What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does Upwork (UPWK) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Upwork generated $234M of operating cash flow and $224M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 95.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Upwork (UPWK) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Upwork's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Upwork (UPWK) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$234M

Capex

-$10.2M

Free Cash Flow

$224M

FCF Margin

+95.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Upwork (UPWK) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $224M

Cash flow breakdown for Upwork (UPWK) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$234M	$234M
Capital Expenditure	-$10.2M	$224M
Free Cash Flow	$224M	$224M
Acquisitions	-$58.4M	$166M
Other Investing	$55.1M	$221M
Share Buybacks	-$211M	$10M
Other Financing & FX	$2.34M	$12.4M
Net Cash Increase	$12.4M	$12.4M

Operating Cash Flow$234M
Capital Expenditure-$10.2M
Free Cash Flow$224M
Acquisitions-$58.4M
Other Investing$55.1M
Share Buybacks-$211M
Other Financing & FX$2.34M
Net Cash Increase$12.4M

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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Buybacks15.01% TTM

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