自動資料處理 (ADP) 2018 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Christine, and I will be your conference operator. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to ADP's Second Quarter Fiscal 2018 Earnings Call. I would like to inform you that this conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Christian Greyenbuhl, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

早安.我叫克莉絲汀，我將擔任你們的會議接線生。在此，我謹代表ADP公司歡迎各位參加2018財年第二季財報電話會議。我想告知各位，本次會議正在錄影。（操作說明）謝謝。現在我謹將會議交給投資人關係副總裁克里斯蒂安‧格雷恩布爾先生。請繼續。

Thank you, Christy, and good morning, everyone. This is Christian Greyenbuhl, ADP's Vice President, Investor Relations, and I'm here today with Carlos Rodriguez, ADP's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Jan Siegmund, ADP's Chief Financial Officer. Thank you for joining us for our second quarter fiscal 2018 earnings call and webcast. During our call today, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe to be useful to investors. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their comparable GAAP measures is included in our earnings release and in the supplemental slides on our Investor Relations website. Before Carlos begins, I'd like to remind everyone that today's call will contain forward-looking statements that refer to future events, and as such, involve some risks. We encourage you to review our filings with the SEC for additional information on risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Now let me turn the call over to Carlos.

謝謝你，克里斯蒂，大家早安。我是 ADP 投資者關係副總裁 Christian Greyenbuhl，今天與 ADP 總裁兼執行長 Carlos Rodriguez 和 ADP 財務長 Jan Siegmund 一起出席。感謝您參加我們2018財年第二季財報電話會議及網路直播。在今天的電話會議中，我們將提及一些非GAAP財務指標，我們認為這些指標對投資人是有用的。這些非GAAP財務指標與其對應的GAAP指標的調節表已包含在我們的獲利報告中以及我們投資者關係網站上的補充幻燈片中。在卡洛斯開始發言之前，我想提醒大家，今天的電話會議將包含有關未來事件的前瞻性陳述，因此存在一些風險。我們建議您查閱我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件，以獲取有關可能導致實際結果與我們目前預期存在重大差異的風險因素的更多資​​訊。現在我把電話交給卡洛斯。

Thank you, Christian, and thank you all for joining our call this morning. We appreciate your interest in ADP. This morning, we reported our second quarter fiscal 2018 results with reported revenue up 8% to $3.2 billion, 7% organic. This revenue growth was slightly above our expectations, and we are pleased with the progress that we've made so far in the first half of fiscal 2018. Our adjusted diluted earnings per share grew 14% to $0.99 per share and benefited from a lower effective tax rate and fewer shares outstanding. We continue to work diligently this quarter to overcome the difficult grow-over from our strong fiscal 2017 second quarter performance. And we are pleased with our overall results, which Jan will take you through in more detail shortly, including some additional information on the recently enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Before I continue further with our operational highlights, I'd like to focus on the execution of our strategy and our innovation efforts. Innovating to help our clients meet the dynamic needs of a rapidly evolving workforce has always been in our DNA and continues to be at the very core of our strategy. More and more, we see workers demanding a greater, ease of access to and functionality of the digital world. Whether it is the convenience offered by our ADP mobile solutions app, the insights delivered by our data cloud offerings or, increasingly, the optionality of flexible payment solutions, it is clear that the worker is at the center of the HCM strategy of tomorrow. While we continue to innovate around our core strengths, such as with our recently announced next-gen payroll and tax platforms, you will also recall that in October, we announced our acquisition of Global Cash Card, which further strengthened our payroll offering with the expansion of digital accounts and flexible payment offerings. This was an exciting acquisition that allows us to further support the evolving needs of our clients, and we are very pleased with the level of client interest in their digital payment services. With this acquisition, ADP became the only HCM provider with a proprietary digital payments processing platform, thus, enabling the opportunity for greater operational efficiency and a seamless client experience. Furthermore, we expect Global Cash Card will allow us to broaden our engagement with our clients' workforce through compelling options to service their flexible pay needs and improve their financial lives, be they traditional or freelance. With the world of work changing, so are our clients' needs. We are proud to be the leading global provider of innovative technology-based HCM solutions across the entire workforce. And with the composition of work increasingly moving toward the freelance worker or gig worker, we have actively pursued going beyond the status quo in order to maintain and expand our industry-leading position. The gig economy is large and continues to grow, with some third-party studies suggesting that between 20% and 30% of today's labor force is on demand.

謝謝你，克里斯蒂安，也謝謝各位今天早上參加我們的電話會議。感謝您對ADP的關注。今天上午，我們公佈了 2018 財年第二季業績，報告營收成長 8% 至 32 億美元，有機成長 7%。這項營收成長略高於我們的預期，我們對 2018 財年上半年的進展感到滿意。經調整後的稀釋每股盈餘成長了 14%，達到每股 0.99 美元，這得益於較低的實際稅率和較少的流通股。本季我們將繼續努力克服從 2017 財年第二季強勁業績過渡到成長階段的困難。我們對整體結果感到滿意，Jan 稍後會更詳細地向您介紹，包括一些關於最近頒布的《減稅與就業法案》的補充資訊。在繼續介紹我們的營運亮點之前，我想重點談談我們的策略執行情況和創新工作。不斷創新，幫助客戶滿足快速變化的勞動市場所帶來的動態需求，一直是我們的基因，也是我們策略的核心。我們看到越來越多的勞工要求更便捷地存取和使用數位世界的功能。無論是我們的 ADP 行動解決方案應用程式提供的便利性，我們的資料雲端產品提供的洞察力，還是日益增多的靈活支付解決方案的選擇權，都清楚地表明，員工是未來 HCM 策略的核心。在我們繼續圍繞核心優勢進行創新的同時，例如我們最近宣布的下一代薪資和稅務平台，您也應該記得，我們​​在 10 月宣布收購了 Global Cash Card，這透過擴展數位帳戶和靈活的支付方式進一步加強了我們的薪資產品。這次收購令人振奮，使我們能夠進一步滿足客戶不斷變化的需求，我們對客戶對其數位支付服務的濃厚興趣感到非常滿意。透過此次收購，ADP 成為唯一一家擁有自主數位支付處理平台的 HCM 供應商，為提高營運效率和提供無縫的客戶體驗創造了機會。此外，我們期望全球現金卡能夠透過極具吸引力的選擇，滿足客戶員工的彈性薪資需求，改善他們的財務狀況，從而擴大我們與客戶員工的互動，無論他們是傳統員工還是自由工作者。隨著工作環境的變化，客戶的需求也在改變。我們很自豪能成為全球領先的創新技術型人力資本管理解決方案供應商，服務全體員工。隨著工作構成越來越傾向於自由工作者或零工經濟者，我們積極尋求超越現狀，以保持和擴大我們在行業中的領先地位。零工經濟規模龐大且持續成長，一些第三方研究表明，目前勞動力中有 20% 到 30% 屬於按需就業。

With over 90% of our mid and upmarket clients already using gig workers and the majority expected to increase their use over the next 2 years, we believe we are uniquely positioned to service this growing market, and it is specifically with this evolution in mind that we believe in having the worker at the center of our strategy in our next-gen solutions. Along these lines, we have continued to differentiate our offerings with the recently announced acquisition of WorkMarket, a leading cloud-based freelance management solution serving both multinationals and small- to medium-sized businesses, allowing them to build and manage their integrated workforce, while aiding them with their important compliance obligations.

超過 90% 的中高階客戶已經在使用零工經濟從業者，預計在未來兩年內，大多數客戶還會增加使用量。我們相信，我們擁有獨特的優勢來服務這個不斷成長的市場。正是考慮到這種發展趨勢，我們相信，在下一代解決方案中，應該以勞工為中心。秉持著這個理念，我們不斷透過最近宣布收購 WorkMarket 來讓我們的產品和服務脫穎而出。 WorkMarket 是一家領先的基於雲端的自由工作者管理解決方案提供商，服務於跨國公司和中小型企業，使他們能夠建立和管理其一體化的員工隊伍，同時幫助他們履行重要的合規義務。

WorkMarket solutions include comprehensive talent management and compliance solutions to help source and vet freelance workers, manage their engagements and evaluate their performance. In addition, WorkMarket solutions already permit freelance workers on the platform to receive their payments using a Global Cash Card pay card. Our acquisition of WorkMarket establishes ADP as the first HCM provider with robust freelance worker management and payment functionality, with reporting insight and compliance monitoring across the entire labor pool. Acquisitions with strategic fit like Global Cash Card, WorkMarket and last year's acquisition of TMBC in the talent management space are just one way ADP is helping clients keep pace with change and manage the increasing demand for flexibility in the way people work and how organizations manage their talent.

WorkMarket 解決方案包括全面的人才管理和合規解決方案，以協助尋找和審查自由工作者，管理他們的工作安排並評估他們的績效。此外，WorkMarket 的解決方案已經允許平台上的自由工作者使用全球現金卡支付卡接收付款。我們對 WorkMarket 的收購使 ADP 成為首家擁有強大的自由工作者管理和支付功能的 HCM 供應商，並可對整個勞動力市場進行報告洞察和合規性監控。ADP 透過收購 Global Cash Card、WorkMarket 以及去年收購人才管理領域的 TMBC 等具有策略契合度的公司，幫助客戶跟上變革的步伐，並應對人們工作方式和組織人才管理方式日益增長的靈活性需求，這只是 ADP 幫助客戶跟上變革步伐的一種方式。

I am proud of our progress to date in our innovation-focused investment strategy to develop open and flexible solutions that can be adapted to meet the needs of any client. We believe that pursuing a healthy mix of acquisitions that align with our strategic priorities, in combination with investments in organically-driven innovation, is the right approach for us to deliver market-leading capabilities to clients that will foster sustainable growth.

我為我們迄今為止在以創新為中心的投資策略方面取得的進展感到自豪，該策略旨在開發開放靈活的解決方案，以滿足任何客戶的需求。我們相信，透過進行符合我們策略重點的健康收購，並投資內生式創新，是為客戶提供市場領先能力並促進永續成長的正確方法。

Now I'd like to cover some operational highlights, starting with new business bookings and retention, both of which continue to show progress and stability against our expectations. As a reminder, we view new business bookings as a metric that demonstrates our ability to drive organic growth, and which represents annualized recurring revenues anticipated from sales to new and existing clients. New business bookings grew 6% for the quarter. We are pleased with the progress from our investments in headcount and product, which are helping reaccelerate our growth, in line with our expectations. And as a consequence, we are maintaining our new business bookings forecast of 5% to 7% growth for fiscal 2018. We are pleased with the progress we are making on our service investments and with the continued improvements in our net promoter scores. We are now substantially complete with our mid-market upgrades and have less than 1% of our mid-market clients left to migrate. We continue to see an improving trend in our Employer Services client loss metrics. And while this quarter's retention declined slightly by 20 basis points, given the quarterly volatility in this metric, we remain pleased with our year-to-date retention improvement of 70 basis points.

現在我想介紹一些營運方面的亮點，首先是新業務預訂和客戶留存，這兩個指標都繼續超出我們的預期，並保持穩定。再次提醒，我們將新業務預訂量視為衡量我們推動自然成長能力的指標，它代表了預期從新舊客戶的銷售中獲得的年度經常性收入。本季新業務預訂量成長了 6%。我們對在人員和產品方面的投資所取得的進展感到滿意，這些投資正在幫助我們重新加速成長，符合我們的預期。因此，我們維持 2018 財年新業務預訂量成長 5% 至 7% 的預測。我們對服務投資方面取得的進展以及淨推薦值持續提高感到滿意。我們目前已基本完成中階市場升級，僅剩不到 1% 的中階市場客戶需要遷移。我們的雇主服務客戶流失指標持續呈現改善趨勢。雖然本季客戶留存率略微下降了 20 個基點，但考慮到該指標的季度波動性，我們對今年迄今客戶留存率提高 70 個基點仍然感到滿意。

We remain on course with our plans to consolidate our real estate footprint and with our associate onboarding across our new strategic locations. As we streamline our service infrastructure and scale our new service centers, we are continuing to see the benefits to both our clients and our associates. Cross-functional teams we have formed in these new sites are leveraging best-in-class service tools and processes to deliver exceptional service to clients across the HCM spectrum in a cost-efficient manner. At the same time, this allows us to better transfer knowledge among these service teams and offer robust career opportunities within the service organization. I'm proud of these efforts and of the speed of execution despite the pressure that comes from our client calendar year-end service deliverables.

我們將繼續按計劃整合我們的房地產業務，並推動員工在新策略地點的入職流程。隨著我們精簡服務基礎設施並擴大新服務中心的規模，我們不斷看到這對我們的客戶和員工都有益處。我們在這些新站點組成的跨職能團隊正在利用一流的服務工具和流程，以經濟高效的方式為客戶提供 HCM 各個領域的卓越服務。同時，這使我們能夠更好地在這些服務團隊之間傳遞知識，並在服務組織內提供可靠的職涯發展機會。我為這些努力以及在客戶年底服務交付壓力下仍能如此迅速地完成工作而感到自豪。

Now I'd like to take a moment to recognize the PEO business, which as of December 31 surpassed the 500,000 worksite employee mark. In fact, if ADP TotalSource were an independent employer, it would currently rank second among private sector employers in the United States. We are pleased with this business' continued success and with its healthy pace of growth, which demonstrates the value in the market of our broad-based, compliance-oriented HR outsourcing solutions.

現在我想花點時間來表揚一下 PEO 產業，截至 12 月 31 日，該產業的員工人數已超過 50 萬人。事實上，如果 ADP TotalSource 是一家獨立雇主，它目前將在美國私部門雇主中排名第二。我們對這項業務的持續成功和健康的成長速度感到滿意，這證明了我們基礎廣泛、以合規為導向的人力資源外包解決方案在市場上的價值。

We have made a lot of progress in executing against our strategy in the first half of 2018, and we remain focused on continuing to accelerate our pace of change through the remainder of the year and beyond. Before I turn the call over to Jan for a detailed financial review, I want to note how proud I am of the unwavering commitment of our associates, and how especially proud I was to see Fortune magazine name us to their Most Admired Companies list for the 12th time. I am particularly proud of this because it is a testament to the confidence our stakeholders place in us and to the continued dedication of our associates who work tirelessly to provide our clients the best solutions for today and tomorrow. And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Jan for further review of our second quarter results.

2018 年上半年，我們在執行策略方面取得了很大進展，我們將繼續專注於在今年餘下的時間裡以及未來更長的時間裡加快變革的步伐。在將電話轉交給 Jan 進行詳細的財務審查之前，我想指出，我為我們同事們堅定不移的奉獻精神感到多麼自豪，尤其讓我感到自豪的是，《財富》雜誌第 12 次將我們評為最受尊敬的公司之一。我對此感到格外自豪，因為它證明了我們的利害關係人對我們的信任，以及我們員工為給客戶提供當下和未來最佳解決方案而持續不懈的奉獻精神。接下來，我會把電話交給 Jan，讓他進一步回顧我們第二季的表現。

Thank you very much, Carlos, and good morning, everyone. In my commentary to follow, I will be referencing non-GAAP measures that excludes the impact of certain items in the second quarter of fiscal year 2018 as well as the second quarter of fiscal year 2017. A description of these items and the reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures can be found in this morning's press release and in the supplemental slides on our Investor Relations website.

非常感謝卡洛斯，大家早安。在接下來的評論中，我將引用非GAAP指標，這些指標不包括2018財年第二季以及2017財年第二季某些項目的影響。有關這些項目的說明以及這些非GAAP指標的調整說明，請參閱今天早上的新聞稿以及我們投資者關係網站上的補充幻燈片。

As Carlos mentioned, ADP revenues grew 8% in the quarter to $3.2 billion, and includes approximately 1 percentage points of benefit from foreign currency. On a reported basis, net earnings declined 8% or 9% on a constant-dollar basis, largely due to the prior year second quarter pretax gain of $205 million related to the sale of our CHSA and COBRA businesses, offset by a onetime fiscal year 2018 second quarter net tax benefit related to the U.S. corporate tax reform of approximately $46 million.

正如卡洛斯所提到的，ADP 的營收在本季成長了 8%，達到 32 億美元，其中包括約 1 個百分點的外匯收益。以報告數據計算，淨利潤下降了 8% 或以固定美元計算下降了 9%，這主要是由於去年同期第二季度出售 CHSA 和 COBRA 業務獲得的稅前收益 2.05 億美元，但被 2018 財年第二季度與美國企業稅制改革相關的約 4600 萬美元的一次性淨稅收所抵消。

Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes, or adjusted EBIT, increased 2% on a reported basis. And it included approximately 1 point of pressure from the impact of acquisitions, the second quarter fiscal year 2017 disposition of our CHSA and COBRA businesses as well as FX.

經調整後的息稅前利潤（或經調整後的 EBIT）按報告基準增加了 2%。其中約有 1 個百分點的壓力來自收購的影響，以及 2017 財年第二季處置 CHSA 和 COBRA 業務以及外匯業務。

Adjusted EBIT margin decreased about 120 basis points compared to 19.8% in last year's second quarter. This decrease was slightly better than our expectations, though we continue to see increased pressure from stronger-than-anticipated growth in pass-throughs and from acquisitions.

調整後息稅前利潤率較去年第二季的 19.8% 下降了約 120 個基點。儘管這一降幅略好於我們的預期，但我們仍然看到來自轉嫁資產成長強於預期和收購帶來的壓力不斷增加。

During the quarter, we have maintained our investments into innovation, service and distribution, and we continue to believe in the benefits of these investments helping us deliver against our long-term financial -- long-term strategic financial objective. Adjusted diluted earnings per share grew 14% to $0.99. 13% on a constant-dollar basis, and benefited from a lower effective tax rate and fewer shares outstanding compared with a year ago. The enactment in December 2017 of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act includes significant changes to the U.S. corporate tax system, including a federal corporate tax rate reduction from 35% to 21% and, among other provisions, a repeal of the Section 199 domestic production activities deduction as well as new limitations on the deductibility of executive compensation. Our adjusted effective tax rate for the quarter of 25.6% was positively impacted by a lower blended statutory rate of 28.1%, which became effective at the beginning of our fiscal year. This benefit was partially offset by adjustments to excess tax benefits on stock-based compensation and foreign tax credits. As a reminder, our adjusted results exclude a net tax benefit of approximately $46 million for onetime items, which encompass the benefit of the reevaluation of deferred tax assets and liabilities and transition tax on accumulated overseas earnings and a valuation allowance on foreign tax credits.

本季度，我們持續增加對創新、服務和分銷的投入，並且我們仍然相信這些投資能夠幫助我們實現長期財務目標——長期戰略財務目標。經調整後的稀釋每股收益成長 14% 至 0.99 美元。以固定美元計算，該公司股價上漲了 13%，並受益於與一年前相比較低的實際稅率和較少的流通股。2017 年 12 月頒布的《減稅與就業法案》對美國企業稅收制度進行了重大改革，其中包括將聯邦企業稅率從 35% 降至 21%，以及其他條款，例如廢除第 199 條國內生產活動扣除，以及對高管薪酬扣除額做出新的限制。本季調整後的實際稅率為 25.6%，這得益於本財政年度開始時生效的較低的綜合法定稅率 28.1%。這一收益部分被股票選擇權激勵和外國稅收抵免的超額稅收優惠調整所抵消。提醒各位，我們調整後的業績不包括一次性項目帶來的約 4600 萬美元的淨稅收優惠，其中包括遞延所得稅資產和負債重新評估的收益、累計海外收益的過渡稅以及外國稅收抵免的估值準備。

Overall, we have continued to make good progress this quarter. Let me now take you through our segment results before moving on to our updated fiscal year 2018 outlook.

總體而言，本季我們繼續取得了良好的進展。接下來，我將帶您了解我們各業務部門的業績，然後再介紹我們更新後的 2018 財年展望。

In our Employer Services segment, revenues grew 6% for the quarter, 4% organic. Our same-store pays per control metric in the U.S. grew 2.6% in the second quarter. Average client fund balances grew 7% compared to a year ago. This growth was driven by higher payroll volumes in December, resulting from higher bonus activity. Outside the U.S., we continued to see solid performance from our international operations with double-digit revenue growth in our multinational businesses. Employer Services margin decreased about 50 basis points in the quarter and included approximately 70 basis points of pressure from the impact of acquisitions and FX. PEO revenues grew 15% in the quarter, with average worksite employees growing 10% to 498,000. This revenue growth was driven by growth in worksite average -- growth in average worksite employees and from a continued acceleration in the growth of pass-through revenues from the higher health care premiums and higher-than-expected payrolls in the second quarter. This acceleration in pass-throughs was the primary driver for the 30 basis points of decline in the PEO's reported margins this quarter. I'm pleased with the performance of both of our segments this quarter, while, as Carlos mentioned, we continued to work to accelerate our pace of change for the remainder of the year.

在我們的雇主服務部門，本季營收成長了 6%，其中有機成長了 4%。美國同店每控制點支付指標在第二季成長了 2.6%。與去年同期相比，客戶平均資金餘額增加了7%。這一增長是由 12 月份較高的工資發放量所推動的，而工資發放量的增加又是由較高的獎金發放量造成的。在美國以外，我們的國際業務持續保持穩健的業績，跨國業務的收入實現了兩位數的成長。本季雇主服務利潤率下降約 50 個基點，其中包括收購和匯率影響帶來的約 70 個基點的壓力。PEO 收入在本季成長了 15%，平均工作場所員工人數增加了 10%，達到 498,000 人。這一收入增長是由工作場所平均水平的增長所推動的——工作場所平均員工人數的增長，以及第二季度醫療保健保費上漲和工資高於預期所帶來的轉嫁收入的持續加速增長。轉嫁成本的加速成長是導致 PEO 本季報告利潤率下降 30 個基點的主要原因。我對我們兩個業務部門本季的表現都很滿意，同時，正如卡洛斯所提到的，我們將繼續努力加快今年剩餘時間的變革步伐。

Before I disclose our -- discuss our fiscal year 2018 outlook, I wanted to highlight some additional detail regarding the acquisition of WorkMarket. The results of operations of this business will be included in the Employer Services segment and are not expected to materially impact our updated revenue guidance. While we anticipate future synergies from this acquisition and our second quarter acquisition of Global Cash Card, we also anticipate some slight pressure to margins this year, largely driven by acquisition-related costs. Accordingly, we have factored these operational impacts into our updated fiscal year 2018 outlook. With these items in mind, I will now take a moment to walk through our revised outlook with you. First, as Carlos mentioned earlier, we are reaffirming our full year new business bookings guidance of 5% to 7% growth on the $1.65 billion sold in fiscal year 2017. With the higher-than-anticipated growth in our pass-through revenues during the first half of fiscal year '18, we have updated both our consolidated revenue forecast growth to 7% to 8% compared to our prior forecast of 6% to 8%, and our PEO revenue forecast to 12% to 13% from 11% to 13%. Our Employer Services revenue guidance of 4% to 5% remains unchanged. We are also now expecting growth in client fund interest revenues to increase $55 million to $65 million compared with our prior forecasted increase of $45 million to $55 million. The total impact from the client fund extended investment strategy is now expected to be up $45 million to $55 million compared to the prior forecast increase of $35 million to $45 million. The details of this forecast can be found in the supplemental slides on our Investor Relations website.

在公佈我們 2018 財年展望之前，我想先重點介紹收購 WorkMarket 的一些細節。該業務的經營業績將計入雇主服務部門，預計不會對我們更新後的收入預期產生重大影響。雖然我們預計此次收購以及我們在第二季度收購 Global Cash Card 將在未來產生協同效應，但我們也預計今年利潤率將面臨一些輕微壓力，這主要是由於收購相關成本造成的。因此，我們已將這些營運影響納入我們更新後的 2018 財年展望中。考慮到以上幾點，我現在將花一點時間與大家一起探討我們修改後的觀點。首先，正如卡洛斯先前提到的，我們重申全年新業務預訂量預期為在 2017 財年 16.5 億美元的基礎上增長 5% 至 7%。由於 2018 財年上半年轉嫁收入的成長高於預期，我們將合併收入成長預測從先前的 6% 至 8% 上調至 7% 至 8%，並將 PEO 收入預測從 11% 至 13% 上調至 12% 至 13%。我們對雇主服務收入成長4%至5%的預期維持不變。我們現在預計客戶基金利息收入將增加 5,500 萬美元至 6,500 萬美元，而我們先前預測的成長額為 4,500 萬美元至 5,500 萬美元。客戶基金擴展投資策略的總影響預計將從先前的 3,500 萬美元至 4,500 萬美元增加到 4,500 萬美元至 5,500 萬美元。此預測的詳細內容可在我們投資者關係網站的補充幻燈片中找到。

As a result of the growth in pass-through revenues, we have also updated our margin forecast, and now anticipate our consolidated adjusted EBIT margin to contract approximately 50 basis points compared to our previously forecasted contraction of 25 to 50 basis points from 19.8% in fiscal year 2017.

由於轉嫁收入的成長，我們也更新了利潤率預測，現在預計我們的合併調整後 EBIT 利潤率將比先前預測的從 2017 財年的 19.8% 下降 25 至 50 個基點下降約 50 個基點。

Overall, as our investments begin to make an impact, and we lap the easier compares from fiscal year 2017, we continue to anticipate a stronger finish as the year progresses. At a segment level, due to the pass-through pressure, we now anticipate PEO margins to be flat to down 25 basis points compared to our previous forecast of up 25 to 50 basis points. And we continue to anticipate margin contraction in Employer Services of 50 to 75 basis points, which includes approximately 60 basis points of pressure from acquisitions' costs and FX.

總的來說，隨著我們的投資開始產生影響，並且我們超越了 2017 財年相對較低的基數，我們繼續預期隨著今年的推進，業績會更加強勁。從細分市場層面來看，由於成本轉嫁壓力，我們現在預計 PEO 利潤率將持平或下降 25 個基點，而我們先前的預測是上升 25 至 50 個基點。我們繼續預期雇主服務業務的利潤率將收縮 50 至 75 個基點，其中包括收購成本和匯率帶來的約 60 個基點的壓力。

Adjusting to the anticipated benefits of U.S. corporate tax reform, we now expect our forecasted adjusted effective tax rate of fiscal year 2018 to be 26.9% compared to the 31.7%. This benefit is primarily attributable to the lower blended federal corporate statutory rate of 28.1% for fiscal year 2018.

考慮到美國企業稅制改革帶來的預期好處，我們現在預計 2018 財年的調整後實際稅率預測為 26.9%，而先前預測為 31.7%。這項好處主要歸功於 2018 財年較低的聯邦企業法定綜合稅率 28.1%。

Accordingly, we now expect growth in adjusted diluted earnings per share of 12% to 13% compared to our prior forecast of 5% to 7%. This forecast does not contemplate any further share buybacks beyond anticipated dilution related to equity compensation plans. However, it remains our intent to continue to return excess cash to shareholders, subject to market conditions.

因此，我們現在預計調整後稀釋每股盈餘將成長 12% 至 13%，而我們先前的預測為 5% 至 7%。該預測並未考慮除與股權激勵計劃相關的預期稀釋之外的任何進一步股票回購。然而，我們仍將視市場狀況，繼續向股東返還多餘現金。

Before moving to Q&A, I would like to touch briefly on our long-standing cash allocation strategy, which involves reinvesting in the business, pursuing acquisitions and returning capital to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks in that order. As I said earlier, we currently participate -- anticipate an adjusted effective tax rate of 26.9% for fiscal year 2018. And while new IRS guidance or interpretations may change things, we currently anticipate a future effective tax rate excluding any possible onetime items of 25% to 26% beyond fiscal year '18. Clearly, we are one of the beneficiaries of U.S. corporate tax reform. And while this offers us additional financial flexibility going forward, our priorities, which have delivered total strong shareholder return performance to our shareholders, remain unchanged. So with that, I will turn it over to the operator to take your questions.

在進入問答環節之前，我想簡要談談我們長期以來的現金分配策略，該策略包括按以下順序對業務進行再投資、進行收購以及通過分紅和股票回購將資本返還給股東。正如我之前所說，我們目前參與——預計 2018 財年的調整後實際稅率為 26.9%。雖然美國國稅局的新指導或解釋可能會改變情況，但我們目前預計，在 2018 財年之後，不包括任何可能的一次性項目，未來的有效稅率將為 25% 至 26%。顯然，我們是美國企業稅制改革的受益者之一。雖然這為我們未來的財務靈活性提供了更大的空間，但我們為股東帶來強勁回報的優先事項仍然不變。那麼，接下來我將把發言權交給接線員，由他來回答大家的問題。

(Operator Instructions) We will take our first question from the line of Jason Kupferberg of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

（操作員說明）我們將接受來自美國銀行美林證券的 Jason Kupferberg 的第一個問題。

I just wanted to start with a question on the margin outlook, obviously, understandable with the pass-throughs on the PEO side growing faster than expected. But you are still -- it looks like you're going to move from year-over-year declines in the first half of '18 to some modest year-over-year increases in margins in the second half. I wanted to see if you can also comment on the trend in underlying margins. I mean, if we exclude the PEO pass-throughs and the floating comment, you've talked a little bit about this in the past as far as this being perhaps a more accurate measure of underlying profitability, what are the trends you're seeing there?

我首先想問一個關於利潤率前景的問題，這很正常，因為 PEO 方面的轉嫁費用成長速度比預期要快。但你仍然——看起來你將從 2018 年上半年同比下降的局面，轉變為下半年利潤率小幅同比上升的局面。我想請您也談談對基礎利潤率趨勢的看法。我的意思是，如果我們排除 PEO 轉嫁費用和浮動評論（您過去也談到過這一點，認為這或許能更準確地衡量潛在盈利能力），您看到的趨勢是什麼？

I'll make a couple of comments, then maybe Jan can add some -- maybe more specifics. But I think in general, I think the answer is positive trends. Because the other factor that I think you didn't mention, which you do have to kind of factor in to understand what's really happening underneath the covers. So besides the PEO pass-throughs, we do have a couple of acquisitions now that are putting a little bit of pressure. And as you can see, the underlying trend must be pretty positive if we are holding to our full-year forecast for EPS and margins and so forth. So I think the fact that we're able to absorb the pressure, and I think it was mentioned previously that I think it was somewhere along the order of 70 basis points between acquisitions and FX, most of which was acquisitions in the Employer Services segment, I think gives you some sense that I think the underlying trends are positive. And I think it is important to note that as we've said before that some of this is related to comparisons and grow-overs. Just as a reminder, last year's second quarter, we had, I believe, it was somewhere around 20% growth in EBIT and EPS. And I think that gives you some sense of a company our size, and because of the recurring revenue nature of our business that those results last year were the result of the issues around ACA, which gave us tailwind on the revenues before we had lapped the expenses. So we've been talking about this now for 8 quarters. And I think the -- it starts to get a little bit easier going forward for it to be a little bit more clear what is happening. So maybe I'll let Jan add a couple of comments.

我先說幾點，然後 Jan 或許可以補充一些——也許可以提供更具體的資訊。但我認為總體而言，答案是積極的趨勢。因為還有另一個因素，我認為你沒有提到，但你必須把它考慮進去，才能理解表面之下真正發生的事情。所以除了 PEO 轉嫁之外，我們現在還有幾項收購，這給我們帶來了一些壓力。正如你所看到的，如果我們堅持全年每股收益和利潤率等的預測，那麼潛在的趨勢必然是相當積極的。所以我認為，我們能夠承受這種壓力，而且之前也提到過，收購和外匯之間的差額大約在 70 個基點左右，其中大部分是雇主服務領域的收購，我認為這足以說明，潛在的趨勢是積極的。我認為需要指出的是，正如我們之前所說，其中一些與比較和發展有關。提醒一下，去年第二季度，我們的息稅前利潤和每股盈餘成長了約 20%。我認為這能讓你對我們公司的規模有所了解，而且由於我們業務的經常性收入性質，去年的業績是《平價醫療法案》(ACA) 相關問題帶來的，這些問題在我們抵消支出之前就給我們帶來了收入增長。所以我們已經討論這個問題八個季度了。而且我認為──接下來會變得稍微容易一些，事情也會變得更加清晰一些。所以或許我可以請 Jan 補充幾句評論。

Yes. So if you -- Jason, if you think about our full-year guidance of 50% pressure, ADP-wide, like 30 to 40 bps comes -- pressure from acquisitions that we hadn't anticipated, were really clearly at the beginning of the year. And the pass-through pressure, if you calculate it out like we did historically, amounts to kind of a very strong 100, 130 bps pressure. So the rest is operational scale. And some of our initiatives that we launched a year-plus ago are now [leaped]. And we're going to see the benefit, increased benefit of that result. So there's operational scale that we anticipate last year. And that goes really across the entire business system. There's really not a specific function I can point out because I think the trend is, across the operations, fairly consistent.

是的。所以，Jason，如果你想想我們全年50%的壓力預期，ADP整體壓力約為30到40個基點——來自我們沒有預料到的收購的壓力，這在年初確實很明顯。如果按照我們以往的做法計算，傳遞壓力相當於非常強的 100 到 130 個基點的壓力。剩下的就是營運規模了。我們一年多前啟動的一些專案現在已經取得了[飛躍式發展]。我們將會看到這結果帶來的好處，而且是更大的好處。因此，我們預計去年的營運規模將會達到預期。這種情況其實貫穿整個商業體系。我實在找不到一個具體的函數來指出，因為我認為，就所有操作而言，趨勢都相當一致。

And I think one last thing that I would add is I think what's easier probably for, which we all should do going forward, is to really focus on ES and focus on PEO separately. There's really -- there's only 2. It's fairly straightforward to understand. So if you take the information we're giving you about ES, which we are very transparent about, and we're also giving you additional color here around the pressure from acquisitions and FX and so forth, you can really figure out that ES is performing well and ahead of our expectations and probably ahead of your expectations. And if you look at the PEO separately, the only issue in the PEO, which is not a negative issue, is that the pass-throughs grew faster than everyone anticipated. And that creates a margin issue. But to be clear, excluding pass-throughs, the PEO, what we call processing revenues, grew at a very healthy pace. And the profitability grew faster than the revenues of the PEO, excluding pass-throughs. And so both segments, I think, are performing well. And the mix that you get is mathematical and shouldn't necessarily get in the way of us understanding the underlying strength of the business.

最後我想補充一點，我認為以後我們都應該做的，是分別專注於員工支援 (ES) 和專業員工組織 (PEO)，這樣可能會更容易一些。實際上只有兩種。這很容易理解。所以，如果你結合我們提供的關於ES的資訊（我們對此非常透明），再加上我們在此提供的關於收購和外匯等方面的壓力等其他細節，你就能真正明白ES的表現良好，超出了我們的預期，也可能超出了你的預期。如果單獨來看 PEO，PEO 唯一的問題（但這並不是負面問題）是轉嫁費用成長速度超過了所有人的預期。這就造成了利潤率問題。但要先明確的是，除去轉嫁費用，PEO（我們稱之為處理收入）的成長速度非常健康。而且，利潤成長速度超過了 PEO 的收入成長速度（不包括轉嫁費用）。因此，我認為這兩個部分都表現良好。而你得到的這個組合是數學上的，不應該妨礙我們理解企業的潛在優勢。

Okay, that's all helpful. Just a quick follow-up on bookings. Obviously, good to see some recovery there in the fiscal second quarter. So you need to deliver, I guess, somewhere in the high single-digit range in the second half to achieve the full-year forecast. Obviously, the comps get easier. We're now more or less past the key selling season. So I wanted to see if you can just characterize the visibility on the affirmed 5% to 7% target compared to what that visibility looked like a quarter ago, including any sense that you might be able to provide on how January bookings might have trended at least directionally?

好的，這些資訊都很有幫助。關於預訂事宜，簡單跟進一下。顯然，很高興看到第二財季出現了一些復甦跡象。所以，我猜你們下半年需要達到接近兩位數的成長才能達到全年預期目標。顯然，比賽會變得越來越容易。我們現在差不多已經過了銷售旺季。因此，我想看看您能否描述一下目前已確認的 5% 至 7% 目標的可見性與一個季度前相比如何，包括您能否就 1 月份的預訂趨勢（至少在方向上）提供一些看法？

As you know, we wouldn't really comment on our bookings going forward, where -- the call is really to talk about what happened last quarter. And you have our, I guess, maintaining of our 5% to 7%. So I think that would give you some sense that we have confidence that we'll be able to deliver. But obviously, there's a lot of -- as always, there's an unknown. And bookings numbers are always the most unknown number, and this -- and the rest of the business is recurring revenue. Bookings are 1 week at a time, 1 day at a time, 1 month at a time. So you just have to wait and see for the results. But we're -- as we mentioned in our comments, the headcount growth that we've had, the additions to product, like those things will give us some confidence. And I think 6% growth was ahead of our expectations. It was strong. So it feels -- that feels good. And I'll also just point out that it just so happens that the second quarter new business bookings number is the highest we've ever had. So it's -- I think that's, I think, a testament to our ability of our sales force to really turn things around. But there's still a lot of work to do. It's still a very competitive market. So I think we have a lot of sales still in front of us. We had really good results in our downmarket, as we've had for the last several quarters. We had really good results also in our multinational business. And our PEO, I think, also did quite well, just to give you a little bit of additional color. But there's still a lot of wood to chop, for sure.

如您所知，我們不會就未來的預訂情況發表評論，這次電話會議主要是討論上個季度發生的事情。我想，我們維持在 5% 到 7% 的水平。所以我認為這應該能讓您感受到我們有信心能交付成果。但很顯然，還有很多——一如既往，有很多未知因素。預訂量始終是最難以捉摸的數字，而這——以及其他業務——都是經常性收入。預訂可以一次預訂 1 週，一次預訂 1 天，一次預訂 1 個月。所以你只能等待結果了。但是，正如我們在評論中提到的，員工人數的成長、產品線的擴充等等，這些都會為我們帶來一些信心。我認為6%的成長超出了我們的預期。它很強勁。感覺——感覺真好。我還要指出，恰好第二季的新業務預訂量是我們有史以來最高的。所以——我認為這證明了我們銷售團隊扭轉局面的能力。但還有很多工作要做。市場競爭依然非常激烈。所以我覺得我們還有很多銷售機會。我們在低階市場取得了非常好的業績，就像過去幾季一樣。我們在跨國業務方面也取得了非常好的成績。我覺得我們的 PEO 也表現得相當不錯，這可以給你補充一點資訊。但可以肯定的是，還有很多木頭要砍。

And our next question is from Tien-tsin Huang of JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的黃天進。

Just, I guess, you guys mentioned pace of change a couple of times. I'm curious if you can maybe elaborate on what you mean there and what you might do differently in terms of executing your strategy, et cetera.

我想，你們之前好像提到過幾次變化的速度。我很好奇您能否詳細解釋一下您的意思，以及您在執行策略等方面可能會採取哪些不同的做法等等。

Yes. Well, it's a good question. It's, unfortunately, probably beyond the scope of a brief answer because we have a lot of things going on. But we've always had a lot of things going on. So we have quite a number of initiatives that I think some have been -- we've been discussing with all of you, some of which we're not probably ready to start talking about yet. You heard in our comments about our strategic alignment initiatives. You've heard about our next-gen platforms, which we hadn't really discussed up until the fall of last year. So I think that gives you some sense of how much we had going on. And we have other things going as well, including a couple of acquisitions that we've mentioned, I think, on the call are pretty significant in the sense that they, despite slight pressure on our margins in the short term, we're very, very excited about in terms of what they do, in terms of opening up our -- the possibility of a wider market for us to go after with our existing distribution and sales force. And so we just have a number of initiatives. I wish I could kind of go down the list, but I think it might take longer than we have for the call. But we're trying to move and to complete our upgrades, which we're almost done with in the mid-market. We are accelerating -- trying to accelerate the pace of our go-to-market of our next-gen platforms. We want to do that at the right pace, but we're also trying to do it as quickly as possible because we recognize and we anticipate that it's going to create a competitive advantage for us. And this is our next-gen payroll platform as well as some of the back-office stuff, tax, including also our low code platform, which we discussed as we went on the road to talk to investors back in the fall. So just a lot of great things happening, and we're excited about trying to accelerate on a number of fronts.

是的。嗯，這是個好問題。很遺憾，這個問題可能超出了簡短回答的範圍，因為我們有很多事情要處理。但我們一直都有很多事情要處理。所以我們有很多計劃，我認為其中一些我們已經和大家討論過了，但有些我們可能還沒準備好開始討論。您在我們的評論中已經聽到了關於我們策略調整舉措的內容。你們都聽說過我們的下一代平台，直到去年秋季，我們才真正開始討論這些平台。所以我覺得這應該能讓你大致了解我們當時有多少事情要忙。我們還有其他一些項目正在進行中，包括我們在電話會議上提到的幾項收購。我認為，這些收購意義重大，儘管短期內會給我們的利潤率帶來一些壓力，但我們對它們所帶來的影響感到非常興奮，因為它們為我們開闢了更廣闊的市場，讓我們能夠利用現有的分銷和銷售團隊去開拓市場。因此，我們有很多舉措。我希望我能逐一列出清單，但我認為那可能需要比我們通話時間更長的時間。但我們正在努力推進並完成升級改造，在中階市場，我們的升級改造已經接近尾聲。我們正在加速——努力加快我們下一代平台的上市步伐。我們希望以合適的節奏來做這件事，但我們也正努力盡快完成，因為我們認識到並預見這將為我們創造競爭優勢。這是我們的下一代薪資平台，以及一些後台辦公功能、稅務功能，還包括我們的低程式碼平台，我們在去年秋天與投資者交流時也討論過這個平台。所以現在有很多好事發生，我們很高興能在多個方面加快步伐。

All right. Great. Just maybe just my quick follow-up for Jan, just the impact on the -- on flow balance growth from tax reform. I was a little surprised to see plus 7% for the year if you have 3% prior. Can you -- just a big picture question on that.

好的。偉大的。也許我只是想就一月份的情況做個簡短的後續說明，談談稅制改革對資金流動平衡成長的影響。如果之前的殖利率是 3%，那麼今年殖利率竟然是 7%，這讓我有點驚訝。您能－就這個問題問一個比較宏觀的看法嗎？

Yes. We hadn't gotten a balance question for a long time, Tien-tsin, so I appreciate that. The balance growth accelerated for the quarter to about a little bit more than 7%, and there was a percent of FX in it. So excluding FX, the balance growth was 6.6% actually. And the guidance that we give is 4% to 5%. So you see, for the remainder of the year, we anticipate a little bit slower balance growth. And you point out that taxes, which represent about 3/4 of our total client fund balances, are impacted by a lower effective tax rate. And so the estimates -- before I talk about the outlook, in December, we did see higher bonus payment activity, which we attribute maybe to corporate behavior that is related to the corporate tax reform. So was also the growth maybe slightly inflated for the quarter relative to the run rate, but we also had good payroll performance basically in the balances. So for the year, we anticipate 2 to -- 1% to 2% kind of potential impact on growth that the corporate tax -- that tax reform in general and the retail rates could have. There's a little bit uncertainty. I don't think nobody really knows exactly how big the impact is going to be on the personal rates, but that's anticipated. So hence, the 4% to 5% is still better than we had, but it is -- includes this 1% to 2% rough estimate on the lower tax balances basically.

是的。天心，我們很久沒收到關於平衡的問題了，我很感激。本季餘額成長加速至略高於 7%，其中 1% 為外匯交易。因此，剔除外匯因素後，實質餘額成長率為 6.6%。我們給的指導意見是 4% 到 5%。所以你看，在今年剩餘的時間裡，我們預期餘額成長速度會稍慢一些。您指出，稅收約占我們客戶資金總額的 3/4，而較低的實際稅率會影響稅收。因此，在談到前景之前，我們先來看看 12 月的估計，當時我們確實看到獎金支付活動有所增加，我們認為這可能是由於與企業稅制改革相關的企業行為所致。因此，與正常水平相比，本季的成長可能略有膨脹，但我們的薪資表現總體上也很好。因此，我們預計今年企業稅——總體而言的稅收改革和零售稅率——可能會對經濟成長產生 2% 到 2% 的潛在影響。還有一些不確定因素。我認為沒有人真正知道這對個人稅率會有多大影響，但這正在預料之中。因此，4%到5%仍然比我們之前的情況要好，但這基本上包含了對較低稅負的1%到2%的粗略估計。

And our next question is from Jim Schneider of Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自高盛的吉姆·施耐德。

I was wondering if you could maybe comment on the broader business environment in the different segments and what you're seeing in terms of client feedback, either on the overall economy, generally speaking, and/or in terms of the impact of tax reform on their business. How does that translate into bookings, if at all? And generally speaking, is the client tone kind of optimistic? And is it different across the different sizes of the clients?

我想請您談談不同領域的整體商業環境，以及您從客戶回饋方面看到的情況，包括對整體經濟狀況的看法，以及稅務改革對他們業務的影響。這最終能轉化為多少預訂量？總的來說，客戶的語氣比較樂觀嗎？不同規模的客戶群情況是否有所不同？

So again, we have -- I guess, we can give you some anecdotal information. But I think we like -- because of the size of our company and also the size of our sales force and the geographic disbursement of our folks and our clients, I think it's best to focus kind of on macro trends. And so we do look at a lot of the macro trends. And we have a lot of information, obviously, around our national employment report and wage inflation. And so far, that gives us some insight. But rather than getting into kind of anecdotal stories, because the anecdotal stories are pretty positive. Everyone seems to be very positive and very happy. But the -- I think all the numbers that we're looking at that everyone else looks at, which are important for us to understand in terms of the potential drivers to our business, when you look at Small Business optimism, consumer confidence, like all of these indicators, I think, are all very -- pointing in very positive directions. We look at things also, particularly in our downmarket, around bankruptcies and new business formations. So there's just a number of economic indicators that are pointing to strong underlying growth. One of the things that's been a positive surprise to us, I think we had our National Employment Report issued today. And I think this is the second quarter where I think Jan and I would both say that we are pleased, but slightly surprised, by the strength, the underlying strength of growth in employment still. So we're still kind of bullish and positive that our sales force will be able to take advantage of what's a very, very strong underlying economy. Our downmarket business and our PEO should hopefully especially be beneficiaries -- other things notwithstanding, should be beneficiaries of this kind of strong underlying tailwind around Small Business optimism and new business formation. So I think it's all positive. I think the other factor that obviously will help us as well, and to the extent that it doesn't then turn into a negative down the road, is to the extent that wage inflation picks up and maybe interest rates begin to tick up, which they are, that obviously helps us in our fluid income business, which we happen to believe is part of our core business. The SEC also agrees with us. As you know, it's part of our operating results. And we spent many years having to fight the headwinds. And again -- and if you looked at our margins over the last 6 or 7 years, we absorbed several hundred million dollars in headwind and still managed to either maintain or improve margin slightly in the face of -- if you looked at the business that way in terms of the overall ADP margin. So now, we're looking forward to hopefully getting a little bit of help. And just to put it in perspective, in Q2 of '08, the average yield on our balances was around 4.5%, and the balances were around $14 billion. Today, our balances are around $22 billion, and our average yield is 1.9. So it just gives you a sense of -- and our margins are higher, obviously, today than they were back then. And we had $160 million or so in float income then and about $100 million or so -- it was $107 million this quarter. So that's another kind of economic factor that we are looking forward to benefiting from here on a go-forward basis. We have -- I would caution you that we've spent the last 2 or 3 years expecting that to happen, and it didn't quite happen. But it does look like, finally, we're in an environment where not only our balances will hopefully grow at a healthier rate because of wage inflation, but that will bring with it some improvements in interest rates -- at least improvement from our perspective, which is higher interest rates.

所以，我們再次——我想，我們可以給你一些軼事資訊。但我認為，鑑於我們公司的規模、銷售團隊的規模以及員工和客戶的地理分佈，我們最好還是專注於宏觀趨勢。因此，我們會關注很多宏觀趨勢。顯然，我們掌握了大量關於國家就業報告和薪資通膨的資訊。目前來看，這給了我們一些線索。但與其深入探討一些軼事，因為這些軼事大多是正面的。每個人看起來都很積極樂觀，也很開心。但是——我認為我們正在關注的所有數據，也是其他人關注的所有數據，對於我們了解業務的潛在驅動因素都很重要，例如小企業樂觀情緒、消費者信心等等，我認為所有這些指標都指向非常積極的方向。我們也會注意一些事情，尤其是在低迷的市場中，例如破產和新企業成立方面。因此，許多經濟指標都指向強勁的潛在成長。令我們感到驚訝的事情之一是，我們今天發布了全國就業報告。我認為這是第二個季度，我和 Jan 都對就業成長的強勁勢頭感到滿意，但也略感意外。所以我們仍然相當樂觀，相信我們的銷售團隊能夠利用當前非常強勁的經濟基本面。撇開其他因素不談，我們的低端市場業務和我們的 PEO 業務應該尤其受益於小型企業樂觀情緒和新企業成立帶來的這種強勁的潛在順風。所以我覺得一切都是正面的。我認為另一個顯然也會對我們有所幫助的因素，而且只要它不會在未來變成負面影響，那就是工資通膨上升，利率可能開始上漲（而它們確實在上漲），這顯然有助於我們的流動收入業務，而我們恰好認為這是我們核心業務的一部分。美國證券交易委員會也同意我們的觀點。如您所知，這是我們經營業績的一部分。我們花了多年時間與逆風作鬥爭。再說一次——如果你看看我們過去 6 或 7 年的利潤率，我們承受了數億美元的逆風，但仍然設法保持或略微提高了利潤率——如果你從 ADP 整體利潤率的角度來看待這項業務的話。所以現在，我們期待著能得到一些幫助。為了讓大家有個概念，2008 年第二季度，我們帳戶餘額的平均收益率約為 4.5%，餘額約為 140 億美元。目前，我們的資產餘額約為 220 億美元，平均收益率為 1.9%。所以這讓你感覺——而且很顯然，我們現在的利潤率比以前高了。當時我們的浮動收入約為 1.6 億美元，而本季約為 1 億美元——為 1.07 億美元。所以，這是我們期待未來能從中受益的另一個經濟因素。我們必須提醒您，在過去兩三年裡，我們一直期待這種情況發生，但它並沒有完全發生。但看起來，我們最終身處的環境不僅有望因工資上漲而使我們的存款餘額以更健康的速度增長，而且還會帶來利率的一些改善——至少從我們的角度來看，利率會有所改善。

And maybe as a follow-up, can you maybe be a little bit more explicit about how you intend to use the benefits of corporate tax reform? I know you reiterated the overall capital allocation policy, but some of your competitors have called for reinvesting a substantial portion of that savings in one way or another. So can you maybe clarify what you would intend to do more reinvestment? Or would you seek to give most of that back to shareholders?

作為後續問題，您能否更明確地說明您打算如何利用企業稅制改革的好處？我知道您重申了整體資本配置政策，但您的一些競爭對手呼籲以某種方式將相當一部分節省下來的資金進行再投資。那麼，您能否具體說明一下，您打算如何進行更多再投資？或者您會考慮將大部分收益回饋給股東嗎？

At the risk of contradicting Jan, who's our CFO, I would say that I think what Jan stated is actually quite accurate. We are not a capital-constrained business. We never -- we haven't been for a long time for several decades. So I guess, other companies are in maybe different situations. But we've been investing in our business, and we've communicated that. And it's created a little bit of pressure in fiscal year '18, and it created some pressure 5 or 6 years ago. So we've -- ADP has always been in growing markets that have a lot of opportunity. And hence, we've been in investment mode for a long time. And tax rates and tax policy in our specific situation, if you are perhaps a manufacturer with multinational operations, differences in tax rates might lead to different capital allocation strategies. But we welcome tax reform because we think it's good for the economy, it's good for U.S. competitiveness, and that's good for ADP as well. But our company specifically is not capital-constrained. And so we would anticipate that the majority of the benefits of tax reform will flow to the bottom line. And subject to the board's approval, things like share buybacks and dividends should flow from that. Having said that, we are looking at some modest increases in our charitable contributions, and perhaps increasing some of the wages of some of our folks who are at 15 -- below $15 an hour. And also, we anticipate having a higher merit-based pool for our merit increases in the next fiscal year. So we are doing some things to, I think, make some investments in our business. But I think the message you should hear is the one that Jan delivered, which is the majority of the benefits of tax reform to ADP's bottom line should flow through, I think, to shareholders.

冒著與我們的財務長 Jan 的說法相悖的風險，我想說，我認為 Jan 的說法實際上相當準確。我們並非資金受限的企業。我們從來沒有──我們已經幾十年沒有去過那裡了。所以我想，其他公司的情況可能會有所不同。但我們一直在投資我們的業務，我們也已經傳達了這一點。這給 2018 財年帶來了一些壓力，5 或 6 年前也帶來了一些壓力。所以，ADP一直都在充滿機會的成長型市場中發展。因此，我們已經長期處於投資模式。在我們具體的情況下，如果您是一家擁有跨國業務的製造商，稅率和稅收政策的差異可能會導致不同的資本配置策略。但我們歡迎稅制改革，因為我們認為這有利於經濟，有利於美國的競爭力，對ADP也有好處。但我們公司並不受資金限制。因此，我們預期稅制改革的大部分好處將體現在企業的獲利上。經董事會批准後，股票回購和分紅等事宜即可由此展開。話雖如此，我們正在考慮適度增加慈善捐款，或許還會提高一些時薪低於 15 美元的員工的薪水。此外，我們預計下一財年基於績效的加薪資金池將會更高。所以，我認為，我們正在採取一些措施，對我們的業務進行一些投資。但我認為你應該聽到的是 Jan 傳達的訊息，那就是稅改為 ADP 帶來的大部分好處，我認為，最終應該惠及股東。

And our next question is from David Grossman with Stifel.

下一個問題來自 Stifel 公司的 David Grossman。

Carlos, if you just go back to that last question about the macro or in the relatively strong labor markets. And maybe this isn't kind of the right metric to look at, but your pays per control has stayed relatively stable over the last 3 years. Could you perhaps at least make the connection between what we're seeing in the underlying labor markets in that particular metric?

卡洛斯，如果你回到上一個關於宏觀經濟或相對強勁的勞動市場的問題。或許這不是衡量標準，但在過去 3 年裡，你的每次控球得分一直保持相對穩定。您能否至少將我們從該特定指標中看到的潛在勞動力市場狀況與此聯繫起來？

Yes. I think it's -- honestly, I think it's consistent because what happens is the unemployment rate doesn't always reflect everything that's happening because, as you know, the underemployment rate has also been coming down. So as people get pulled back into the labor market, that can create underlying growth in labor that might not be reflected in the government's reported unemployment rate. Our NER number, obviously, doesn't take into account -- it's just a pure number of how many people are getting hired each month. And I think the trends there have been strong and consistent, as you said, for several quarters. So I think our pays per control metric, or NER, in my opinion, are better proxies for measuring underlying labor growth, unless you're willing to go one level deeper in the government's data and not focus just on the unemployment rate. So I don't know, Jan probably has a couple of comments.

是的。說實話，我認為這是一致的，因為失業率並不總是反映所有正在發生的事情，因為，正如你所知，就業不足率也在下降。因此，隨著人們重新回到勞動市場，這可能會造成勞動市場的潛在成長，而這種成長可能不會反映在政府公佈的失業率中。顯然，我們的 NER 數據並沒有考慮這一點——它只是每個月有多少人被錄用的純粹數字。正如你所說，我認為這方面的趨勢已經持續了好幾個季度，而且勢頭強勁。所以我認為，我們的每控制人員薪酬指標（或稱淨就業率）在我看來是衡量潛在勞動力成長的更好指標，除非你願意深入研究政府數據，而不僅僅是關注失業率。所以我也不知道，Jan 可能有一些意見。

David, I think the delta between the national growth employment, which hovers around 2%, I believe, and our 2.5% pays per control is fairly consistent. So our client base historically has outgrown the economy a tiny bit, and that has to do with company mix and the type of clients we attract. So the trends are strong. And I think what Carlos was indicating in his earlier comments is really a question of how long is the U.S. labor market providing that type of pool for those types of growth rates. And I think you see this in the beginnings of the wage levels increasing and the tighter labor market. So at some point, that could happen. But so far, our trends are very consistent and consistent with the reports of the overall economy.

戴維，我認為全國就業成長（大約在 2% 左右）與我們 2.5% 的單位薪資之間的差距相當穩​​定。因此，從歷史上看，我們的客戶群成長速度略微超過了經濟成長速度，這與公司組成和我們吸引的客戶類型有關。所以這些趨勢很強勁。我認為卡洛斯在先前的評論中真正指出的問題是，美國勞動市場還能為這種成長率提供多久的勞動力儲備。我認為這一點可以從工資水準的上漲和勞動市場的趨緊中看出。所以，在某種程度上，這種情況可能會發生。但到目前為止，我們的趨勢非常穩定，與整體經濟報告相符。

Right. And just -- one point of clarification. I'm sorry, I've just forgotten how this was accounted for. But when you divested the consumer-directed benefits business last year, are those numbers still in the historical base? And if so, is that about 100 basis points of headwind to your growth rate this year? Or is that eliminated from the base?

正確的。還有一點需要澄清。抱歉，我忘了這件事是怎麼處理的。但是，去年你們剝離了面向消費者的福利業務後，這些數字還在歷史基數範圍內嗎？如果是這樣，那麼今年你們的成長率是否會受到大約 100 個基點的不利影響？或者說，它已經從基礎中剔除了？

That is correct. It is -- there's no more -- not no more, but discontinued ops treatment changed a while back. And so that is one of the things that we have to help you with, both from an acquisition and disposition standpoint of making sure that you guys understand all the ins and outs. And so we just finished lapping that disposition. And it will not be in our numbers on a go-forward basis, but it has put about 1 point of pressure for the last 4 quarters on our growth rates.

沒錯。確實——沒有了——不是完全沒有了，而是停用的手術治療方法在一段時間前就改變了。所以，這是我們需要幫助你們的事情之一，無論是在收購還是處置方面，都要確保你們了解所有來龍去脈。所以我們剛剛結束了對這種佈局的討論。雖然這不會影響我們未來的業績，但在過去 4 個季度裡，它給我們的成長率帶來了約 1 個百分點的壓力。

That's right. And part of the acceleration that you'll see is driven by that thing growing out, but we also then have acceleration of our organic revenue growth driven by the 2 incremental acquisitions that we did. So both the impact in the quarter from M&A activity was slightly below 1%. And so all netted out in the quarter.

這是正確的。您將會看到，部分成長是由該業務的成長所驅動的，但我們的有機收入成長也得益於我們進行的兩次新增收購。因此，本季併購活動的影響略低於 1%。所以，所有費用都計入了本季。

Our next question is from Rick Eskelsen of Wells Fargo.

下一個問題來自富國銀行的里克·埃斯克爾森。

Carlos, I just wanted to circle back on your comments earlier about acquisitions. I know for a while you'd really stressed simplifying the business. And now that you've made these acquisitions, I'm just wondering if you could sort of tie it into your prior comments about simplification. Did you get the business to a point where it made sense to bolt these things on? Did you see things in the internal environment? Just sort of if you can help us tie it together to your prior strategy.

卡洛斯，我只是想就你之前關於收購的評論再補充一點。我知道有一段時間你一直非常重視簡化業務。既然您已經完成了這些收購，我想知道您是否可以將其與您先前關於簡化的評論聯繫起來。你的業務發展到一定程度，才適合添置這些東西嗎？你有沒有看到內部環境的狀況？如果您能幫助我們將它與您之前的策略聯繫起來就太好了。

It's a great question because, again, people can convince themselves of anything. So I think we believe that this is not a departure from our strategy around simplification because, frankly, we still have a lot of work to do on that front. So these acquisitions are -- in the case of the Global Cash Card, we did have a card business, but we have a very clear plan that is fairly quick around migrating onto the Global Cash Card platform. So we bought that acquisition, not to keep it as a separate business, to just have another thing hanging off on the side that we go out and sell and have no integration, which is what got us maybe into some challenges over the years. There's a very clear plan here with a very clear time line and with a very clear benefit. So we feel like we gained a lot in terms of efficiency, innovation and distribution with Global Cash Card. And our plan is to use that platform on a go-forward basis. And I think we mentioned that shortly after the acquisition. So that would be very different from maybe historically some things that we acquired that just basically added another product into the lineup and, in many cases, added another product in a business that we were already in. So as an example, we accumulated several benefits, administration platforms and several payroll platforms over the years, and these acquisitions are really entering new markets that are fast-growing with big upside rather than just accumulating, I guess, additional assets in existing businesses. The WorkMarket acquisition is opening up a whole new category for us, which is independent contractors or freelance workers. So again, like anything in life, we acknowledge that we could look back 2 or 3 years from now and say that was all a rationalization, and it just added more complexity. But we think that the risk/reward here was definitely on the right -- came out on the right side to make these investments. And we're incredibly excited about what they could do to our top line growth and our new business bookings going forward.

這是一個很好的問題，因為人們總是可以讓自己相信任何事。所以我認為，這並不違背我們簡化策略的初衷，因為坦白說，我們在這一方面還有很多工作要做。所以這些收購——以 Global Cash Card 為例，我們確實有信用卡業務，但我們有一個非常清晰的計劃，可以相當迅速地遷移到 Global Cash Card 平台。所以我們收購了這家公司，但不是為了把它當作一家獨立的企業來經營，而是為了在旁邊再添置一項業務，然後我們再把它賣掉，而沒有​​進行任何整合，這或許就是這些年來我們遇到一些挑戰的原因。這裡有一個非常清晰的計劃，有非常清晰的時間表，也有非常清晰的好處。因此，我們感覺到透過 Global Cash Card，我們在效率、創新和分銷方面都獲得了很大的提升。我們的計劃是繼續使用該平台。我想我們在收購完成後不久就提到過這一點。所以，這與我們歷史上收購的一些東西非常不同，那些東西基本上只是在產品線中增加了另一種產品，而且在很多情況下，只是在我們已經涉足的業務中增加了另一種產品。例如，多年來我們累積了多個福利、管理平台和薪資平台，這些收購實際上是進入快速成長且具有巨大發展潛力的新市場，而不僅僅是在現有業務中累積額外的資產。收購 WorkMarket 為我們開闢了一個全新的領域，那就是獨立承包商或自由工作者。所以，就像生活中的任何事情一樣，我們承認，兩三年後我們可能會回頭看，說這一切都只是自我安慰，只會讓事情變得更加複雜。但我們認為，這裡的風險/回報絕對是合理的——進行這些投資是正確的。我們非常興奮地期待它們能為我們未來的營收成長和新業務預訂帶來怎樣的提升。

Very helpful. Just my follow-up is on the balance sheet, Jan, you saw -- flipped to a net debt position. Unusual for you guys. I know some of that's probably due to timing and some acquisition payments. But just sort of talk about your comfort with the balance sheet and staying potentially in a net debt position.

很有幫助。Jan，你也看到了，我的後續跟進是資產負債表——已經轉為淨負債。對你們來說這很不尋常。我知道其中一些可能是由於時機和一些收購款項造成的。但請談談您對資產負債表的信心，以及您能否接受可能維持淨負債狀況。

Yes. I think there's just really, on the balance sheet, nothing fundamental happened. We had a few short-term movements on the accounts receivable that resolved themselves. We had the acquisition payment. The balance sheet movement is nothing that would concern us. The business generates free cash flow in line with our operating earnings growth. And so I'm not seeing anything. What you see and what you will observe is, due to the rising rate environment, the gains in our client fund portfolio have shifted to a loss, which means, basically, the embedded rate in our client fund portfolio are now lower than the market rates. But since we hold all these securities to maturity, there will be no impact on our operations. So this is to be expected for the portion of the client fund assets that we have on our balance sheet. That should be -- that's just mathematical basically.

是的。我認為，從資產負債表上看，實際上並沒有任何根本性的變化。我們在應收帳款方面出現了一些短期波動，但都已自行解決。我們已收到收購款項。資產負債表的變動不會讓我們感到擔憂。該業務產生的自由現金流與我們的營業利潤成長保持同步。所以我什麼也看不見。您所看到的和將會觀察到的是，由於利率環境上升，我們客戶基金組合的收益已經轉為虧損，這意味著，基本上，我們客戶基金組合中的內含利率現在低於市場利率。但由於我們持有所有這些證券直至到期，因此不會對我們的營運產生任何影響。因此，對於我們資產負債表上的那部分客戶資金資產而言，出現這種情況是意料之中的。那應該是——這基本上只是數學問題。

And I think -- I would just comment that I think we still have one of the most conservative balance sheets around. And I think that the debt offering that we did, which is now that we've returned several billion dollars back in the form of share buybacks over the last few years, as you see our cash balance going down, that's exactly what we want it to do. We're trying to optimize our capital structure. So I would argue we still have a little bit of debt capacity. And I think we're very happy with our balance sheet, as are the credit rating agencies. And we have all the financial flexibility in the world that we need. So I see it, frankly, as a positive that we've worked down our balances through both acquisitions, share buybacks and dividends our cash balances.

而且我認為——我只想說，我認為我們仍然擁有最保守的資產負債表之一。我認為，我們進行的債務發行，以及過去幾年我們透過股票回購返還的數十億美元，正如你所看到的，我們的現金餘額正在下降，這正是我們所希望看到的。我們正在努力優化資本結構。所以我認為我們仍然有一定的舉債能力。我認為我們對自己的資產負債表非常滿意，信用評級機構也是如此。我們擁有所需的一切財務靈活性。坦白說，我認為我們透過收購、股票回購和分紅來降低現金餘額是一件好事。

Our next question is from James Berkley of Barclays.

下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的詹姆斯·伯克利。

Just on the recent WorkMarket and Global Cash deals, could you speak to the opportunity on the cost and revenue synergy side, particularly as it pertains to helping ADP continue its push towards cloud-based solutions and expand into new markets? Just what percent of your business in terms of revenue you see this deal touching -- the deal's touching? And what size TAM do you see that opening up for you? I know you spoke to new opportunities there as well.

就最近 WorkMarket 和 Global Cash 的交易而言，您能否談談成本和收入協同效應的機會，特別是對於幫助 ADP 繼續推進基於雲端的解決方案並拓展新市場而言？您認為這筆交易將影響貴公司多少百分比的收入？你認為這將為你帶來多大的潛在市場規模？我知道你也談到了那裡的新機會。

Listen, it's a great question. Again, it's probably beyond the scope of the call, but I'll try to give you a little bit of color. As with a lot of things that ADP does, I hate to keep saying it, but because of our size, the short-term impact on revenues in the bottom line are not going to be immediately obvious. Other than a little bit of pressure on our margin as a result of some dilution. But that's only really short term. On the Global Cash Card side, I think we've given a ballpark, it's probably around a $100 million business in terms of revenues. That gives you some sense. We expect that, when it's combined with our pay card business, to grow faster than the line average of the business. We've, I think, mentioned previously in our comments about impact of acquisitions that our acquisition had about a 1% impact on our revenue growth. So I think it gives you a little bit of sizing, if you will. WorkMarket was small, but the technology and the platform -- first of all, it is a cloud-based platform modern technology stack. We anticipate that, that could touch and is an opportunity for our entire client base in the United States in the domestic market. Almost every company from small to large companies use independent contractors or freelance workers. And so, obviously, it's going to take us some time to make sure that we have the right value proposition of the combination of Global Cash Card with WorkMarket, with our traditional compliance and HCM solutions. But as we work through that, we think that, that opens up an enormous market for us in the kind of the rest of the way people work, which are around freelance workers. So I think having the ability to cover both W2, traditional W2 employees as well as freelance workers, I think this opens up a huge opportunity for ADP. The freelance market is growing faster than the W2 way of employing people. And so I think that also allows us to capture that segment of the market, which is clearly growing faster than the traditional part of the economy, which is the traditional W2 employer -- employee.

聽著，這是一個很好的問題。這可能超出了本次通話的範圍，但我會盡量提供一些細節。就像 ADP 做的很多事情一樣，我不想再說一遍，但由於我們的規模，短期內對利潤的影響不會立即顯現。除了由於股權稀釋而導致利潤率略有壓力。但這只是短期效果。就全球現金卡業務而言，我認為我們已經給出了一個大致的估算，其收入可能在 1 億美元左右。這讓你明白了一些道理。我們預計，當它與我們的支付卡業務結合起來時，其成長速度將超過該業務的平均水平。我想，我們之前在關於收購影響的評論中已經提到過，我們的收購對我們的營收成長產生了約 1% 的影響。所以我覺得它能給你一些尺寸上的參考。WorkMarket雖然規模不大，但它的技術和平台—首先，它是一個基於雲端的現代化技術棧平台。我們預計，這可能會對我們在美國國內市場的全體客戶群帶來機會。從小公司到大公司，幾乎所有公司都會使用獨立承包商或自由工作者。因此，很顯然，我們需要一些時間來確保 Global Cash Card 與 WorkMarket 結合，以及我們傳統的合規和 HCM 解決方案，能夠帶來正確的價值主張。但隨著我們逐步解決這個問題，我們認為，這將為我們開闢一個巨大的市場，尤其是在人們的工作方式方面，也就是圍繞自由工作者的工作方式。所以我認為，ADP 能夠同時涵蓋 W2（傳統 W2 員工）和自由工作者，這為 ADP 帶來了巨大的機會。自由職業市場的發展速度比傳統的W2僱用模式更快。因此，我認為這也能讓我們抓住這部分市場，這部分市場的成長速度顯然比傳統的經濟部分（即傳統的 W2 雇主 - 員工）要快。

Yes. Just for the market sizing, we have approximately, I think, 170 million W2 workers and about 50 million to 60 million 1099 workers in U.S. according to our market research. So -- and about 90% of our major accounts, the national account clients have meaningful contingent worker employments. So that makes the acquisition that is clearly very early stage, very small today kind of strategically so interesting to us. And so it will do 2 things. I think it will enhance the competitiveness of our core offerings because, over time, this will take a little bit of a while to integrate, but it will become part of our -- deeply integrated into our core HCM platforms. And then we'll offer, obviously, incremental revenue opportunities to service those gig workers. So for the immediate impact during -- given the small size this business is today, next 18 months, probably not as much, but over time I think a meaningful differentiation going forward.

是的。僅就市場規模而言，根據我們的市場調查，美國約有 1.7 億 W2 員工和 5,000 萬至 6,000 萬 1,099 員工。因此，我們大約 90% 的主要客戶（全國性客戶）都有相當數量的臨時工。所以，這筆目前顯然還處於非常早期階段、規模很小的收購，對我們來說在策略上卻非常有趣。所以它會做兩件事。我認為這將增強我們核心產品的競爭力，因為隨著時間的推移，這需要一段時間才能整合，但它將成為我們的一部分——與我們的核心 HCM 平台深度整合。然後，我們顯然會提供額外的收入機會來服務這些零工勞工。因此，就目前而言，考慮到這家公司目前的規模較小，未來 18 個月內可能不會產生太大影響，但隨著時間的推移，我認為未來將會出現顯著的差異化。

Yes. I would think, over time, there'd be some ample opportunity there on the margin side, just given the shift to the cloud, and the fact you can touch your entire U.S. ES segment, it looks like. But just as a quick follow-up, just on the -- in terms of you guys are nearing the end of your mid-market migrations, should we see a meaningful benefit to margins from shutting down the old platform at all? Or any color you can give on the progress and timing or expectations for the upmarket as well would be helpful.

是的。我認為，隨著時間的推移，在利潤方面會有相當大的機會，因為隨著向雲端的轉變，而且看起來你可以觸及整個美國企業服務部門。但我想快速跟進一下——就你們即將完成中端市場遷移而言，關閉舊平台是否能為利潤率帶來實質的好處？如果您能提供一些關於高端市場進展、時間表或預期方面的信息，那就太好了。

I think the best way to look at it is to see the experience we had in Small Business in our downmarket, which is the shutdown of the platform, of legacy platforms when they occur are -- they have an impact on our margins and our cost. But typically, the largest cost, the largest improvement comes as a result of simplification and focus and ability to really focus on process improvement in a single platform. And that usually evolves over time. So what you've seen in the downmarket, I think as we've given you color every quarter and every year for the last 3 or 4 years, the day that we shut down the legacy Small Business platform, the next day, we didn't have this massive margin improvement and an incredible reduction in cost. But over the ensuing 2 or 3 years, we did. And so that business has increased its volume in a significant way in the last 3 or 4 years, and the headcount has remained relatively flat. And we attribute a lot of that to, first, developing the right technology; second, migrating all the clients onto one platform; and third, driving process improvement to take out non-value-added activities and really create value for the clients. And so we anticipate the same thing happening in the mid-markets. So the good news is, if you look at that historical experience in Small Business is that we're close to the end on phase one. We have the technology. We have the upgrades almost complete. And now, over the next several quarters and years, we anticipate real benefits to accrue to us from the simplification and the focus.

我認為最好的看待這個問題的方式是藉鑒我們在小型企業市場低迷時期的經驗，也就是傳統平台關閉時所遇到的情況——這會對我們的利潤率和成本產生影響。但通常來說，最大的成本和最大的改進來自於簡化、集中精力以及在一個平台上真正專注於流程改進的能力。而且這種情況通常會隨著時間推移而改變。所以，正如我們過去三、四年每個季度和每年都向您展示的那樣，在市場低迷時期，我們關閉了傳統的小型企業平台，第二天，我們並沒有獲得巨大的利潤率提升和成本大幅下降。但在接下來的兩三年裡，我們做到了。因此，在過去的 3 到 4 年裡，該業務的規模顯著增長，而員工人數則保持相對穩定。我們認為這很大程度上歸功於：第一，開發了正確的技術；第二，將所有客戶遷移到一個平台上；第三，推動流程改進，消除非增值活動，真正為客戶創造價值。因此，我們預期中端市場也會出現同樣的情況。所以好消息是，如果你回顧小企業的歷史經驗，你會發現我們已經接近第一階段的尾聲了。我們擁有這項技術。升級工作已基本完成。現在，在接下來的幾個季度和幾年裡，我們預計簡化流程和專注將為我們帶來真正的好處。

And as a reminder, improvement in retention is probably economically the most important factor in this, so we still have a few clients to migrate as we saw in the mid-market in the third quarter. And as we have indicated in the past, we take a very, very careful approach, so that we don't lose clients in the process unnecessarily. But you never know when you come to the end. But -- so the stabilization of retention rates that we have seen and the improvement, quite frankly, in the mid-market, hopefully, will continue. And that will drive really then incremental profit opportunity by just keeping more clients longer.

需要提醒的是，提高客戶留存率可能是其中最重要的經濟因素，因此我們仍然有一些客戶需要遷移，就像我們在第三季在中端市場看到的那樣。正如我們過去所表明的那樣，我們採取非常非常謹慎的態度，以免在過程中不必要地失去客戶。但你永遠不知道何時會走到盡頭。但是——因此，我們看到的客戶留存率趨於穩定，坦白說，中端市場也出現了改善，希望這種情況能持續下去。這樣一來，透過延長客戶留存時間，就能真正帶來增加利潤機會。

That's a fair point. It's great that Jan brought that up because if we go back to Small Business, a main reason why we've seen these margin improvements, efficiency improvements and client experience improvements is because of all the things I mentioned about one platform simplification. But clearly, we have much higher retention rates in the downmarket than we did 4 or 5 years ago. And that obviously leads to incredible improvement in the economics of these businesses.

這話說得有道理。Jan 提出這一點非常好，因為如果我們回到小型企業，我們看到利潤率提高、效率提高和客戶體驗提高的主要原因，就是我提到的關於簡化單一平台的所有因素。但很顯然，我們現在在低階市場的客戶留存率比 4 或 5 年前高得多。這顯然會大大改善這些企業的經濟狀況。

Our next question is from David Togut of Evercore ISI.

我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 David Togut。

Historically, Carlos, ADP's seen a nice pickup in demand whenever there's major changes in the tax code. And I think, historically, those changes have created more complexity, which drives the increased demand. Could you talk about U.S. corporate tax reform in terms of whether you think it creates more complexity or more simplicity and how the impact of tax reform longer term might impact demand for ADP services, both in ES and in PEO.

卡洛斯，從歷史數據來看，每當稅法發生重大變化時，ADP 的需求都會出現不錯的成長。而且我認為，從歷史角度來看，這些變化造成了更大的複雜性，從而推動了需求的成長。您能否談談美國企業稅制改革，您認為它會帶來更多複雜性還是更多簡化，以及稅制改革的長期影響可能會如何影響企業服務 (ES) 和專業雇主組織 (PEO) 對自動資料處理 (ADP) 服務的需求？

Yes. David, if I jump ahead of Carlos here, I would rate the impact on our tax filing business as relatively neutral at this point in time. So the changes were relatively easy to implement, and I don't think that has fundamentally changed the complexity of the payroll business. Going forward, I think there's a high degree of uncertainty as states evaluate their reactions and their consequent steps to the overall changes of the compact of the overall tax bundle that was created. And in theory, it could make it complex. If states is going to change their attitude of how they want to tax their constituencies, it could. But I think that's very speculative today. So my answer would be fairly neutral at this point. We're implementing and implemented those tax rate changes fairly quickly. And that itself was not a big trigger point. I think the increased liquidity and the increased cash inflow from overseas and all that stuff should be a stimulus to the U.S. economy. And I think we're seeing certainly immediate results from that from all the reactions that you also read in the newspaper. So that should help the overall economy, and that will be positive for us. That's kind of my overall assessment.

是的。大衛，如果我搶在卡洛斯前面發言，我會認為目前這對我們報稅業務的影響相對中立。因此，這些變化相對容易實施，而且我認為這並沒有從根本上改變薪資業務的複雜性。展望未來，我認為存在高度不確定性，因為各州正在評估他們對整體稅收方案變化的反應以及隨之而來的措施。理論上，這可能會使情況變得複雜。如果各州願意改變對選民課稅的態度，這是有可能的。但我認為這在今天看來只是推測。所以，在這一點上，我的回答會比較中立。我們正在並且已經相當迅速地實施了這些稅率調整。而這本身並不是一個重大的觸發點。我認為流動性增加、海外現金流入增加等等因素都應該能刺激美國經濟。我認為從報紙上刊登的各種反應來看，我們已經看到了立竿見影的效果。這樣應該有助於整體經濟發展，這對我們來說是件好事。這就是我的整體評價。

Got it. And just as a quick follow-up. You called out strength in bookings in the quarter, both in downmarket and multinational accounts. Could you give us an update on demand trends in the mid-market and also in U.S. national accounts?

知道了。最後再補充一點。您指出本季預訂量強勁，無論是低端市場客戶還是跨國客戶。能否介紹一下中端市場以及美國國民帳戶的需求趨勢？

Yes. I mean, I'd say that, again, this quarter, because, again, it's -- the bookings number, like the retention number, can fluctuate from quarter-to-quarter. But I'd say we held our own. I mean, obviously, if I didn't mention them when I talked about our strength. And they weren't on a relative basis as strong, but I can tell you that compared -- it's all about relativity. So the relative performance of our mid-market and upmarket are much better this quarter than last year's second quarter. But the growth itself was strongest and driven by the businesses that I mentioned previously. But it is important to note that from a -- trend-wise that we are very happy with the direction that our mid-market and upmarket businesses have taken. We had a nice increase in the quarter, for example, in new business bookings on our Workforce Now platform in the upmarket, above 1,000, which I think we've kind of reinvigorated that offering in that product to really compete in a segment of the upmarket where it competes very, very well for particular types of clients. So we had a nice growth versus the prior year in terms of the total number of units in the upmarket on our Workforce Now platform. And then on Vantage, we -- I would say we held our own versus the previous year in terms of new client count sales. So I'd say we're pleased and still working through a grow-over issue that the second quarter of last year was the last quarter where we saw meaningful ACA sales in our business. And so that gives you some sense of why I can't be as positive because it's just mathematically difficult. It was mathematically difficult.

是的。我的意思是，我再次強調，本季的情況也是如此，因為預訂量和客戶留存率一樣，每季都會有所波動。但我認為我們表現得還不錯。我的意思是，很顯然，如果我在談到我們的優勢時沒有提到他們的話。從相對意義上講，它們的強度並沒有那麼強，但我可以告訴你，比較起來——這一切都是相對的。因此，本季我們中階市場和高端市場的相對表現比去年第二季好得多。但成長最強勁、最主要的驅動力還是我前面提到的那些企業。但值得注意的是，從趨勢來看，我們對其中端市場和高端市場業務的發展方向感到非常滿意。例如，本季度我們在高端市場 Workforce Now 平台上的新業務預訂量實現了不錯的增長，超過 1000 筆，我認為我們已經重新激活了該產品，使其在高端市場中真正具有競爭力，尤其是在針對特定類型客戶方面。因此，與前一年相比，我們在 Workforce Now 平台上的高端市場單元總數方面取得了不錯的成長。至於 Vantage，我認為就新客戶數量和銷售額而言，我們與前一年相比保持了相當的水平。所以我想說，我們很高興，並且仍在努力解決成長過快的問題，去年第二季是我們業務中最後一個看到有意義的ACA銷售額的季度。所以，這就能讓你明白為什麼我不能那麼樂觀了，因為這在數學上確實很難。這在數學上很難。

Our next question is from Ashwin Shirvaikar of Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Ashwin Shirvaikar。

Carlos, a question on PEO services. You've commented, obviously, in the past about the continued strength in worksite employee growth. It was a pretty solid 10% this quarter. Given what's happening with both ACA funding and the low unemployment rate, do you think PEO growth might taper off in the next couple of years as you get into late cycle? And any thoughts on sort of the multiyear view on that?

卡洛斯，關於PEO服務有個問題。顯然，您過去曾評論過工作場所員工成長的持續強勁勢頭。本季成長率達到了相當不錯的10%。鑑於 ACA 資金狀況和低失業率，您認為隨著經濟週期進入後期，未來幾年 PEO 的成長可能會放緩嗎？那麼，對於這方面的多年展望，您有什麼想法呢？

I think it's a great question, and I wish I had a crystal ball. We're not planning on it. So our headcount plans and our investments, I think, are not planning for a deceleration. We're going to try to continue the growth because the opportunity is still there. The value proposition is very strong. But I think you're absolutely asking a fair question, which is we have to be -- and this is a place for us to be cautious in terms of we happen to have very strong pass-through growth, which gives us healthy top line growth. But that obviously has a margin impact, and it makes things hard to read. But the worksite employee count growth is really the right place to focus on, and I think that double-digit growth is still quite strong and, I think, quite satisfying to us. But I think it's something that we have to keep an eye on. We have a lot of tailwinds in our business as a result of ACA. I had said during it, not just afterwards, that it felt like we were getting some tailwinds. And obviously, those tailwinds have abated. So I think it's just become harder in the PEO business.

我覺得這是一個很好的問題，我真希望我能預知未來。我們沒有這個計劃。所以我認為，我們的人員配置計畫和投資並沒有考慮到經濟成長放緩的情況。我們將繼續努力保持成長勢頭，因為機會依然存在。它的價值主張非常強。但我認為你問了一個非常合理的問題，那就是我們必須——而且在這方面，我們必須保持謹慎，因為我們恰好擁有非常強勁的轉嫁增長，這給我們帶來了健康的營收成長。但這顯然會對利潤率產生影響，而且會使內容難以閱讀。但工作場所員工人數的成長才是真正值得關注的地方，我認為兩位數的成長仍然相當強勁，而且，我認為這讓我們非常滿意。但我認為我們必須密切注意此事。由於《平價醫療法案》（ACA）的實施，我們的業務迎來了許多利好因素。我當時就說過，而不是事後才說，感覺我們好像遇到了順風。顯然，這些順風已經減弱了。所以我覺得在 PEO 產業，日子變得越來越難過了。

I think my one thought that might be also helpful is if you see health care inflation, that means our clients' experience higher benefit renewals, basically, and that causes, obviously, more thinking in the clients. And so you have to be very thoughtful that you remain committed in your benefit offerings. But overall, faster inflation, I think, will create just focus on the value proposition, which is exactly why we have to pay attention to it and be thoughtful.

我認為我提出的一個可能也有幫助的想法是，如果你看到醫療保健通膨，這意味著我們的客戶基本上要經歷更高的福利續保，這顯然會導致客戶進行更多思考。因此，你必須非常謹慎地對待你的福利待遇，確保你始終信守承諾。但總的來說，我認為，通膨加速只會讓人們更加關注價值主張，而這正是我們必須關注並認真思考的原因。

Understood. And then the follow-up question's on the WorkMarket acquisition. It seems like a good one, the gig economy in general. Will gig economy workers be included in your pays per control metric as they flow in and out? I mean, how should one treat them vis-à-vis a permanent employee? And I think you addressed this, but this is more of a technology play. So I assume you don't have to go make many similar acquisitions to build scale.

明白了。接下來的問題是關於 WorkMarket 的收購。總的來說，零工經濟似乎是個不錯的選擇。零工經濟從業人員的流動是否會納入您的按人均所得控制指標？我的意思是，應該如何對待他們，才能與對待正式員工相提並論？我認為你已經談到了這一點，但這更多的是一個技術層面的問題。所以我認為你不需要進行很多類似的收購就能擴大規模。

That is correct. It's a technology acquisition. And I think that as we've always talked about pays per control, our pays per control is a subsegment of our total pays in ADP because we want to use one platform in order to be able to isolate same-store sales growth. And so, for example, our pays per control metric that we report doesn't include every platform that ADP has to begin with. And hence we would not anticipate including WorkMarket in that. And as WorkMarket becomes bigger, this is probably a few years down the road, we'll find a way to give you that metric separately, right, because I think it's important. Because my sense is that's going to grow very rapidly, and it might be of interest to the external market. But I think, for now, it's business as usual.

沒錯。這是一項技術收購。我認為，正如我們一直在談論的按控制付費一樣，我們的按控制付費是 ADP 總付費的一個子部分，因為我們希望使用一個平台，以便能夠單獨分析同店銷售成長。因此，例如，我們報告的按控制付費指標並不包括 ADP 的所有平台。因此，我們預計不會將 WorkMarket 納入其中。隨著 WorkMarket 的發展壯大（這可能還需要幾年時間），我們會找到一種方法單獨向您提供該指標，對吧，因為我認為這很重要。因為我的感覺是，它將會發展得非常迅速，而且可能會引起外部市場的興趣。但我認為，就目前而言，一切照常。

Our next question is from Jeff Silber of BMO.

我們的下一個問題來自BMO的Jeff Silber。

It's Henry Chien for Jeff. I just wanted to follow up on the pass-through revenues just to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. Is the uptick there, is that more a function of product mix and, say, just increases in premiums? I'm just trying to understand if there's any change in the underlying growth rate for either PEO or Employer Services and any changes there.

是亨利·錢給傑夫。我只是想確認一下轉嫁收入的情況，以確保我理解正確。這種成長是否真的存在？這更多是產品組合變化以及保費上漲等因素造成的嗎？我只是想了解 PEO 或雇主服務的潛在成長率是否有任何變化，以及這方面是否有任何變化。

I think it's probably -- I think Jan has some details, but I would say that -- it's safe to say that the Affordable Care Act, as a result of either the law itself, because I don't want to make a political statement here, but I think health care inflation is higher, let's just say, in general, than it was 2 or 3 years ago. And we serve 500,000 worksite employees, most of which have health care, and it's part of the value proposition that our clients come to us for. And hence, we would not be immune from that, and our clients would not be immune from that, especially given that we treat this as, "a pass-through." And so I think it's that simple. There's really not -- there's not a big mix issue here, and it's higher health care inflation. And by the way, we've had that -- we've owned this PEO for a long time, and we've been through other periods of accelerating health care inflation. So this is not unusual in the historical context.

我認為可能是——我認為 Jan 掌握了一些細節，但我想說的是——可以肯定地說，由於《平價醫療法案》本身，因為我不想在這裡發表政治聲明，但我認為醫療保健通膨，我們不妨說，總體而言，比兩三年前更高。我們為 50 萬名工地員工提供服務，其中大多數員工都享有醫療保健，這也是我們的客戶選擇我們的原因之一。因此，我們無法置身事外，我們的客戶也無法置身事外，尤其考慮到我們將其視為「轉嫁費用」。所以我覺得事情就是這麼簡單。其實並沒有——這裡並沒有什麼大的成分問題，而是醫療通膨較高。順便說一句，我們一直都有這種情況——我們擁有這家 PEO 已經很久了，我們也經歷過其他醫療保健通膨加速的時期。所以從歷史角度來看，這並不罕見。

Yes. The pass-throughs are growing faster than our worksite employee count. For that reason, the pass-throughs are harder to forecast because there's a number of factors that drive this. It starts with the actual renewal that we get on our policies. And then, obviously, with the lineup that our clients, the employers choose and their plan mix that they offer to their employees, and then what plans employees are actually choosing in enrollment period. And we have seen higher renewals, which is the health care inflation that Carlos mentioned, and that's a large chunk of the faster growth above our worksite employer growth. But we have also seen -- now comes the 201 inside that employee is choosing slightly richer plans, and then they have a slight mixed shift away from the lowest offering to a little bit of richer plan and mix. So that's -- what we have seen throughout the enrollment season. And so the vast majority is health care inflation, but there's some little mixed shift in the pass-through growth as well.

是的。過境運輸量的成長速度超過了我們工地員工人數的成長速度。正因如此，傳導效應更難預測，因為有許多因素會影響傳導效應。一切都從我們保單的實際續保開始。然後，很顯然，還有我們的客戶（雇主）選擇的方案組合，以及他們向員工提供的計劃組合，以及員工在註冊期內實際選擇的計劃。我們看到續保率上升，這就是卡洛斯提到的醫療保健通膨，這在很大程度上解釋了我們工作場所雇主成長速度超過醫療保健成長速度的原因。但我們也看到——現在到了 201 年，員工開始選擇稍微好一些的計劃，然後他們逐漸從最低檔次的計劃轉向稍微好一些的計劃和組合。這就是我們在整個招生季所看到的情況。因此，絕大部分是醫療保健通膨，但傳遞性成長也出現了一些小的混合變化。

And we have time for one more question, which comes from the line of Mark Marcon of R. W. Baird.

我們還有時間回答最後一個問題，這個問題來自 R. W. Baird 公司的 Mark Marcon。

Carlos, you've got a long history on the PEO side, and I was wondering if you could share your perspective on 2 fronts. One would be like where do you think we are in terms of the maturation of the PEO concept? And specifically across the country, when we take a look, obviously, Florida, Texas, well penetrated, more mature. But when we think about the country broadly speaking outside of those markets or maybe a couple of other states, where do you think we are in terms of the evolution? And then secondly, could you comment a little bit about the balkanization that we're seeing with regards to regulations? When we take a look at states like California, New York, et cetera, we're starting to see all sorts of different regs that are popping up. That must make it difficult to be in compliance.

卡洛斯，你在 PEO 方面有豐富的經驗，我想請你從兩個方面分享你的看法。其中一個問題是：您認為 PEO 概念的成熟度目前處於什麼階段？具體到全國範圍來看，很明顯，佛羅裡達州、德州的市場滲透率很高，市場也更成熟。但如果我們把目光放寬到全國範圍，排除這些市場或幾個州，你認為我們在發展過程中處於什麼階段？其次，您能否就我們目前看到的監管方面的碎片化現象發表一些看法？當我們觀察加州、紐約州等州時，我們開始看到各種各樣的法規湧現。那肯定會使合規變得困難。

Yes. I think on the first point, I just -- I think my reaction about the question about the PEO, first and foremost, is to say, my immediate reaction is pride, right? So what's happened to that business in the last 18 or 19 years since ADP has owned it, if we could do a few of those, would certainly make a difference for the company. And I think that what drove the success, besides a lot of hard work from a lot of people, and a lot of good execution was the fundamental strength of the value proposition and the underlying trends. And I think those still are intact. So despite the comments you made about penetration in some states improving over the years, it's still really a relatively small part of the market that's served by PEOs. So -- and it's tied to the second part of your question, which is, unless you believe that all of a sudden it's going to get easier to be an employer -- and I think Jan touched on this a little bit around tax and the fact that states might have different views on how to deal with tax reform from their perspective. And then tying that to the second part of your question, one of the good things for ADP is that since ADP has existed and since this country has existed, there's been a non-ending trend towards more complexity around being an employer or even being a corporation. And we clearly now have a focus on deregulation from the current administration. But you have to take that in context. A lot of that is around energy and other sectors of the economy, in some cases, appropriately so probably. But again, without making political statements, it's safe to say that the task of being an employer at either the federal level or the state and local level because it matters. It's not just about headlines around what the federal government is doing, it's also around what you're talking about, is if you're an employer in multiple states, you have a very difficult task keeping up with all of the various regulations that are intended to push forward public policy at the state level, if not at the federal level. And so that is all kind of a dream situation, if you will, for ADP because companies should be focused on their core business and on executing on their companies not on trying to deal with all of these changes in the regulation. And the majority of companies want to be in compliance with these regulations. So I think it affects not just the PEO, but it affects the overall ADP business. And I think we remain as optimistic today as we ever have. That's probably why the industry in general, the HCMs in general is growing faster than GDP. And ADP, with its strong compliance orientation, probably has an even greater benefit because of the DNA that we have around helping clients deal with the complexity that you're describing. So I think answer number one is, I think the PEO's not done in terms of the opportunity that's out there just because of simple mathematics. That doesn't mean or guarantee that the execution will be there because we have to still execute, and the rest of the industry has to execute. But I think the opportunity is still definitely there. And then secondly, you touched on a very important point that I think Jan kind of also touched on, which is we don't see any abatement in the complexity and the difficulty of being an employer in the United States.

是的。關於第一點，我覺得──關於 PEO 的問題，我的第一個反應是自豪，對吧？那麼，自從 ADP 收購這家公司以來的 18 或 19 年裡，這家公司發生了什麼變化？如果我們能找出其中的一些問題，肯定會對公司產生影響。我認為，除了許多人的辛勤工作和出色的執行力之外，推動成功的因素是價值主張的根本優勢和潛在的發展趨勢。而且我認為它們仍然完好無損。所以，儘管您提到一些州的滲透率近年來有所提高，但 PEO 所服務的市場仍然只佔很小一部分。所以——這與你問題的第二部分有關，除非你認為突然之間做雇主會變得更容易——而且我認為 Jan 在談到稅收以及各州可能從自身角度對如何處理稅收改革持有不同看法這一事實時，也稍微提到了這一點。然後，結合你問題的第二部分，ADP 的一個好處是，自從 ADP 成立以來，自從這個國家成立以來，作為雇主甚至作為公司，就一直存在著一個不斷變得更加複雜的趨勢。很明顯，現任政府的重點是放鬆管制。但你必須結合上下文來理解這一點。其中許多都與能源和其他經濟部門有關，在某些情況下，這樣做或許是恰當的。但再次強調，不發表政治聲明，可以肯定地說，無論是在聯邦層級還是州和地方層面，身為雇主都是一項重要的任務，因為這至關重要。這不僅關乎聯邦政府的舉措，也關乎你所說的，如果你是多個州的雇主，那麼要跟上所有旨在推動州級（如果不是聯邦級）公共政策的各種法規，你將面臨一項非常艱鉅的任務。因此，對於 ADP 來說，這可以說是一個理想的局面，因為公司應該專注於核心業務和公司運營，而不是忙於應對監管方面的各種變化。大多數公司都希望遵守這些規定。所以我認為這不僅影響 PEO，而且影響整個 ADP 業務。我認為我們今天依然像以往一樣樂觀。這或許就是為什麼整個產業，特別是人力資本管理（HCM）產業，其成長速度超過GDP成長速度的原因。而 ADP 憑藉其強大的合規導向，可能更有優勢，因為我們擁有幫助客戶應對您所描述的複雜情況的基因。所以我認為第一個答案是，我認為 PEO 還沒有完全抓住機會，這只是因為簡單的數學原理。但這並不意味著或保證執行到位，因為我們仍然需要執行，行業其他部分也需要執行。但我認為機會依然存在。其次，你提到了一個非常重要的觀點，我認為 Jan 也提到過，那就是我們沒有看到在美國當雇主的複雜性和難度有任何減輕。

Great. That's precisely what I was getting at. And then, I mean, just to boil it down on the long runway. I mean, if you were putting it in baseball terms, would you say PEO is maybe in the third or fourth inning in terms of penetration? Or how would you characterize it?

偉大的。這正是我要表達的意思。然後，我的意思是，總而言之，就是把它簡化成一條漫長的跑道。我的意思是，如果用棒球術語來形容，你會說 PEO 在滲透率方面大概處於第三局或第四局的位置嗎？或者你會如何描述它？

I'm going to let Jan answer that question because he's an expert in baseball. Jan, do you know how many innings there are in baseball? I'll try and answer that question. I don't think that's -- it probably shouldn't be in the business of trying to forecast. I think the -- I would focus really, like I always do, on the math, right? The number of -- the total -- I think the industry says that there are about 2 million -- you probably know better than I do, Mark, but I think the PEO industry says that there's about 2 million people under PEO arrangements, maybe 2.5 million. And Jan said there's 170 million private sector employees. We know that, obviously, this is a downmarket and mid-market type of value proposition. There's 26 million people on our own payroll systems, as we report every -- to you on a regular basis. And we have 500,000. So I think any way you look at it, it looks like there's plenty of opportunity. But I think it's dangerous for me to use a baseball analogy because you'll probably remind me of it for the next 5 or 10 years.

我會讓揚來回答這個問題，因為他是棒球專家。Jan，你知道棒球比賽總共有多少局嗎？我會試著回答這個問題。我不認為那是——它可能不應該涉足預​​測領域。我覺得——我會像往常一樣，把注意力集中在數學上，對吧？總數——我認為業內人士說大約有 200 萬——馬克，你可能比我更清楚，但我認為 PEO 行業表示，大約有 200 萬人通過 PEO 安排工作，也許是 250 萬。簡說，私營部門有1.7億僱員。我們知道，這顯然是一種面向低端市場和中階市場的價值主張。我們自己的薪資系統中共有 2600 萬人，我們會定期向您報告所有情況。我們有50萬。所以我覺得無論從哪個角度來看，都有很多機會。但我認為用棒球來做比喻很危險，因為你可能會在接下來的 5 到 10 年裡提醒我這件事。

And this does conclude our question-and-answer portion for today. I'm pleased to hand the program over to Carlos Rodriguez for any closing remarks.

今天的問答環節到此結束。我很高興將節目交給卡洛斯·羅德里格斯，請他作總結發言。

Thanks. I think as you can see, we're very pleased with the progress that we've made on our strategic initiatives during the first half of the year. And we also want to just reiterate our welcome to our colleagues from WorkMarket to ADP, and we look forward to the success we're going to have together. It's acquisitions like these, along with the investments we've made in next-gen solutions that I think demonstrate our commitment to progress and our commitment to our transformative strategy. As you can probably tell from the call, we also are anything but status quo here at ADP. We intend to move forward with pace and with conviction. We've talked to our leadership about moving with urgency, but also with care because our client experience and our retention rates are also incredibly important. And lastly, I'll say that we carefully listened and learned from all of our shareholder engagements during the proxy contest. And I think they decided the things we learned. It also strengthened our resolve to accelerate the execution of a strategy that I think was -- I think on the right path to begin with. But there's nothing wrong with a little bit of acceleration. Our markets are changing. The nature of work is changing. I think that creates opportunity. And it creates, as we said, in some cases, complexity for employers. And I think that's good for ADP. So I thank you for joining the call today. We look forward to continuing to share the details of our journey with you down the road, and we appreciate your interest in ADP.

謝謝。正如你所看到的，我們對今年上半年在策略性舉措方面取得的進展感到非常滿意。我們也要再次歡迎 WorkMarket 的同事加入 ADP，並期待我們共同成功。我認為，正是像這樣的收購，以及我們對下一代解決方案的投資，體現了我們對進步的承諾和我們對變革策略的承諾。正如你可能從通話中了解到的那樣，ADP 也絕非墨守成規。我們打算以迅猛的速度和堅定的信念向前邁進。我們已經和領導階層討論過，要盡快採取行動，但也要謹慎行事，因為客戶體驗和客戶留存率也極為重要。最後，我想說，在代理權爭奪戰期間，我們認真傾聽了所有股東的意見，並從中吸取了教訓。我認為他們決定了我們學習的內容。這也增強了我們加快執行策略的決心，我認為這項策略從一開始就走在正確的道路上。但稍微加速一下也沒什麼不好。我們的市場正在改變。工作的性質正在改變。我認為這會創造機會。正如我們所說，在某些情況下，這會為雇主帶來複雜性。我認為這對ADP來說是件好事。感謝各位今天參加電話會議。我們期待在未來與您繼續分享我們發展歷程的細節，並感謝您對 ADP 的關注。

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude today's program, and you may all disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

女士們、先生們，感謝各位參加今天的會議。今天的節目到此結束，大家可以斷開連結了。祝大家今天過得愉快。