How are the notes in a 10-Q different from a 10-K?
A 10-Q's notes are condensed and reviewed rather than audited. SEC rules let a company omit footnote disclosure that would substantially duplicate its last 10-K: accounting-policy detail, accounts that have not changed much, sometimes whole notes. What remains is mostly what changed since year end, so read a 10-Q's notes as an update to the 10-K's, not on their own.
The practical consequence is that the note you need may not be in the document you are reading. Apple's filings, below, show how much can disappear between a 10-K and the next 10-Q.
What is the difference between a 10-Q and a 10-K?
The 10-K is the annual report: a full fiscal year, audited financial statements, the auditor's opinion, and complete notes. The 10-Q is the quarterly report a company files for each of its first three fiscal quarters. It carries interim financial statements, an MD&A, and a short Part II for legal proceedings, risk-factor changes and similar items.
| Form 10-K | Form 10-Q | |
|---|---|---|
| Covers | The full fiscal year | One of the first three fiscal quarters, plus year to date |
| Financial statements | Audited | Reviewed by an independent accountant, not audited |
| Auditor's report and critical audit matters | Yes | No |
| Notes | Complete | Condensed; may omit what would repeat the 10-K |
| Risk factors | Full list, Item 1A | Only material changes from the 10-K, Part II Item 1A |
| Deadline | 60, 75 or 90 days after year end | 40 or 45 days after quarter end |
Deadlines and items: Form 10-K and Form 10-Q general instructions. The shorter deadlines apply to large accelerated filers (10-K) and to large accelerated and accelerated filers (10-Q).
Are 10-Q financial statements audited?
No. Regulation S-X Rule 10-01(d) requires the interim statements in a 10-Q to be reviewed by an independent public accountant before filing. A review gives limited assurance, not an audit opinion. The review report itself is filed only when the company states in the filing that a review was done, so many 10-Qs contain no accountant's report at all. Apple's third-quarter fiscal 2026 10-Q, used as the example below, is one of them.
In practice that means the estimates in a 10-Q, such as reserves, impairment judgments and the tax rate applied to the year to date, have had less outside scrutiny than the same estimates at year end.
What can a 10-Q leave out of its notes?
The governing text is Rule 10-01(a)(5). It sets the standard first: interim disclosures must be "sufficient so as to make the interim information presented not misleading." Then it gives companies room to cut:
"Registrants may presume that users of the interim financial information have read or have access to the audited financial statements for the preceding fiscal year ... Accordingly, footnote disclosure which would substantially duplicate the disclosure contained in the most recent annual report ... such as a statement of significant accounting policies and practices, details of accounts which have not changed significantly in amount or composition since the end of the most recently completed fiscal year, and detailed disclosures prescribed by § 210.4-08 may be omitted."
Read the first sentence of that quote as an instruction to you. The rule assumes you have the 10-K, and companies often say so outright. Apple's 10-Q opens its notes with: "These condensed consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes should be read in conjunction with the Company's annual consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes included in its Annual Report on Form 10-K."
What survives is what changed or still matters: new debt, an acquisition, a newly adopted accounting standard, a lawsuit that moved, quarterly segment results.
What does that look like in a real filing?
We compared the notes in Apple's 10-K for fiscal 2025 (year ended September 27, 2025) with its 10-Q for the third quarter of fiscal 2026 (quarter ended June 27, 2026). The 10-K has 13 notes. The 10-Q has 10.
| Fiscal 2025 10-K | Q3 fiscal 2026 10-Q | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Note 1 | Summary of Significant Accounting Policies | Note 1 | Summary of Significant Accounting Policies |
| Note 2 | Revenue | Note 2 | Revenue |
| Note 3 | Earnings Per Share | Note 3 | Earnings Per Share |
| Note 4 | Financial Instruments | Note 4 | Financial Instruments |
| Note 5 | Property, Plant and Equipment | Not in the 10-Q | |
| Note 6 | Consolidated Financial Statement Details | Note 5 | Condensed Consolidated Financial Statement Details |
| Note 7 | Income Taxes | Not in the 10-Q | |
| Note 8 | Leases | Not in the 10-Q | |
| Note 9 | Debt | Note 6 | Debt |
| Note 10 | Shareholders' Equity | Note 7 | Shareholders' Equity |
| Note 11 | Share-Based Compensation | Note 8 | Share-Based Compensation |
| Note 12 | Commitments, Contingencies and Supply Concentrations | Note 9 | Commitments and Contingencies |
| Note 13 | Segment Information and Geographic Data | Note 10 | Segment Information |
Three notes are gone entirely: property, plant and equipment; income taxes; and leases. Apple still reports a tax provision every quarter, but the 10-Q has no standalone note explaining it. The rate reconciliation and the deferred tax detail are in the 10-K only. By our count the notes section shrinks from about 6,500 words to about 2,900, counting table text, so the quarterly notes are less than half the length of the annual ones.
Note titles as published on EDGAR. Word counts are SeeNote's own approximate measurement of each notes section.
Why don't note numbers match between the 10-Q and the 10-K?
Dropped notes leave gaps, and the remaining notes are renumbered. In the Apple example, debt moves from Note 9 to Note 6, contingencies from Note 12 to Note 9, and segments from Note 13 to Note 10. "Note 9" means debt in the 10-K and contingencies in the 10-Q.
This matters when you carry notes from one filing to the next or search a later filing for "Note 9" expecting the same subject. Track notes by title, not by number.
What should you read first in a 10-Q?
Assume you have read the 10-K. The job now is to find what moved. A workable order:
- Read Note 1 for new standards. Interim Note 1 is short; look for accounting standards adopted this quarter or changes in estimates.
- Compare the statements to year end. The balance sheet is shown against the last fiscal year end; mark every line that moved and that you cannot explain.
- Check the debt note. New borrowings, repayments or amended terms since the 10-K show up here first.
- Diff the contingencies note against the 10-K. Read the 10-Q wording side by side with the 10-K version; new or reworded language is the signal.
- Read the segment note. Quarterly segment revenue and operating income show where growth or weakness is coming from.
- Open the 10-K for anything missing. If a note you need is not in the 10-Q, the latest 10-K version is the one the company is relying on.
- Read Part II, Item 1A. It lists only material changes to the 10-K risk factors, so anything here is new.
Then read the MD&A with the notes in mind, as you would in a 10-K. Our guide to reading 10-K footnotes covers which annual notes deserve attention and why.
What is not in a 10-Q at all?
- The auditor's opinion and critical audit matters. They come with audited statements, which means the 10-K.
- A full risk-factor list. Part II, Item 1A asks only for "material changes from risk factors as previously disclosed" in the 10-K.
- The business description. A 10-Q has no Item 1, Business.
- A fourth-quarter 10-Q. The annual report covers the full year instead.
Questions
Are 10-Q financial statements audited?
No. They are reviewed, not audited. Regulation S-X Rule 10-01(d) requires an independent accountant to review the interim statements before the 10-Q is filed. A review is narrower than an audit, and the accountant's review report is filed only if the company states in the filing that a review was performed.
Is there a 10-Q for the fourth quarter?
No. A company files three 10-Qs a year, one for each of its first three fiscal quarters. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report on Form 10-K, which presents the full fiscal year. Many companies also publish fourth-quarter figures in their earnings release.
When is a 10-Q due?
Large accelerated and accelerated filers must file within 40 days after the end of the fiscal quarter; all other registrants have 45 days. The 10-K deadline is 60, 75 or 90 days after fiscal year end, depending on filer status.
Do 10-Qs have critical audit matters?
No. Critical audit matters are part of the auditor's report on audited financial statements, which appears in the 10-K. A 10-Q contains reviewed interim statements and no audit opinion, so there are no critical audit matters to read.
Why is there no income tax note in my 10-Q?
The interim rules let a company omit footnote disclosure that would substantially duplicate its latest annual report. If nothing about taxes changed enough to need new disclosure, the standalone tax note can disappear. The tax provision still appears on the income statement and is often discussed in the MD&A.
Do note numbers match between a 10-Q and a 10-K?
Often they do not. When notes are dropped, the remaining ones are renumbered. In Apple's filings, Debt is Note 9 in the fiscal 2025 10-K and Note 6 in the third-quarter fiscal 2026 10-Q, so a "see Note 9" means something different in each document.
Reading a 10-Q against its 10-K without losing your place
Reading a quarter well means holding two documents at once: the 10-Q in front of you and the 10-K notes it assumes you remember. SeeNote is a Chrome extension that makes every "see Note X" on EDGAR clickable in 10-Ks and 10-Qs alike, opening the note verbatim where you are reading. Highlights you make in the 10-K are collected in your My marks library, so the annual context is in one place when the quarterly filing points back to it. Your first three filings are free, with no card and no expiry; pricing is on seenote.co.