KEY OPERATING METRICS AND
NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES
To supplement our financial information presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP), from period to period, we consider and present certain operating and financial measures that we consider key metrics or are not prepared in accordance with GAAP, including Gross Payment Volume (GPV), Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, Adjusted Net Income (Loss), Diluted Adjusted Net Income (Loss) Per Share (Adjusted EPS), constant currency, and non-GAAP operating expenses as well as other measures defined in this letter such as measures excluding bitcoin revenue or gross profit, bitcoin impairment loss, measures excluding gains or losses on equity investments, measures excluding amortization of intangibles, measures excluding our BNPL platform, and measures excluding both our BNPL platform and bitcoin revenue or gross profit. We believe these metrics and measures are useful to facilitate period-to-period comparisons of our business and to facilitate comparisons of our performance to that of other payments solution providers.
We define GPV as the total dollar amount of all card payments processed by sellers using Square, net of refunds, and ACH transfers. Additionally, GPV includes Cash App Business GPV, which comprises Cash App activity related to peer-to-peer transactions received by business accounts, Cash App Pay transactions, and peer-to-peer payments sent from a credit card.
Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, Adjusted Net Income (Loss), and Diluted Adjusted Net Income (Loss) Per Share (Adjusted EPS) are non-GAAP financial measures that represent our net income (loss) and net income (loss) per share, adjusted to eliminate the effect of share-based compensation expenses; amortization of intangible assets; gain or loss on revaluation of equity investments; bitcoin impairment loss; and the gain or loss on the disposal of property and equipment, as applicable. We also exclude certain transaction and integration costs associated with business combinations, and various other costs that are not part of our core operating performance. Transaction costs include amounts paid to redeem acquirees’ unvested stock-based compensation awards, and legal, accounting, and due diligence costs. Integration costs include advisory and other professional services or consulting fees necessary to integrate acquired businesses. Other costs that are non-recurring operating expenses may include contingent losses, litigation, and regulatory charges. We also add back the impact of the acquired deferred revenue and deferred cost adjustment, which was written down to fair value in purchase accounting. Additionally, for purposes of calculating diluted Adjusted EPS, we add back cash interest expense on convertible senior notes, as if converted at the beginning of the period, if the impact is dilutive. In addition to the items above, Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure that also excludes depreciation and amortization, interest income and expense, other income and expense, and provision or benefit from income taxes, as applicable. Adjusted EBITDA margin is calculated as Adjusted EBITDA divided by gross profit. To calculate the diluted Adjusted EPS, we adjust the weighted-average number of shares of common stock outstanding for the dilutive effect of all potential shares of common stock. In periods when we recorded an Adjusted Net Loss, the diluted Adjusted EPS is the same as basic Adjusted EPS because the effects of potentially dilutive items were anti-dilutive given the Adjusted Net Loss position.
Constant currency growth is a non-GAAP financial measure that is calculated by assuming international results in a given period and the comparative prior period are translated from local currencies to the U.S. dollar at rates consistent with an average of daily rates in the comparative prior period. We discuss growth on a constant currency basis because a portion of our business operates in markets outside the U.S. and is subject to changes in foreign exchange rates.
Non-GAAP operating expenses is a non-GAAP financial measure that represents operating expenses adjusted to remove the impact of share-based compensation, depreciation and amortization, bitcoin impairment loss, loss on disposal of property and equipment, and acquisition-related integration and other costs.
We have included Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted EPS, and non-GAAP operating expenses because they are key measures used by our management to evaluate our operating performance, generate future operating plans, and make strategic decisions, including those relating to operating expenses and the allocation of internal resources. Accordingly, we believe that Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted EPS, and non-GAAP operating expenses provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management and board of directors. In addition, they provide useful measures for period-to-period comparisons of our business, as they remove the effect of certain non-cash items and certain variable charges. We have included measures excluding the BNPL platform because we believe these measures are useful in understanding the ongoing results of our operations. We have included measures excluding bitcoin revenue because our role is to facilitate customers’ access to bitcoin. When customers buy bitcoin through Cash App, we only apply a small margin to the market cost of bitcoin, which tends to be volatile and outside our control. Therefore, we believe deducting bitcoin revenue or gross profit better reflects the economic benefits as well as our performance from these transactions. We also include measures that exclude both the BNPL platform and bitcoin revenue or gross profit in order to further facilitate comparison of our business without bitcoin revenue or gross profit to periods prior to the acquisition of BNPL. We have included measures excluding gains or losses on equity investments as well as bitcoin impairment losses because we believe these measures are useful in understanding our operating results without regard to gains and losses due to non-operating market fluctuations of our investments.
Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted EPS, and non-GAAP operating expenses, as well as other measures defined in the shareholder letter, such as measures excluding our BNPL platform, bitcoin revenue, bitcoin impairment loss, and measures excluding gains or losses on equity investments, have limitations as financial measures, should be considered as supplemental in nature, and are not meant as substitutes for the related financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP.
We believe that the aforementioned metrics and measures provide useful information about our operating results, enhance the overall understanding of our past performance and future prospects, and provide useful measures for period-to-period comparisons of our business, as they remove the effect of certain variable amounts, or they remove amounts that were not repeated across periods and therefore make comparisons more difficult. Our management uses these measures to evaluate our operating performance, generate future operating plans, and make strategic decisions, including those relating to operating expenses and the allocation of internal resources.
These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures are not based on any standardized methodology prescribed by GAAP. Other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate the non-GAAP financial measures differently or not at all, which reduces their usefulness as comparative measures.
