Public companies present their financial statements as part of an annual report, which contains a lot more information than just the financials themselves. The financial statements tend to be somewhere towards the middle of the annual report. In simple terms, before the financial statements comes, the management, discussion and analysis and after are the notes or footnotes to the financial statements. The management, discussion and analysis, also referred to as the MD&A helps us understand the company's business and operating environment. It's sometimes described as a narrative description of the financial statements. It includes things like the challenges and risks faced by the business. A review of the business's operational performance, often including a breakdown of where sales growth has come from, including whether it's driven by price or volume changes, and breakdowns by geography and product range. Reasons for changes in profit margins such as which types of costs have changed relative to revenue. A review of the company's liquidity, how the company manages its cash flows, capital analysis, money that has been raised or repaid during the year, or plans for future capital raising and any key transactions that may have happened during the period, such as acquisitions, disposals, or restructurings. In addition to the MD&A before the financial statements, you may find information on things like strategic direction and goals, remuneration of directors, key stakeholders, stakeholders and environmental, social and governance, or ESG information. It's worth noting that ESG disclosures don't have to be shown in the annual report, and some companies choose to provide this in a separate report.

Following the financial statements, there are notes or footnotes, which can often be quite extensive. These notes provide more detail on the numbers included within the three main financial statements. So if you are looking at any number in the balance sheet, income statement or cashflow statement and want more information on that number, you may well find a breakdown of that in the footnotes. For example, if you are analyzing the debt level of a company, the note on their long-term debt will typically include A breakdown of how much debt is due for repayment in each of the next five years, at least. This could be important to us if we are trying to forecast the future cash flows of the company or any potential liquidity issues. In other words, cash flow issues the company might face if a large proportion of the debt is up for repayment in any one year.