How to use templates

Templates are useful if you wish to save a specific report for reuse. Templates can be used within a single company or shared across companies and groups in a Fathom account.

Templates can also be used to create reports for a group of related companies in a consolidated group or a benchmark group. This is particularly useful for multi-entity and franchise groups.

Types of Templates

There are two types of templates within the Reports Centre.

Custom - Custom templates are specific to you or your organisation. These are templates that either you have created, or another member of your organisation has created.
Predefined - Predefined templates are report templates created by Fathom. It is not possible to edit a predefined template or add new predefined templates.

You are able to edit a report created from a predefined template, and predefined templates are a great place to start when creating your own report or a custom template.

Creating a Custom Template

You are able to create a custom template:

Completely from scratch or
From an existing report

Creating a template from scratch

To create a template from scratch,

Select 'Templates' from the left sidebar in the Report Centre.
Select the green 'Create template' button.
Type in a name for the template
Choose the reporting period for the template
Next, you can choose a landscape or portrait orientation. This will influence the orientation of the first page of the template.

💡Pro Tip: Once your template is created, you will be able to change the orientation of each section.
Select 'Create'

Creating a template from an existing report

To create a custom template from an existing report,

Select 'Reports' from the left sidebar of the Report Centre.
Hover over the report name and click on the ‘Three dot’ icon that appears at the right of the report row
From the drop down menu, select ‘Save as a template’.
Type in a name for the template.

💡Pro Tip: The template name is separate from the report title. For example, a company’s report could be titled ‘Company A Monthly Performance’ while the template could be named ‘Monthly Performance Report Template’.
Select the ‘Create Template’ option.

You’ll now be able to find the template under the ‘Custom’ templates section in the Report Centre.

Using templates to create reports and other templates

To create a report using a template, you can hover over the template and select the ‘Create Report’ option.

For more detailed instructions on creating reports from templates, please see our ‘Creating Reports in Fathom’ article.

💡 Pro Tip: Templates shared with 'All companies/groups' can be used to create a report for only one of the companies or groups using the templates or for all of the companies or groups using the template.

Using an existing template to create a new template

To use an existing template as a base for creating a new template, go to the ‘Predefined’ or ‘Custom’ templates sections of the Report Centre.

Hover over the existing template you want to create a new template from
Select the ‘Three dot’ icon that appears in the right or the template row
Select 'Create custom template'.

The duplicated template can then be tailored. It is possible to duplicate both predefined and custom templates.

Editing a template

❗Note: If you edit a template that is shared with or used by other companies in your account, then any changes will impact the template shared with other companies.

Renaming a custom template

After you've created a custom template, you are able to change the name of a template as it appears in the Report Centre. To change a template's name,

Hover your mouse over the custom template and select 'Edit template.' Acknowledge the warnings in the subsequent window, and proceed to edit the template.
Once inside the Report Editor, click 'Settings' (cog icon) at the bottom of the menu bar on the left of the screen.
In the subsequent Properties panel, type in the name of the custom template in the 'Template Name' field as you would like it to appear in the Report Centre.

❗Note: Renaming a template will only affect how it appears in the Report Centre and not the name of the actual report.

Which users can edit custom templates?

The ability to edit each template can be restricted to certain groups of users.

In the Report Centre, hover over the custom template.
Select the 'Three dot' icon that appears in the right of the template row.
Choose to 'edit template sharing'
In the menu that opens, you can limit the template to be shared with:
- Just me (only available for the creator of this template).
- Only 'admin' users
- Only 'editor' and 'admin' users
- All users

Sharing a template with other companies

Custom templates can be shared with other companies in your Fathom account.

Go to the ‘Custom’ templates section of the Report Centre
Hover over the template you want to share with other companies or groups
Select the ‘Three dot’ icon that appears on the right of the template row
Select ‘Copy to another company’ or ‘Edit template sharing’
In the menu that opens, you may select to share the template with 'all companies and groups' or only certain benchmarking groups of companies.

Next Steps

Congratulations on learning about templates! Now you can create reports from templates and schedule future reports to be generated from custom templates. Choose from the options below for your next step:

What you want to do:	Where to go next:
Share your reports with others or enable them to comment on reports	Share and collaborate on reports
Schedule future reports to be created automatically	Schedule Reports
Invite others into your Fathom account to share insights	Invite a New User into Fathom
Create custom reports for your company	Create a Custom Report
Download an Excel Report	Excel Reports

Contents: