Paymentus Holdings Inc (PAY) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to Paymentus' First Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. This call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

美好的一天，歡迎來到 Paymentus 的 2023 年第一季度財報電話會議。此通話正在錄音中。 （操作員說明）

At this time, I will now turn the call over to David Hanover, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

此時，我將把電話轉給投資者關係部的 David Hanover。請繼續。

Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to Paymentus' First Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. Joining me on the call today is Dushyant Sharma, our Founder and CEO; and Sanjay Kalra, our Chief Financial Officer. Following our prepared remarks, we'll take questions. Our press release was issued after the close of market today and is posted on our website, where this call is simultaneously webcast. The webcast replay of this call and the supplemental slides accompanying this presentation will be available on our company's website under the investor relations link ir.paymentus.com.

謝謝。下午好，歡迎來到 Paymentus 的 2023 年第一季度收益電話會議。今天和我一起參加電話會議的是我們的創始人兼首席執行官 Dushyant Sharma；和我們的首席財務官 Sanjay Kalra。在我們準備好的評論之後，我們將回答問題。我們的新聞稿是在今天收盤後發布的，並發佈在我們的網站上，該電話會議同時進行網絡直播。本次電話會議的網絡直播重播和本演示文稿附帶的補充幻燈片將在我們公司網站的投資者關係鏈接 ir.paymentus.com 下提供。

Statements made on this webcast include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements use words such as will, believe, expect, anticipate and similar phrases that the future expectation or intent regarding our financial results and guidance, the impact of and our ability to address continued economic uncertainty and inflation, our market opportunities, business strategies, implementation timing, product enhancements, impact from acquisitions and other matters.

本次網絡廣播中的陳述包括 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述。前瞻性陳述使用諸如 will、believe、expect、expected 和類似的短語，表示未來對我們財務的預期或意圖結果和指導、我們應對持續的經濟不確定性和通貨膨脹的影響和能力、我們的市場機會、業務戰略、實施時間、產品改進、收購和其他事項的影響。

These forward-looking statements speak as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update them. These statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in such statements, including the risks and uncertainties set forth under the captions, special note regarding forward-looking statements and risk factors in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, which we filed with the SEC on March 3, 2023, and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, which we expect to file with the SEC shortly and elsewhere in our other filings with the SEC. We encourage you to review these detailed forward-looking statements safe harbor and risk factor disclosures.

這些前瞻性陳述截至今天，我們不承擔更新它們的義務。這些陳述受風險、不確定性和假設的影響，這些風險、不確定性和假設可能導致實際結果與此類陳述中規定的結果大不相同，包括標題下規定的風險和不確定性、關於前瞻性陳述的特別說明和我們年度報告中的風險因素我們於 2023 年 3 月 3 日向美國證券交易委員會提交了截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日止年度的 10-K 表格報告，以及我們預計將提交至 2023 年 3 月 31 日止季度的 10-Q 表格季度報告在我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件中，我們很快就與美國證券交易委員會和其他地方進行了合作。我們鼓勵您查看這些詳細的前瞻性聲明安全港和風險因素披露。

In addition, during today's call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, specifically, contribution profit, adjusted gross profit, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin. These non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are useful in measuring our performance and liquidity, should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from GAAP results. We encourage you to review additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations of the most directly comparable GAAP measures in our earnings press release issued today and the supplemental slides for this webcast, each available on the Investor Relations page of our website.

此外，在今天的電話會議中，我們將討論某些非 GAAP 財務指標，特別是貢獻利潤、調整後的毛利、調整後的 EBITDA 和調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率。我們認為這些非 GAAP 財務指標有助於衡量我們的業績和流動性，應作為 GAAP 結果的補充，而不是替代或孤立於 GAAP 結果。我們鼓勵您查看有關這些非 GAAP 措施的額外披露，包括我們今天發布的收益新聞稿中最直接可比的 GAAP 措施的對賬以及本次網絡廣播的補充幻燈片，每張幻燈片都可以在我們網站的投資者關係頁面上找到。

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Dushyant Sharma, our Founder and CEO. Dushyant?

有了這個，我想把電話轉給我們的創始人兼首席執行官 Dushyant Sharma。杜尚特？

Thank you, David. As you can see from Slide 3, we once again had a very success with top line growth and adjusted EBITDA ahead of our expectations. Revenue increased 27.1% on a year-over-year basis to reach $148.3 million. Our first quarter adjusted EBITDA was $8.4 million, which was 56.4% higher than Q1 of last year. Contribution profit for the quarter was also higher than we had originally expected at $53.5 million despite the ongoing macro. These numbers are especially exciting to me from a profitability standpoint and demonstrate our continued progress. On a year-over-year basis, our adjusted EBITDA grew by $3 million or 56.4%, which means 50% of incremental contribution profit dollars drop through the adjusted EBITDA line. We believe this is even more compelling if we factor in the macro environment.

謝謝你，大衛。正如您從幻燈片 3 中看到的那樣，我們再次在收入增長和調整後的 EBITDA 方面取得了巨大成功，超出了我們的預期。收入同比增長 27.1%，達到 1.483 億美元。我們第一季度調整後的 EBITDA 為 840 萬美元，比去年第一季度增長 56.4%。儘管宏觀經濟持續，本季度的貢獻利潤也高於我們最初預期的 5350 萬美元。從盈利能力的角度來看，這些數字讓我特別興奮，並證明了我們的持續進步。與去年同期相比，我們調整後的 EBITDA 增長了 300 萬美元或 56.4%，這意味著 50% 的增量貢獻利潤美元通過調整後的 EBITDA 線下降。如果我們將宏觀環境考慮在內，我們認為這會更有說服力。

Between Q4 and Q1, we had about 400 to 500 basis points of macro and seasonality-related inflationary impact. Meaning on an inflation-neutral basis, we would have expected to drop the vast majority for our contribution profit to adjusted EBITDA as OpEx did not increase on a relative basis. As we continue to make pricing adjustments to address inflation, over time, we believe these adjustments will become a tailwind for us when energy prices were closer to the preinflationary levels. We are also encouraged that our core biller business has been growing well and is scaling profitably, again, as more of our incremental revenue dollars dropped to adjusted EBITDA. Parallel to this, we continue to make investments in complementary offerings in our instant payment network or IPM and to small and medium-sized businesses or SMBs. ITN remains an exciting part of our strategy and is growing well. On SMB, we are receiving positive feedback from our partners and seeing encouraging early signs from the SMBs.

在第四季度和第一季度之間，我們受到了大約 400 到 500 個基點的宏觀和季節性相關的通脹影響。這意味著在通貨膨脹中性的基礎上，我們預計將減少絕大多數，因為我們的貢獻利潤對調整後的 EBITDA 沒有增加，因為 OpEx 沒有相對增加。隨著我們繼續進行定價調整以應對通貨膨脹，隨著時間的推移，我們相信當能源價格接近通貨膨脹前的水平時，這些調整將成為我們的順風車。我們也感到鼓舞的是，我們的核心計費業務一直增長良好，並且再次盈利，因為我們更多的增量收入美元下降到調整後的 EBITDA。與此同時，我們繼續投資於我們的即時支付網絡或 IPM 中的補充產品，以及面向中小型企業或 SMB 的產品。 ITN 仍然是我們戰略中令人興奮的部分，並且發展良好。在 SMB 方面，我們收到了合作夥伴的積極反饋，並看到了來自 SMB 的令人鼓舞的早期跡象。

As a reminder, IPN which is still under 10% of our overall revenue, is growing faster than our core business, even though IPN SMB are currently dilutive to our adjusted EBITDA margins. Said differently, Q1 adjusted EBITDA from our core biller business was meaningfully higher than the reported number of 15.7% taking into consideration the financial impact of the strategic investments we are making to drive our future growth. Key highlights from the quarter as listed on Slide 4. From a bookings perspective, we had a very strong quarter, our best ever, which resulted in a strong backlog at the quarter end. This is especially important for us. Having these substantial bookings at the end of the first quarter gives us a great deal of runway to get our clients implemented for revenue recognition in 2024.

提醒一下，儘管 IPN SMB 目前正在稀釋我們調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率，但仍低於我們總收入 10% 的 IPN 的增長速度快於我們的核心業務。換句話說，考慮到我們為推動未來增長而進行的戰略投資的財務影響，我們核心賬單業務的第一季度調整後 EBITDA 明顯高於報告的 15.7%。本季度的主要亮點如幻燈片 4 中所列。從預訂的角度來看，我們有一個非常強勁的季度，是我們有史以來最好的，這導致在季度末積壓了大量訂單。這對我們來說尤其重要。在第一季度末獲得這些大量預訂為我們提供了大量的跑道，讓我們的客戶在 2024 年實現收入確認。

To add some additional color here, our bookings for the quarter included several large-scale clients across diverse verticals. We expect that most of these new clients will not be affected by inflation once they go live. Both the way we price these transactions with variable fees and the underlying industry segment itself. These new clients included a large estate agency, a sizable property management company, an extensive health care system, multiple large insurance companies and a large utility. As a reminder, the biggest impact from inflation has been from the energy utilities and not from the other industry verticals. In addition to bookings, we remain laser focused on onboarding speed and related customer engagement.

為了在這裡添加一些額外的顏色，我們本季度的預訂包括多個不同垂直領域的大型客戶。我們預計這些新客戶中的大部分在上線後不會受到通貨膨脹的影響。我們以可變費用為這些交易定價的方式和基礎行業細分市場本身。這些新客戶包括一家大型房地產代理公司、一家規模龐大的物業管理公司、一家規模龐大的醫療保健系統、多家大型保險公司和一家大型公用事業公司。提醒一下，通貨膨脹的最大影響來自能源公用事業，而不是其他垂直行業。除了預訂，我們仍然非常關注入職速度和相關的客戶參與度。

Our successful client launches in Q4 contributed to our better-than-expected Q1 performance. A subset of these clients also have seasonally higher volumes in Q1 versus our quarters. We are pleased that we were able to get these clients live before Q1 to recognize the benefit. We similarly on client onboarding during Q1 and are happy with improving post pandemic conditions that allow for increased face-to-face large client engagements. We expect these high-touch engagements during the first quarter will lay the groundwork for us to bring additional clients live in Q2, and we are off to a good start. During the quarter, we expanded our long-term relationship with Oracle by certifying with Oracle Cloud in addition to the on-prem solution. This allows Oracle CIS cloud clients to easily integrate with our platform. We continue to see growth in our Oracle CIS client base.

我們在第四季度成功推出客戶，為我們第一季度的業績好於預期做出了貢獻。這些客戶的一部分在第一季度的銷量也比我們的季度高。我們很高興我們能夠在第一季度之前讓這些客戶上線以認識到其好處。我們同樣在第一季度進行了客戶入職培訓，並且很高興改善大流行後的狀況，從而增加面對面的大客戶參與度。我們預計第一季度的這些高接觸互動將為我們在第二季度吸引更多客戶奠定基礎，我們有了一個良好的開端。在本季度，除了本地解決方案之外，我們還通過 Oracle Cloud 認證擴大了與 Oracle 的長期合作關係。這使 Oracle CIS 雲客戶端可以輕鬆地與我們的平台集成。我們繼續看到 Oracle CIS 客戶群的增長。

During the quarter, we also expanded our relationship with Guidewire, a software platform for more than 500 property and casualty insurers. As part of this, we have launched an integrated billing app, that is available to Guidewire customers and allows insurance companies to keep pace with a rapidly evolving customer need for a streamlined payment and billing experience. We also completed and launched another implementation of our billing and payment platform for a large municipal utility, adding another state capital to our list of growing customers. Ranked as a top tier municipal utility in the nation, the city leaders identified 3 primary objectives for this project. First, to drive more on-time payments; second, lower customer service costs; and third, increased customer satisfaction by letting the customer -- the cities customers pay how, when and where they want, with innovative payment methods and inclusive payment channels for their entire customer base.

在本季度，我們還擴大了與 Guidewire 的關係，Guidewire 是一個為 500 多家財產和意外傷害保險公司提供服務的軟件平台。作為其中的一部分，我們推出了一個集成的計費應用程序，可供 Guidewire 客戶使用，並允許保險公司跟上快速變化的客戶對簡化支付和計費體驗的需求。我們還為一家大型市政公用事業公司完成並啟動了另一項計費和支付平台的實施，為我們不斷增長的客戶名單增加了另一個州首府。作為全國頂級市政公用事業，市領導為該項目確定了 3 個主要目標。第一，推動更多的準時付款；第二，降低客戶服務成本；第三，通過讓客戶——城市客戶以他們想要的方式、時間和地點為他們的整個客戶群提供創新的支付方式和包容性支付渠道來提高客戶滿意度。

We upgraded our with our platform to achieve all the objectives to position well for the future. Let me now touch base on implementation backlog and how it relates to our expected growth trajectory and ability to deliver expanded adjusted EBITDA margins in 2024. From where we sit today, with the strength of the exiting 2024, coupled with Q1 2023 performance, we have a lot of confidence in our ability to deliver growth in 2024. At the same time, our first quarter results also demonstrate our improving ability to deliver incremental adjusted EBITDA margins and dollars to the bottom line. All these factors leave us well positioned to continue growing revenues and to expand profitability even for the next year.

我們升級了我們的平台，以實現所有目標，為未來做好準備。現在讓我談談實施積壓以及它與我們預期的增長軌跡以及在 2024 年實現擴大的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率的能力之間的關係。從我們今天的位置來看，憑藉 2024 年的實力，再加上 2023 年第一季度的業績，我們有對我們在 2024 年實現增長的能力充滿信心。與此同時，我們第一季度的業績也表明我們提高了將增量調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率和美元提高到底線的能力。所有這些因素使我們處於有利地位，即使在明年也能繼續增加收入並擴大盈利能力。

In summary, I'd reiterate what we said on the last call -- on our last call that we remain very confident regarding the long-term growth prospects of the business. This is especially true given the expanding IP and ecosystem we are building, which we believe allows us to reach a broader TAM and leverages the entire spectrum of interchange from a cost center in our biller business to interchange neutral IPM business, to interchange being a revenue source in our SMB offering and beyond. We are already off to a good start as indicated by our first quarter results, and we look forward to updating you on our progress in future calls.

總而言之，我要重申我們在上次電話會議上所說的話——在我們上次電話會議上，我們對業務的長期增長前景仍然非常有信心。考慮到我們正在構建的不斷擴展的 IP 和生態系統，這一點尤其正確，我們相信這使我們能夠達到更廣泛的 TAM 並利用整個交換範圍，從我們計費業務的成本中心到交換中立的 IPM 業務，再到交換成為收入在我們的 SMB 產品和其他產品中尋找來源。正如我們第一季度的業績所示，我們已經有了一個良好的開端，我們期待在未來的電話會議中向您通報我們的進展情況。

Now let me turn it over to Sanjay to review our financial results in greater detail.

現在讓我把它轉交給 Sanjay 來更詳細地審查我們的財務結果。

Thank you, Dushyant. I'm very excited to be a part of Paymentus, and thank you all for joining us today. Before I discuss our quarterly results and outlook, I'd like to remind everyone that the financial results I'll be referring to include non-GAAP financial measures. As David mentioned earlier, our Q1 press release and earnings presentation includes reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP that are discussed on this call. Both of these are available on our website. Turning to Slide 5. For the first quarter of 2023, we delivered solid financial results that were above the top end of our guidance range.

謝謝你，杜尚特。我很高興成為 Paymentus 的一員，感謝大家今天加入我們。在討論我們的季度業績和展望之前，我想提醒大家，我所指的財務業績包括非 GAAP 財務指標。正如 David 之前提到的，我們的第一季度新聞稿和收益報告包括非 GAAP 財務指標與本次電話會議上討論的 GAAP 的對賬。這些都可以在我們的網站上找到。轉到幻燈片 5。在 2023 年第一季度，我們實現了穩健的財務業績，超出了我們指導範圍的上限。

We believe these results demonstrate the strength of our business, which continues to perform well despite macroeconomic challenges still at play. Our first quarter results included revenue of $148.3 million, contribution profit of $53.5 million and adjusted EBITDA of $8.4 million. We continue to experience solid business momentum in the first quarter, which drove robust bookings, enabling us to exit the quarter with a solid backlog. Based on our strong quarterly performance and the positive market trends Dushyant mentioned earlier and our expectations for the remainder of 2023, we are modestly raising our full year 2023 revenue, contribution profit and adjusted EBITDA guidance, which I'll talk about shortly.

我們相信這些結果證明了我們業務的實力，儘管宏觀經濟挑戰仍然存在，但我們的業務仍然表現良好。我們第一季度的業績包括 1.483 億美元的收入、5350 萬美元的貢獻利潤和 840 萬美元的調整後 EBITDA。我們在第一季度繼續保持穩健的業務勢頭，這推動了強勁的預訂，使我們能夠以大量積壓退出本季度。基於我們強勁的季度業績和 Dushyant 前面提到的積極市場趨勢以及我們對 2023 年剩餘時間的預期，我們將適度提高 2023 年全年收入、貢獻利潤和調整後的 EBITDA 指導，我將在稍後討論。

Now let's review our first quarter financials in more detail. As I mentioned, Q1 revenue was $148.3 million, up 27.1% year-over-year. This growth was largely driven by increased transactions from existing billers, and launch of new billers and increased activity in our Instant Payment Network or IPM business. Transactions grew to $108.5 million in the first quarter, up 23.4% year-over-year. First quarter '23 contribution profit increased to $53.5 million, up 13% year-over-year. Contribution margin was 36.1% for the first quarter compared to 40.6% in the prior year period. Contribution profit per transaction for the quarter was $0.49, down from $0.54 in the prior year period. Contribution profit growth lagged revenue growth primarily due to continued inflation in the utility sector and mix with larger billers coming on board.

現在讓我們更詳細地回顧一下我們第一季度的財務狀況。正如我所提到的，第一季度收入為 1.483 億美元，同比增長 27.1%。這一增長主要是由於現有記賬人的交易量增加、新記賬人的推出以及我們即時支付網絡或 IPM 業務活動的增加所推動的。第一季度交易額增至 1.085 億美元，同比增長 23.4%。 23 年第一季度貢獻利潤增至 5350 萬美元，同比增長 13%。第一季度的邊際貢獻率為 36.1%，而去年同期為 40.6%。本季度每筆交易的貢獻利潤為 0.49 美元，低於去年同期的 0.54 美元。貢獻利潤增長落後於收入增長，這主要是由於公用事業部門的持續通貨膨脹以及更大的開票人加入。

As we've noted in the past, variables outside our control, such as an increase in the average payment amount or changes in the payment mix can influence contribution profit on a quarterly basis. To offset some of the impact of continuing inflationary conditions, we are currently engaged in active repricing conversations with our customers and are encouraged by what we have already achieved to date. Adjusted gross profit was $43.7 million for the first quarter, up 16.9% year-over-year. Operating expenses increased to $41.1 million, a 13.4% increase year-over-year. Increase is primarily due to increased sales and marketing expenses as we continue to focus resources on our go-to-market strategy. During Q1 '23, we made a change to the employee merit and compensation cycle. In the previous years, raises were given on the employees' anniversary, more or less evenly distributed throughout the year.

正如我們過去指出的那樣，我們無法控制的變量，例如平均支付金額的增加或支付組合的變化，可能會影響每季度的貢獻利潤。為了抵消持續通貨膨脹條件的一些影響，我們目前正在與客戶積極進行重新定價對話，並對我們迄今為止取得的成就感到鼓舞。第一季度調整後的毛利潤為 4370 萬美元，同比增長 16.9%。運營費用增至 4110 萬美元，同比增長 13.4%。增加的主要原因是銷售和營銷費用增加，因為我們繼續將資源集中在我們的上市戰略上。在 23 年第一季度，我們對員工績效和薪酬週期進行了更改。往年都是在員工週年紀念日加薪，全年大致平均分配。

In 2023, all wages were effective from January 1, 2023. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter was $8.4 million or 15.7% of contribution profit, up 56.4% compared to $5.4 million or 11.4% of contribution profit in the prior year. This annual growth is a result of our repricing and continued expense management actions. I believe this also demonstrates the inherent operating leverage we have in the business and our ability to adapt to changing market conditions as we continue to grow. Other income was $1.4 million during the first quarter, reflecting increased interest income from our bank deposits and effective cash management.

2023 年，所有工資均自 2023 年 1 月 1 日起生效。第一季度調整後的 EBITDA 為 840 萬美元，佔貢獻利潤的 15.7%，較上年同期的 540 萬美元或貢獻利潤的 11.4% 增長 56.4%。這一年度增長是我們重新定價和持續費用管理行動的結果。我相信這也證明了我們在業務中擁有的固有運營槓桿以及我們在不斷發展的過程中適應不斷變化的市場條件的能力。第一季度的其他收入為 140 萬美元，反映了銀行存款利息收入的增加和有效的現金管理。

Non-GAAP net income was $2.9 million or $0.02 per share, compared to non-GAAP net income of $3.7 million or an EPS of $0.03 in the prior year, largely due to higher income tax benefit in the prior year. We'll now discuss our balance sheet and liquidity position. We ended Q1 with unrestricted cash of $143.6 million compared to $147.3 million at the end of 2022. The $3.7 million decrease is primarily comprised of $4.8 million of cash generated from operations offset by $8.3 million cash used in investing activities. The company does not have any debt. Our days sales outstanding at the end of Q1 was 46 days, consistent with DSO at the end of 2022. Working capital at the end of Q1 was approximately $181 million, an increase of approximately $3.8 million from the end of 2022.

非 GAAP 淨收入為 290 萬美元或每股 0.02 美元，而上一年的非 GAAP 淨收入為 370 萬美元或每股收益 0.03 美元，這主要是由於上一年的所得稅優惠增加。我們現在將討論我們的資產負債表和流動性狀況。與 2022 年底的 1.473 億美元相比，我們在第一季度末的非限制性現金為 1.436 億美元。減少的 370 萬美元主要是運營產生的 480 萬美元現金被投資活動中使用的 830 萬美元現金所抵消。公司沒有任何債務。我們在第一季度末的未償銷售天數為 46 天，與 2022 年底的 DSO 一致。第一季度末的營運資金約為 1.81 億美元，比 2022 年底增加約 380 萬美元。

We had 123.3 million shares outstanding at the end of Q1 compared to 123.2 million shares outstanding at the end of 2022. The marginal increase was due to vesting of employee restricted stock units. Now I share some brief observations since joining Paymentus as a CFO, then review our updated outlook for Q2 and the full year 2023. Since I joined the company 2 months ago, my initial focus has been on 2 main priorities. First, acquainting myself with everything Paymentus does. Its business model and DevOps operations. Our strategy, meeting the entire team, learning as much as possible about what has transpired since the IPO. And second, doing a deep dive into the financials in order to gain a better understanding of our 2023 budget and 2024 financial goals. On the first point, now that I'm more familiar with the inner workings of the company. I am even more amazed than I was originally by the expanding and compelling opportunities that I believe lie ahead for Paymentus.

與 2022 年底的 1.232 億股相比，我們在第一季度末發行了 1.233 億股流通股。邊際增長是由於員工限制性股票單位的歸屬。現在我分享自加入 Paymentus 擔任首席財務官以來的一些簡短觀察，然後回顧我們對第二季度和 2023 年全年的最新展望。自從我 2 個月前加入公司以來，我最初的重點是兩個主要優先事項。首先，熟悉 Paymentus 所做的一切。它的商業模式和 DevOps 操作。我們的策略是與整個團隊會面，盡可能多地了解 IPO 以來發生的事情。其次，深入研究財務狀況，以便更好地了解我們的 2023 年預算和 2024 年財務目標。關於第一點，現在我對公司的內部運作比較熟悉了。我相信 Paymentus 面臨著不斷擴大和引人注目的機會，這讓我比最初更加驚訝。

We are well positioned to capitalize on the attractive industry trends in the end market that we serve. I'm also excited by the depth of talent and experience of my team members and look forward to working with them and contributing to Paymentus future growth. As I now turn more attention to Paymentus long-range financial model and targets, I'm also considering how we can best provide investors and analysts with greater color on the performance of our business. This includes evaluating our current KPIs and non-GAAP disclosures. While this process is still underway, 1 specific metric which has drawn my attention is exit backlog. I believe our new bookings in Q1 demonstrate the robust demand for our technology solutions and our strong exit backlog gives us further confidence and visibility in the growth trajectory for the company.

我們有能力利用我們所服務的終端市場中具有吸引力的行業趨勢。我也對我的團隊成員的才華和經驗感到興奮，並期待與他們合作並為 Paymentus 的未來發展做出貢獻。隨著我現在更多地關注 Paymentus 的長期財務模型和目標，我也在考慮我們如何才能最好地為投資者和分析師提供有關我們業務績效的更多信息。這包括評估我們當前的 KPI 和非 GAAP 披露。雖然這個過程仍在進行中，但引起我注意的一個具體指標是退出積壓。我相信我們在第一季度的新預訂表明對我們技術解決方案的強勁需求，而我們強大的退出積壓讓我們對公司的增長軌跡更有信心和可見性。

Now I'll turn to our non-GAAP guidance for Q2 '23, beginning on Slide 6. In Q2 '23, we expect revenues to be in the range of $142 million to $148 million, representing 21% year-over-year growth at midpoint. Contribution profit to range from $54 million to $56 million, which is 13% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. And adjusted EBITDA of $8 million to $9 million, representing a growth of 70% year-over-year at the midpoint. Given the progress we have already seen in Q1 and our expectation for the remainder of the year, for the full year 2023, on Slide 7, we now expect revenue in the range of $591 million to $606 million, up 2% from the midpoint of our prior guidance. Contribution profit in the range of $225 million to $237 million, also up modestly versus our prior guidance; and adjusted EBITDA to range from $34 million to $38.5 million, representing a 3.6% increase at the midpoint versus our prior guidance.

從幻燈片 6 開始，我將轉向我們對 23 年第二季度的非 GAAP 指導。在 23 年第二季度，我們預計收入將在 1.42 億美元至 1.48 億美元之間，同比增長 21%在中點。貢獻利潤從 5400 萬美元到 5600 萬美元不等，中點同比增長 13%。調整後的 EBITDA 為 800 萬美元至 900 萬美元，中點同比增長 70%。鑑於我們在第一季度已經看到的進展以及我們對今年剩餘時間的預期，即 2023 年全年，在幻燈片 7 上，我們現在預計收入在 5.91 億美元至 6.06 億美元之間，比 2023 年的中點增長 2%我們之前的指導。貢獻利潤在 2.25 億美元至 2.37 億美元之間，也比我們之前的指導略有上升；並將 EBITDA 調整為 3400 萬美元至 3850 萬美元，與我們之前的指導相比，中點增長了 3.6%。

In summary, we had a strong first quarter, where we continue to build on our solid momentum from 2022, which we have carried into 2023. As a result, we believe we have positioned ourselves well for the balance of 2023.

總而言之，我們在第一季度表現強勁，我們繼續保持從 2022 年開始的穩健勢頭，並將這種勢頭延續到 2023 年。因此，我們相信我們已經為 2023 年的剩餘時間做好了準備。

Thank you, everyone, for your attention today. And now I'll turn it back to Dushyant for final remarks before we open up the call for questions.

謝謝大家今天的關注。現在，在我們開始提問之前，我將把它轉回給 Dushyant 作最後的評論。

Thanks, Sanjay. In closing, based on our first quarter results and the strength of our backlog, we believe we are extremely well positioned for the balance of 2023 and into 2024. We also are laser-focused on bringing more and more of these new customers live on our platform to continue to expand profitability and adjusted EBITDA margins. Our strategy remains simple and in this order: first, sign as many clients as possible to grow the network. This includes larger clients. Second, onboard those clients as quickly as possible and simultaneously deliver best-in-class service. And third, improve operating efficiencies and manage costs in order to drive margin expansion and bring more to the bottom line. I want to take this opportunity to thank each of my colleagues at Paymentus, who worked tirelessly to serve our clients.

謝謝，桑傑。最後，根據我們第一季度的業績和我們積壓的實力，我們相信我們在 2023 年和 2024 年的剩餘時間里處於非常有利的位置。我們也非常專注於讓越來越多的新客戶在我們的網站上生活平台繼續擴大盈利能力並調整 EBITDA 利潤率。我們的策略很簡單，順序如下：首先，與盡可能多的客戶簽約以發展網絡。這包括更大的客戶。其次，盡快吸引這些客戶，同時提供一流的服務。第三，提高運營效率和管理成本，以推動利潤增長並帶來更多利潤。我想藉此機會感謝我在 Paymentus 的每一位同事，他們孜孜不倦地為我們的客戶服務。

Thank you. That concludes our prepared remarks. I'll now open the line up for questions.

謝謝。我們準備好的發言到此結束。我現在開始排隊提問。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Our first question comes from John Davis with Raymond James.

我們的第一個問題來自 John Davis 和 Raymond James。

Dushyant, you talked a lot about kind of the pricing changes that you're going to make headed into this year given inflation. Just curious how those conversations have gone in the unexpected attrition. Obviously, numbers were good, good to see the increase in guide for the full year. But just curious how these conversations have gone with your customers as you implemented pricing changes that you talked about late last year.

Dushyant，你談到了很多關於你將在今年考慮到通貨膨脹的定價變化。只是好奇這些談話是如何在意想不到的消耗中進行的。顯然，數字很好，很高興看到全年指南的增加。但是很好奇，當您實施去年年底談到的價格變化時，這些對話是如何與您的客戶進行的。

John, thank you for the question. The conversations are going extremely well, actually. Clients are very understanding and they -- we are not the only ones who are talking to them about the challenges in their vendor network, if you will. So we are seeing positive feedback. Some of the conversations have resulted into actual meaningful pricing increases, which we will continue to deploy throughout the year. But 1 thing I do want to highlight to you and the rest of the analyst community on the Investor Day is that as we are seeing the trend, what we are doing now is, as an account management team or account management function, we are just including the pricing discussions as an ongoing framework. So we think that until the inflation is completely behind us, we'll continue to have these discussions as we are seeing positive trends here.

約翰，謝謝你的提問。實際上，對話進行得非常順利。客戶非常理解，如果您願意的話，他們 - 我們並不是唯一與他們談論供應商網絡挑戰的人。所以我們看到了積極的反饋。一些對話導致了實際有意義的價格上漲，我們將在全年繼續部署。但是我想在投資者日向您和其他分析師社區強調的一件事是，正如我們看到的趨勢，我們現在正在做的是，作為賬戶管理團隊或賬戶管理職能，我們只是將定價討論作為一個持續的框架。所以我們認為，在通貨膨脹完全過去之前，我們將繼續進行這些討論，因為我們在這裡看到了積極的趨勢。

Okay. That's helpful. And then just quickly on -- I think when you set out the initial 2023 outlook, you assume kind of no incremental new wins in the contribution profit outlook and EBITDA outlook for the full year. You mentioned numerous wins here in the first quarter. So just -- have you had to put those into the guide? Or are you still excluding new wins from the guide? Just help us think about where the guide is today versus 90 days ago?

好的。這很有幫助。然後很快——我認為當你設定最初的 2023 年展望時，你會假設全年的貢獻利潤展望和 EBITDA 展望不會有任何增量的新勝利。你提到了第一季度在這裡取得的無數勝利。那麼，您是否必須將這些內容放入指南中？還是您仍然將新勝利排除在指南之外？只是幫助我們想想今天指南與 90 天前相比在哪裡？

John, this is Sanjay. Thanks for the question. When we guided earlier versus when we are guiding now, the major increase we are seeing is based on the activity we have seen from the growth with the existing billers and also increased transactions. We did launch some big billers in Q4 last year, and we have seen a decent growover from them as well. So all that's coming from that on the growth -- I mean, the increased growth in the outlook is coming from these things we have seen. We have not baked in any significant revenue from the new wins. That remains the same what we said last time.

約翰，這是桑傑。謝謝你的問題。當我們早些時候指導時與我們現在指導時相比，我們看到的主要增長是基於我們從現有賬單的增長和交易增加中看到的活動。去年第四季度我們確實推出了一些大型廣告，我們也看到了它們的可觀增長。因此，所有這些都來自增長——我的意思是，前景的增長來自我們所看到的這些事情。我們沒有從新的勝利中獲得任何可觀的收入。這和我們上次說的一樣。

Our next question comes from Dave Koning with Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自 Baird 的 Dave Koning。

Nice quarter. And maybe a couple of questions. My first one, just implementations, I remember that was part of a little bit of the weakness kind of midyear last year and through the end of last year. You talked about implementations being a little slower. Have those picked up? Are they according to plan? Are they actually may be ahead of plan now? Or how are you seeing those?

不錯的季度。也許還有幾個問題。我的第一個，只是實施，我記得這是去年年中和去年年底的一些弱點的一部分。您談到實施速度有點慢。那些撿起來了嗎？他們按計劃進行嗎？他們現在真的可能比計劃提前了嗎？或者你怎麼看那些？

Actually, David, that's a great question. And I was trying to allude to in my prepared remarks. The post-pandemic conditions is now actually helping us a little bit, especially in the large deals. That's where we saw some of the -- more of the stretching of the implementation time lines. We are now able to see customers, first of all, both in the sales cycle, but also in the implementation phase as well. So those high-touch engagements are giving us a lot of confidence that we'll be able to keep within the time lines we anticipate. So the implementation as a whole is actually on a better footing than where we were last year.

事實上，大衛，這是一個很好的問題。我試圖在準備好的發言中提及。大流行後的情況現在實際上對我們有所幫助，尤其是在大宗交易中。這就是我們看到的一些——更多的是實施時間線的延長。我們現在能夠首先在銷售週期和實施階段看到客戶。因此，那些高接觸度的參與給了我們很大的信心，我們將能夠保持在我們預期的時間範圍內。因此，整個實施實際上比我們去年的情況更好。

Okay. No, that sounds great. And I guess my second question is a numbers question around the gap between gross and net revenue, really. It was reasonably small in Q4, I think a few percent gap. This quarter, it's about a 14% gap, right? It gross grew 27%, net grew 13%. And next quarter, you're guiding for that gap to be cut in half, basically what are the dynamics? I understand the inflation impacts, but what are the dynamics of that gap kind of moving around?

好的。不，這聽起來很棒。我想我的第二個問題是關於總收入和淨收入之間差距的數字問題，真的。它在第四季度相當小，我認為只有幾個百分點的差距。本季度，大約有 14% 的差距，對嗎？它毛增長27%，淨增長13%。下個季度，您將指導將差距縮小一半，基本上是什麼動態？我了解通貨膨脹的影響，但這種差距的動態是什麼？

Yes, a great question. The growth of revenue at 27% and the growth of contribution profit at 13% definitely brings a question. So let me give a around what we are seeing and what we expect to happen. First of all, both these are going to converge as time passes. We are seeing this as a temporary phase. And one of the reasons, as we said, is inflation we are seeing and then, in fact, seasonality is a part of it as well. But we have also started adding to some extent, larger billers in the mix. And what larger billers means is billers with heavy volume of transactions, where the contribution margin on these are slightly lower than the corporate contribution margins. So it's giving a temporary impact where the contribution margins seem low. But as time passes and as we fail more, we expect this gap to converge. And overall, we should realize economies of scale, which should ultimately improve our contribution margin together with contribution profit dollars. In fact, if you look at what we delivered in Q1 and compared with the guidance of Q2 and the guidance for the full year, both in all the 3 scenarios, you will see that this gap is already converging. And in the outer years, we expect this to converge even more. So we think it's a temporary phase. And eventually, this will be behind us. And right now, it's a great opportunity for us to see how we can scale the business and eventually get a better contribution profit and margin in the long run. Just a quick point I would add to that is that even Q1 bookings give us a lot of encouragement in that regard as well.

是的，一個很好的問題。 27%的收入增長和13%的貢獻利潤增長無疑帶來了一個問題。因此，讓我圍繞我們所看到的以及我們期望發生的事情進行介紹。首先，隨著時間的推移，這兩者都會融合。我們將此視為一個臨時階段。正如我們所說，原因之一是我們看到的通貨膨脹，事實上，季節性也是其中的一部分。但我們也開始在某種程度上增加更大的賬單。較大的出票人意味著交易量大的出票人，這些出票人的貢獻邊際略低於公司貢獻邊際。因此，它在邊際收益似乎很低的情況下產生了暫時的影響。但隨著時間的流逝和我們失敗的次數增多，我們預計這種差距會縮小。總的來說，我們應該實現規模經濟，這最終會提高我們的邊際貢獻和貢獻利潤美元。事實上，如果你看看我們在第一季度交付的內容，並與第二季度的指導和全年的指導進行比較，在所有 3 種情況下，你會發現這種差距已經縮小。在外面的幾年裡，我們預計這會收斂得更多。所以我們認為這是一個臨時階段。最終，這將在我們身後。現在，這是一個很好的機會，讓我們了解如何擴大業務規模，並最終在長期內獲得更好的貢獻利潤和利潤率。我想補充一點，即使是第一季度的預訂也給了我們很多鼓勵。

Our next question comes from Jason Kupferberg with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Jason Kupferberg。

This is Tyler on for Jason. First, I just want to start by looking at the EBITDA margins. I mean, they came in pretty healthy this quarter. Can you maybe just speak to what, in particular, drove that upside to price and sort of how we should be thinking about margins going through 2023 as well? Is it still the right idea to think about quarterly expansion on a year-on-year basis? And I guess going off that point as well, where are you anticipating the most margin efficiencies to come from throughout the year? Is it mostly G&A? Or any color there would be helpful.

這是傑森的泰勒。首先，我只想從 EBITDA 利潤率開始。我的意思是，他們本季度表現非常健康。你能不能談談什麼，特別是推動價格上漲的因素，以及我們應該如何考慮到 2023 年的利潤率？在同比基礎上考慮季度擴張仍然是正確的想法嗎？而且我想也離開了這一點，你預計全年利潤率最高的地方在哪裡？主要是 G&A 嗎？或者任何顏色都會有幫助。

Yes, Jason, I'll say that when we guided, we were expecting close to 40% growth year-over-year, and we came at 56.7%. So we definitely are all are very encouraged about the results. And the thing that Dushyant pointed out, I will just remind that the company's objective is to drop as much as possible the contribution profit dollars we generate to the bottom line. There's a significant inherent operating leverage in the business. We don't really need to spend the money if the contribution profit is increasing. So I would say that the increase is mainly coming from operating expenses, not increasing in the same line or in the same ratio as the contribution profit is increasing. So overall, I think the operating leverage exists. And in future where that will come will also be from the same. Right now, we are putting some investments in Q2 in our sales marketing and also in Q3. But over time, we expect that the operating leverage would be more than what we see this year. In fact, for the whole year, you've seen EBITDA up by 27% year-over-year at the midpoint. In Q2, we are seeing good growth there as well. So we are encouraged by what we delivered, and we believe that this growth is going to come. And on the top line, just to mention as well on the contribution profit line, the growth is coming from -- it's mainly organic growth and increase in transactions from the existing billers. And we are also seeing traction on IPN as well, which we will talk more as it grows significantly, but we are seeing good increases there as well. So I think everything is contribution -- is contributing in the right direction, helping us grow the EBITDA dollars.

是的，傑森，我會說當我們指導時，我們預計同比增長接近 40%，而我們達到了 56.7%。所以我們肯定對結果感到非常鼓舞。 Dushyant 指出的事情，我只想提醒一下，公司的目標是盡可能降低我們產生的貢獻利潤美元到底線。該業務具有重要的固有運營槓桿。如果貢獻利潤在增加，我們真的不需要花錢。所以我會說增加主要來自營業費用，而不是同線或同比例增加貢獻利潤正在增加。所以總的來說，我認為存在經營槓桿。將來，它也將來自同一地方。目前，我們正在對第二季度的銷售營銷和第三季度進行一些投資。但隨著時間的推移，我們預計經營槓桿將超過我們今年看到的水平。事實上，在全年中，您看到 EBITDA 在中點同比增長 27%。在第二季度，我們也看到了良好的增長。因此，我們對我們所交付的成果感到鼓舞，並且我們相信這種增長將會到來。最重要的是，還要提到貢獻利潤線，增長來自——主要是有機增長和現有賬單交易的增加。我們也看到了 IPN 的吸引力，隨著它的顯著增長，我們將更多地討論它，但我們也看到了良好的增長。所以我認為一切都是貢獻——朝著正確的方向做出貢獻，幫助我們增加 EBITDA 美元。

Okay. That's helpful. And then just curious, as a follow-up on bookings growth. It looks like you had a robust increase in that as well as the number of transactions. But maybe if you could just spend a minute or 2 parsing out how much of that growth was from new versus existing clients? And if there's any vertical concentration that's worth mentioning? And then I guess also jumping through that as well, just sort of how we should think Paymentus is anticipating revenue conversion. Just curious if we should be thinking like how we should be thinking about average conversion rates given the current macro backdrop?

好的。這很有幫助。然後只是好奇，作為預訂增長的後續行動。看起來您在這方面以及交易數量方面都有強勁增長。但也許如果你能花一兩分鐘來分析增長中有多少來自新客戶和現有客戶？如果有任何值得一提的垂直集中度？然後我想也跳過了這一點，就像我們應該如何看待 Paymentus 預期收入轉換一樣。只是好奇我們是否應該像在當前宏觀背景下應該如何考慮平均轉化率一樣思考？

I think we have not shared in the past the new versus existing. But you could actually -- it is safe to assume that we work very hard towards the tail end of the year to bring as many customers live as possible to actually beat our 2022 top line guidance, which we did. And then in all ourselves up for 2023, as we exited the year with a healthy backlog. So we have done that. We're also seeing some same-store sales, which Sanjay alluded to earlier. So I think all of those are pointing in the right direction. In terms of the conversion itself, I think we'll continue to take a look at whether we can start to share some of the information, the backlog and the -- and how that converts over time. But I can tell you, as I said earlier, we are seeing positive trends in the implementation area in the overall business just because we are able to interact with our clients, especially the large ones, in the high-touch engagement that is needed to bring them live.

我認為我們過去沒有分享過新的與現有的對比。但實際上你可以——可以肯定地說，我們會在年底前非常努力地工作，讓盡可能多的客戶活下來，以實際超過我們所做的 2022 年收入指導。然後全力以赴迎接 2023 年，因為我們以健康的積壓結束了這一年。所以我們已經做到了。我們還看到了一些同店銷售，Sanjay 早些時候提到過。所以我認為所有這些都指向正確的方向。就轉換本身而言，我認為我們將繼續研究我們是否可以開始共享一些信息、積壓和——以及隨著時間的推移如何轉換。但我可以告訴你，正如我之前所說，我們在整個業務的實施領域看到了積極的趨勢，因為我們能夠與我們的客戶，尤其是大客戶進行互動，這是讓他們活著。

Our next question comes from Andrew Estes with Wolfe Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Wolfe Research 的 Andrew Estes。

It's Andrew on for Darren. Just a few on the strategy side, can you maybe talk about the Oracle CIS client base and the opportunity that exists within, especially with the updated implementation? And then with regards to the IPN, remind us where you are with respect to executing on the third horizon of that strategy.

安德魯代替達倫。關於戰略方面的一些問題，您能否談談 Oracle CIS 客戶群以及其中存在的機會，尤其是更新實施方面的機會？然後關於 IPN，請提醒我們您在該戰略的第三個視野中執行的位置。

Sure. Thank you, Andrew. In terms of Oracle, Oracle is a great partner, has been a great partner. We have been doing a lot of things together with them in the sense our Oracle customer base continues to grow. This cloud integration actually helps us where an Oracle cloud -- Oracle CIS cloud of the client would find it very easy to integrate with Paymentus through the certification of the integration we have achieved. So we are very excited about that. In terms of the IPN itself, look, IPN to us is a multidimensional strategy. First, on its own, you're trying to bring in -- or we are trying to bring in the participants who have been left behind, if you will, through the platform we built for the billers. So what I mean by that is the banks and other fintechs who are left behind, they wanted to play in the Paymentus space, but just couldn't get in just because of the strength of the services we provide directly to the billers through our platform. So with IPN now, we are able to bring those in, and we have tremendous progress there, a lot of interest in the market. But the second thing about IPN, which I think will become a lot more clear as we continue to execute on our strategy is a very efficient distribution model for us -- or channel for us. We have banks as partners, we have our partners, and we also have distribution to a lot of businesses through our payment network, and many of which could utilize our increasing functional footprint of receivable payment payables, expense management and accounting and so on, especially in the SMB space. So we're very excited about that. And so far, we have seen great progress.

當然。謝謝你，安德魯。對甲骨文而言，甲骨文是一個偉大的合作夥伴，一直是一個偉大的合作夥伴。在我們的 Oracle 客戶群持續增長的意義上，我們一直在與他們一起做很多事情。這種雲集成實際上幫助我們在甲骨文云的地方——客戶的甲骨文 CIS 雲會發現通過我們已經實現的集成認證很容易與 Paymentus 集成。所以我們對此感到非常興奮。就IPN本身而言，看，IPN對我們來說是一個多維度的策略。首先，就其本身而言，您正在嘗試引入——或者我們正試圖通過我們為計費者構建的平台引入那些被遺忘的參與者，如果您願意的話。所以我的意思是那些落在後面的銀行和其他金融科技公司，他們想在 Paymentus 領域發揮作用，但只是因為我們通過我們的平台直接向開票人提供的服務實力而無法進入.所以現在有了 IPN，我們能夠將它們引入，我們在這方面取得了巨大的進步，對市場產生了很大的興趣。但是關於 IPN 的第二件事，我認為隨著我們繼續執行我們的戰略，它會變得更加清晰，這對我們來說是一個非常有效的分銷模式——或者對我們來說是渠道。我們有銀行作為合作夥伴，我們有我們的合作夥伴，我們還通過我們的支付網絡向許多企業進行分銷，其中許多企業可以利用我們不斷增加的應收付款、費用管理和會計等功能足跡，尤其是在 SMB 領域。所以我們對此感到非常興奮。到目前為止，我們已經看到了很大的進步。

Our next question from Tien-Tsin Huang with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Tien-Tsin Huang。

A lot of the good stuff. I wanted to ask already. I wanted to get a little bit more, maybe, Dushyant, on the SMB push with the payables discussion you had last time as well. Just any surprises there in terms of momentum and start to connect closer to the SMBs?

很多好東西。我早就想問了。 Dushyant，我還想通過您上次討論的應付賬款討論獲得更多關於 SMB 的信息。在勢頭方面有什麼驚喜並開始與中小企業建立更緊密的聯繫嗎？

Yes. Thank you, Tien-Tsin. Good question. I was responding about the word surprises. We are seeing a lot of positive excitement about the product. And it's early stages and a lot of discussions early on and getting a lot of positive feedback as well as from the SMBs themselves. Folks using the product, giving us feedback, and we are seeing a lot of encouraging signs there. We believe that the whole SMB strategy and our strategy to build SMB in a way that all of that functionality is available for enterprise clients as well, especially those who use our receivable capabilities can now leverage payables and expense management and all of that, that comes with it. I think gives us a lot of confidence that we are setting ourselves up for a great future ahead. So that's the one I'm able to share right now, but we will share more as we see more progress.

是的。謝謝你，天津。好問題。我在回應驚喜這個詞。我們看到了很多對該產品的積極興奮。它處於早期階段，早期進行了大量討論，並獲得了很多積極的反饋以及來自 SMB 本身的反饋。人們使用該產品，給我們反饋，我們在那裡看到了很多令人鼓舞的跡象。我們相信，整個 SMB 戰略和我們以所有這些功能也可供企業客戶使用的方式構建 SMB 的戰略，特別是那些使用我們的應收賬款功能的客戶現在可以利用應付賬款和費用管理等所有這些功能用它。我認為這給了我們很大的信心，我們正在為美好的未來做好準備。這就是我現在能夠分享的內容，但隨著我們看到更多進展，我們將分享更多內容。

Okay. Great. My quick follow-up, just to expand or dig deeper into the -- what's going on in the bank partner side. Given all the stresses in the banking system and all the turmoil, et cetera, that -- have you noticed any change in terms of existing relationships or even prospective on the banking side.

好的。偉大的。我的快速跟進，只是為了擴展或更深入地了解——銀行合作夥伴方面正在發生的事情。考慮到銀行系統的所有壓力和所有動盪等等，您是否注意到現有關係甚至銀行方面的前景發生了任何變化。

Actually, some of our large bank partners, they're getting even stronger. So we're very excited about that. But in terms of the overall our bank network, we are not seeing any negative change that we did just as bullish as we were before about the entire ecosystem of our platform, whether it's on the bank side or the credit union side.

實際上，我們的一些大型銀行合作夥伴變得更加強大。所以我們對此感到非常興奮。但就我們的整體銀行網絡而言，我們沒有看到任何負面變化，就像我們以前對我們平台的整個生態系統一樣樂觀，無論是在銀行方面還是在信用合作社方面。

I wanted to follow up on some of the backlog commentary, you had it sounded like that was sort of what was catching your eye early on.

我想跟進一些積壓的評論，你聽起來好像這是很早就引起你注意的事情。

We appreciate the question. I am a little reluctant at this point to share the numbers. I'll be honest. I'm very excited about looking at the backlog and various other KPIs. Quantification is not something I'd like to go here, but it's -- I would say it's a significant increase year-over-year. And if I may maybe add to that is that where we sit today, and we are looking at how -- where we want to be next year based on how well we have executed against the implementation backlog to bring customers live especially in the Q4 and then what we're -- how hard we worked in Q1 to bring some of the customers live in Q2. Combined that with the backlog and the early success in Q1, we feel good about where we are relative to 2023 and 2024. And one of the things, which I think I just want to highlight is that when we measure the backlog, we take out all of the same-store sales from it. So said differently, let's see if I book a client for $1 million in second half of 2022 and the client goes live in some time 2023, there is some tailwinds, the digitization tailwinds that take place. And then by the time, over a period of time, that customer continues to rise with us as well as the same-store sales. So when you factor that in is even becomes more impressive, especially with the size of the backlog. But we will take a look at it, as Sanjay mentioned, that what we could share as the time goes by.

我們感謝這個問題。在這一點上，我有點不願意分享這些數字。我會說實話。我對查看積壓工作和其他各種 KPI 感到非常興奮。量化不是我想在這裡做的事情，但它——我想說這是一個同比顯著增長。如果我可以補充一點，那就是我們今天所處的位置，我們正在研究如何——我們希望明年能達到什麼樣的水平，這取決於我們對實施積壓工作的執行情況，以讓客戶活下來，尤其是在第四季度和那麼我們是什麼——我們在第一季度為讓一些客戶在第二季度生活而付出了多少努力。結合積壓和第一季度的早期成功，我們對我們相對於 2023 年和 2024 年的位置感覺良好。我想我只想強調的一件事是，當我們衡量積壓時，我們拿出它的所有同店銷售額。換句話說，讓我們看看我是否在 2022 年下半年以 100 萬美元預訂了一個客戶，並且該客戶在 2023 年的某個時候上線，有一些順風，數字化的順風。然後到時候，在一段時間內，該客戶以及同店銷售額繼續與我們一起上升。因此，當你考慮到這一點時，它甚至會變得更加令人印象深刻，尤其是考慮到積壓的規模。但正如 Sanjay 所提到的，我們會看看隨著時間的推移我們可以分享什麼。

Got it. Makes a lot of sense. I appreciate that. And then I guess as a follow-up question. When you guys think about EBITDA conversion over the next couple of years, obviously, you've had a lot of investment priorities, whether it's the IPN, small business platform, some of the acquisitions. But when we look at kind of CapEx and capitalized software, it is running around close to 100% of EBITDA. So just wondering how you're thinking about the level of investment in the business, what the outlook is for that and whether we could see the very strong top line growth contribute towards more cash flow conversion as we get into 2024.

知道了。很有道理。我很感激。然後我想作為後續問題。當你們考慮未來幾年的 EBITDA 轉換時，顯然，你們有很多投資優先事項，無論是 IPN、小型企業平台還是一些收購。但是，當我們查看某種資本支出和資本化軟件時，它幾乎佔 EBITDA 的 100%。所以只是想知道你是如何考慮業務投資水平的，前景如何，以及我們是否可以看到非常強勁的收入增長有助於我們進入 2024 年時更多的現金流轉換。

I think that -- I would say this is actually one of the key points you wanted to get across. And that was that -- we have always been a relatively profitability-centric organization obviously, being public, has some costs associated with it that challenged some of the profitability dimensions we had or the metrics we used to have and then obviously, the macro and so on. But one of the things we wanted to get across was that we have the ability to drop a lot of the top line and the contribution profit dollars to the EBITDA line. And we are already doing a lot with our core biller business the IPN and the SMB, some of those new initiative investments we are making. But we feel good about generating -- dropping more to the cash line, if you will, in 2024, just because even as we are making the investments, we feel good about where we sit today with our current OpEx itself. Sanjay, do you want to add something?

我認為 - 我會說這實際上是您想表達的關鍵點之一。就是這樣——我們一直是一個相對以盈利能力為中心的組織，顯然，作為上市公司，有一些與之相關的成本挑戰了我們擁有的一些盈利能力維度或我們過去擁有的指標，然後顯然，宏觀和很快。但我們想要傳達的一件事是，我們有能力減少很多收入和對 EBITDA 線的貢獻利潤美元。我們已經在我們的核心計費業務 IPN 和 SMB 方面做了很多工作，其中一些是我們正在進行的新計劃投資。但我們對產生感覺很好——如果你願意的話，在 2024 年將更多的資金投入現金線，只是因為即使我們正在進行投資，我們對我們目前的 OpEx 本身所處的位置感覺良好。桑傑，你想補充點什麼嗎？

I'd just add that -- I appreciate the question. You see $8.4 million EBITDA; and then in the cash flow, you see $8.1 million software CapEx and hence the question. But if you look at our cash flow statement, even though the cash might have dropped by around $3.8 million in the quarter. But overall, our working capital has significantly increased. So a lot of cash is sitting in accounts receivable, which we plan to turn around in the next quarter. Next quarter, the cash should go up. That's the expectation. And while we don't give cash, but going forward, our planning for cash is either to stay neutral or maybe slightly negative, depending if the software development increases. But overall, all that investment is happening for future growth for the projects for which we don't see revenue yet. And that is basically going to drive more growth, and that's where all this investment is going. So that outer years revenue growth, which is invested today, and I think we are on track in terms of managing cash as well for the whole year.

我只想補充一點——我很欣賞這個問題。您會看到 840 萬美元的 EBITDA；然後在現金流中，您會看到 810 萬美元的軟件資本支出，因此出現了問題。但是，如果您查看我們的現金流量表，即使本季度現金可能減少了約 380 萬美元。但總體而言，我們的營運資金已顯著增加。因此，應收賬款中有大量現金，我們計劃在下個季度將其轉回。下個季度，現金應該會增加。這就是期望。雖然我們不提供現金，但展望未來，我們的現金計劃要么保持中立，要么略微消極，這取決於軟件開發是否增加。但總的來說，所有這些投資都是為了我們尚未看到收入的項目的未來增長而發生的。這基本上會推動更多的增長，這就是所有這些投資的方向。因此，今天投資的外年收入增長，我認為我們在管理現金方面也走上了正軌。

There are no further questions playing at this time. So I will pass the conference back over to the management team for any closing remarks.

目前沒有其他問題在播放。因此，我會將會議轉回給管理團隊，聽取任何閉幕詞。

Well, thank you, everyone. Thank you for being here with us today, and have a great day, and stay safe.

嗯，謝謝大家。感謝您今天和我們在一起，祝您度過愉快的一天，並保持安全。

Thank you all.

謝謝你們。

That concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

今天的電話會議到此結束。謝謝大家的參與。您現在可以斷開線路。