Notes to the Financial Statements
Also called: footnotes, financial statement notes, accounting policies
The notes explain the numbers: accounting policies, assumptions, commitments, contingencies, and the detail behind every summarised line. They are typically several times longer than the statements themselves and are where the real information sits — pension assumptions, lease obligations, litigation, related-party transactions. Anything a company would rather you didn't dwell on is disclosed here rather than on the face of the statements.