Generally, a 3.7v lithium battery needs a "protection board" for over-charging&discharging. The battery without a protection board can only be charged with 4.2V voltage, because the ideal full charge voltage of a lithium battery is 4.2v, once the voltage exceeds 4.2v, the battery may be damaged.
This is a battery protection board, which is an under-voltage switch module used to turn off the power of a load in the event of the battery voltage dropping below a set value. When the battery voltage increases to a set value, the module will automatically turn on the load again. This protection board helps you to protect the battery from over-discharging and prolong battery life.
Breakout board that contains battery protection circuitry, provides protection using DW01A (battery protection IC) and FS8205A (Dual N-Channel Enhancement Mode Power MOSFET) ICs. Hence breakout board with battery protection contains 3 ICs (TP4056+DW01A+FS8205A), whereas the one without battery protection contains only 1 IC (TP4056).
This would be with batteries near full charge so you might expect around 10VDC output when the batteries have discharged to the point that they require recharge to start. Perhaps the 4S board and 4 cells to give you a higher voltage is what you want. More information is needed.
After building the pack and connecting the balance board as per the instructions (starting with most negative and progressing in order toward most positive; B-, B1, B2, B+), the board appears to still be in protection mode, showing a voltage of only 11.8V on the P+/P- terminals despite the pack voltage being around 12.3V.