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), Adjusted Operating Income (Loss), Adjusted Operating Income (Loss) margin, Adjusted Free Cash Flow, constant currency, and non-GAAP operating expenses as well as other measures defined in this letter such as measures excluding bitcoin revenue, and measures excluding PPP loan forgiveness 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, and peer-to-peer payments sent from a credit card. GPV does not include transactions from our BNPL platform.
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 losses; amortization of debt discount and issuance costs; and the gain or loss on the disposal of property and equipment, as applicable. Adjusted Operating Income (Loss) is a non-GAAP financial measure that represents our operating income (loss), adjusted to eliminate the effect of amortization of acquired technology assets; acquisition-related and integration cost,; restructuring and other charges; goodwill impairment; bitcoin impairment losses; amortization of customer and other acquired intangible assets; and acquisition-related share-based acceleration costs. We also exclude from these measures certain acquisition-related and integration costs associated with business combinations, and various other costs that are not reflective of our core operating performance. We exclude amortization of intangible assets arising from business combinations because the amount of such expenses in any specific period may not directly correlate to the underlying performance of our ongoing business operations. Acquisition-related 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 not reflective of our core business operating expenses may include contingent losses, impairment charges, and certain 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 Operating Income (Loss) margin is calculated as Adjusted Operating Income (Loss) divided by gross profit.
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.
Adjusted Free Cash Flow is a non-GAAP financial measure that represents our net cash provided by operating activities adjusted for changes in settlements receivable, changes in customers payable, changes in settlements payable, the purchase of property and equipment, payments for originations of consumer receivables, proceeds from principal repayments and sales of consumer receivables, and sales, principal payments, and forgiveness of PPP loans. We present Adjusted Free Cash Flow because we use it to understand the cash generated by our business and make strategic decisions related to our balance sheet, and because we are focused on growing our Adjusted Free Cash Flow generation over time. It is not intended to represent amounts available for discretionary purposes.
Constant currency growth 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 the monthly average 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 losses, loss on disposal of property and equipment, and acquisition-related integration and other costs.
We have included Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, Adjusted Operating Income (Loss), Adjusted Operating Income (Loss) margin, 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 EBITDA margin, Adjusted Operating Income (Loss), Adjusted Operating Income (Loss) margin, 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 that do not vary with our operations. We have included measures excluding our 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 have included measures excluding PPP loan forgiveness gross profit because we believe these measures are useful in order to facilitate comparisons of our business without PPP loan forgiveness.