Comparison
bluprnts vs Fathom
Fathom is a mature management reporting and analysis platform that also builds a three-way forecast from your Xero or QuickBooks data, and it is a favourite of accounting firms. bluprnts builds the same three statements from your operational drivers instead, so it works with no accounting connection at all. Pick Fathom for reporting depth and multi-entity consolidation across a client base; pick bluprnts when the business has no books to build on, or the question is about a decision rather than a trend.
Choose Fathom if…
Pick Fathom if reporting is the job. If you need polished management report packs, benchmarking, KPI dashboards and consolidated reporting across several entities or a portfolio of clients, Fathom does all of that properly and bluprnts does none of it. Pick Fathom too if your books are clean and current and you want your forecast anchored to them with minimal setup, or if your accountant already works in it.
Choose bluprnts if…
Pick bluprnts when the forecast has to exist before the accounting data does, or has to describe something the accounts have never seen. A pre-revenue company, a new venture, a new product line, a second site. The model is built from your products, prices, people, costs and financing, so nothing needs connecting first, and a decision you are weighing up is an input you change rather than an adjustment layered on a projection of history.
What Fathom does well
- Genuinely excellent management reporting. Custom KPIs, benchmarking, divisional analysis on Xero tracking categories, and a large library of brandable report templates. Reporting is the product's centre of gravity and it shows.
- Multi-entity consolidation at a scale we do not attempt. Fathom supports consolidated reporting and forecasting across a large number of entities, which matters enormously to a firm or a group and not at all to a single business.
- A three-way forecast that ties P&L, balance sheet and cash flow together, running years ahead, not a cash-only projection.
- Every figure drills down to its source, so it is auditable in the same spirit bluprnts aims for. This is not a dimension where we are better, only one where we start from different source data.
- Thirteen years in the Xero ecosystem and tens of thousands of businesses. Your accountant may already know it, which is worth more than any feature.
Side by side
| bluprnts | Fathom | |
|---|---|---|
| How the forecast is builtBoth end at three statements. The difference is what they start from. | Bottom-up from operational drivers: products, pricing, sales, employees, costs, financing. | From your Xero or QuickBooks data, extended with formulas and non-financial drivers. |
| Works before you have accounting data | Yes. A complete forecast with nothing connected. | No. An accounting connection is the starting point. |
| Three-way forecast (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow) | Yes, all three derived from the same drivers. | Yes. This is not a point of difference. |
| Management reporting and KPI dashboardsTwo different jobs: documents that argue a case, against a reporting suite. | Investor, lender and board reports built from the live model, with an assumptions register. | Extensive. Custom KPIs, benchmarking, divisional analysis, large template library. |
| Multi-entity consolidationThe deciding question if you are a firm or a group rather than a single business. | One business, modelled in full depth. | Yes, across a large number of entities. |
| Tracing a figure back to its source | Every figure traces to the drivers that produced it. | Every figure drills down to the underlying accounting data. |
| Modelling a decision you have not taken | Native. Hires, prices and costs are the inputs, so changing them changes the forecast. | Supported through scenarios and microforecasts layered on the base projection. |
| Project-level forecasting inside a business | Yes. A project carries its own sales, hires, costs and financing, switched on and off against the base plan. | Divisional analysis on tracking categories, which is a reporting cut rather than a modelled initiative. |
| Built for | The business leader running the model themselves. | Accountants, advisory firms and finance leaders. |
Where the honest difference actually is#
It is tempting to run the usual argument here, that Fathom projects your accounting history forward while bluprnts models your business. That would be misleading. Fathom builds a proper three-way forecast, lets you extend it with your own formulas and non-financial drivers, and lets you drill from any figure down to its source. On mechanism it is closer to us than most tools in the Xero ecosystem.
The real difference is the starting point and what each product is for. Fathom begins with your accounting data and is, at heart, a reporting and analysis platform: it is exceptional at describing a business that already exists and reporting on it to a high standard, across many entities at once. bluprnts begins with an empty model and the operational decisions you would make, and is at heart a planning tool. It is much narrower, and it is built for the person running the business rather than the person reporting on it.
What that means in practice#
If a business has clean books, several entities, and a need for a monthly reporting pack that a board will read, Fathom is very hard to beat and we would not pretend otherwise. If a business has no books yet, or the question on the table is whether to open a second site next spring, an accounting connection is not the place that answer comes from.
Who each one is built for#
Fathom is built for accountants and advisory firms, and it is designed around serving many clients well. bluprnts is built for the founder, owner or finance lead of one business, working in the terms they already use to run it. If you are an advisor evaluating both, the deciding question is usually whether you need portfolio-level tooling, which Fathom has and we do not.
Common questions
- Can I forecast cash flow without connecting Xero or QuickBooks?
Yes. Most cash flow forecasting tools require a connected ledger because they work by projecting your accounting history forward — with no history, they have nothing to extrapolate from. bluprnts works the other way round: the forecast is built from your operational drivers, so it works before you have books at all, which matters if you are pre-revenue, launching a new product, or modelling a business that does not exist yet.
Xero can be connected if you want it. It pulls in real actuals so you can check the forecast against what actually happened — an optional input for grounding the model, not the engine that produces it.
- How do I forecast cash flow if I'm not an accountant?
Build the forecast from the things you already know about your business rather than from accounting statements. You know what you sell and for how much, who is on the payroll, what your fixed costs are, and what you expect to sell next quarter. Those are the inputs. The profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow statement are outputs — they should be calculated for you, not filled in by you.
This is what "driver-based" forecasting means, and it is the approach bluprnts takes. You describe products, people, sales, costs and financing in plain business terms, and the three financial statements, your runway and your breakeven point are derived from them.