When a security vendor reports a quarter, the first formal document to reach the SEC is almost never the 10-Q. It is an 8-K filed under Item 2.02, "Results of Operations and Financial Condition," with the earnings press release attached as an exhibit. Form 8-K is the current report companies use to disclose material events between their periodic filings, and Item 2.02 is the specific item reserved for announcing financial results. So the sequence on earnings day is: the company issues a press release, files an 8-K that points to that release under Item 2.02, and then — days or weeks later — files the complete 10-Q or 10-K with the full financial statements and footnotes.

What makes Item 2.02 distinctive is not the content but the legal status of that content, and the filing itself spells it out. CrowdStrike's June 3, 2026 earnings 8-K states:

"On June 3, 2026, CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (the 'Company') issued a press release announcing its financial results for the fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2026. A copy of the press release is furnished herewith as Exhibit 99.1 and incorporated herein by reference. The information contained in this Item 2.02 and Item 9.01 in this Current Report on Form 8-K, including the accompanying Exhibit 99.1 hereto, shall not be deemed 'filed' for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934."— CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc., Form 8-K (Item 2.02), filed June 3, 2026, source

The operative phrase is "shall not be deemed 'filed.'" In SEC practice there is a meaningful difference between information that is "filed" and information that is "furnished." Filed information — such as the financial statements in a 10-Q or 10-K — is subject to the liability provisions of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act and is generally incorporated by reference into the company's registration statements. Furnished information is not. By furnishing the earnings release under Item 2.02 rather than filing it, the company discloses its results promptly without subjecting that particular document to the same liability exposure and automatic incorporation as its audited statements.

Why the distinction is built into earnings disclosure

The furnished-not-filed treatment exists largely because earnings press releases routinely contain non-GAAP figures and forward-looking commentary that the company does not want swept by reference into every subsequent securities offering. The earnings release is the company's framing of the quarter; the 10-Q is the regulated, footnoted record. Keeping the framing document "furnished" and the formal statements "filed" separates the two cleanly. It does not mean the press release is exempt from anti-fraud rules — a company cannot mislead investors in a furnished document — but it does carve the release out of the specific Section 18 filing-liability regime.

For a reader, this has a direct practical consequence: the numbers a company leads with on earnings day live in a furnished Item 2.02 exhibit, often dominated by adjusted, non-GAAP metrics, while the audited or reviewed GAAP statements and the full footnotes arrive separately in the filed 10-Q or 10-K. The two are not contradictory, but they are different documents with different legal weight and different levels of detail. The Item 2.02 release tells you what management chose to highlight; the periodic filing is where you confirm it against the complete statements.

Item 2.02 versus the rest of the 8-K

Form 8-K has many items, and they are not interchangeable. Item 2.02 is specifically results of operations. A single earnings 8-K often pairs it with Item 9.01 (Financial Statements and Exhibits), which is simply where the exhibit — the press release itself — is listed. Companies sometimes also attach Item 7.01 (Regulation FD Disclosure) for accompanying presentation materials, which is likewise furnished rather than filed. The grounded way to read an earnings 8-K is to note which items are cited on the cover, recognize that 2.02 (and usually 7.01) content is furnished, and then go to the attached Exhibit 99.1 for the actual results.

Timing is part of what defines Item 2.02, too. Form 8-K is the SEC's vehicle for prompt disclosure of material events, and most 8-K items must be filed within four business days of the triggering event. Item 2.02 fits that framework: a company announces results and reports them to the SEC on the same Form 8-K rather than waiting for the periodic filing, which is exactly why the earnings 8-K reaches EDGAR on the day of the press release while the corresponding 10-Q or 10-K follows weeks later. The result is a deliberate two-step disclosure: a fast, furnished announcement of results under Item 2.02, then a slower, filed, audited-or-reviewed periodic report. The first satisfies the market's need for timely information; the second satisfies the requirement for complete, formally filed financial statements.

The disciplined sequence for following a quarter is therefore to read the Item 2.02 8-K for the company's own headline framing, note that it is furnished and non-GAAP-heavy, and then wait for — and read — the filed 10-Q or 10-K to verify the GAAP figures and the footnotes behind them. When a quarter's narrative turns on an adjusted metric, the metric almost certainly originates in a furnished Item 2.02 press release; the comparable GAAP figure and its reconciliation are required in that same release and are confirmed in the filed periodic report. Knowing which document is which, and which is furnished versus filed, is the first step in reading earnings against the record rather than against the headline.