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Your Guide to Fathom: How to View, Compare, and Understand Your Financial Reports

Overview

Your monthly and year-to-date financial reports tell the story of your agency’s performance — what’s working, where you’re overspending, and how profitable you truly are. This guide explains how to read your reports, interpret the trends, and use Fathom to explore your data more deeply.

Whether you’re new to financial reporting or just need a refresher on how to navigate Fathom, this article will help you understand your numbers with confidence.

📽️ [Watch: “How to Use Fathom for Financial Clarity”]

1. The Three Core Financial Statements

• Profit & Loss (P&L):
Summarizes your revenue, expenses, and net income over a specific period (monthly or year-to-date).

  • Revenue: Total income your business earned from operations.

  • Payroll: Total employee and contractor compensation, including taxes and benefits.

  • Business expenses: All other costs required to run your business day-to-day (marketing, rent, utilities, monthly dues, insurance, loan interest, etc.).

  • Net income: What’s left after all expenses — your bottom line!

• Balance Sheet:
Shows what your business owns and owes at a specific point in time.

  • Assets: Cash, vehicles, office building, equipment, and anything else the agency owns.

  • Liabilities: Credit cards, loans, or other liabilities your business owes.

  • Equity: The owner’s remaining interest in the business after liabilities are subtracted from assets.

  • Owner draws / distributions: Payments taken by the owner that are not business expenses — these reduce equity, not profit.

• Cash Flow Statement:
Tracks the inflows and outflows of cash in three areas — operations, investing, and financing.

  • Helps you see why your bank balance changes each month and whether your business is generating enough cash to sustain itself.

2. How to Interpret Your Financial Reports

Understanding your reports is about recognizing the patterns and what they mean:

• Month-over-month trends:
Look at your P&L over several months. Are revenues growing? Are certain expenses increasing faster than sales?
A consistent rise in payroll without revenue growth, for example, could indicate efficiency issues.

• Year-to-date (YTD) view:
YTD numbers show cumulative performance from January through the current month. This helps you compare your actual results to your annual goals or budget.

• Margins and ratios:
Focus on key metrics like gross profit margin and operating margin. These show how much of each dollar earned turns into profit after costs.

• Cash vs. profit:
A positive profit doesn’t always mean strong cash flow. If cash is tight but profits look good, review your Balance Sheet for large receivables or debt repayments affecting cash.

3. Navigating Reports in Fathom

Fathom gives you the flexibility to explore your reports beyond static PDFs. You can view comparisons, drill into details, and tailor your dashboards for better insights.

Here’s how:

• View your KPI dashboard:

  • Once in Fathom, hover over your company and click on “Analysis” to open the KPI dashboard.

  • The KPI dashboard highlights important metrics like your revenue, expenses, profit, employee expenses, and marketing expenses.

  • You can also find your estimated quarterly tax payment on the KPI dashboard!

• Switch between monthly, quarterly, or YTD views:

  • At the top of your dashboard, use the date range selector to toggle between Month-to-Date, Quarter-to-Date, or Year-to-Date views.

  • This lets you analyze short-term results or zoom out to see the bigger picture.

• Drill down into line items:

  • Click the paper icon labeled “Financials” in the left widget panel, where you can access detailed views of all three financial statements.

  • Choose the financial statement you want to see, and click “Summary” to adjust the level of detail.

  • This is useful when something looks off. For example, if “Marketing” suddenly spikes, click the detailed summary to see which marketing source increased.

4. Using These Insights Effectively

Once you understand your reports and how to navigate Fathom:

  • Review your three core financial statements every month and before a meeting with your Client Advisor.

  • Identify trends, both positive and negative, and jot down a few questions or takeaways.

  • Use YTD comparisons to measure whether you’re pacing ahead or behind your yearly goals.

  • Don’t just look at the numbers — ask why they look that way. That’s where the real insight comes from.

5. Support and Next Steps

If you’d like a personal walkthrough of your reports, don’t hesitate to reach out to your dedicated Client Advisor!


You can also watch a short Loom video tutorial on navigating and customizing reports here:

📽️ [Watch: “How to Use Fathom for Financial Clarity”]

In Summary

Your reports are not just numbers — they’re a tool for decision-making. Learning how to read, compare, and analyze them in Fathom gives you visibility, control, and confidence to run your business smarter.