Summary
This report was built by John Miller, a CFO and board member across 8 companies, during our Ask an Expert webinar series. It shows exactly how John approaches reporting across the businesses he works with: start with the goal, focus on the metrics that matter, and make sure the report works for everyone in the room, not just the finance team.
What’s included:
- Executive summary page with cash balance, cash runway, and profitability at a glance
- Spark charts for key financial and non-financial metrics
- Cash runway forecast showing multiple scenarios side by side
- Revenue breakdown by stream with trend analysis
- Gross margin page with class utilization as a non-financial metric
- Expense breakdown with actuals vs budget
- Budget recap page as a standing reference
- Balance sheet and cash flow as appendix
- Commentary sections throughout to tell the story behind the numbers
- Actions from the last meeting to keep boards accountable
Why it’s effective:
Most board reports are built backwards. They start with the P&L, work through the balance sheet, and hope that somewhere along the way a decision gets made. John's approach flips that entirely.
Every report starts with one question: what is this business actually trying to achieve? From there, everything else falls into place. The exec summary is built so that if someone only reads page one, they still know how much cash is in the business, how long it will last, and whether they're on track to hit their goals. Everything else is detail.
John is also deliberate about mixing financial and non-financial metrics together. Revenue per member alongside member numbers. Gross margin alongside class utilization. When you put the numbers next to the things that drive them, the story becomes obvious, and the conversations in the room shift from explaining the past to deciding what to do next.
The report is also built for the room, not the spreadsheet. Consistent colors, clean pagination, spark charts that land a message at a glance. John's view is simple: if a report doesn't look like someone cared about it, the people reading it won't either.
Designed for:
- CFOs and fractional CFOs managing reporting across multiple businesses
- Accountants and advisors producing board packs for clients
- Finance leads who want to move from data prep to decision-making
- Anyone who's spent too long refreshing charts in Excel and wants a better way
How to create this report in Fathom
- Set up your company settings Start in the Settings tab. Add your logo, select your region and currency, and update your color palette to match your brand. If you're working with a group of companies, this is also where you can set up a multi-currency consolidation.
- Clean up your chart of accounts Group your account codes so your reports are digestible. Staff costs as one group, marketing as one group, professional fees as one group. The more you consolidate here, the cleaner your reports will look.
- Add your non-financial KPIs In the KPIs section, add the metrics that drive your business alongside your financial ones. For a gym business, that might be member numbers, classes per week, or revenue per member. You can create formula-based metrics too, so you can divide a revenue line by a non-financial number to get a combined metric automatically.
- Set targets for your KPIs Non-financial metrics don't have a budget line, so set your targets manually in the KPI settings. This lets you track progress against a goal rather than just showing a number in isolation.
- Build your forecast Use the Forecast tab to create your financial plan. Keep it simple to start. A few key assumptions and a rolling forecast is enough for most businesses. Once it's built, save it as your budget so it shows up in all your charts and tables automatically.
- Build your exec summary first Create a page with your most important metrics front and center. Cash balance, cash runway, and your top-line performance number. Add spark charts to show the trend at a glance. Add your year-end targets so everyone in the room knows what you're aiming for.
- Add actions from the last meeting Include a section that recaps what you committed to last time. It keeps boards accountable and makes sure the report is connected to the real conversations happening in the business.
- Build your KPI and revenue pages Use the KPI Trends feature rather than the off-the-shelf tables. It gives you more flexibility to show the columns that matter: last three months, this month vs last month, this month vs budget, and year-to-date vs full-year target.
- Add your cash forecast scenarios Create a chart that shows your cash position under two or three different scenarios. Budget vs latest outlook. What happens if revenue grows by five percent? This is where the report shifts from documenting the past to guiding the future.
- Include your financial statements as an appendix Always include your balance sheet and cash flow statement. They may not be the first thing anyone reads, but they matter, especially if you're going through a funding round or due diligence process.
- Download as PDF and check the pagination Before you send anything, download the report as a PDF and check how it looks.
John’s tip: Make sure everything is landscape, page numbers are on, and nothing spills awkwardly across pages. It's a small thing that makes a big difference to how the report lands
Customer spotlight
John Miller CFO and board member across 8 companies
John has spent his career helping high-growth businesses connect their financials to real goals. He's worked with businesses ranging from 3 million to 28 million in turnover, across sectors including SaaS, hospitality, and fitness. Before moving into portfolio CFO work, John co-founded a back office finance firm that supported over 200 companies, where he first became a Fathom power user.
He's been using Fathom for over six years, across every business he works in, and has helped dozens of Fathom customers set up their reporting from scratch.
"The way I like to construct a report is to make sure it flows and that it actually looks nice for the people I'm presenting to. If it doesn't look like you care about what you're reporting, the room won't engage with it."
