Paycom Software Inc (PAYC) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon. My name is Cameron, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Paycom's fourth-quarter and full year 2024 financial results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. (Operator Instructions)

午安.我叫卡梅倫，今天我將擔任您的會議主持人。現在，我歡迎大家參加Paycom 2024年第四季和全年財務業績電話會議。所有線路均已靜音以防止任何背景噪音。（操作員指令）

Thank you. I will now turn the call over to James Sanford, head of investor relations. You may begin.

謝謝。現在我將把電話轉給投資者關係主管詹姆斯桑福德。你可以開始了。

Thank you, and welcome to Paycom's earnings conference call for the fourth quarter and full year 2024.

謝謝，歡迎參加 Paycom 2024 年第四季和全年財報電話會議。

Certain statements made on this call that are not historical facts, including those related to our future plans, objectives, and expected performance are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements represent our outlook only as of the date of this conference call. While we believe any forward-looking statements made on this call are reasonable, actual results may differ materially because the statements are based on our current expectations and subject to risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in our filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K. You should refer to and consider these factors when relying on such forward-looking information. Any forward-looking statement made speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we do not undertake and expressly disclaim any obligation to update or alter our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

本次電話會議中所做的某些非歷史事實的陳述，包括與我們未來計畫、目標和預期績效相關的陳述，均屬於 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法》所定義的前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述僅代表我們截至本次電話會議之日的觀點。雖然我們認為本次電話會議中所做的任何前瞻性陳述都是合理的，但實際結果可能存在重大差異，因為這些陳述是基於我們目前的預期，並且受風險和不確定性的影響。這些風險和不確定性在我們提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中進行了討論，包括我們最近的 10-K 表年度報告。當您依賴此類前瞻性資訊時，您應該參考並考慮這些因素。任何前瞻性陳述僅代表陳述作出之日的觀點，我們不承擔並明確否認任何更新或修改前瞻性陳述的義務，無論是由於新資訊、未來事件或其他原因，除非適用法律要求。

Also during today's call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income, free cash flow, and certain adjusted expenses. We use these non-GAAP financial measures to review and assess our performance and for planning purposes. A reconciliation schedule showing GAAP versus non-GAAP results is included in the press release that we issued after the close of the market today and is available on our website at investors.paycom.com.

此外，在今天的電話會議中，我們將參考某些非 GAAP 財務指標，包括調整後的 EBITDA、非 GAAP 淨收入、自由現金流量和某些調整後的費用。我們使用這些非公認會計準則財務指標來審查和評估我們的績效並用於規劃目的。我們在今天收盤後發布的新聞稿中包含了顯示 GAAP 與非 GAAP 結果的對帳表，您可以在我們的網站 investors.paycom.com 上查閱。

I will now turn the call over to Chad Richardson, Paycom's CEO and President. Chad?

現在我將把電話轉給 Paycom 的執行長兼總裁 Chad Richardson。查德?

Thanks, James, and thank you to everyone joining our call today. We ended 2024 with strong momentum, thanks to focused execution, organic sales growth and operational efficiency gains.

謝謝，詹姆斯，也感謝今天參加我們電話會議的所有人。由於專注的執行、有機銷售成長和營運效率的提升，我們以強勁的發展勢頭結束了 2024 年。

Before diving in, I want to welcome our next CFO, Bob Foster. Bob joined Paycom over two years ago after working within the industry as the CEO and Chairman of a payroll company for eight years. Prior to that, he served as a Senior Partner in Ernst Young, managing several of the firm's largest accounts. He brings industry experience, process expertise and a strong financial pedigree to lead our financial team. He will assume the role of CFO effective February 21 when my longtime friend and colleague, Craig Boelte officially retires. After my opening remarks, Craig will review our fourth quarter and full-year results and Bob will provide comments on our full-year guidance. We will then take your questions. With that, let's get started.

在深入探討之前，我想歡迎我們的下一任財務長 Bob Foster。兩年多前，Bob 加入 Paycom，此前他在該行業一家薪資公司擔任了八年的執行長兼董事長。在此之前，他曾擔任安永的高級合夥人，管理該公司的幾個最大的客戶。他擁有豐富的行業經驗、流程專業知識和強大的財務背景，可以領導我們的財務團隊。當我的老朋友和同事 Craig Boelte 正式退休時，他將於 2 月 21 日起擔任財務長一職。在我的開場白之後，克雷格將回顧我們的第四季和全年業績，鮑伯將對我們的全年指引發表評論。然後我們將回答您的問題。有了它，我們開始吧。

Our performance strengthened throughout the year as we diligently executed our 2024 plan. We expect to fuel our momentum in 2025 by maintaining our focus on full solution automation, client ROI achievement, and delivering world-class service. 20 years ago, when we sold our software, user buyers bought the product because they wanted to do more with this software.

由於我們認真執行 2024 年計劃，因此全年業績不斷增強。我們希望在 2025 年繼續專注於全面解決方案自動化、客戶投資回報率實現和提供世界級的服務，從而進一步增強我們的發展勢頭。 20年前，當我們銷售我們的軟體時，用戶購買該產品是因為他們想用這個軟體做更多的事情。

And today, they want the software to do more for them. We already have the most automated solution in the industry and we are rapidly moving toward full solution automation, driving even more ROI for our clients. Simply put, our software vision is that people shouldn't do tasks that systems can safely automate.

今天，他們希望軟體能為他們做更多的事情。我們已經擁有業內最自動化的解決方案，並且正在迅速邁向全面解決方案自動化，為我們的客戶帶來更多的投資回報。簡而言之，我們的軟體願景是人們不應該做系統可以安全自動化的任務。

On the payroll side, Beti continues to eliminate non-revenue-generating tasks, which allow clients to shift resources to more profitable activities. Beti is a highly differentiated automated solution that delivers strong client ROI. Having employees do their own payroll is the most effective way to do payroll, and we are seeing this validated daily.

在薪資方面，Beti 繼續消除不產生收入的任務，這使得客戶能夠將資源轉移到更有利可圖的活動上。Beti 是一種高度差異化的自動化解決方案，可為客戶帶來強大的投資報酬率。讓員工自己發放薪水是發放薪資最有效的方式，我們每天都看到這一點得到驗證。

Take, for example, a client of ours in the professional sports industry. Prior to Beti, this 500-employee organization worked through payroll issues for days leading up to their submission deadline. They ran separate reports and supervisors chased down employees to fix time and attendance issues.

以我們的一位職業運動產業的客戶為例。在 Beti 之前，這個擁有 500 名員工的組織在提交截止日期之前的幾天一直在處理工資問題。他們分別提交了報告，主管們也督促員工解決考勤問題。

With Beti, their employees ensure their check is correct, which is significantly increased employee trust and the client has automated 85% of the time and effort previously wasted on payroll. We onboarded a 2,000 employee retail client that operates in multiple states.

借助 Beti，員工可以確保他們的支票是正確的，這大大提高了員工的信任度，客戶還自動化了先前在工資單上浪費的 85% 的時間和精力。我們加入了一家在多個州開展業務的擁有 2,000 名員工的零售客戶。

This client raved about their seamless transition process and they confirmed they have also reduced their payroll processing time by nearly 85%. In addition to their payroll savings, their HR team saved an additional month annually of unproductive time through automations outside of the payroll process.

該客戶對他們的無縫過渡流程讚不絕口，並確認他們也將工資處理時間縮短了近 85%。除了節省工資外，他們的人力資源團隊還透過工資流程之外的自動化每年節省了一個月的非生產時間。

Clients continue to see strong ROI from our automated time and labor management solutions. For many clients, unproductive time represents roughly 10% of labor costs. With GONE, clients can eliminate unnecessary interaction points by providing a consistent and fully automated experience for employees, managers, HR administrators and the business as a whole.

客戶繼續從我們的自動化時間和勞動力管理解決方案中看到強勁的投資報酬率。對許多客戶來說，非生產時間約佔勞動成本的 10%。借助 GONE，客戶可以為員工、經理、人力資源管理員和整個企業提供一致且完全自動化的體驗，從而消除不必要的互動點。

A recent Forrester study found that GONE can generate an ROI of up to 800%. Through the automation of time-off decisions, managers saved nearly a week of unproductive hours annually. And on average, companies save nearly five weeks of unproductive time in the areas of HR, finance and accounting every year.

Forrester 最近的一項研究發現，GONE 可產生高達 800% 的投資報酬率。透過休假決策的自動化，管理人員每年可節省近一週的非生產時間。平均而言，公司每年在人力資源、財務和會計領域可節省近五週的非生產時間。

We were pleased that GONE received The Business Intelligent Group's Innovation Award, which is awarded to the organizations changing how employees experience the work world. Internally, we are experiencing increased efficiencies through product automation.

我們很高興 GONE 獲得了商業智慧集團的創新獎，該獎項頒發給改變員工體驗工作世界方式的組織。在內部，我們透過產品自動化提高了效率。

Paycom's AI agent, which was rolled out to our service team six months ago, utilizes our own knowledge-based semantic search model to provide faster responses and help our clients more quickly and consistently than ever before.

Paycom 的 AI 代理商於六個月前向我們的服務團隊推出，它利用我們自己的基於知識的語義搜尋模型提供更快的回應，並比以往更快、更一致地幫助我們的客戶。

As responses continuously improve over time, our client interactions become more valuable and we connect them faster to the right solution. As a result, we are seeing improved immediate response rates and have eliminated service tickets by over 25% compared to a year ago.

隨著回應不斷改善，我們與客戶的互動變得更有價值，我們能更快地為他們提供正確的解決方案。因此，與一年前相比，我們的即時回應率有所提高，服務單數量減少了 25% 以上。

We remain committed to having a high-touch service model, which means we'll always have a single point of contact for our clients to provide them personal service. But with automations like AI agent, we are realizing internal efficiencies, driving increasing client satisfaction and seeing higher net promoter scores.

我們始終致力於高接觸服務模式，這意味著我們將始終為客戶提供單一聯絡點，為他們提供個人化服務。但透過人工智慧代理等自動化技術，我們實現了內部效率，提高了客戶滿意度並獲得了更高的淨推薦值。

Through our internal automation efforts, we are identifying opportunities to automate even more processes that currently require a necessarily human interaction. And this is having a positive impact on our service initiatives and margins. Thanks to these efforts, we ended the year with roughly the same headcount as last year, while continuing to attract talent in the key areas of service, sales and R&D.

透過我們的內部自動化工作，我們正在尋找機會來自動化更多目前需要人工互動的流程。這對我們的服務措施和利潤產生了正面的影響。由於這些努力，我們今年的員工人數與去年大致相同，同時持續吸引服務、銷售和研發等關鍵領域的人才。

Demand for the most automated solution in our industry provided by Paycom is stronger than ever and sales is having record success as more businesses experience the benefits of solution automation. With greater success amongst our sales organization, we have more individuals ready to be leaders. And with a deep bench of sales leaders, we opened three new sales offices in January. These are located in Raleigh, North Carolina, Los Angeles, California and Providence, Rhode Island, which brings our total outside sales teams to 57.

Paycom 提供的我們行業最自動化的解決方案的需求比以往任何時候都強勁，隨著越來越多的企業體驗到解決方案自動化的好處，銷售也取得了創紀錄的成功。隨著我們銷售組織取得更大的成功，我們有更多人才準備成為領導者。在強大的銷售領導團隊的幫助下，我們於一月份開設了三個新的銷售辦事處。這些銷售團隊位於北卡羅來納州羅利、加州洛杉磯和羅德島州普羅維登斯，這使我們的外部銷售團隊總數達到 57 個。

Our culture was highlighted by comparably in Q4 as Paycom was the top company for compensation and best company culture. Additionally, Newsweek recognized us as one of America's greatest workplaces for diversity. With the most automated product, consistent retention and kicking off the year with record sales growth, we are set up to perform well in 2025 and beyond.

我們的文化在第四季度得到了突出強調，Paycom 是薪酬和最佳公司文化的頂級公司。此外，《新聞周刊》將我們評為美國最多元化的工作場所之一。憑藉自動化程度最高的產品、持續的保留率以及創紀錄的年初銷售成長，我們已準備好在 2025 年及以後取得良好表現。

With that, let me turn it over to Craig.

說完這些，讓我把話題交給 Craig。

Thanks, Chad. Before I review our fourth-quarter and full-year results for 2024, I would like to remind everyone that my comments related to certain financial measures will be on a non-GAAP basis. Also, in our income statement, we have broken out total revenue into recurring and other revenue and interest on funds held for clients.

謝謝，乍得。在回顧我們 2024 年第四季和全年業績之前，我想提醒大家，我對某些財務指標的評論將基於非 GAAP 基礎。此外，在我們的損益表中，我們將總收入分為經常性收入、其他收入以及為客戶持有的資金的利息。

In our earnings press release today, we provided 2024 quarterly revenue amounts to conform to this presentation. This change has no impact on total revenue or any other line item in our income statement. We ended the year with solid results with full-year 2024 revenue of $1.88 billion, representing 11% organic growth compared to 2023. Full-year recurring and other revenue was $1.76 billion, also up 11% compared to 2023 and interest on funds held for clients of $125 million was up approximately 16% year-over-year.

在我們今天的收益新聞稿中，我們提供了 2024 年季度收入金額以符合此介紹。這項變更不會對總收入或我們的損益表中的任何其他項目產生影響。我們以穩健的業績結束了這項財年，2024 年全年營收為 18.8 億美元，與 2023 年相比有機成長了 11%。全年經常性收入和其他收入為 17.6 億美元，與 2023 年相比增長 11%，為客戶持有的 1.25 億美元資金利息年增約 16%。

Fourth quarter results were better-than-expected with total revenue of $494 million, representing growth of approximately 14% over the comparable prior year period. Recurring and other revenue in the fourth quarter was $465 million, up 14.5% compared to 2023. We generated $29 million of interest on funds held for clients, up approximately 2% year-over-year on an average daily balance of approximately $2.5 billion.

第四季業績優於預期，總營收為 4.94 億美元，較去年同期成長約 14%。第四季經常性收入和其他收入為 4.65 億美元，較 2023 年成長 14.5%。我們為客戶持有的資金產生了 2,900 萬美元的利息，年增約 2%，日均餘額約為 25 億美元。

Our strong top-line results and recent operating efficiency gains translated into even stronger bottom-line results. Full-year GAAP net income was $502 million or $8.92 per diluted share based on approximately 56 million shares.

我們強勁的營業收入和近期營運效率的提升轉化為更強勁的獲利業績。全年 GAAP 淨收入為 5.02 億美元，或每股攤薄收入 8.92 美元（基於約 5,600 萬股）。

Non-GAAP net income for 2024 was $462 million or $8.21 per diluted share. In the fourth quarter, GAAP net income of $114 million and non-GAAP net income of $130 million represented $2.02 and $2.32 per diluted share, respectively, based on approximately 56 million shares.

2024 年非 GAAP 淨收入為 4.62 億美元，即每股稀釋收入 8.21 美元。第四季度，基於約 5,600 萬股股票，GAAP 淨收入為 1.14 億美元，非 GAAP 淨收入為 1.3 億美元，分別相當於每股攤薄收益 2.02 美元和 2.32 美元。

Full-year adjusted EBITDA was $775 million, representing full year margin of 41.2%. Fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA was $215 million, representing a quarterly margin of 43.5%, up 290 basis points year-over-year. We continue to invest in automation across our software.

全年調整後 EBITDA 為 7.75 億美元，全年利潤率為 41.2%。第四季調整後 EBITDA 為 2.15 億美元，季度利潤率為 43.5%，較去年同期成長 290 個基點。我們將繼續對軟體的自動化進行投資。

Adjusted R&D expense was $61 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 or 12% of total revenues. Adjusted total R&D costs, including the capitalized portion were $89 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to $73 million in the prior year period.

2024 年第四季調整後的研發費用為 6,100 萬美元，佔總營收的 12%。2024 年第四季調整後的總研發成本（包括資本化部分）為 8,900 萬美元，去年同期為 7,300 萬美元。

Our tax rate for 2024 was 23% on a GAAP basis. For the full year 2025, we anticipate our effective income tax rate to be approximately 29% on a GAAP basis and approximately 27% on a non-GAAP basis. In fiscal year 2025, we expect stock-based compensation expense as a percent of revenue to be approximately 8%. Cash flow from operations in 2024 was $534 million, representing 28% margin. Total CapEx of $197 million in 2024 represented approximately 10% of total revenues compared to approximately 12% of total revenues in 2023.

根據 GAAP 計算，我們 2024 年的稅率為 23%。我們預計 2025 年全年有效所得稅率（以 GAAP 計算）約為 29%，（以非 GAAP 計算）約為 27%。在 2025 財年，我們預期股票薪酬費用將佔收入的百分比約為 8%。2024 年經營現金流為 5.34 億美元，利潤率為 28%。2024 年總資本支出為 1.97 億美元，約佔總收入的 10%，而 2023 年該數字約佔總收入的 12%。

We estimate total CapEx as a percent of revenues to be below 10% in 2025. Free cash flow defined as operating cash flow less CapEx was $337 million in 2024, up 17% year over year. Free cash flow margin expanded 90 basis points year-over-year to approximately 18%.

我們預計，2025 年總資本支出佔收入的百分比將低於 10%。自由現金流定義為經營現金流減去資本支出，到 2024 年為 3.37 億美元，較去年同期成長 17%。自由現金流利潤率較去年同期擴大 90 個基點至約 18%。

In 2024, we repurchased over 900,000 shares of common stock, or approximately 2% of our shares outstanding for a total of $145 million and we paid over $84 million in cash dividends. Since the beginning of 2023, we repurchased over 2.4 million shares, or approximately 4% of shares outstanding for approximately $445 million. We still have approximately $1.48 billion remaining under our buyback authorization as of December 31, 2024, and the Board has approved our next quarterly dividend of $0.375 per share payable in mid-March.

2024 年，我們回購了超過 90 萬股普通股，約占我們已發行股票的 2%，總額為 1.45 億美元，並支付了超過 8,400 萬美元的現金股利。自 2023 年初以來，我們以約 4.45 億美元回購了超過 240 萬股，約佔已發行股票的 4%。截至 2024 年 12 月 31 日，我們的回購授權金額仍有約 14.8 億美元，董事會已批准我們下一季的股息為每股 0.375 美元，將於 3 月中旬支付。

Turning to the balance sheet. Even after returning capital to shareholders through buybacks and dividends paid in 2024, we ended the year with a very strong balance sheet, including cash-and-cash equivalents of $402 million and zero debt. We ended 2024 with approximately 37,500 clients, representing a growth rate of 2% compared to 2023.

轉向資產負債表。即使在 2024 年透過回購和支付股息向股東返還資本後，我們在年底的資產負債表仍然非常強勁，包括 4.02 億美元的現金和現金等價物和零債務。截至 2024 年，我們擁有約 37,500 名客戶，與 2023 年相比成長率為 2%。

On a parent-company grouping basis, we ended the year with approximately 19,400 clients, and of those, clients with greater than 1,000 employees were up 12% year over year. Total employee record stored in our system in 2024 was $7 million, up 3% year-over-year.

以母公司分組計算，我們截至年底約有 19,400 名客戶，其中員工人數超過 1,000 人的客戶年增 12%。2024 年，我們的系統中儲存的員工記錄總額為 700 萬美元，年增 3%。

Paycom's annual revenue retention rate in 2024 was 90%, which was consistent with 2023. 2024 was a solid year of execution with strengthening fundamentals as the year progressed. I want to thank our employees for all the hard work that is paying off.

Paycom 2024 年的年營收保留率為 90%，與 2023 年持平。我要感謝我們的員工，他們的辛勤工作得到了回報。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Bob for guidance. Bob?

說完這些，我將把電話轉給鮑伯以尋求指導。鮑伯？

Thanks, Craig, and thank you, Chad, for the opportunity to take the financial reigns of such an innovative and profitable company. For the near term, the plan is to continue to fuel the momentum we have been building in 2024 in the areas of R&D, sales, and investing in automation to benefit our clients as well as us internally.

謝謝克雷格，也謝謝查德，給了我機會掌管這樣一家富有創新精神和盈利能力的公司的財務。就短期而言，我們計劃在 2024 年繼續保持我們在研發、銷售和自動化投資等領域所累積的良好勢頭，從而使我們的客戶和我們內部受益。

Our approach to guidance remains consistent as we guide to what we can see today and factor in relevant trends, opportunities, and potential constraints. With the goal of aligning our guidance with our long-term focus and consistent with how we run our business, we are transitioning to an annual revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance framework.

我們的指導方法保持一致，因為我們指導的是今天所能看到的，並考慮相關的趨勢、機會和潛在的限制。為了使我們的指導與我們的長期重點保持一致並與我們的業務經營方式保持一致，我們正在轉向年度收入和調整後的 EBITDA 指導框架。

For fiscal 2025, we expect total revenue to be between $2.015 billion to $2.035 billion, or approximately 8% year-over-year at the midpoint of the range. We expect full year recurring and other revenue to be up approximately 9% year-over-year. We expect full year adjusted EBITDA in the range of $820 million to $840 million, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 41% at the midpoint of the range.

對於 2025 財年，我們預計總營收將在 20.15 億美元至 20.35 億美元之間，或以中間值計算年增約 8%。我們預計全年經常性收入和其他收入將年增約 9%。我們預計全年調整後 EBITDA 在 8.2 億美元至 8.4 億美元之間，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為中間值 41%。

This represents one of our highest initial margin guides. Included in total revenue outlook is interest on funds held for clients of approximately $110 million, down 12% year over year. Looking at the shape of the year, we expect first quarter growth to be the low point of the year.

這是我們最高的初始保證金指南之一。總收入預期包括為客戶持有的資金利息約 1.1 億美元，年減 12%。從今年的情況來看，我們預計第一季的成長將是今年的最低點。

We expect recurring and other revenue growth to accelerate to consistent double digits every quarter thereafter as we benefit from record sales and consistent retention trends. We have positive momentum and are positioned well in 2025. We have an organic growth model that produces high-quality revenue and profit. We also have the talent and the product vision to build on our success.

由於我們受益於創紀錄的銷售額和持續的保留趨勢，我們預計此後每季的經常性收入和其他收入成長將加速至穩定的兩位數。我們擁有積極的勢頭，並且已為 2025 年做好了準備。我們擁有一個可以產生高品質收入和利潤的有機成長模式。我們也擁有人才和產品願景來鞏固我們的成功。

Before taking your questions, I want to thank Craig for what he has meant to Paycom, our clients, and our employees over the last 20 years. From all of us, Craig, thank you.

在回答你們的問題之前，我想感謝 Craig 在過去 20 年裡對 Paycom、我們的客戶和員工的貢獻。克雷格，我們所有人都向你表示感謝。

With that, let's open the line for questions. Operator?

現在，讓我們開始回答問題。操作員？

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指令）

Raimo Lenschow, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的 Raimo Lenschow。

Hey, perfect. Congrats on a great Q4. And Bob, all the best in your journey with Paycom as a CFO. Two quick questions. Bob, first on guidance and guidance philosophy, what drove the decision to kind of not do quarterly anymore? I mean, it does feel like Paycom is a very predictable business, so that's a little bit surprising there. Maybe talk a little bit about your thinking.

嘿，完美。恭喜您取得出色的第四季業績。鮑勃，祝你作為 Paycom 財務長的職業生涯一切順利。兩個簡單的問題。鮑勃，首先談談指導和指導理念，是什麼促使您決定不再做季度報告？我的意思是，Paycom 確實感覺是一家非常可預測的公司，所以這有點令人驚訝。也許可以稍微談談你的想法。

And then, Chad, can you talk a little bit about the renewal rates? You mentioned they were stable on last year, and but in the past, we've seen larger numbers and like the whole Beti uncertainty kind of obviously created headwinds. And so I'm thinking like is this level like the new level or are your ambitions to bring it back to the levels we've seen in the years prior to what we've seen before? And many thanks, and congrats on a good Q4 again.

然後，查德，你能談談續約率嗎？您提到，去年的數據比較穩定，但過去，我們看到更大的數字，而且像整個貝蒂的不確定性顯然造成了阻力。所以我在想，這個水平是否像新的水平，或者你的目標是否是將其恢復到我們前幾年所見的水平？非常感謝，並再次恭喜您在第四季度取得良好業績。

Yes, Raimo, thanks for the question. As you know, we run our business with a long-term focus and we invest in things that will help our clients and Paycom along the way and this aligns with how we run our business. And when you look at our guide, it's a very strong guide accelerating through the year with high EBITDA margins and we feel this better aligns with just how we run our business.

是的，Raimo，謝謝你的提問。如您所知，我們以長遠的眼光來經營我們的業務，我們投資於可以幫助我們的客戶和 Paycom 的事情，這與我們的業務經營方式一致。當您查看我們的指南時，您會發現這是一個非常強勁的指南，全年增長迅速，EBITDA 利潤率也很高，我們認為這更符合我們的業務經營方式。

I'll take the renewals. We did see stability last year being that it was the exact same number that it was from a year previously. I will say, I mean, we had strengthening in that number as we move throughout the year -- as we move throughout the year, and we expect that to continue into this year. And yes, I mean, I would hope for stronger retention as we move throughout the year as I would every year. But I will say it was consistent last year with the year before.

我將接受續約。我們確實看到了去年的穩定，即數字與前一年完全相同。我想說的是，隨著一年四季的推移，這一數字不斷增加，我們預計這一數字將持續到今年。是的，我的意思是，我希望隨著我們全年的發展，保留率會更高，就像我每年所做的那樣。但我要說的是，去年的情況與前年是一致的。

Okay, perfect. Thank you.

好的，完美。謝謝。

Samad Samana, Jefferies.

薩馬納（Samad Samana），傑富瑞（Jefferies）。

Hi, this is Mason Marion on for Samad. Thanks for taking our questions. I want to dig into guidance here a little bit. Can you provide some commentary on the building blocks you're embedding within that 9% recurring and other guide? What are you expecting from a macro standpoint? And then any commentary around like pay per control, price realization or retention? Anything there would be helpful.

大家好，我是 Mason Marion，代表 Samad 發言。感謝您回答我們的問題。我想在這裡稍微深入探討一下指導。您能否對嵌入在 9% 經常性和其他指南中的構建塊提供一些評論？從宏觀角度來看您有何期待？那麼，對於按控制付費、價格實現或保留有什麼評論嗎？那裡的任何東西都會有幫助。

Yes. I mean, the 9% are recurring and other, and so that would be revenue ex- interest, right. And so we've now broken out what our interest is. And so that would be us onboarding new business clients at higher rates as we've continued to do higher revenue rates and that will impact us as we move throughout the year. So no new components, or assumptions go into that calculation for us.

是的。我的意思是，9%是經常性收入和其他收入，所以這些是除利息以外的收入，對吧。現在我們已經明確了我們的興趣所在。因此，隨著我們繼續提高收入率，我們將以更高的速度吸引新的商業客戶，這將對我們全年的發展產生影響。因此，我們無需將任何新的組件或假設納入到此計算中。

Yes. And I would say kind of consistent with how we've always done guidance. I mean, we don't count on the macro either positive or negatively impacting us during the year.

是的。我想說的是，這與我們一直以來的指導方式一致。我的意思是，我們並不指望宏觀經濟在今年對我們產生正面或負面的影響。

Okay. That is helpful. And then it seems like the CRR team improved performance throughout the back half of 2024. What are your expectations for this team as we move into 2025 in the context of your guidance?

好的。這很有幫助。然後看起來 CRR 團隊在 2024 年下半年的表現有所提升。在您的指導下，當我們邁入 2025 年時，您對這支團隊有何期望？

We're all focused on client satisfaction. We're focused on making sure clients are getting the ROI and the service that can be delivered to them. So that's what our entire organization is doing. CRRs help with that definitely. And we enabled definitely, they are upselling clients products that they need.

我們專注於客戶滿意度。我們專注於確保客戶獲得投資回報和可提供的服務。這就是我們整個組織正在做的事情。CRR 對此肯定有幫助。而且我們確實做到了，他們正在向客戶推銷他們所需要的產品。

And so it's a group effort across the board. I'm very happy with what our group did this year. Again, we saw continued strength into the back half of the year. That's continuing as we start off the year now. And so for us, it's just focusing on doing the right things for the right reasons.

所以這是全社會共同努力的成果。我對我們團隊今年所取得的成績感到非常滿意。我們再次看到，下半年其持續保持強勁勢頭。從今年開始，這種狀況仍在持續。因此對我們來說，只需專注於出於正確的原因做正確的事情。

Mark Marcon, Baird.

馬克馬康，貝爾德。

Hey, good afternoon, and thanks for taking my questions. Craig, it's been a pleasure working with you. Congratulations on a great career and Bob look forward to working with you. With regards to the revenue performance that you ended up having throughout the year. Could you compare and contrast that relative to the total client growth because the client growth was a little bit on the slower -- on the lower side? Obviously, you've been moving towards bigger clients.

嘿，下午好，感謝您回答我的問題。克雷格，很高興與您合作。恭喜您取得如此偉大的事業，鮑伯期待與您合作。關於您全年的收入表現。您能否將其與整體客戶成長進行比較和對比，因為客戶成長速度有點慢 - 偏低？顯然，您一直在向更大的客戶邁進。

But I'm wondering if you can fill in some of the gaps because it also looks like you're probably selling more modules. Wondering what's going on with pricing and how does -- how does the module build factor into next year. So that's the first question. And then the second question has to do with the margin improvement was really nice to see, particularly in terms of gross margins. How are you thinking about the balance between gross margin improvement versus sales and marketing, R&D, and G&A as part of your guide?

但我想知道您是否可以填補一些空白，因為看起來您可能還在銷售更多的模組。想知道定價情況如何以及模組構建如何影響明年。這是第一個問題。第二個問題與利潤率提高有關，這一點非常好，特別是毛利率的提高。作為指導意見的一部分，您如何考慮毛利率提高與銷售和行銷、研發以及一般行政管理之間的平衡？

Yes. I mean, sales and marketing done well all year. We did call out some of our largest month sales ever actually this January, the month we just finished was our largest sales month, I mean, blew out any previous sales month. None of those deals have started. Throughout the year, I did talk about increasing new unit growth for new business sales, which we had.

是的。我的意思是，全年的銷售和行銷都做得很好。事實上，今年 1 月是我們歷史上銷售額最高的月份，剛剛過去的這個月是我們銷售額最高的月份，我的意思是，超過了之前任何一個月的銷售量。這些交易都還沒開始。在這一年中，我確實談到了增加新業務銷售的新單位成長，我們也確實做到了。

And -- but also I would say we haven't been selling as many maybe small businesses as we did. We ramped up that group during COVID. It's a smaller group now. So we might be losing 40 pennies out of our pocket, but we replaced it with $2 bills. So there's a little bit of that going on in client mix. I know Craig did mention on the call that clients above 1,000 employees grew. That market grew 12%.

而且——但我還想說，我們出售的小企業數量可能還沒有像以前那麼多。我們在疫情期間擴大了這個群體的規模。現在該群體規模較小。因此，我們口袋裡可能會損失 40 美分，但我們用 2 美元的鈔票代替了它。因此，在客戶組合中存在一些這樣的情況。我知道 Craig 在電話中確實提到過，擁有 1,000 名以上員工的客戶數量有所增加。該市場成長了12%。

So there's a little bit of that of where our focus is. We do have the most automated solution. We're having a lot of success with that out in the field. Our sales reps are having a lot of success. That's why we've opened up three new offices. And so, I would say that we've had a very strong growth year and you're going to see that continue as we move into next year. And I'll let Craig and Bob talk about the margins.

所以這就是我們的重點所在。我們確實擁有最自動化的解決方案。我們在該領域已經取得了許多成功。我們的銷售代表取得了巨大的成功。這就是我們開設三個新辦事處的原因。因此，我想說，我們經歷了非常強勁的成長年，而進入明年，你會看到這種勢頭將繼續下去。我會讓 Craig 和 Bob 來談論利潤問題。

I would say on the margin side, I mean, some of the things that impacted the gross margin kind of the back-half of this year was that new building that came online. We had no additional depreciation on that as well as the cost of opening that new building. And eventually, we'll grow into that and that will start to improve on those margins. And then kind of throughout, we mentioned we're continuing to invest in R&D and then those other line items, we continue to look for efficiencies throughout.

我想說，就利潤方面而言，影響今年下半年毛利率的一些因素是新建築的投入使用。我們沒有對此產生額外的折舊以及開設新大樓的成本。最終，我們會成長為這樣的企業，並開始提高利潤率。然後在整個過程中，我們提到我們將繼續投資研發，然後其他項目，我們將繼續尋求提高效率。

Kevin McVeigh, UBS.

瑞銀的凱文麥克維 (Kevin McVeigh)。

Great. Thank you so much. And let me add my congratulations, Craig. It's been great working with you. In terms of the new office openings, is there any way to think about how those should scale over the course of 2025 into 2026? I know, Chad, you have a pretty deliberate approach in terms of staffing and then as they scale, just anything to help us dimensionalize how they should kind of scale and maybe what's factored into the guidance?

偉大的。太感謝了。請容許我向您表示祝賀，克雷格。與您合作非常愉快。就新辦公室的開設而言，有沒有辦法考慮從 2025 年到 2026 年期間這些辦公室的規模應該如何擴大？我知道，查德，你在人員配置方面有一個非常慎重的方法，然後隨著他們的擴大，任何可以幫助我們確定他們應該如何擴大規模的方法，以及指導中可能考慮到的因素是什麼？

Yes, it takes 24 months for those offices to be fully staffed with the backlog pipeline. So those offices will carry a full team flow at the beginning first quarter 2027. This year, they will contribute to revenue in a smaller capacity because they're just now selling. And so those deals have to start. But as we move throughout 2026 and beyond, obviously, they'll have a more meaningful impact on that.

是的，這些辦公室需要 24 個月的時間才能配備齊全積壓的工作。因此，這些辦公室將在 2027 年第一季初實現完整的團隊流動。今年，他們對收入的貢獻將較小，因為他們現在才剛開始銷售。因此這些交易必須開始。但隨著我們進入 2026 年及以後，顯然它們會對此產生更有意義的影響。

Great. And then just it sounds like, Chad, the retention improved over the course of the year. Was that kind of just the runoff of anything Beti related or the mix effect of larger clients? And any way to think about like what retention levels embedded in the 2025 guidance?

偉大的。聽起來，查德，保留率在一年內有所提高。這只是 Beti 相關事物的流失，或是更大客戶的混合效應？有什麼方法可以思考 2025 年指導方針中所包含的保留水準嗎？

Yes. I mean, Beti improves retention. And so I would say that the more usage that our clients get out of our system to where they're getting the full ROI out of it, that helps us. And it's not just Beti. And a differentiated strategy also allows us to win clients back a lot faster.

是的。我的意思是，Beti 提高了保留率。所以我想說，客戶對我們系統的使用越多，獲得的投資回報越多，這對我們越有幫助。這不僅是貝蒂的問題。差異化策略也能讓我們更快贏回客戶。

I mean, we've got clients that leave one payroll, they're right back with us. And so that helps as well. But I would say it's all of the technology that we're bringing into the market right now through automation, Beti obviously being a big part of that, that's really helping us win deals.

我的意思是，我們的客戶離開一次薪資單後就馬上回到我們身邊。這也有幫助。但我想說的是，我們現在透過自動化技術帶入市場的所有技術，Beti 顯然是其中的重要組成部分，真正幫助我們贏得了交易。

Steve Enders, Citi.

花旗銀行的史蒂夫恩德斯 (Steve Enders)。

Okay. Treat. Thanks for taking the questions here. I guess maybe just to start, just want to get a better sense for maybe what drove the upside here in Q4, what drove the revenue strength? And I guess maybe how should we think about the puts and takes between the strength here versus what might impact Q1?

好的。對待。感謝您在這裡回答問題。我想也許這只是開始，只是想更了解是什麼推動了第四季的上漲，是什麼推動了營收的強勁成長？我想，也許我們應該如何思考這裡的優勢與可能影響第一季的因素之間的優缺點？

Yes, I would say Q4 -- as we go into Q4, it's usually the hardest to really predict in terms of unscheduled runs and things like that. And I would say those came in as strong. And so overall, there was strength in the quarter as well as gets starts in Q4 as it relates to new clients coming on board.

是的，我想說是第四季度——當我們進入第四季度時，通常最難真正預測計劃外的運作和諸如此類的事情。我想說的是，這些聲音非常強勁。因此總體而言，本季表現強勁，並且在第四季度開始獲得新客戶的加入。

Okay. Thanks. And then on the bookings strength that you've been seeing lately, I know there's been a lot of changes in the go-to-market over the past year or year-plus. I guess, what do you feel like is working right now? What's resonating? And then I guess maybe where do you feel like there still are some areas where you can see improvements or some incremental things that you can improve upon?

好的。謝謝。關於您最近看到的預訂實力，我知道在過去一年或一年多的時間裡，市場進入方式發生了很大變化。我想，您覺得現在什麼工作正在進行中？什麼引起共鳴？然後我想也許您覺得哪些地方還有待改進或哪些地方可以逐步改進？

Yes. And so, I would say what's working is the fact that we have the most automated product in the industry and people want to do less these days. Like I said before, 20 years ago, I sold a product as people wanted to do more with it. Today, you sell the product because they wanted to do things for them. And it's automated.

是的。所以，我想說，有效的原因是我們擁有業內自動化程度最高的產品，而如今人們不想再做那麼多事了。就像我之前說過的，20 年前，我銷售一種產品是因為人們想用它做更多的事情。今天，你銷售產品是因為他們想為他們做事。而且它是自動化的。

And so -- that's where we're having our most strength going out there talking about those things and obviously delivering the ROI that's available to our clients. And so -- and we have our entire company focused on client satisfaction. That's pretty important. Our clients are the reasons why we're here. And so we're all focused on that as well. It's hard for me as I look at 2024 to see any area where we weren't successful in our initiatives. So we continue on with that as we go into 2025 and beyond.

所以 —— 這就是我們最有實力去談論這些事情並且顯然為我們的客戶提供投資回報的地方。所以——我們整個公司都致力於客戶滿意度。這非常重要。我們來這裡是為了我們的客戶。因此我們也都關注這一點。展望 2024 年，我很難發現我們的措施在哪些方面沒有成功。因此，我們將在 2025 年及以後繼續這樣做。

Jason Celino, KeyBanc Capital Markets.

KeyBanc 資本市場公司的 Jason Celino。

Great. Thanks. Craig, it's been an absolute pleasure. Hope retirement with the grandkids and the wheat farming goes well. I -- my first question on the sales offices. Can you just remind us when the last time you opened sales offices? I think it's been a few years. And I think you typically only open them when you find the leadership bench to be ready, but certainly a good sign maybe the internal macro, your views influence the decision to expand at all or is it just typical planning done? Thanks.

偉大的。謝謝。克雷格，我非常榮幸。希望和孫子們一起退休並且小麥種植一切順利。我的第一個問題是關於銷售辦公室的。您能提醒我們一下您上次開設銷售辦事處的時間嗎？我想已經有幾年了。我認為，通常只有當您發現領導層已經準備就緒時才會開放這些會議，但這肯定是一個好兆頭，也許是內部宏觀因素，您的觀點會影響擴張的決定，還是只是典型的規劃？謝謝。

No, I mean, it's probably been a couple of years, I would say, since we opened our last office, I want to say James is looking it up. But I want to say it may have been 1st of 2023 or end of 2022.

不，我的意思是，自從我們開設最後一個辦事處以來，可能已經過去了幾年，我想說詹姆斯正在查找它。但我想說，可能是 2023 年 1 月 1 日或 2022 年底。

Yes.

是的。

But for us, that's internal. I mean, we only have 5% of the market right now as a company. So it's -- the demand is there. You just -- you want to make sure that you have 100% success every time you open an office, which we have. And that's really dependent upon the manager that you put in there. And then, we've obviously got to backfill that manager with the rep that's ready to be manager.

但對我們來說，這是內在的。我的意思是，我們公司目前僅佔有 5% 的市佔率。所以，需求是存在的。你只是想確保每次開設辦公室都能 100％ 成功，而我們做到了。這實際上取決於你任命的經理。然後，我們顯然必須用已經準備好擔任經理的代表來填補該經理的空缺。

And so, we do those things when it makes sense to us and we have the bench strength to do it. I would say we were better at opening up the offices this year than what we had been in the past, meaning we opened up the office and already had reps ready to go in them and already trained and identified.

因此，當我們覺得有意義並且有足夠的實力去做這些事情時，我們就會去做。我想說，我們今年在開設辦公室方面比過去做得更好，這意味著我們開設了辦公室，並且已經有代表準備好進去，並且已經進行了培訓和確認。

So I would say that these offices, I would expect to have more success earlier maybe than what we've had in the past. A lot of that's due to the way we've made changes to our training. And I wouldn't necessarily say we changed our go-to-market, I would just say we changed the way we are prepared to go at it.

因此我想說，我期望這些辦公室能比過去更早取得更多成功。這很大程度是由於我們改變了訓練方式。我不會說我們改變了我們的行銷方式，我只是說我們改變了我們準備採取的方式。

And so -- and that's been very successful. You have a very strong successful sales and marketing program that's coupled with the strongest product out there in the industry with good messaging and we're having a lot of success there.

所以 — — 這是非常成功的。您擁有非常強大的成功銷售和行銷計劃，再加上業內最強大的產品和良好的訊息傳遞，我們在那裡取得了巨大的成功。

Okay. And then my -- just my quick follow-up. I don't know if this wasn't part of Steve's last question, but I guess, what did you see in terms of workforce levels in Q4, just one of your competitors mentioned some weakness, but, obviously, you had a strong quarter. And then I guess what are you baking in, in terms of workforce expectations for the 2025 guide? Thanks.

好的。然後我的 — — 只是我的快速跟進。我不知道這是否是史蒂夫最後一個問題的一部分，但我想，您在第四季度的勞動力水平方面看到了什麼，只有您的一個競爭對手提到了一些弱點，但顯然，您本季度的表現強勁。那麼我想問一下，就 2025 年指南中的勞動力預期而言，您有何打算？謝謝。

Just stability, I mean, I can't say we saw anything unique in Q4, and we're not -- we don't have anything forecasted for anything unique going into 2025 as far as macro employment changes.

只是穩定，我的意思是，我不能說我們在第四季度看到了任何獨特的東西，就宏觀就業變化而言，我們沒有預測 2025 年會出現什麼獨特的事情。

Jared Levine, TD Cowen.

賈里德·萊文（Jared Levine），TD Cowen。

Thank you. Can you discuss your thoughts on additional sales offices over the rest of the year? Is that contemplated in the guide currently?

謝謝。您能談談對今年剩餘時間增加銷售辦事處的想法嗎？指南中目前是否考慮到了這一點？

I mean, we don't disclose -- any offices we would plan to open this year would be already in our guidance, but we haven't disclosed what our plans would be as we move through the year to open up additional offices.

我的意思是，我們不會透露——我們計劃今年開設的任何辦事處都已經在我們的指導範圍內，但我們尚未透露我們在今年開設更多辦事處的計劃。

Got it. And then for my follow-up here, can you disclose what the 4Q revenue benefit was from that pull-forward of that extra payroll processing day from 1Q?

知道了。然後，作為我的後續問題，您能否透露一下，從第一季開始提前額外的工資處理日，第四季度的收入收益是多少？

There are always calendar issues within a year or quarter. And if you're able to look at it on a weekly basis, or even longer normalized basis, you're going to see the strength that we had in the back half of 2024 continues into 2025 and actually accelerates as we move throughout the year.

一年或一個季度內總會有日曆問題。如果您能夠按週或更長時間的標準化基礎來查看，您將看到我們在 2024 年下半年的強勁勢頭將持續到 2025 年，並​​且實際上會隨著全年的發展而加速。

Bhavin Shah, Deutsche Bank.

德意志銀行的 Bhavin Shah。

Great. Thanks for taking my question. Bob, appreciate kind of change in guidance philosophy, but kind of taking your commentary on the full year for recurring revenue with 1Q the low point and then double-digit thereafter. I get to like 6%-ish recurring revenue growth for 1Q. Am I in the right ballpark there? And kind of if so, what are the factors impacting 1Q? Is it just a calendar timing issue, or is there anything else? Thanks so much.

偉大的。感謝您回答我的問題。鮑勃，我很欣賞指導理念的改變，但你對全年經常性收入的評論是，第一季是最低點，隨後將達到兩位數。我喜歡第一季 6% 左右的經常性收入成長率。我的判斷正確嗎？如果是的話，那麼影響第一季的因素有哪些？這只是日曆時間問題，還是有其他原因？非常感謝。

Yes. Thanks for the question. Yes, we're not -- we don't comment on the quarter since we've changed our guidance. There are a couple of things that we'll talk about shape the quarter. The year-end forms filings don't grow as fast as our core business and there's a little interest headwind because we were up 30% last year in interest and will be down 11%, or so percent in the first quarter.

是的。謝謝你的提問。是的，我們不對本季發表評論，因為我們已經改變了我們的指導方針。我們將討論一些影響本季的事情。年終表格文件的成長速度不如我們的核心業務成長快，而且存在一點利息阻力，因為去年我們的利息成長了 30%，而第一季將下降 11% 左右。

That's helpful there. And then just kind of following up on the EBITDA guide for 2025, just given what you're seeing on the float side, it's very healthy. Like where are you seeing the efficiencies? Is it across the board? Are there certain areas where you're kind of being able to leverage AI, or anything else to really provide a lot more productivity within your sales force?

這很有幫助。然後根據 2025 年的 EBITDA 指南，根據您在浮動資金方面看到的情況，它非常健康。您在哪裡看到效率？這是全面的嗎？在某些特定領域，您是否能夠利用人工智慧或其他技術來真正提高銷售團隊的生產力？

Well, first, I appreciate you appreciating adjusted EBITDA. When you start a company with 13 credit cards and an SBA loan, profit kind of matters, and being efficient and actually having high-quality revenue that produces income. Those are pretty important. So we focused on that. And we're getting a lot of benefit through automation.

嗯，首先，我很感謝您對調整後的 EBITDA 的讚賞。當你用 13 張信用卡和一筆 SBA 貸款創辦一家公司時，利潤、效率以及能夠產生收入的高品質收入都很重要。這些都非常重要。因此我們集中精力於此。我們透過自動化獲得了很多好處。

Obviously, we're getting benefit through our sales department going out and selling good deals, fair deals. And then we're also having success through automation on the back end. And that's something that's been -- when I look at our company, I mean, the only thing I'm really trying to fix on it right now is the valuation.

顯然，透過我們的銷售部門出去銷售優質、公平的交易，我們獲得了利益。然後我們也透過後端自動化獲得了成功。這就是事實——當我審視我們的公司時，我的意思是，我現在真正想要解決的唯一問題是估值。

I mean it's a -- it's difficult. We're seeing somebody that companies that started two years before us are closest comps comparables, I would say. And as I do my calculation into what our growth and adjusted EBITDA is into next year. And I look at theirs, it will take them over a decade to catch us in revenue, 12 years to be exact, and almost three decades to catch us in adjusted EBITDA.

我的意思是這很難。我想說，我們發現有人認為比我們早兩年成立的公司是最接近的可比公司。我計算了明年我們的成長和調整後的 EBITDA 是多少。我看了一下他們的業績，他們需要十多年的時間才能在收入上趕上我們，準確地說是 12 年，而他們需要近三十年的時間才能在調整後的 EBITDA 上趕上我們。

So I'm glad that people do appreciate high-quality revenue. We've grown our business organically and we do have a focus on full automation of our system. And as we move into the future, I do believe that's going to put us in the area of being the highest-margin company in our industry.

因此我很高興人們確實重視高品質的收入。我們的業務已有機成長，並且我們專注於系統的全面自動化。隨著我們走向未來，我相信我們將成為業界中利潤最高的公司。

I think we're second now with our current guide. And I also expect that our growth will continue to be strong because again, we've got the best sales force out there. We have the best product and we have got consistent retention with our client base. So, I'm excited about it. Thanks for the question.

我認為，按照目前的指南，我們現在排名第二。我還預計我們的成長將繼續保持強勁，因為我們擁有最優秀的銷售團隊。我們擁有最好的產品並且與我們的客戶群保持著穩定的合作關係。我對此感到很興奮。謝謝你的提問。

Daniel Jester, BMO Capital Markets.

蒙特利爾銀行資本市場 (BMO Capital Markets) 的丹尼爾·傑斯特 (Daniel Jester)。

Great. Thanks for taking my question. I know you don't comment too much on the product roadmap, but philosophically we've been talking about Beti for a few years. I think GONE has been -- you announced that in late 2023. So as I think about 2025, does your guidance or does the playbook assume that you're going to be launching new products, or maybe just any sort of guidance in terms of thinking about the roadmap and the direction on the product side would be helpful? Thank you.

偉大的。感謝您回答我的問題。我知道您不會對產品路線圖發表太多評論，但從哲學上講，我們已經討論了 Beti 幾年了。我認為 GONE 已經存在了——你在 2023 年底宣布了這一點。所以當我想到 2025 年時，您的指導或劇本是否假設您將推出新產品，或者在考慮路線圖和產品方面的方向方面，任何形式的指導都會有所幫助？謝謝。

Well, I will tell you that there's not a moment that I'm awake, and probably half the times I'm asleep that I'm not thinking about our product and how can we make it better and how can we enhance it. And so I took over the product back again in November of last year. I've worked very closely with that group.

好吧，我會告訴你，我醒著的時候，甚至睡著的時候大概有一半的時間，我都在思考我們的產品，思考我們如何才能使它變得更好，如何才能增強它。所以我在去年11月再次接手了這個產品。我和該小組進行了密切的合作。

We're doing very well over there. We've got a lot of initiatives in-flight right now all-around automation of our product. Again, I think that anytime that you can automate human interaction safely, you want to be able to do that. You can't do that everywhere yet, but I do think that there's all those opportunities.

我們在那裡做得很好。我們目前正在實施多項計劃，以全面實現我們產品的自動化。再說一次，我認為只要你能安全地實現人機互動的自動化，你就會希望能夠做到這一點。目前還無法在所有地方做到這一點，但我確實認為存在所有這些機會。

And so we've been focused on that. I believe that we've led that charge more than anybody else. And I think you'll continue to see that momentum continue into this year, and absolutely, there will be product announcements in 2025.

因此我們一直專注於此。我相信我們比其他任何人都更能發揮這一領導作用。我認為這種勢頭會持續到今年，而且絕對會在 2025 年發布產品。

Great. I appreciate that. And sorry if I missed this, but on the $110 million of interest income this year, did you share what your expectations were with regards to interest rates or average daily balance to get that number? Thank you.

偉大的。我很感激。如果我錯過了這一點，請原諒，但對於今年 1.1 億美元的利息收入，您是否分享了對利率或平均每日餘額的預期，以得到這個數字？謝謝。

No, I would say on the -- I mean on the interest rates, I mean, we can look at the Fed funds rate and so we're looking at something in that range. And then we baked in a couple of potential rate cuts in the middle of the year and then one towards the end of the year for 2025.

不，我想說的是——我的意思是關於利率，我們可以看看聯邦基金利率，所以我們正在關注那個範圍內的某個值。然後，我們預計 2025 年年中將出現幾次降息，年底還會出現一次降息。

Michael Funk, Bank of America.

美國銀行的麥可‧芬克（Michael Funk）。

Yes, thank you for the questions tonight. First one, competitive environment. I'd love to get your thoughts on the Paychex's acquisition of Paycor and what that means for the industry and just kind of more broadly to the overall competitive environment. Any change in your view?

是的，感謝您今晚的提問。第一，競爭環境。我很想聽聽您對 Paychex 收購 Paycor 的看法，以及這對該行業以及更廣泛的整體競爭環境意味著什麼。您的看法有什麼改變嗎？

No, I would say no changes in our view to competitive environment. It's always been a competitive field in our industry. I think when you have a lot of competition, the client wins. I think we're all trying to differentiate and I believe that our plan is very strong in that. But no, you've had different times companies consolidate and combine together. And I mean, I'll let them talk for themselves on that.

不，我認為我們對競爭環境的看法沒有改變。在我們的行業中這一直是一個競爭激烈的領域。我認為，當競爭激烈時，客戶就會獲勝。我認為我們都在努力實現區分，並且我相信我們的計劃在這方面非常強大。但不，公司曾經經歷過不同的合併和聯合。我的意思是，我會讓他們自己談論這個問題。

Okay. And then I think earlier you mentioned that you think about product every minute being awake, half time being asleep. How do you think about the longer-term evolution of pricing in the industry as automation becomes more part of the product, AI becomes more a part of the product. How do you see pricing evolving over time?

好的。然後我想你之前提到你每分鐘都在思考產品，一半時間在睡覺。隨著自動化和人工智慧越來越成為產品的一部分，您如何看待該行業定價的長期演變？您認為價格會如何隨時間演變？

Well, pricing has evolved from value received from a client. You don't really just set a price, you -- how much value is something truly creating for someone and then you hope to be able to share in that as time goes forward. So as time goes on.

嗯，定價是根據從客戶獲得的價值發展而來的。你實際上並不是只是設定一個價格，你還要考慮某物真正為某人創造了多少價值，然後你希望隨著時間的推移能夠分享這些價值。隨著時間的推移。

So I would say for us, we look at that, how can we create value for a client, how can we help them? What in their business can we automate fully so that it removes their efforts, exposure, and labor cost in many cases in order to get that same result.

所以我想說，對我們來說，我們要考慮的是，我們如何為客戶創造價值，我們要如何幫助他們？我們可以在他們的業務中完全實現哪些自動化，以便在許多情況下消除他們的努力、風險和勞動力成本，以獲得相同的結果。

And so that's really what we focus on. And absolutely, our product roadmap does include things that drive additional value in very large ways. I will say this, clients who utilize our product correctly today realize a lot of that full value. And so it would just be an extension on top of that.

這確實也是我們關注的重點。當然，我們的產品路線圖確實包括能夠以非常大的方式帶來附加價值的內容。我想說的是，今天正確使用我們產品的客戶會意識到大部分的全部價值。所以它只不過是在此基礎上的延伸。

Joshua Reilley, Needham.

喬舒亞‧雷利 (Joshua Reilley)，尼德姆。

Yes. Thanks for taking my questions. Did we get some updated commentary? Well, I guess some maybe just initial commentary on how client retention trended here in January and February relative to your expectations exiting the year. And any thoughts around the 90% revenue retention and the puts and takes investors should be considering for that figure here in 2025, given that it seems like you've kind of bled off some more of those smaller lower-value customers from the metric and how that's calculated?

是的。感謝您回答我的問題。我們是否獲得了一些更新的評論？好吧，我想這可能只是關於一月份和二月份客戶保留趨勢相對於您今年年底的預期如何的初步評論。對於 90% 的收入保留率以及投資者在 2025 年考慮這一數字時應該考慮的賣出和收益，鑑於看起來你們已經從指標中剔除了一些較小的低價值客戶，而這些客戶是如何計算的？

Yes. I mean, I'll remind again that retention, we report retention once a year. We did report it this year and it was 90% consistent with the prior year. I also believe that as more and more businesses receive the benefit of automation and as we head toward full automation that we would expect to be able to do better in retention on a go-forward.

是的。我的意思是，我會再次提醒大家，我們每年都會報告一次保留率。我們今年確實報告了這一點，並且與前一年有 90% 的一致性。我還相信，隨著越來越多的企業享受到自動化的益處，並且我們正朝著全面自動化邁進，我們期望能夠在未來更好地保留員工。

We haven't guided to a retention number, but we're very pleased with how we finish the year and we see strong trends continuing so far this year. As I mentioned, January even from a sales side was our largest book sales month by far, and not any of those businesses have started yet. So we're really excited about what the rest of the year looks like for us.

我們尚未公佈留存人數，但我們對今年的成績感到非常滿意，我們看到今年迄今為止強勁的趨勢仍在繼續。正如我所提到的，即使從銷售角度來看，一月也是迄今為止我們圖書銷售量最大的月份，但這些業務都還未開始。因此，我們對今年剩餘時間的前景感到非常興奮。

Got it. That's super helpful. And then if you look at the EBITDA guidance of 41% margin, how much -- how do we think about how much of the R&D being expensed versus capitalized in 2025? Is there an impact there on the margin? And should we kind of think about the 11.5% non-GAAP as a percent of revenue for R&D consistent again in 2025? Thanks, guys.

知道了。這非常有幫助。然後，如果您看一下 41% 利潤率的 EBITDA 指引，我們如何看待 2025 年研發費用化與資本化的比例是多少？這對利潤有影響嗎？我們是否應該認為非 GAAP 研發收入佔 11.5% 在 2025 年仍保持一致？謝謝大家。

Yes. I mean, we didn't really bake anything different than what we saw this year in terms of the capitalization rate on R&D. As a reminder, it's really the projects we're working on as to whether it's capitalized their expense, but really no change from 2024 as it relates to the rate.

是的。我的意思是，就研發資本化率而言，我們並沒有做出與今年不同的決定。提醒一下，我們真正在做的是確定其費用是否資本化，但從 2024 年開始，利率實際上並沒有變化。

Jake Roberge, William Blair.

傑克羅伯格、威廉布萊爾。

Yes, thanks for taking the questions. You've referenced that really strong January a few times. Curious what drove that. Is that all kind of internal execution? And just sales teams being a little bit more focused here after noisy few years? Or are you also kind of starting to see HR budgets open up kind of post election?

是的，感謝您回答這些問題。您已經多次提到強勁的一月。好奇是什麼導致了這一點。這都是內部執行嗎？經過幾年的喧囂之後，銷售團隊是否會更專注？或者您也開始看到人力資源預算在選舉後有所開放？

I mean, I would say that's internal to Paycom as far as what happened in the first quarter. I've been talking about increased sales. I've been talking about the strength of our sales group. We're stronger in January. We're stronger in February than we were anytime last year. And we had record-breaking months last year too.

我的意思是，就第一季發生的情況而言，這是 Paycom 內部的事情。我一直在談論增加銷售額。我一直在談論我們銷售團隊的實力。一月份我們會更強大。我們二月份的表現比去年任何時候都強勁。去年我們也經歷了破紀錄的幾個月。

And now, we're at a point where we've even opened up three more offices. So really, I would just say that's the preparation and what we did last year to get prepared as we move through this year and then having success. Success kind of breeds more success, and that's really what's happening for us right now. (multiple speakers) and then -- sorry, go ahead.

現在，我們甚至已經開設了另外三個辦事處。所以實際上，我只想說這就是準備，我們去年所做的就是為今年做好準備，然後取得成功。成功會孕育出更多的成功，這正是我們現在所發生的情況。 （多位發言者）然後－抱歉，請繼續。

Sorry, you can keep going.

抱歉，你可以繼續。

No, I was just saying that was made possible due to our product. They're doing a great job within the product and clients are valued.

不，我只是說這是我們的產品使之成為可能。他們在產品方面做得非常出色，並且深受客戶重視。

Helpful. And then I know one of the priorities in 2024 was just getting a lot of the product that you already sold live rather than just sitting on the shelf. Curious how that kind of trended in Q4. And then will there be any new priorities for the CRR team moving forward?

很有幫助。然後我知道 2024 年的首要任務之一就是讓大量已經銷售的產品上線，而不是只放在貨架上。好奇第四季的趨勢如何。那麼，CRR 團隊未來會有什麼新的工作重點嗎？

Yes. The CRR priorities are the same as all of our company's priorities, and that's focused on client satisfaction, everyone at the company regardless of your job. That's what we're here for, that's what we're doing. And but CRRs have definitely helped with that. We enabled CRRs continue to sell clients products that make sense for them and expand their ROI case so that they can get full value of the software. And they're continuing to do that now.

是的。CRR 的優先事項與我們公司所有人員的優先事項相同，即專注於客戶滿意度，公司中的每個人，無論您從事什麼工作。這就是我們來這裡的目的，這就是我們正在做的事情。但 CRR 確實對此起到了幫助作用。我們使 CRR 能夠繼續向客戶銷售對他們有意義的產品並擴大他們的投資回報率案例，以便他們能夠充分發揮軟體的價值。他們現在還繼續這樣做。

Siti Panigrahi, Mizuho.

瑞穗的 Siti Panigrahi。

Hey, this is Phill on for Siti. I just wanted to ask, are there any updates to your strategy on the international front? I know you guys are live in four countries, but are there plans to add more countries over the next couple of years?

嘿，這是 Phill，代替 Siti。我只是想問一下，你們在國際方面的策略有什麼更新嗎？我知道你們在四個國家都有業務，但是未來幾年有計劃增加更多國家嗎？

We continue to build out our international strategy. We also have a global HCM product that all clients internationally use and then we have built out four other countries. We continue to work with clients as we move into other countries and identify which are the ones to move into, as well as you know, we've developed certain things within our product that allows us to connect to other partners to help fulfill certain needs.

我們繼續建構我們的國際戰略。我們還有一個全球 HCM 產品，所有國際客戶都在使用，然後我們已經在其他四個國家開展業務。當我們進入其他國家時，我們繼續與客戶合作並確定要進入哪些國家，而且您知道，我們在我們的產品中開發了某些東西，使我們能夠與其他合作夥伴建立聯繫，以幫助滿足某些需求。

Okay cool. Thank you.

好的很酷。謝謝。

Zachary Gunn, FT Partners.

FT Partners 的 Zachary Gunn。

Hey, there. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to ask on the EBITDA margin. So I think fourth quarter here exiting was 43%, 44%, and the guide for the full year is 41% similar to where it was this year. I'm just trying to understand what the mechanics are that delta between your exit rate this quarter versus what you're expecting for the full year next year.

嘿。感謝您回答我的問題。我只是想問一下 EBITDA 利潤率。因此，我認為第四季的退出率為 43%、44%，全年預期與今年的水平相似 41%。我只是想要了解本季的退出率與明年全年預期的退出率之間的差異是如何產生的。

Yes. Thanks. We guide to what we can see and we usually start out with a lower EBITDA margin in the beginning of the year as we accelerate through to the rest of the year.

是的。謝謝。我們根據所見情況進行指導，通常在年初時 EBITDA 利潤率較低，而到年底時則會加速成長。

Yes. And typically, the first quarter of the year as well as the fourth quarter are going to be the largest EBITDA margins because of the firm's filings in the first quarter and then the unscheduled in the fourth quarter. And as we mentioned, this is one of the highest starting EBITDA guides we've had in the history of the company.

是的。通常情況下，每年第一季和第四季的 EBITDA 利潤率會最高，因為公司在第一季度提交了報告，而在第四季度則有計劃外的報告。正如我們所提到的，這是公司歷史上最高的 EBITDA 指南之一。

Got it. Thank you.

知道了。謝謝。

This concludes the question-and-answer portion of today's call. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Chad Richison for closing remarks.

今天電話會議的問答部分到此結束。現在我將把電話轉回給查德·里奇森先生，請他作結束語。

Well, I want to thank everyone for joining our call today. I want to congratulate the 2024 Paycom Jim Thorpe Award winner, Jahdae Barron from the University of Texas. This award recognizes the most outstanding defensive back in college football.

好吧，我想感謝大家今天參加我們的電話會議。我要祝賀 2024 年 Paycom Jim Thorpe 獎得主、來自德州大學的 Jahdae Barron。該獎項旨在表彰大學橄欖球界最傑出的防守後衛。

It also memorializes one of the greatest all-around athletes in history and a fellow Oklahoman, Jim Thorpe. Bob and James will be on the road meeting with investors this quarter, including hosting meetings at the KeyBanc and Morgan and Stanley conferences in San Francisco in March.

它還紀念了歷史上最偉大的全能運動員之一和俄克拉荷馬州同胞吉姆·索普。本季度，鮑勃和詹姆斯將會見投資者，包括 3 月在舊金山舉行的 KeyBanc 和摩根士丹利會議上主持會議。

I'd like to thank all of our employees for their contribution to Paycom's success. Much of our success over the last 20 years was due to the financial stewardship and leadership of Craig Boelte. He helped to build a high-growth and profitable business that many others have tried to emulate.

我要感謝我們所有員工為 Paycom 的成功做出的貢獻。我們過去 20 年的成功很大程度上歸功於 Craig Boelte 的財務管理和領導。他幫助建立了一個高成長、高利潤的企業，許多人都試圖效仿。

I'm thankful for his contributions and I'm excited for him to get to enjoy working on his farm and playing with his grandkids. Craig's career achievements will forever stand as an example as to what can be achieved with hard working grid.

我感謝他的貢獻，並且很高興他能夠享受在農場工作和與孫子們玩耍的樂趣。克雷格的職業成就將永遠成為勤奮工作可以達成的成就的典範。

With that, I'm going to hand the call over to Craig to close this out for the last time.

說完這些，我將把電話交給 Craig，作為最後一次結束演講。

Thanks, Chad. First, I'd like to say thank you for asking me to join you in this amazing company over 20 years ago. Together, we accomplished a tremendous amount and working at Paycom has been the most rewarding and fulfilling experience of my career. I will miss walking the halls and collaborating with the talented people who make Paycom so great.

謝謝，乍得。首先，我要感謝你們 20 多年前邀請我加入這家優秀的公司。我們一起取得了巨大的成就，在 Paycom 工作是我職業生涯中最有價值、最充實的經驗。我會懷念走過大廳並與那些讓 Paycom 如此偉大的才華橫溢的人一起工作。

I've made lifelong friends during my time here. I am Paycom's biggest fan and as one of its largest shareholders. I am confident I'm leaving the company in very capable hands and I know this company will continue to do great things.

我在這裡度過了一生的時光，並結識了許多朋友。我是 Paycom 的最大粉絲，也是最大的股東之一。我有信心，我會把公司交給非常能幹的人，我也知道這家公司將繼續創造偉大的成就。

With that said, operator, you may end the call.

話雖如此，接線員，您可以結束通話了。

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連線。