10-K FILINGS

Read a 10-K with AI and check every answer against the filing

A large company's 10-K often runs to well over a hundred pages, and the answer to a simple question often sits in three places: the business description, the MD&A and a footnote to the financial statements. Put the filing in a Search+ workspace, normally the PDF saved from EDGAR or the investor relations site, ask in plain language, and open the cited excerpt to read the company's own words before you quote or rely on them.

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Last updated October 2026

How to work through a 10-K with Search+

Add the filing and the documents around it
Upload the 10-K, which almost always arrives as a PDF, and if you have them, the prior year's 10-K, the latest 10-Q and the earnings release. Your own notes on the company can sit beside them as a Word document. Keeping the set in one workspace lets a question about this year draw on last year's numbers too.
Set the angle once with Workspace Context
Write standing instructions such as "I am assessing balance sheet risk; quote the exact figure and name the section it comes from". Search+ applies them to every question you ask in that workspace.
Ask one item at a time and open the source
Ask about a single topic, like debt maturities or customer concentration. Each answer carries inline citations, and opening one shows the supporting excerpt with its page or section reference when the filing has one.

Questions analysts and investors ask of a 10-K

Business model

How does the company describe where its revenue comes from, and which products or customers does it name as most important?

New risk factors

Which risk factors in this year's filing do not appear in last year's 10-K?

Debt

What borrowings does the company have, when do they mature, and what covenants does the filing describe?

Management's explanation

In the MD&A, what reasons does management give for the change in operating margin?

Footnotes

What does the revenue recognition footnote say about multi-year contracts?

Several companies

Across the 10-K filings in this workspace, which companies mention supplier concentration as a risk?

What reading a 10-K well takes

Know the item structure

A 10-K follows a fixed set of numbered items: Item 1 Business, Item 1A Risk Factors, Item 7 MD&A and Item 8 Financial Statements are the ones most readers start with. Asking by item name helps an answer land in the right part of the filing.

Numbers and explanations live apart

The statements in Item 8 give the figures, while the MD&A and the notes explain them. A good question asks for both, for example the change in a line item and the reason management gives for it.

Footnotes carry the detail

Debt terms, leases, contingencies and accounting policies are often only spelled out in the notes. If an answer cites a summary table, ask a follow-up about the related note.

One year rarely tells the story

Risk factor wording, segment definitions and accounting policies can change between years. Keeping the prior 10-K in the same workspace lets you ask what changed instead of reading both end to end.

Bring the filing as you have it

A current 10-K saved from the SEC is a PDF with clean text, but an older annual report you only kept as a scanned copy works as well, because OCR recovers its wording. On a faint or crooked scan, compare the cited excerpt with the printed page.

Citations you can verify

Every answer points to the passage it used, with a page or section reference when the filing provides one, and Search+ does not invent locations the filing does not contain.

The parts of a 10-K and a question for each

Part of the 10-K	What it usually covers	A question to ask Search+
Item 1, Business	Products, markets, customers, competition, employees	Which customers or markets does the company say it depends on most?
Item 1A, Risk Factors	Risks management considers material	Which risks relate to suppliers or a single region?
Item 3, Legal Proceedings	Material lawsuits and regulatory actions	What legal proceedings are disclosed and what is their current status?
Item 5, Market for Equity	Stock, dividends, repurchases	Did the company buy back shares this year, and under what program?
Item 7, MD&A	Management's view of results, liquidity and capital resources	How does management explain the change in cash from operations?
Item 7A, Market Risk	Interest rate, currency and commodity exposure	What interest rate exposure does the company describe?
Item 8, Financial Statements	Statements, notes and the auditor's report	What do the notes say about long-term debt maturities?

What is a 10-K?

A 10-K is the annual report that US public companies file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It gives a detailed view of the business, its risks, management's discussion of results and audited financial statements for the fiscal year.

The glossy annual report a company sends to shareholders is a separate document, often shorter and more promotional, and a 10-Q is the shorter quarterly filing with unaudited statements.

Questions about analyzing a 10-K with AI

Can Search+ analyze a 10-K for me?

It helps you work through one. You ask about a topic, such as segment revenue or debt covenants, and Search+ answers from the filing with citations to the supporting text, so you can read the passage yourself rather than trust a summary.

Can I ask what changed from last year's 10-K?

Yes, once both filings sit in the same workspace. Ask a comparison question, for example which risk factors are new, and the answer cites each filing it draws on so you can check the wording side by side.

Will it find details that are only in the footnotes?

Ask for them directly, naming the topic, such as lease obligations or contingent liabilities. Search+ looks for passages by meaning across the filing, so an answer can come from a note even when the summary tables leave it out.

Can I work with several companies' 10-Ks at once?

Put each company's filing in one workspace and ask across all of them, or narrow a question to a single filing when you want one company's answer only. Citations show which filing each part of the answer came from.

Is this investment advice?

No. Search+ helps you find and read what a filing says. It does not give investment advice or tell you whether to buy or sell a security, so treat each cited passage as a starting point for your own judgment.

Can I take an answer at face value?

Treat it as a pointer, not a verdict. AI answers can be incomplete or wrong, so open the cited passage of the 10-K and confirm the figure or statement before you use it.

Sections of a 10-K to read closely

Risk factors

What management says could hurt the business

MD&A

Management's explanation of results

Liquidity and capital resources

Cash, borrowing and funding needs

Revenue by segment

Where the revenue comes from

Critical accounting estimates

Judgments behind the numbers

Legal proceedings