How to Build a Profit & Loss Report Using Unbalanced Hierarchies in Board 14

Creating a Profit & Loss (P&L) report in Board 14 using unbalanced hierarchies is a powerful way to represent complex financial statements with irregular account structures. Board 14 has the flexibility to model such hierarchies using parent-child relationships within a single entity. This guide provides a step-by-step process tailored for finance teams and developers.

  1. Understand the Structure of a P&L Hierarchy

Before starting, outline your profit and loss (P&L) account structure. Financial statements are naturally hierarchical, with levels that vary in depth. For example:

  • Net Profit
    • Gross Profit
      • Revenue
        • Product Sales
        • Service Income
      • Cost of Goods Sold
        • Materials
        • Labor
    • Operating Expenses
      • Salaries
      • Marketing

This is an unbalanced hierarchy because different branches have different depths. Identifying parents (aggregators) and leaves (data-storing nodes) upfront will make implementation cleaner.

  1. Create an Unbalanced Hierarchy Entity

In Board 14, start by creating a new entity for your chart of accounts, such as “Account” or “P&L Account”. When setting up the entity:

  • Enable the “Unbalanced Hierarchy” option.
  • Ensure account codes are unique.
  • Load all account members into the entity using a Data Reader or manual entry.
  1. Define Parent-Child Relationships

With all account members loaded, define how they roll up. This can be done in two ways:

  1. Data Reader Mapping: Use a file that includes account codes and their parent codes. When mapped in the Data Reader, assign fields as Code, Description, and Parent.
  2. Manual Mapping: In the Relationships tab, create a self-referencing relationship in the Account entity. Assign each child to a parent.

Note:

  • Every parent must be a valid member of the entity.
  • A member without a parent is treated as a root member.
  1. Create a Cube for Financial Data

Next, create a cube that stores your financial amounts. This cube should include:

  • Account entity (the unbalanced hierarchy)
  • Time entity (Month)
  • Optional:
  1. Scenario Entity (Actual, Budget)
  2. Department Entity

Ensure the cube only stores values at leaf-level accounts. The board platform calculates parent totals automatically by summing the children’s totals.

  1. Load Data to the Cube

Use a Data Reader to load values into the P&L cube:

  • Map the financial amount to the cube.
  • Map account codes to the Account entity.
  • Map the other dimensions that are used.

Load values only to leaf accounts (no children). For correct totals, there are two alternative approaches.

Option 1:

  • Store revenues as positive
  • Store expenses as negative

This way, when the Board platform rolls up values, net profit, and other totals will be calculated correctly without formulas.

Option 2:

Alternatively, you can create a RULE that calculates the value. For example, Gross Margin = Revenue less COGS. (Where both Revenue and COGS are loaded as positive values.)

  1. Design the P&L Report Layout

Now that the data model is ready, create a screen in a capsule:

  • Add a Data View object.
  • In the layout editor:
    • Place Account in Rows.
    • Add the P&L Values cube in the Data section.
    • Apply the Rule on the P&L Values cube.
    • Set appropriate Selections (e.g., Scenario = Actual, Year = 2025).

Ensure the Account entity is the last entity on the row axis. Board’s hierarchy aggregation works only when the hierarchy entity is the last one.

Result: Your report shows all accounts in a hierarchical format with totals computed automatically.

  1. Format the Layout

To improve readability:

  • Indent child accounts.
  • Bold parent rows.
  • Apply number formatting (currency, thousands separator).
  • Optionally, add variance columns by duplicating blocks with different selections (Actual vs Budget) and adding a calculated block.
  1. User Navigation and Drill-Down

The Board data view can be configured to allow users to navigate the hierarchy interactively. This is useful if you want users to:

  • Select nodes to drive filters in other Data Views (Master).
  • Drill down on an unbalanced hierarchy to explore account details:
  • Clicking on a parent account reveals its children. (e.g., see the breakdown of Operating Expenses)
  • The drill path uses the parent-child structure defined earlier.
  • Drill across to the department entity.
  1. Use Split & Splat for Top-Down Planning

The board platform allows data entry on parent nodes:

  • If you enter a value on a parent account (e.g., Operating Expenses), Board automatically distributes that value down to its children based on current proportions.

This enables top-down budgeting, where finance users can plan at summary levels.

  1. Custom Sorting

If you want totals to appear at the bottom (e.g., Gross Profit after Revenue & COGS):

  • Create a sorting cube dimensioned by Account.
  • Assign numeric sort values (e.g., 10, 20, 30, …).
  • Use this cube in your layout as a hidden block and sort by it.

This overrides the default hierarchy order.

  1. Keep in Mind
  • Filters don’t affect parent totals: Even if you hide children in the layout, the parent total reflects all underlying data.
  • Only leaves store data: Parent accounts are aggregators only.
  • Procedure logic: When using dataflows, target leaf-level data only.

Board 14’s unbalanced hierarchy feature allows you to build maintainable P&L reports that mirror real-world financial structures. By modeling the account relationships once, you gain a flexible report that automatically updates as data changes. Finance users benefit from interactive navigation, clean totals, and drill-down capabilities. With proper planning, sorting, and formatting, your P&L report in Board can become a core part of your performance management toolkit.