What is the purpose of parent-child relationships in reports?

The purpose of parent-child relationships in reports is primarily to enable grouping and subtotaling. When reports are structured with parent-child hierarchies, they allow users to organize related data in a way that reflects the relationships between different items or categories. For instance, in a financial report, a parent account can summarize the total balance of its child accounts. This hierarchy makes it easier to analyze data at different levels of granularity, as users can see the overall totals as well as the breakdown of each category.

In addition to facilitating subtotaling, parent-child relationships also enhance data visibility by allowing users to drill down into specific details. This structure is pivotal in reporting environments where understanding the relationships between various data points provides critical insights for decision-making.