Does NOI include mortgage payments or not?

[Jacob Miller]

As i have been searching for more and more information to help me better analyze deals i have come acrossed conflicting information regarding how to calculate NOI. Some information include the mortgage payment in the calculation and others don't It would be my assumption that it should not be included because financing is different for every person and every deal so you want a number that universal and descriptive of the deal. But how do you make since of the CAP rate if you don't include the monthly expense from the mortgage?