Imagine you’re about to lend money to a friend’s business. You ask for some financial reports. What would make those reports actually useful to you? You’d want numbers that matter for your decision, that paint an honest picture, and that you can understand quickly. This chapter is about exactly those qualities — the traits that turn raw data into information you can really rely on. We’ll explore what makes financial information useful for decisions: the core ideas of relevance and faithful representation, the features that make it even better, and the practical limit of cost.