Contents:
What is the Growth tool?
The Growth tool is designed to help you understand and assess a company's trajectory from a selected starting period to the current period. It also provides a balanced view of your business's growth. The tool assesses a combination of growth measures, as opposed to singular ratios or metrics.
The Growth Analysis tool is accessible from the left sidebar in the Analysis tools by selecting the 'Growth/Plant' icon.
Dot size and colour
When viewing the Growth tool, the size of the dot represents the recency of the period. The dot grows larger with time; the largest dot represents the most recent period under analysis. Hovering over each dot will reveal the period and key numbers behind the dot. The colour of the dot represents the quadrant it is part of.
Understanding & navigating the Growth tool
If you hover over the mini-map, you will see a description of each of the four quadrants and, therefore, an explanation of the results for each dot landing in the quadrant.
The display and results in the growth tool depend on:
Growth Metrics
Click on the smart text at the top of the tool to change the growth metrics to compare.
Growth Metric Option | Why you would choose them |
EBIT vs Total Operating Investment | This allows you to analyse whether your net operating assets employed by the business are generating enough returns in terms of profits. |
EBIT vs Revenue | This option helps you to compare EBIT growth versus revenue growth to understand whether your profit is growing at an equal or greater rate or facing a decline compared to the top line. |
Free Cash Flow vs Revenue | By comparing revenue versus free cash flow it gives you a snapshot of whether the cash position of business has behaved compared to the revenue growth. |
Selecting the starting period
You can also choose the starting period for the growth analysis. The starting period defines the centre of the graphic, from which the quadrants are then defined. Therefore, if the starting period was a particularly successful period, then subsequent periods' results may appear unsuccessful in comparison to the starting period.
Each subsequent time period is represented by a dot, with its position relative to the starting period.
Changing the period or date range
In the top right corner of the Growth Analysis tool, you’re able to change the period and date range displayed in the tool. The first bolded smart text option allows you to switch between viewing monthly, quarterly, or yearly results.
The second bolded smart text option enables you to choose which month, quarter, or year’s results you are viewing.
If you imported data through the current month in ‘Step 1 - Update Data’, then you can also view results for month-to-date (MTD), quarter-to-date (QTD) or year-to-date (YTD) periods, and select the ending month for these periods.
Download a PDF of the Cash Flow Analysis
You can download the Growth tool to PDF from the left sidebar. The download option is located in the bottom left corner.
The Growth tool can also be added to custom Fathom reports and downloaded as a PDF. You'll find the Growth tool as an option in the 'Layouts' section of the Report Editor.
💡Pro Tip: You have the option to include a 'Basis of Preparation' or disclaimer statement as a page in PDF downloads. You can add or remove this statement in PDFs and customise the statement. Learn more in our 'Basis of Preparation statement' article.
Next steps
Learn about the next Analysis tools available for additional insights into company or group performance. Or learn about the other areas of Fathom and share your discoveries with others.
What you want to do: | Where to go next: |
Analyse financial performance over time | |
Create strategies for achieving business goals with the Goalseek tool | |
Invite others into your Fathom account to share insights | |
Create reports for your company | |
Begin forecasting in Fathom |