Characteristics from a profitability segment can be read and posted to income statement line items based on the best guess principle. This feature was introduced in account-based CO-PA in S/4HANA 1610. You can use drill-down reporting on posted data. Without attributed profitability segments, you must wait until month-end activities such as settlement, allocation and top-down distribution. With this new CO-PA feature, you can achieve real-time profitability reporting during the month.