Create Relationships within same table and determine hierarchy level for each record.

I am currently trying to navigate a similar issue, My thought is to reverse your numbering.  On the child object, name the relationship parent_object. have a formula for "hierarchy_level" which will equal  parent_object.hierarchy_level + 1. I am new to QB, So I'd love to hear feedback on this solution before I travel too far down this road.

I will also need to keep track of objects related to all ancestors (lower hierarchy_levels).