Joiin vs Fathom

Group consolidation versus KPI-led management reporting.

By the ConsoHQ editorial team. Updated 4 November 2026.

The short version

• You're a finance manager with three to twenty companies and month-end consolidation takes too long: Joiin.
• You're an accountant whose clients are mostly single companies and you sell KPI-led advisory meetings: Fathom.
• Your group has a company on Sage or MYOB alongside Xero or QuickBooks: Joiin, which handles mixed ledgers in one group.
• You want three-way forecasting with years of maturity behind it: Fathom.
• You need lots of people to see the reports, such as subsidiary managers, the board and clients: Joiin, because users are unlimited.

Two different starting points

The easiest way to understand these two tools is to look at what each was built to do first.

Fathom began as a way to explain a business's performance. Its centre of gravity is analysis: KPIs, trends, cash conversion, profitability and forecasts, presented so a business owner can follow them. Consolidation was added to serve advisors whose clients had more than one company.

Joiin began with consolidation. Its centre of gravity is getting several companies' accounts into one accurate set of group numbers: mapping charts of accounts, eliminating intercompany balances, translating currencies and handling ownership. Reporting, dashboards, budgets, forecasting and AI have been built around that core.

Neither starting point is better; they solve different problems. The mistake is buying an analysis tool when your problem is consolidation, or the reverse.

Consolidation compared

Both tools can produce a consolidated P&L and balance sheet. The differences are in the detail.

Account mapping. Joiin builds a group layout and maps each company's accounts into it once, with the option to exclude accounts you never want reported. That matters when companies have grown their charts of accounts separately.

Eliminations. Joiin brings every company's accounts into one list so you can filter for intercompany accounts and eliminate them between specific companies or at group level. Fathom supports advanced consolidations too; test your own intercompany set-up in each during the trial.

Ownership. Joiin lets you assign an ownership percentage to each entity for part-owned subsidiaries. If you have minority interests, check how each tool presents them before choosing.

Mixed ledgers. This is where the gap is widest. Joiin connects to more accounting systems and lets you combine them in one group. If your group is all Xero or all QuickBooks, it matters less.

New to consolidation? Our eliminations explainer and worked example cover the mechanics.

Currencies

Fathom includes multi-currency consolidation on all plans, according to its own consolidation page. Joiin's entry Core plan is single-currency; multi-currency arrives on Pro, which translates each company at month-end and average rates, and Max lets you use your own rates throughout. If you have one overseas subsidiary, factor Joiin's Pro price into your comparison. Our multi-currency guide explains translation in plain English.

Reports, packs and analysis

Both produce polished monthly packs with commentary. Fathom's packs lean towards analysis, with KPI pages, trend charts and benchmarks. Joiin's lean towards complete group reporting: statements for every company and the group, consolidated aged receivables and payables, sales by customer, budget versus actual and reporting by tracking category across companies. Joiin also adds AI-written summaries to packs and AI chat over your figures.

If your readers are business owners who want to understand drivers, Fathom's style may land better. If your readers are a board or lender who want complete, accurate group numbers, Joiin's is a natural fit.

Forecasting

Fathom has offered three-way forecasting and scenario planning for years, and it's one of the main reasons advisors choose it. Joiin added forecasting more recently, including three-way forecasting on the Pro plan. If forecasting is the heart of your service, Fathom's maturity counts. If you need forecasts occasionally alongside strong group reporting, Joiin covers it.

Pricing at different sizes

Fathom's figures come from its US marketplace listing and plan structure; Joiin's from its pricing page. The gap widens as you add companies. Fathom includes more analysis and forecasting depth for that money, so if you'd use those features fully, the comparison narrows.

Users and access

Joiin includes unlimited users on every plan, so you can give each subsidiary manager, board member or client a login without counting seats. That changes behaviour: people look at reports themselves instead of waiting for a PDF. Check Fathom's current terms for users and sharing on the plan you're considering.

Three real-world scenarios

Switching between them

Both tools read from your ledger rather than storing your books, so switching doesn't put your accounting at risk. What you'd rebuild is templates, mappings, eliminations and forecasts. The cleanest approach is to run both for one month-end, check the group totals agree, then switch at a natural break such as a quarter end. Many firms also run both: Joiin for group clients and Fathom for KPI-led advisory with single-company clients.

How to run a fair side-by-side trial

Both tools offer free trials, so the fairest way to decide is to give each the same job. Pick a month you've already closed and reported, so you know what the right answer looks like. Then, in each tool:

• Connect every company in the group, including dormant or newly acquired ones
• Map the accounts and check the group trial balance equals the sum of the company trial balances
• Set up intercompany eliminations and check they net to zero
• Translate any foreign subsidiaries and compare with your existing workings
• Rebuild the board or client pack you sent last month
• Time how long each step takes, and note anything you had to work around
• Invite the person who reads the reports and ask which version they'd rather receive

Do this within the same fortnight so you're comparing like with like. The tool that gets you to the right numbers fastest, with the fewest workarounds, is usually the right answer. Price matters, but an hour saved every month is worth more than a small difference in subscription.

What a year really costs

Subscription price is only part of the cost. Over a year, the bigger numbers are usually setup time and the hours spent each month producing reports. Here's a simple way to compare, using a five-company group as an example.

The practical lesson: choose the tool that removes the most manual work for your situation, then check the price is sensible. Don't choose on price alone and then rebuild half the process in Excel.

Integrations in practice

Both connect directly to Xero and QuickBooks Online, which covers most small groups. The difference appears at the edges. Joiin also connects to Sage, MYOB, FreeAgent, Zoho Books, Pennylane, Puzzle, Fortnox and Stripe, and can import spreadsheet data, then combine all of them in one group. Fathom lists Xero, QuickBooks Online, MYOB, Sage and Excel. If every company in your group is on Xero or QuickBooks, this won't decide it for you. If one subsidiary runs on something else, check before you commit.

Learning curve and support

Fathom has been around for years, so there's a large help centre, plenty of community templates and a good chance new staff already know it. Its depth means there's more to learn if you want to use KPIs, benchmarking and forecasting well. Joiin is narrower and quicker to pick up. Most users connect companies, map accounts and produce consolidated reports on the first day, and lean on Joiin's support and webinars for more complex structures.

Security and access control

Financial data deserves care whichever tool you choose. Joiin says its connections to your ledgers are read-only, and it uses encryption, multi-factor authentication and secure cloud hosting, with user management to control who sees which reports. When you evaluate Fathom, ask the same questions: Is access to your ledger read-only? Is multi-factor authentication available and enforceable? Can you restrict a subsidiary manager to their own company's reports? Where is data hosted, and what happens to it if you cancel? If you'll use AI features, ask how your data is processed and whether it's used for model training; Joiin says its AI runs inside its own AWS environment and your data isn't used to train external models.

Our verdict

If you're replacing a month-end consolidation spreadsheet, start with Joiin: it's built for that job, it handles mixed ledgers, and it costs less as you grow. If you're an advisor whose value is the conversation about performance, Fathom is excellent and worth its price. Joiin has also published its own comparison, which is worth reading alongside ours, bearing in mind it's written by one of the two vendors.

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Full reviews: Joiin review and Fathom review.

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