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Comment by gregshap | Hacker News Reader

GAAP vs non GAAP accounting refers to how you calculate PnL, not whether you use things unrelated to accounting to hint that you are growing and might make money in the future. You can definitely use strict GAAP accounting and also brag that users are super duper engaged.

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I think you are being more than a bit pedantic for very little benefit.

I never said "Non Gaap accounting", I said "Non Gaap measures".

That doesn't have to mean Pnl, it can, and was intended, to mean things like user engagement numbers, monthly uniques, etc.

Is there a different terminology that you would prefer that I use?

how about this........

I'm interested in seeing whether they focus on their earnings vs user growth numbers. Would this satisfy you?

I for one appreciated Greg's note and your follow-up. When you said non gaap initially I thought you explicitly meant the non gaap but still accounting systems that a large, large number of companies out on quarterly earnings (they'll do it right next to it, say " gaap X, non gaap Y ".

So you may see it as pedantic, but I think it was a useful clarification.

Yup i think 'earnings vs user growth numbers' is a great way to put it

My thinking was that 'People worried about money losing companies with huge valuations' is a popular cause of consternation and 'People worried about non-GAAP accounting' is another popular (for some people) cause of consternation.

Gaap(Pnl) vs non-gaap made me suspect you were conflating the two worries, and made me wonder if lots of people might also be confused by what accounting/finance/investment people are generally talking about when they talk about "Non-GAAP measures"

Agree. As a person in accounting/finance/investment, measures like user growth are called KPIs (key performance indicators) and are distinct from NGFMs (non-GAAP financial measures).

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