Jirav vs Fathom: Deep FP&A vs Financial Reporting

Jirav and Fathom are both popular choices among accounting firms and fractional CFOs — but they’re built to solve fundamentally different problems. Fathom excels at financial analysis and management reporting: turning historical data into polished, client-ready reports. Jirav is a full-cycle FP&A platform built for financial modeling, forecasting, and forward-looking planning.

If you’re evaluating both, the decision comes down to what your clients need most. If your primary deliverable is beautiful backward-looking reports with KPI tracking, Fathom does that exceptionally well. If your clients need driver-based financial models, 3-statement forecasts, and scenario planning that informs real business decisions, that’s where Jirav was purpose-built to deliver.

Here’s how they compare across the features that matter for firms scaling their FP&A advisory practice.

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Jirav vs Fathom at a Glance

The Core Difference: Reporting vs. Modeling

This is the distinction that matters most, and it’s worth understanding clearly before evaluating individual features.

Fathom was built as a reporting and analysis platform. Its core value proposition is taking the data already in your client’s accounting system and presenting it beautifully: KPI dashboards, management reports, variance analysis, benchmarking across your client portfolio. It tells you — with exceptional clarity — where a business has been.

Jirav was built as an FP&A modeling platform. Its core value proposition is enabling you to build the financial model that drives a business forward: driver-based assumptions, interconnected 3-statement forecasts, scenario planning, and operating plans. It tells you where a business is going — and what happens under different assumptions.

Many accounting firms start with reporting tools like Fathom because that’s where client demand begins: “Help me understand my numbers.” But as advisory relationships deepen, clients start asking harder questions: “What happens if we hire five people? Can we afford to open a second location? Will we stay within our bank covenants if revenue drops 15%?”

Those questions require modeling, not reporting. And that’s the inflection point where firms often start evaluating Jirav alongside — or instead of — their current reporting tool.

Financial Modeling and Forecasting

Jirav’s modeling engine is built around drivers and assumptions. You define the variables that drive each client’s business — headcount growth rates, revenue per unit, expense ratios, seasonality patterns — and Jirav connects them into a dynamic financial model that produces a fully linked P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow.

This is the same methodology used by enterprise FP&A teams and the kind of modeling work that firms currently do in Excel. Jirav essentially replaces those complex, error-prone spreadsheet models with a cloud platform that’s auditable, collaborative, and connected to live data.

Fathom has added three-way cash flow forecasting as a newer feature, and it works well for straightforward projection scenarios. But forecasting isn’t Fathom’s architectural core — it’s an extension of what was originally built as a reporting tool. For firms whose advisory engagements center on building and maintaining detailed financial models, Jirav’s forecasting depth is significantly more robust.

The practical difference shows up in client deliverables. With Jirav, you can build a forecast that stands up to scrutiny from a bank, a board, or an investor — because every number traces back to an assumption you can explain and adjust. With Fathom, you get clean projections that work well for internal planning conversations but may not carry the same level of methodological rigor for external stakeholders.

Your clients deserve more than backward-looking reports. See how Jirav delivers forward-looking forecasts →

Reporting and Client Presentations

This is Fathom’s strongest category, and it’s worth acknowledging directly. Fathom’s management reporting tools are polished, flexible, and genuinely well-designed. The drag-and-drop report editor lets you combine text, charts, tables, and financial statements into client-ready packages that look professional without design expertise. Scheduled report delivery and template reuse across clients saves significant time for firms with large portfolios.

Jirav’s reporting and dashboarding capabilities are strong and include industry-specific templates, plan-vs-actual variance views, rolling forecast visualizations, and customizable client dashboards. Where Jirav’s reporting differs is in what it’s connected to: because reports are generated from a live financial model, every chart and table reflects the current state of the forecast, not just historical actuals.

If your advisory model is built primarily around monthly management reporting with performance analysis, Fathom is hard to beat on presentation quality. If your reports need to include forward-looking forecasts, scenario comparisons, and plan-vs-actual tracking against a driver-based model, Jirav gives you reporting that’s powered by the underlying model.

Integrations and Data Sources

Both platforms connect to QuickBooks Online and Xero — the two GL systems most common among the accounting firms in this market. Fathom also connects to MYOB (which is significant for Australian and New Zealand firms), Excel, and Google Sheets.

Jirav extends beyond the GL with native integrations for mid-market ERPs (NetSuite, Sage Intacct), HRIS systems (Gusto, BambooHR, Paylocity, ADP). Jirav also has seamless ability to pull data from CRM (Salesforce), billing (Stripe), and data warehouses (Snowflake, Amazon Redshift). For firms working with clients who have operational data spread across multiple systems, Jirav can pull it all into the financial model.

This matters for forecasting accuracy. A revenue forecast that incorporates pipeline data from Salesforce, or a workforce plan that pulls headcount from BambooHR, is more reliable than one built solely from GL data. If your client engagements are GL-only, both platforms serve you well. If you’re building models that need broader data inputs, Jirav’s integration ecosystem is substantially larger.

Scalability for Advisory Firms

Both Jirav and Fathom offer partner programs and pricing models designed for accounting firms managing multiple clients. Fathom’s Portfolio tier is specifically designed for firms that want oversight of an entire client base at a lower cost per company, with the option to upgrade individual clients to Fathom Pro for full features.

Jirav’s partner program provides wholesale pricing with a workflow built for managing 10–50+ active FP&A engagements: model templatization, client portfolio views, and the ability to standardize your advisory delivery across clients while still customizing each model to fit.

For firms primarily delivering reporting services at scale, Fathom’s Portfolio tier is an efficient solution. For firms delivering FP&A modeling at scale, Jirav’s infrastructure is designed for that specific workload.

Who Should Choose Jirav?

Jirav is the right fit for firms that:

• Build driver-based financial models as their core advisory deliverable — not just reports
• Need full 3-statement forecasting for clients with bank covenants, board reporting requirements, or investor obligations
• Are replacing complex Excel models with a cloud-based platform that offers the same depth and control
• Need to bring in data beyond the General Ledger
• Want scenario planning capabilities that model the “what ifs” their clients face — hiring decisions, revenue swings, expansion costs

Who Should Choose Fathom?

Fathom is the right fit for firms that:

• Deliver polished management reports as their primary advisory deliverable, with performance analysis and KPI tracking
• Need to benchmark and compare performance across a large client portfolio
• Want automated report scheduling and delivery for recurring client packages
• Primarily work with clients on QuickBooks, Xero, or MYOB without complex forecasting or multi-source data needs
• Need consolidated reporting with multi-entity and multi-currency support as a primary feature

Can You Use Both?

Some firms do. Fathom handles the reporting and analysis layer, and Jirav handles the modeling and forecasting layer. This works when the reporting deliverable and the financial model serve different purposes or different client tiers. However, Jirav’s own reporting and dashboarding capabilities have grown substantially, and many firms find they can consolidate into a single platform rather than maintaining two.

The question to ask: Is your primary advisory value in the report, or in the model behind it? The answer will tell you which platform should be your foundation.

The Bottom Line

Fathom and Jirav are both excellent platforms serving accounting firms, but they lead with different strengths. Fathom leads with reporting: it’s the best tool in this space for producing beautiful, insightful financial reports at scale. Jirav leads with modeling: it’s purpose-built for firms whose advisory work is centered on building dynamic financial models that drive client decisions.

For firms whose clients increasingly need forward-looking financial planning — forecasts that satisfy banks, models that inform board decisions, scenario analysis that navigates uncertainty — Jirav provides the depth to deliver that work confidently, at scale.

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