Light vs Fathom
Fathom is a reporting, analysis and forecasting platform for businesses, accountants and advisors. It connects to Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB and Sage, and does management reporting, three-way cash flow forecasting, KPI tracking and multi-entity consolidation well. It is not a ledger: the books stay in the accounting systems it reads from. Light is the agentic ERP where every entity posts to one ledger, so group reporting is the books rather than a report built on top of several of them.
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- Remove 4+ tools
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The world's most demanding finance teams run on Light.
Light and Fathom, compared
| Feature | Light | Fathom |
|---|---|---|
| General ledger and accounting system of record | ||
| Multi-entity consolidation | ||
| Budget, forecast and budget-vs-actual reporting | ||
| Accounts payable and accounts receivable ledgers | ||
| Corporate cards and spend management | ||
| Vendor payments on local rails | ||
| Consolidation posts continuously as transactions happen |
Report from the ledger itself
Fathom reads from each entity's Xero, QuickBooks or MYOB file. Light holds every entity in one ledger, so group reports are live views of the books with drill-down to source documents.
Keep daily finance together
Light runs bills, invoicing, cards and payments alongside the general ledger. Agents complete routine work within your controls, with a record of every action.
Check who the report is for
Fathom is built for businesses and for advisors reporting to many separate clients. If that is your job, a reporting layer fits. Light fits a finance team running a growing group.
When to choose Light
One ledger for every entity
Add a company, a country or a currency without adding another system.
Group reporting is always current
Every entity rolls up in real time, with drill-down to the source document and no exports.
One product for all of finance
Ledger, cards, bills, billing and consolidation share one data model, so nothing moves between systems.
“We evaluated several vendors. Light won because it covers our full finance stack, revenue, AR, AP, expenses, and consolidation, without stitching together a patchwork of point solutions.”
TanjaDirector of Finance, Omnea
Built for the daily work
Bills through to payment
Capture invoices, route approvals and pay vendors from the same system.
Room to grow
One ledger built to handle billions of transactions across your business.
Trace every number
Open a report and drill straight into the transactions behind it.
Spending, under control
Expenses, vendors and cards connected to your ledger.
Expenses
Collect receipts, approve expenses and track spend as it happens.
Vendors
Keep supplier details, bills and approvals together. Apply your purchasing rules as work moves through.
Cards
Issue cards for employees and vendors. Pay with Apple Pay or Google Pay. Send receipts through Slack, Teams or email.
Frequently asked questions
Is Fathom a general ledger?
No. It reports, analyses and forecasts on data from Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB, Sage or Excel.
Can Light replace our Xero or QuickBooks files?
Light provides the ledger, payables, receivables, spend and consolidation for every entity in one platform.
When does Fathom fit?
For a single company on Xero or QuickBooks, or an accountant reporting and forecasting for many clients.