This feature is included with Fathom Pro - the plan with access to all of Fathom's features. Companies on Portfolio can be upgraded to Fathom Pro at any time.

Where do the default rates come from?

Fathom's default historical exchange rates are sourced from Open Exchange Rates.

We use an inter-bank (without retail fluctuations), mid-market (average of buy/sell rates) rate, which is calculated end-of-day using an average of rates from the preceding day.

Exchange rates are finalised or 'fixed' two days after the end of each calendar month due to time zone differences.

Methodology

For monthly data, Fathom uses the average exchange rate over the month to translate the Profit & Loss accounts and the month end exchange rate for translating Balance Sheet accounts.

Future periods

Future periods will use the exchange rates from the most recently completed month.

For example, if the report is run in the middle of January, we will use the average exchange rate for December for the Profit & Loss and the end of month exchange rate for December for the Balance Sheet for January and all future periods.

For more detailed information on how exchange rates are applied in multi-currency consolidations, please see our 'Multi-currency Consolidation Methodology' article.

Use custom exchange rates

Fathom’s exchange rates editor for multi-currency consolidated groups enables you to override Fathom’s default FX rates with your own custom exchange rates. This gives you flexibility and control in presenting your financial results in a multi-currency consolidated group.

❗Notice: This feature is only available in a multi-currency consolidated group. For more information on creating a multi-currency consolidation, please view our ‘Create a Multi-currency Consolidation’ article.

Access the exchange rates editor

🎉 Beta feature: Does your group's Settings look different? The updated Consolidated Group Settings are currently in beta. To enable this functionality, you must turn on the beta flag.

To open the exchange rates editor:

Navigate to the Group Profile section of group Settings
Scroll down to the Default Rates heading, where the Presentation Currency for the group is listed.

💡Smart Tip: The presentation currency is the selected currency that will be displayed for this consolidated group. All other currencies will be converted into this currency. If you wish to change the presentation currency, proceed to the Source Data section of Settings.
Click the underlined ‘Edit exchange rates’ option.

Understand the exchange rates editor

Within the editor, you will find two separate tables, one for the Profit & Loss and one for the Balance Sheet. The Profit and Loss uses monthly average rates, whereas the Balance Sheet uses month-end rates.

Listed in each table are the currencies of the underlying companies within the group.

The direction of the conversion of each rate is:

Functional currency of individual company → Presentation currency of consolidated group

Example: One of the underlying companies is in Japanese Yen (JPY), and the consolidated group is in US dollars (USD). The exchange rates shown are JPY/USD ≅ 0.0093, meaning that 0.0093 Japanese Yen is equal to 1 US dollar.

📝 Note: There is currently no option to reverse the direction of these rates.

Use the exchange rates editor

Select the period range

You can view 12 months of exchange rates for the consolidated group’s Profit & Loss (P&L) and Balance Sheet at one time. The first month displayed is based on the financial year of your consolidated group, as specified in the Source Data section of Settings.

To view a different period:

Click the underlined year listed next to ‘Viewing’ in the top right corner of the FX editor
From the drop-down menu, select the financial year you would like to view.

Manually add custom exchange rates

To add your own custom FX rates, you can simply type them into the cells for the P&L and Balance Sheet tables. This will override the default FX rates applied by Fathom.

After making changes to any default rate, the cell will be highlighted in light blue. This will allow you to quickly identify any custom rates.

💡Smart Tip: When editing exchange rates within cells, press ‘TAB’ on your keyboard to quickly move to the next cell. You can also hit ‘ENTER (RETURN)’ to save any changes made.

Use a fixed custom rate for a period range

To apply a single fixed exchange rate for multiple periods:

Click a cell that contains an exchange rate you wish to overwrite
Within the side menu that opens, select the three dots icon next to the current default rate
Select ‘Apply fixed rate’ from the drop-down options menu
Choose:
1. ‘Custom range’ to apply the fixed rate to a custom period range of your own selection.
2. ‘All periods’ to apply the fixed rate to all periods for the group.
Click into the box under ‘Fixed rate’ and type in your custom fixed exchange rate.

View and edit exchange rates using Excel

In addition to manually customising exchange rates, you can upload them via an Excel file. This is useful if you wish to add varying rates across multiple periods.

To upload custom exchange rates via Excel:

Click the Excel icon in the top right corner of the editor to open an additional window.
Within Step 1, you can download an Excel import template.
1. This file will include any previously updated custom exchange rates. Default rates that have not been customised will appear as blank cells.
💡Smart Tip: You can view our guidelines for importing your exchange rates from Excel by selecting ‘import guidelines’, which is underlined within Step 1.
Add your custom rates to the Excel. You may need to select ‘Enable editing’ in the file first.
Save the document
Open Fathom and upload the edited Excel file within Step 2 of the ‘Import from Excel’ modal.

You will see a summary of the changes made, as well as any potential issues with the upload file.

📝 Note: Any cells that are left blank when uploading will use Fathom's default rate.

Troubleshoot issues in your Excel exchange rates import

The first step to troubleshooting any issues in your Excel import is to review the upload modal screen after uploading your file.

Fathom will provide a detailed description of each specific issue, as well as the effect of this on your upload. You can also see the exact cells that the issue is located in by hovering your mouse over the information tooltip (the ‘i’ icon).

📝 Note: You will be able to proceed with the upload despite any issues that are found.

We recommend that you download the import template directly from Fathom, rather than recreate it yourself. Potential issues can include:

Cells have been left empty; therefore, the default rate will be applied
Cells contain invalid values (special characters or text)
The Excel file is not in the correct import template

If you are unable to resolve the issue or have any questions about your Excel import, please reach out to our support team at support@fathomhq.com. In your message, please attach the custom rates Excel file that you are uploading.

Reset to default rates

At any time, you can reset any custom exchange rates back to the default rate provided by Fathom.

To reset one period’s exchange rate:

Click into a cell
Within the side menu, select the three dots icon next to the current rate
Click the ‘Reset to default rate’ listed in the drop-down menu.

To reset multiple periods’ exchange rates:

Hover your mouse over the currency name in the table (left-most column)
Click on the option to ‘Reset’ displayed in red
You can then choose to reset rates to default for all periods, or for a custom period range.

Learn more

Use Exchange Rates in Fathom