Footnotes That Directors Actually Read

Directors skim footnotes between agenda items. Too long and they skip; too short and the audit committee asks for supplemental slides.

Length rule

For revenue bridge charts we aim for three to five lines: definition of the metric, restatement note if any, FX assumption, and one sentence on the largest driver. Anything else moves to an appendix table.

Numbering

Footnotes reference chart elements — "See segment A in Note 2" — not generic boilerplate. We match note numbers to binder tabs when clients use tab dividers.

What we cut first

Repeated definitions across charts. Define EBITDA once in the executive summary; later charts say "EBITDA (as defined p. 2)."