May 6, 2026
eg technology is a Cambridge-based product design and engineering consultancy, founded over 24 years ago. They specialise in bridging the gap between early innovation and market readiness, offering fully integrated product development services across Electronics, Software and Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Design, Human Factors Engineering, Project Management and Regulatory Compliance. Their clients range from VC-backed start-ups to Fortune 500 companies who are looking to augment internal R&D, outsource complex subsystems, or launch brand-new product lines through tailored development programmes that reduce risk and accelerate timelines from concept to commercialisation.
The business is structured as an employee-owned trust, which means the stakes are personal. Helen Coppen has been with eg technology for 23 of its 24 years. As Corporate Services Director, she owns everything that isn't engineering: finance, HR, quality, and health and safety. She works alongside a finance manager and finance administrator, keeping a close eye on the day-to-day while staying focused on the bigger picture.
Running the finances of a project-based consultancy isn't straightforward. Revenue lands at different stages of each project. Contracts vary. And when the board asks the big questions, "do we have enough cash?" or "what does the next three months look like?", you need more than a spreadsheet and a gut feeling to answer them well.
Helen had been searching for a tool that could connect directly with eg technology's existing systems, QuickBooks, and use data from HubSpot, and Yooz, their accounts payable platform, and give her the forward planning capability that QuickBooks alone simply couldn't deliver.
"QuickBooks doesn't give us the forward planning that we need. I wanted something that I could use with the data I have from other tools, so I'm actually working with factual data and I can then plan for the future."
She found her way to Fathom through a fractional finance contact Sophie at WrighhtCFO who had been exploring the market and recommended it. Helen decided to give it a go. She hasn't looked back.
Before Fathom, the options felt limited. QuickBooks' own cash flow tools didn't go far enough, and Excel was functional but slow, clunky, and not very flexible.
"Doing it in Excel, it's clumsy. Fathom allows you to have more trust in what you're delivering, what you're commenting on, to actually demonstrate different ways of doing things, which you'd probably do from a gut feel or do in a slow way if you're using Excel. This just gives you that very clear baseline, gives you that flexibility, and then allows you to adjust scenarios as you need to."
That shift from gut feel to data-backed confidence is exactly what changed things for Helen.
The feature Helen comes back to most is scenario planning. After 23 years with the business, she knows the cycles well. But the current environment is moving more slowly than usual, and that unpredictability makes having multiple versions of the future mapped out more valuable than ever.
"Scenario planning is really, really good. I know the business is cyclic. What we're seeing at the moment is people being slower than our normal cyclic approach. So, I can plan the knock-on effect of any delays to cash flow, and I can also use that information for our growth plans, to see whether we want to take those opportunities sooner or later."
Because Fathom lets you build scenarios on top of scenarios, Helen can model different outcomes and adjust as things shift, without starting from scratch every time something changes.
"You've already planned it out because you can base your scenarios on other scenarios and then just make the tweak."
At every board meeting, Helen presents three Fathom reports as standard: monthly performance, a forecast, and actuals against forecast. These sit alongside the financial data from QuickBooks and give the Board a full picture: where the business is, where it's headed, and how the two are tracking against each other.
Depending on where eg technology is in its financial year, she'll also use Fathom's forecasting to show the Board the first three to six months of the year ahead. The focus is always on what's coming, not just what's already happened.
When Helen talks about how she gets the most from Fathom, her answer is simple: management accounts and forecasting, used together.
"Layering for me is forecasting and management accounts."
That combination lets her show the Board current performance in context, not as a static snapshot but alongside the growth plans and scenarios she's already been working through. It's the difference between reporting what happened and telling the story of where the business is going.
Helen has also been using Fathom's new AI feature, Commentary Writer, and she's refreshingly clear-eyed about what it's actually good for.
"It gives me the words around the key things that I really know already, but it lets you do the extra typing around it and present it in a way without me having to type all the detail out. I will still always make my own assumptions. I know why something has happened, and I will look at the AI output and go: yes, they've presented that in quite a nice way, or no, that's really not what my team are interested in hearing or there is more complexity to why this has happened and what we plan to do that I need to share."
It speeds up the writing. It doesn't replace the thinking.
The word Helen comes back to again and again is confidence. Confidence in the numbers. Confidence presenting to the board. And confidence that even when a question catches her off guard, she's never starting from zero.
"If a question comes up that I haven't thought of, I can say: give me five minutes, I'll go and create a new scenario and come back to you later today. You're not starting from scratch again."
For an employee-owned trust, that matters beyond the finance team. The whole Board has a duty of care to the business and to the people who own it.
"It doesn't matter whether it's in finance or health and safety or engineering. It's about: ‘Have I done a good job to deliver to my Board members and the employees? Have I given everything due care and attention?' Fathom helps me do that."
And in Helen's own words, the bottom line is simple:
"For me, it's been a game changer. Everybody in the business knows I talk about Fathom all the time. It gives us, the people that make the decisions, much better confidence at the end of the day."
If you're spending more time wrestling with spreadsheets than answering the questions that actually matter, Fathom can help. Start a free trial and see what it feels like to have the answers ready before the questions arrive.
Ellie is a campaign marketing manager at Fathom, with a degree in branding and marketing. With a background in campaign strategy and creation, Ellie is passionate about showcasing how Fathom can make a real difference to finance professionals and businesses.
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