What's included in the notes? There's information on securities held, inventories, debt, pension plans and other key elements in determining the company's financial position. In addition, the notes will contain information about the company's accounting policies. Under GAAP, companies often do have discretion to use varying methods for valuing assets, and recognizing costs and revenue. This "Summary of Significant Accounting Policies" will appear as the first note to the statement or in a separate section.
There are other required disclosures external to the financial statements and notes, such as the Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A), required by the SEC. In all, the list of required disclosures is long, detailed and complex. Although this exhaustive release of company information increases transparency, it does mean that financial statements become unwieldy. And the financial meltdown of 2008 - following the reforms implements in the wake of the Enron scandals a few years before - had observers once again wondering whether, despite all the disclosures, the necessary information for decision-making is being included in financial statements. (For further reading read An Investor's Checklist To Financial Footnotes.)