> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://kb.bravegen.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://kb.bravegen.com/carbon/core-concepts/reporting-entities.md).

# Reporting Entities

Define and manage the organisational hierarchy used to record activity and report emissions.

A **Reporting Entity** (usually just called an **Entity**) is any part of your organisation that you track and report emissions against — a business unit, subsidiary, site, vehicle, or other object in your reporting structure. Entities are the backbone of BraveGen Carbon: every [Activity Source](/carbon/core-concepts/activity-sources.md) and [Inventory Item](/carbon/core-concepts/inventory-items.md) is recorded against an entity, and every emissions total is calculated at the entity level.

***

#### The entity hierarchy

Entities sit in a hierarchy beneath a single **root entity**, which usually represents your parent organisation. Each entity can have any number of child entities beneath it, so you can mirror your organisation's actual structure — for example Group → Country → Business Unit → Site.

Your Hierarchy should reflect your [reporting boundary](/carbon/configuration/reporting-settings/reporting-boundaries.md).

This hierarchy drives more than just navigation:

* The [Emissions Dashboard](/carbon/emissions-dashboard.md) for any entity can include emissions rolled up from all of its children, or show only the activity recorded directly at that entity.
* User access cascades downward — granting a user access to an entity gives them access to all of its children too. You can't grant access to a parent entity while restricting a specific child. [See User Roles](/carbon/configuration/user-management/user-roles.md).
* Reporting boundary settings, such as Control or Equity Share %, are set per entity and apply to that entity and all of its children. See [Reporting Boundaries](/carbon/configuration/reporting-settings/reporting-boundaries.md).

{% hint style="info" %}
Entities created automatically during [Task Review](/carbon/core-concepts/data-collection/tasks/task-reviews.md) (when the system doesn't recognise an Entity Identifier in an ingested file) are placed directly below the root entity. An administrator should reorganise these into their correct place in the hierarchy afterwards.
{% endhint %}

***

#### Entity types

Every entity is assigned an [**Entity Type**](/carbon/core-concepts/reporting-entities/managing-entities/entity-types.md), which determines what fields and metadata it can carry. BraveGen ships with a set of standard types:

* Business Unit
* Site / Facility
* Vehicle / Motor Asset
* Supplier (not to be confused with the [Supplier](/carbon/core-concepts/suppliers.md) object elsewhere in BraveGen)
* Refrigeration Asset (has refrigeration-specific fields)
* Area
* Project
* Product
* Customer
* Other

Administrators can enable or disable standard types, and add custom types to match their own taxonomy, under **Settings -> Carbon Configuration -> Entities**.

{% hint style="info" %}
Custom entity types can only be disabled, not deleted, so create them thoughtfully.
{% endhint %}

**What an entity type can configure**

<table><thead><tr><th width="177.59765625">Option</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Allow location</td><td>Lets users set a location on entities of this type.</td></tr><tr><td>Allow contacts</td><td>Lets users add contacts to entities of this type.</td></tr><tr><td>Custom fields</td><td>Additional structured fields specific to this entity type, for capturing metadata that doesn't fit a standard field.</td></tr></tbody></table>

Custom fields are exposed as entity properties to any BI reporting tools you connect to BraveGen, but aren't used within BraveGen's native reporting. For example, you might add a SKU field to your product entities. You can set an unlimited number of custom fields per entity type.

{% hint style="danger" %}
If you delete a custom field, any data recorded against it is permanently erased and cannot be recovered.
{% endhint %}

***

#### Managing entities

Administrators create, reorganise, and retire entities from **Settings -> Carbon Configuration -> Entities**. See the [Managing Entities](/carbon/core-concepts/reporting-entities/managing-entities.md) section for the specifics:

* [Creating Entities](/carbon/core-concepts/reporting-entities/managing-entities.md#creating-entities)
* [Moving & Merging Entities](/carbon/core-concepts/reporting-entities/managing-entities/moving-and-merging-entities.md)
* [Entity Effective Dates](/carbon/core-concepts/reporting-entities/managing-entities/entity-details.md#entity-effective-dates-effective-from-effective-to)
* [Entity Types](/carbon/core-concepts/reporting-entities/managing-entities/entity-types.md)
* [Archiving Entities](/carbon/core-concepts/reporting-entities/managing-entities.md#archiving-entities)