The company type is imported from the source accounting system. If the company is a Not-For-Profit or nonprofit company, then the Not-for-Profit terminology will be applied.
📝 Note: Company type can only be detected for Xero, QuickBooks Online, or Sage Business Cloud companies. For QuickBooks Desktop, MYOB, and Excel companies, the company type will not impact auto-detection. Only the organisation's country will be used for terminology detection.
If the company is not a Not-for-Profit, then the terminology selection will be based on the Organisation Country. If the Fathom organisation is based in the United States, English (US) will be the company's terminology. If the Fathom organisation is based elsewhere, English (UK) will be the company's terminology.
💡 Pro Tip: The organisation country is set in the Organisation Profile section of the Organisation Settings.
Consolidated Group or Benchmark Group
When creating a consolidated group or a benchmark group, the terminology set by auto-detection will only be based on the organisation's country.
The terminologies used for the underlying companies in a group will not impact the group's terminology and will not need to match the group's terminology.
What are the Predefined terminologies?
Fathom currently has three predefined terminologies:
Terminology | Description |
English (UK) | The original default Fathom terminology is English (UK) and aligns with IFRS reporting standards. |
English (US) | English (US) has localised spelling for the United States (e.g. Amortisation -> Amortization) and financial terms that are more commonly used in the US (e.g. Profit & Loss -> Income Statement). |
Not-For-Profit | Has terms that more closely align with Not-for-Profit or nonprofit reporting standards (e.g. 'Operating Surplus/Deficit' instead of 'Operating Profit'). |
💡 Pro Tip: Compare the three predefined terminologies side-by-side with these tables.
💡 Pro Tip: Need help setting up your nonprofit in Fathom? See our 'Fathom Tips: Nonprofits & Not-for-Profits' article.
Creating a custom terminology
If none of the Predefined terminologies suits the specific reporting needs of your industry or organisation, you can create your own custom terminology.
To create a custom terminology,
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You can set the custom terminology as the default terminology for the entire Fathom organisation and/or a company or group.
You can have up to 20 custom terminologies in your Fathom organisation.
Editing or deleting a custom terminology
You can edit a custom terminology at any time. Editing the terminology will impact all companies and groups using the custom terminology.
To edit a custom terminology,
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To delete a custom terminology,
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Any companies or groups using the custom terminology will be set to the default terminology.
Changing the terminology for a company or group
The terminology for a company or group will be set according to the default terminology when the company is imported, or the group is created.
If you want to change a company or group's terminology, you can do so anytime in the company or group's Settings.
To change the terminology for a company or group,
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❗ Notice: If you cannot access the appropriate Setting for the company or group, you may not have the appropriate permissions. Contact an Admin-level user in your organisation to have your permissions changed.
Additional knowledge & common questions: