A quasi-hereditary algebra is an Artin algebra together with a partial order on its set of isomorphism classes of simple modules which satisfies certain conditions. In this article we investigate all the possible choices that yield to quasi-hereditary structures on a given algebra, in particular we introduce and study what we call the poset of quasi-hereditary structures. Our techniques involve certain quiver decompositions and idempotent reductions. For a path algebra of Dynkin type $\mathbb{A}$, we provide a full classification of its quasi-hereditary structures. For types $\mathbb{D}$ and $\mathbb{E}$, we give a counting method for the number of quasi-hereditary structures. In the case of a hereditary incidence algebra, we present a necessary and sufficient condition for its poset of quasi-hereditary structures to be a lattice.