For Analysts

Long filings, straight answers - cited to the line.

Sidenote is a browser extension (Chrome and Firefox) that reads the report or filing you have open (or upload - scanned documents get OCR) and answers find-the-number questions with the exact line quoted and highlighted. Summaries for the sections, a glossary for the jargon, and chat for everything else.

Annual reports, filings & scanned PDFs · Cited to the line

example-industries.com · annual-report-2025.pdfSidenote
Annual Report 2025 · p.147

Capital expenditure for the year was £412 million, up 9% on the prior year, reflecting the two new distribution sites. For FY26 the Board expects capital expenditure in the range of £430-450 million, weighted to the first half.

Sidenote · What was capex, and what's guided?

FY25 capex was £412 million, up 9% 1 - guidance for FY26 is £430-450 million 2.

The problem

A confidently wrong number is worse than no number.

The figure you need is on page 147 of a 300-page document, under a line item that was renamed last year, in a table Ctrl-F can't see because the page is a scan. Generic AI tools will hand you a number instantly - and if it goes into your model without provenance, the model inherits the risk.

Sidenote answers with the line itself: quoted verbatim, verified server-side against the document, and highlighted in place when you click the citation.

How it works

How Sidenote works on a filing.

STEP 01

Open the report - or upload it.

Works on PDFs and web pages your browser can open, and on uploads dropped onto the side panel. Scanned filings are OCR'd first, so image-only pages become searchable.

STEP 02

Ask for the number, the driver, the term.

Find-the-number chat, section summaries, and a one-click glossary of the filing's defined terms and non-GAAP jargon.

STEP 03

Click the citation, check the line.

Every answer carries a verbatim citation. Click it and Sidenote scrolls the document to the exact line and highlights it - check it before it goes in the model.

Comparing periods? Bundle filings into a collection and ask across them. New to a sector's vocabulary? The glossary builder defines every term where the document defines it, and every citation takes you to the source.

Use cases

The questions you put to a 300-page document.

  • “What was capex this year, and what's guided?”

    The figure, the comparative and the guidance range, each cited to the line in the report - not paraphrased from memory of page 140.

  • “What does management blame for the margin miss?”

    The MD&A's own explanation, quoted verbatim, so your note reflects what was said rather than what was implied.

  • “Define this filing's non-GAAP terms.”

    One click builds a glossary of the document's jargon and defined terms, each entry linked to where the filing defines it.

  • “What changed in the risk factors?”

    Ask what the filing says about a specific risk and get the passage itself - supply chain, litigation, regulation - highlighted in context.

  • “How do the last two annual reports differ on pricing?”

    Bundle both into a collection and ask across them - each citation names the year and lands on the line.

  • “Summarize the segment results.”

    A cited rundown of the segment reporting, so you know which numbers to lift into the model and where they live.

Verified citations

Numbers with provenance.

Sidenote's citations are verified, not decorative: before an answer reaches you, every quoted passage is checked server-side against the text retrieved from the document, and a quote that doesn't match verbatim is dropped. What you see cited is what the document says.

For an analyst that's the whole game: the answer is only useful if you can stand behind the line it came from - and now the line is one click away.

Built for the unglamorous part.

OCR for scanned filings, a glossary for each document's defined terms, collections for period-on-period questions, and share links for circulating a cited summary to the desk. The judgement, and the spreadsheet, stay yours.

FAQ

Common questions from analysts.

Every answer is checked server-side against the passages actually retrieved from the document: a quoted line either matches the source verbatim or the citation is dropped. Click the citation and Sidenote scrolls to the exact line and highlights it - so the number goes into your model only after you've seen it in the filing.
Yes. Scanned annual reports, older filings and photocopied statements are run through OCR, and citations still land on the exact line of the scanned page. OCR is a paid feature, included in the 7-day trial.
No, and that's deliberate. Sidenote answers from what the document says and shows you the line it says it on; derived calculations belong in your spreadsheet, where you control them. Its job is making sure the inputs you lift are the document's actual numbers.
Yes. Group filings into a collection (this year's and last year's annual report, say) and ask one question across them - each citation names its source document. Collections are a paid-plan feature: the trial allows 3 documents per collection, Pro 5, Pro+ 10, Pro Max 25.
Any PDF or web page your browser can display, plus uploads dropped onto the side panel: annual reports, prospectuses, research notes, Word documents and PowerPoint decks. It's a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, and answers can be written in any of 17 languages.
There's a free tier forever: 3 documents, 10 standard summaries, 10 explanations, 3 glossary builds and 10 cited chat turns a month. The opt-in 7-day Pro trial (one click, email only, no card) unlocks OCR, collections and chat on larger documents; paid plans start at £10/month.
Try it on a filing

Find the number. See the line.

Add Sidenote to your browser, open an annual report, and ask where the number is. Free tier forever, opt-in 7-day Pro trial, no card required.

Works on reports, filings and scanned PDFs · OCR included in trial