Types of Hierarchies
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Types of Hierarchies
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Planful offers several types of hierarchies you can create based on reporting needs. The table below provides information on each type, when you should create that hierarchy type, and if it is required to be built or not.
| Hierarchy Type | When to Create this Type of Hierarchy | Required/Not Required |
| Finance | This is the foundation hierarchy which represents your chart of accounts. A Finance hierarchy is generally created for each financial segment you define on the Define Financial Segments page | Required |
| Budget Entity | This hierarchy type contains budget entities and is used to manage budget workflows and assign budget responsibilities to budget managers. It allows budget managers to work with their parts of the overall budget plan or forecast. | Required for the Planning Application |
| Attribute | An Attribute Hierarchy can be used as an alternative common chart of accounts hierarchy. | Not Required |
| Alternate | It's important that Alternate Hierarchies are not confused with Multiple Set of Book Hierarchies. Alternate hierarchies provide information on a segment of your hierarchy and in some cases only certain members of that segment (based on how you set up the hierarchy). Alternate hierarchies use the same set of books for the alternate hierarchy and the segment the alternate hierarchy is based off. | Not Required |
| Multiple Set of Books (MSOB) | For MSOB, you will create a sibling hierarchy (to the main hierarchy versus a segment only). You might use MSOB when you need to provide financial statements for GAAP as well as IFRS. | Not Required |
| Dated | With Dated Hierarchies, you can manage a hierarchy based on periods, allowing you to create a new version of a hierarchy and take a snapshot of the existing version. This hierarchy is useful when you need to manage multiple versions of hierarchies which exist during different periods in time and you need to generate reports using different versions of organizational hierarchies which represent different reporting positions of individual entities. | Not Required |
Accessing Hierarchy Management
The Hierarchy Management interface is where you will create all your hierarchies; including attribute hierarchies, dated, and alternate. It is also where you will set up budget entities and the entity hierarchy.
Access Hierarchy Management by navigating to Maintenance > Hierarchy > Hierarchy Management. You will be prompted to set a default way to access hierarchies; in Edit or View mode. View mode does not allow you to save changes.
If you want to change your preference (from read to edit mode or vice versa), in the Hierarchy Management screen select More, Default View.
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