Fathom HQ
Financial reporting, KPI dashboards, consolidations, and forecasting for businesses
A KPI dashboard over accounting exports is buildable, but Fathom's value is accounting integrations, consolidation, forecasting, polished board reports, and accountant workflows.
Build verification: not recorded. How we judge buildability
What you give up
- accounting integrations
- consolidation
- templates
- forecasting
- report builder
- advisor workflows
- reliability
Why people still pay
They pay because board/advisor reporting needs accuracy, comparability, and presentable output.
Your build guide
The stack, security requirements, and agent rules for a focused replacement.
Before you start
- Runtime and tools: TypeScript, React, Node, SQLite and decimal.js for explicit decimal calculations.
- Before starting: A representative CSV with known totals, currency and date conventions, and an agreed calculation specification.
Use these project rules and optional skill references alongside the prompt. Review each skill before adding it to your agent; the AGENTS.md export includes the same guidance.
Project rule — domain: Store ImportPeriod, SourceAccount, MappingVersion, Balance and MetricDefinition; every report is pinned to source/mapping versions and debits/credits follow one documented sign convention.
Project rule — scope and recovery: Start with CSV and selected formulas, not full accounting integration or forecasts. Explain currency, date basis and adjustments; tax/accounting interpretation requires qualified review.
Project rule — acceptance: Import an unbalanced period and an unmapped account; block final report status and show the reconciliation difference instead of presenting a plausible margin.
Project rule — delivery: document real setup commands and permissions; do not claim a build, accuracy level, performance result or security certification that has not been demonstrated.
Recommended skill: web-design-guidelines — review keyboard access, focus, validation, error recovery and the readable work/review interface or HTML report. Follow the maintainer's installation instructions and match its requirements to the chosen runtime.
Recommended skill: sharp-edges — review configuration and API defaults against the app-specific invariants and recovery boundaries above; this is not a security certification. Follow the maintainer's installation instructions and match its requirements to the chosen runtime.
Recommended skill: pdf — inspect PDF source/extraction or generated report layout in the workflow; check the skill license and required PDF/OCR binaries. Follow the maintainer's installation instructions and match its requirements to the chosen runtime.
Implementation plan
Phase 1
Pin the working slice and create its example input: Import monthly trial balances, map accounts into a reviewed chart, calculate a small set of explicitly defined KPIs and export a board-report snapshot. Confirm setup: A representative CSV with known totals, currency and date conventions, and an agreed calculation specification.
Phase 2
Implement persistence and write-time invariants before decorating the UI: Store ImportPeriod, SourceAccount, MappingVersion, Balance and MetricDefinition; every report is pinned to source/mapping versions and debits/credits follow one documented sign convention.
Phase 3
Connect the working view to real saved state. Preserve imported source rows and units, use decimal arithmetic with stated rounding, and retain correction history. Missing values are unknown rather than zero; reports describe records and assumptions rather than giving advice.
Phase 4
Expose the app-specific limits and recovery path in context: Start with CSV and selected formulas, not full accounting integration or forecasts. Explain currency, date basis and adjustments; tax/accounting interpretation requires qualified review.
Phase 5
Walk through this concrete acceptance case and preserve its exported evidence: Import an unbalanced period and an unmapped account; block final report status and show the reconciliation difference instead of presenting a plausible margin. Finish the README and backup/restore instructions; report unfinished capabilities explicitly.
Build the following focused alternative to Fathom HQ. This is a deliberately limited personal or small-team substitute, not parity with the paid service. WORKING SLICE Import monthly trial balances, map accounts into a reviewed chart, calculate a small set of explicitly defined KPIs and export a board-report snapshot. SETUP AND ARCHITECTURE Use TypeScript, React, Node, SQLite and decimal.js for explicit decimal calculations. Prerequisites: A representative CSV with known totals, currency and date conventions, and an agreed calculation specification. Before integrating anything, record actual versions and permissions, plus model files or provider limits only where used, in the README; make unavailable dependencies visible rather than simulating success. DOMAIN MODEL AND INVARIANTS Store ImportPeriod, SourceAccount, MappingVersion, Balance and MetricDefinition; every report is pinned to source/mapping versions and debits/credits follow one documented sign convention. IMPLEMENTATION CONTRACT Preserve imported source rows and units, use decimal arithmetic with stated rounding, and retain correction history. Missing values are unknown rather than zero; reports describe records and assumptions rather than giving advice. Provide an input/setup view, the main work view, and a review/export view appropriate to this workflow. Preserve the last saved state if a job or save fails. Include empty, loading, permission-denied, partial and retryable-error states. Log identifiers and error categories without secret values or unnecessary private content. APP-SPECIFIC BOUNDARY AND RECOVERY Start with CSV and selected formulas, not full accounting integration or forecasts. Explain currency, date basis and adjustments; tax/accounting interpretation requires qualified review. ACCEPTANCE SCENARIO Import an unbalanced period and an unmapped account; block final report status and show the reconciliation difference instead of presenting a plausible margin. Also reopen the app after an interrupted operation, confirm the saved record/export remains inspectable, and document the recovery action. These are implementation acceptance requirements, not a claim that this guide has been tested. DELIVERY Deliver a runnable repository with migrations or project-format versioning, a non-sensitive example, environment/permission setup, the exact manual acceptance steps, and a backup/export-and-restore walkthrough. Implement the working slice before optional integrations; list any deferred paid-product capabilities honestly. Do not add capabilities outside the working slice just to resemble the original product. PROJECT RULES FOR AGENTS.md Keep the domain invariants above executable at the write boundary. Propose scope changes before adding providers or permissions. Never fabricate source evidence, publish results, identity matches or successful delivery. Preserve user originals and require an explicit confirmation for destructive changes or external publication.
$ open in your agent (prompt prefilled, you press enter), copy the prompt or copy or download AGENTS.md
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Fathom HQ pricing
| plan | monthly | annual (per mo) | what you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| fathom pro starter | $41.54/workspace | — | 1 company; unlimited users and consolidated groups; each extra company is about $41.54/monthPublished as A$59/month plus A$59 per extra company; converted to USD using ECB reference rates dated 2026-08-07. |
| fathom pro silver | $221.77/workspace | — | 10 companies included; each extra company is about $21.83/monthPublished as A$315/month plus A$31 per extra company; converted to USD using ECB reference rates dated 2026-08-07. |
| fathom pro gold | $316.82/workspace | — | 25 companies included; each extra company is about $11.97/monthPublished as A$450/month plus A$17 per extra company; converted to USD using ECB reference rates dated 2026-08-07. |
| fathom pro platinum | $566.75/workspace | — | 50 companies included; each extra company is about $9.15/monthPublished as A$805/month plus A$13 per extra company; converted to USD using ECB reference rates dated 2026-08-07. |
| fathom pro enterprise | — | — | Custom company allowance and commercial termsQuote required. |
| portfolio, 100 companies | $43.65/workspace | — | Portfolio reporting for up to 100 companiesPublished as A$62/month; converted to USD using ECB reference rates dated 2026-08-07. |
| portfolio, 300 companies | $260.49/workspace | — | Portfolio reporting for up to 300 companiesPublished as A$370/month; converted to USD using ECB reference rates dated 2026-08-07. |
| portfolio, unlimited | $352.02/workspace | — | Unlimited companies for portfolio reportingPublished as A$500/month; converted to USD using ECB reference rates dated 2026-08-07. |
free tierno free tier; 14-day trial only
billingmonthly only; no annual contract
hidden costsPrices exclude Australian GST. Pro accounts auto-upgrade when company count crosses a band but do not automatically downgrade when companies are removed; additional-company charges apply above the included count.
pricing sources checked 2026-08-10 · pricing source ↗
Questions about Fathom HQ
Can you build your own Fathom HQ with AI?
Partly. A KPI dashboard over accounting exports is buildable, but Fathom's value is accounting integrations, consolidation, forecasting, polished board reports, and accountant workflows.
What does the Fathom HQ build prompt cover?
The prompt starts with this scope: Import monthly trial balances, map accounts into a reviewed chart, calculate a small set of explicitly defined KPIs and export a board-report snapshot. Full-product capabilities excluded from the comparison include: accounting integrations; consolidation; templates. Follow the implementation plan and its prerequisites before expanding the build.
How do I use the prompt, AGENTS.md and agent skills?
Start with the Fathom HQ prerequisites and stack, then copy the prompt into your coding agent. Save the project rules as AGENTS.md in the project root. Linked skills are optional packages or source instructions for specific tasks; review their current contents and install only those matching the chosen stack. A skill does not supply API credentials or verify the finished app.
How long will this Fathom HQ project take?
The catalogue estimate is multi-day for the limited scope. Setup, integration approvals, debugging, deployment and ongoing maintenance can add time. This is an estimate, not a delivery guarantee.
What would I give up by replacing Fathom HQ?
accounting integrations; consolidation; templates; forecasting; report builder; advisor workflows; reliability. They pay because board/advisor reporting needs accuracy, comparability, and presentable output.
What price is this guide comparing against?
The recorded Fathom Pro Starter plan is $41.54/mo (monthly), checked 2026-08-10. Check the linked pricing source before buying. Building your own also has hosting, API and maintenance costs; the recorded amount is not a guaranteed saving.
What can I use instead of building Fathom HQ?
The prior-art section lists Metabase as starting points. Review their current scope, license and maintenance before adopting one.