GAAP and Non-GAAP
Filed statements follow standardised rules. The headline numbers a company puts in its press release frequently do not, and the reconciliation between the two is where the reading happens.
MadStockAlerts Research · Updated August 28, 2026
What to take away
- GAAP figures are standardised, audited and comparable across companies.
- A non-GAAP measure is the company's own adjustment and must be reconciled to GAAP.
- The adjustments are disclosed individually, so they can be judged one at a time.
- Stock-based compensation is the most consequential common add-back.
- Adjusted figures are comparable across a company's own years, not across companies.
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The Company's Own Scoreboard
Non-GAAP earnings are defined by the company reporting them, which makes the reconciliation the most important table in the release.
This lesson is part of a Stock Alerts + Tools plan.
Two sets of numbers
The financial statements inside a Form 10-K or Form 10-Q follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and are audited. The press release announcing the same results usually leads with adjusted figures that are neither standardised nor audited.
Neither is illegitimate. Regulation requires that any non-GAAP measure be presented with the most directly comparable GAAP measure and a reconciliation between them, and that the GAAP measure be given at least equal prominence.
The rule about equal prominence is enforced, and it is one of the more common subjects of an SEC comment letter. A company whose release leads with adjusted figures and buries the GAAP ones has been told about it more than once.
Scroll the chart sideways to see all of it.
- Non-GAAP
- GAAP
The usual adjustments
| Add-back | The argument for | The argument against |
|---|---|---|
| Stock-based compensation | No cash left the business | It is real compensation and it dilutes owners |
| Restructuring | One-off and not representative | Some companies restructure every year |
| Acquisition costs | Not part of running the business | Serial acquirers incur them continuously |
| Amortization of intangibles | Non-cash, from past acquisitions | It represents the price paid for assets in use |
| Impairments | A write-down of a past decision | It is the admission that a past decision destroyed value |
Both columns are genuinely arguable in every row, which is why the reconciliation is disclosed rather than the answer being mandated. The reader is expected to form a view, and the disclosure exists to make that possible.
How to read the reconciliation
- 1Start at the GAAP numberIt is the audited one and the one the statements carry.
- 2Read each add-back separatelySome are defensible on their own terms and some are not.
- 3Check recurrencePull three or four years. An item appearing every year is an operating cost.
- 4Watch the share countStock-based compensation removed from the numerator still shows up as dilution in the denominator.
The most useful habit here is comparing a company's own adjusted figures across several years rather than to another company's. Definitions differ between companies, so cross-company comparison of adjusted numbers compares two different measures.
When the definition changes
A company that adds a new adjustment this year has changed the measure, and the prior-year comparison in the same release may or may not have been restated on the new basis.
This is worth checking, because a growth rate computed across a definitional change is not a growth rate. The reconciliation table normally shows both years on the same basis; where it does not, the comparison in the headline is doing work the numbers do not support.
The rules that govern the adjusted number
Non-GAAP measures are not unregulated. Regulation G and Item 10(e) of Regulation S-K set conditions on how they can be presented, and the conditions are the reason every adjusted figure is accompanied by a reconciliation.
- The most directly comparable GAAP measure must be presented with equal or greater prominence.
- A quantitative reconciliation from the GAAP figure to the adjusted one must be provided.
- Adjustments that are described as non-recurring cannot be for items that have occurred in the past two years or are reasonably likely to recur in the next two.
- Individually tailored recognition, meaning an adjusted revenue figure recognised on a different basis from the accounting standard, is not permitted.
The third condition is the one that matters most and is most often stretched. A charge labelled non-recurring that has appeared for four consecutive years does not satisfy it, and comment letters on exactly this point are among the most common the staff issues.
The practical consequence for a reader is that the reconciliation table is not supplementary detail. It is the disclosure the rules were written to force, and reading it from the GAAP line downward shows exactly what was removed and on what stated basis.
The adjustments that recur, and the ones that should not
Some adjustments are close to universal and largely uncontroversial. Others are contested, and a small set are contested precisely because they exclude a real and recurring cost.
| Adjustment | The case for | The case against |
|---|---|---|
| Amortisation of acquired intangibles | Non-cash, and reflects a past purchase price | For a serial acquirer it recurs permanently |
| Stock-based compensation | Non-cash, and volatile with the share price | It is real compensation and it dilutes existing holders every period |
| Restructuring | Genuinely one-off, in a company that restructures once | Recurring at companies that restructure continuously |
| Acquisition costs | Not part of running the acquired business | A permanent cost of a strategy built on acquisition |
| Impairments | Non-cash, and relates to an earlier decision | An admission that capital deployed did not earn its cost |
Stock-based compensation is the most consequential of these. Excluding it treats a transfer of ownership as free, and at companies where it is a large share of total compensation the adjusted margin describes a business that is not paying its staff.
The reader's test across all of them is the same and does not require a judgement about any single adjustment: count how many years each has appeared. An adjustment present every year is a cost, whatever it is called.