Footnotes

Additional information provided in a company's financial statements. Footnotes report the details and additional information that are left out of the main reporting documents, such as the balance sheet and income statement. This is done mainly for the sake of clarity because footnotes can be quite long, and if they were included, they would cloud the data reported in the financial statements.

Also known as the "notes to the financial statements".

Investopedia Says:
It is very important for investors to read the footnotes included in a company's periodic reports. Footnotes contain important information on such things as the accounting methodologies used for recording and reporting transactions, pension plan details and stock option compensation information - all of which can have material effects on the bottom-line return that a shareholder can expect from an investment in a company.

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Explanatory data that follows the financial statements and is integrally related to them. Footnotes help the user understand financial statement figures and any other matters essential in gauging a company's financial position. Examples of footnotes are disclosure of accounting policies, lawsuits, pension plan particulars, and tax considerations.