Vertex Inc (VERX) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings. Welcome to Vertex's fourth-quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Please note this conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

問候。歡迎參加 Vertex 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。請注意，本次會議正在錄製中。（操作員說明）

I'll now turn the conference over to Joe Crivelli, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Crivelli, you may begin.

我現在將會議交給投資者關係副總裁喬·克里維利 (Joe Crivelli)。克里維利先生，您可以開始了。

Hello, and thanks for joining us to discuss Vertex's fourth-quarter financial results. I'm Joe Crivelli, Vice President, Investor Relations. David DeStefano, our President and CEO; and John Schwab, our CFO, are also with us today.

您好，感謝您加入我們討論 Vertex 第四季的財務表現。我是喬‧克里維利 (Joe Crivelli)，投資人關係副總裁。David DeStefano，我們的總裁兼執行長；我們的財務長 John Schwab 今天也與我們在一起。

During this call, we may make forward-looking statements about expected future results. Actual financial results may differ due to risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties are described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

在本次電話會議中，我們可能會對預期的未來結果做出前瞻性陳述。由於風險和不確定性，實際財務結果可能有所不同。這些風險和不確定性在我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中進行了描述。

Our remarks today will also include references to non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP metrics to GAAP is also provided in today's press release. This call is being recorded and will be available for replay on our investor relations website.

我們今天的演講也將提及非公認會計準則財務指標。今天的新聞稿中也提供了這些非 GAAP 指標與 GAAP 指標的協調表。本次電話會議正在錄音，並將在我們的投資者關係網站上重播。

I'll now turn the call over to David.

我現在將把電話轉給大衛。

Thanks, Joe. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us.

謝謝，喬。歡迎大家，感謝您加入我們。

The fourth quarter was our strongest quarter of 2023, wrapping up a year of outstanding execution across all areas of the business. I'm extremely proud of the entire Vertex team. Our employees' focus and commitment underpins our market-leading solutions and customer value. This, in turn, enabled our strong performance this year.

第四季是我們 2023 年表現最強勁的季度，為我們在所有業務領域表現出色的一年畫上了圓滿的句號。我為整個 Vertex 團隊感到非常自豪。我們員工的專注和承諾支撐著我們市場領先的解決方案和客戶價值。這反過來又促成了我們今年的強勁表現。

Revenue in the fourth quarter was $154.9 million up 18.1% year over year. This exceeds the high end of our fourth-quarter revenue guidance by $7.9 million.

第四季營收為 1.549 億美元，年增 18.1%。這超出了我們第四季度收入指導的上限 790 萬美元。

Our adjusted EBITDA was $32 million, up more than 50% compared to last year's fourth quarter. This represents an EBITDA margin of 20.7%, our highest EBITDA margin in over three years.

我們調整後的 EBITDA 為 3,200 萬美元，比去年第四季成長了 50% 以上。這意味著 EBITDA 利潤率為 20.7%，是我們三年多來最高的 EBITDA 利潤率。

In addition, this quarter, ARR exceeded $500 million for the first time in our history, growing nearly 19% to $512.5 million. NRR was a record 113%, up 2 full percentage points from the third quarter. Average annual revenue per customer increased 19% year over year to nearly $119,000.

此外，本季 ARR 史上首次突破 5 億美元，成長近 19% 至 5.125 億美元。 NRR創紀錄的 113%，比第三季上升了整整 2 個百分點。每位客戶的平均年收入年增 19%，達到近 119,000 美元。

Growth in scale customer count was 13% year over year. As a reminder, this number represents our customers with annual revenues greater than $100,000 and demonstrates our ongoing success in the underpenetrated enterprise market. And GRR was 95% in the fourth quarter within our target best-in-class range of 94% to 96%.

規模客戶數量較去年同期成長13%。提醒一下，這個數字代表我們年收入超過 10 萬美元的客戶，並表明我們在滲透不足的企業市場中持續取得成功。第四季的 GRR 為 95%，位於我們 94% 至 96% 的最佳目標範圍內。

Our strong financial results in 2023 were not unexpected. We launched a strategic investment program in 2020 to pursue our vision to accelerate global commerce and fuel our growth to $1 billion in revenue and beyond. Since then, we have broadened our go-to-market team. We enhanced our long-standing partnerships with Oracle and SAP, while expanding into the Microsoft, NetSuite, Salesforce, and Workday ecosystems; we accelerated the breadth and depth of our market-leading tax content database; we increased the pace of new product launches by investing in research and development on our cloud platform; we built a customer success team from a standing start that is now a major contributor of our consistent growth in NRR; we completed several technology and tax content-focused acquisitions; and we also built the corporate infrastructure to support a large, more efficient organization.

我們 2023 年強勁的財務業績並不令人意外。我們於 2020 年啟動了一項策略性投資計劃，以實現加速全球商業並推動我們的收入成長至 10 億美元及以上的願景。從那時起，我們擴大了我們的上市團隊。我們加強了與 Oracle 和 SAP 的長期合作夥伴關係，同時擴展到 Microsoft、NetSuite、Salesforce 和 Workday 生態系統；我們加快了市場領先的稅務內容資料庫的廣度和深度；我們透過投資雲端平台的研發加快了新產品發布的腳步；我們從一開始就建立了一支客戶成功團隊，現在是我們 NRR 持續成長的主要貢獻者；我們完成了多項以技術和稅務內容為重點的收購；我們也建立了企業基礎設施來支援大型、更有效率的組織。

With this investment program largely complete in mid-2023, we saw accelerating revenue growth and strengthening profit margins in the second half of the year, but we believe we are just getting started. This is because most enterprises and large middle market companies are still handling indirect tax with either a web of spreadsheets or an in-house built software program that was purpose built when the company was less complex and kept running with the exceptional efforts of a number of in-house programmers.

隨著該投資計劃於 2023 年中期基本完成，我們看到下半年收入成長加速並提高利潤率，但我們相信我們才剛剛開始。這是因為大多數企業和大型中型市場公司仍在使用電子表格網路或內部建立的軟體程式來處理間接稅，這些軟體程式是在公司不太複雜時專門構建的，並在許多人的非凡努力下保持運行。內部程式設計師。

It may come as a surprise, but some of the most recognizable, respected, and sophisticated companies in the world still handle indirect tax in this fashion. For these companies, it's not a matter of if, but when their in-house solution becomes insufficient to manage the business and they need to implement a third-party software solution. This decision is most frequently driven by one of three factors.

這可能會讓人感到驚訝，但世界上一些最知名、最受尊敬和最成熟的公司仍然以這種方式處理間接稅。對於這些公司來說，這不是是否的問題，而是當他們的內部解決方案不足以管理業務時，他們需要實施第三方軟體解決方案。這項決定通常是由三個因素之一所驅動的。

First, business model changes or expansion. This could be an adoption of new ways of doing business such as multichannel sales strategies or mergers and acquisitions that necessitate a more scalable approach to indirect taxes. Second, audit and reporting requirements demonstrate that an in-house solution is not delivering sufficiently accurate tax compliance. These situations quickly get the attention of everyone from the tax department to the C-suite and even the Board of Directors to deploy the necessary resources to fix the problem. Or third, the company embarks on a digital transformation or system upgrade to the cloud. In these cases, it's typically not even financially feasible to refactor the home-grown software solution to run in the new environment.

首先，商業模式的改變或擴張。這可能是採用新的經營方式，例如多通路銷售策略或併購，這需要更具可擴展性的間接稅方法。其次，審計和報告要求表明內部解決方案無法提供足夠且準確的稅務合規性。這些情況很快就引起了從稅務部門到最高管理層甚至董事會的每個人的關注，以部署必要的資源來解決問題。第三，公司開始數位轉型或系統升級到雲端。在這些情況下，重構本土軟體解決方案以在新環境中運行通常在經濟上也是不可行的。

We are confident that all three of these tailwinds will drive Vertex's growth for the foreseeable future. Business changes such as mergers and acquisitions are a constant, especially in the market segments where we focus. Audit pressure is only going to increase as governments grapple with ways to plug spending deficits and deal with the massive amounts of debt that must be serviced. And indirect tax is an important part of this equation as governments generate 3.5 times more revenue from indirect tax than they do from corporate income tax.

我們相信，這三個有利因素將在可預見的未來推動福泰 (Vertex) 的成長。併購等業務變化是常態，尤其是在我們關注的細分市場。隨著政府努力尋找解決支出赤字和處理必須償還的巨額債務的方法，審計壓力只會增加。間接稅是這個等式的重要組成部分，因為政府從間接稅中獲得的收入是從企業所得稅中獲得的收入的 3.5 倍。

In addition, increasingly complex rules around digital businesses and marketplaces are driving new reporting and revenue transparency requirements. And we consistently see our ERP partners driving their customers to move to cloud-based solutions. For example, Oracle is encouraging customers to move to Oracle Cloud. SAP is ending mainstream support for ECC in 2027, prompting customers to migrate to S/4HANA, and businesses are also advancing digital transformation initiatives organically.

此外，圍繞數位業務和市場的日益複雜的規則正在推動新的報告和收入透明度要求。我們一直看到我們的 ERP 合作夥伴推動他們的客戶轉向基於雲端的解決方案。例如，甲骨文正在鼓勵客戶遷移到甲骨文雲。SAP 將於 2027 年結束對 ECC 的主流支持，促使客戶遷移到 S/4HANA，企業也有機地推動數位轉型計畫。

So to summarize, the fourth-quarter results were excellent. But I'm very confident in how our business is positioned for consistent execution in the quarters and years to come.

總而言之，第四季的業績非常出色。但我對我們的業務如何在未來幾季和幾年內保持一致執行充滿信心。

Now, turning to notable wins in the quarter. One of the biggest sources of new revenue for Vertex and a sustainable driver of NRR growth is increased business with our existing customers. In the fourth quarter, we expanded our relationship with one of our long-standing customers, a large international conglomerate. We have been on a multi-year journey with them as they consolidate and transition their systems to the cloud.

現在，轉向本季的顯著勝利。Vertex 最大的新收入來源之一以及 NRR 成長的可持續驅動力是與現有客戶的業務成長。在第四季度，我們擴大了與我們的長期客戶之一（大型國際企業集團）的關係。我們與他們一起經歷了多年的旅程，幫助他們整合系統並將其遷移到雲端。

The customer increased their usage tiers for their existing subscriptions, expanded their use of Vertex solutions into additional global markets, and licensed additional products, including Chain Flow Accelerator. This resulted in high six figures of additional recurring revenue for Vertex.

該客戶增加了現有訂閱的使用級別，將 Vertex 解決方案的使用擴展到其他全球市場，並獲得了包括 Chain Flow Accelerator 在內的其他產品的許可。這為 Vertex 帶來了高達六位數的額外經常性收入。

It's noteworthy that this company has been a customer for over a decade and uses a wide array of Vertex offerings, including sales tax, consumers use tax, and VAT tax calculation, premium oil and gas content, Certificate Center, the SAP ecosystem tools we acquired with LCR-Dixon, and our tax return management service among others. This shows the growth potential of our existing enterprise customer base, even with a customer that has a comprehensive and long-standing relationship with Vertex.

值得注意的是，該公司已經是十多年來的客戶，並使用Vertex 的各種產品，包括銷售稅、消費者使用稅和增值稅計算、優質石油和天然氣內容、證書中心、我們收購的SAP生態系統工具與 LCR-Dixon 合作，以及我們的報稅表管理服務等。這顯示了我們現有企業客戶群的成長潛力，即使是與 Vertex 有著全面且長期合作關係的客戶。

With another customer, a leader in global digital imaging solutions, a cloud-first strategy implemented by new leadership drove a transition to our cloud solution in the fourth quarter. This resulted in a new five-year contract with mid six figures of additional annual revenue for Vertex. The partnership we have built over the past 12 years, plus the value they have experienced over the years, provided us with the opportunity to win the business without having to compete in an RFP. We are currently working with them to move their self-hosted tax solution to the cloud seamlessly, with tight connections to their Oracle ERP and other key systems.

與另一家客戶（全球數位成像解決方案的領導者）合作，新領導層實施的雲端優先策略推動了我們在第四季度向雲端解決方案的過渡。這為 Vertex 帶來了一份新的五年合同，年收入增加了六位數。我們在過去 12 年中建立的合作夥伴關係，加上他們多年來所體驗到的價值，為我們提供了贏得業務的機會，而無需在 RFP 中競爭。我們目前正在與他們合作，將他們的自託管稅務解決方案無縫遷移到雲端，並與他們的 Oracle ERP 和其他關鍵系統緊密連接。

Similarly, another existing customer, one of the largest online marketplaces in the world, expanded their usage with us in the fourth quarter. During their renewal process, the customer consolidated several licenses, added new geographies, and increased its usage tiers. This resulted in high six figures of new revenue for Vertex. RSM, a top 10 accounting firm, partnered with us on this implementation.

同樣，另一個現有客戶（世界上最大的線上市場之一）在第四季度擴大了我們的使用範圍。在續約過程中，客戶整合了多個授權、新增了新的地理位置並增加了其使用等級。這為 Vertex 帶來了高達六位數的新收入。RSM 是排名前 10 的會計師事務所，與我們合作實施此實施。

As I mentioned, ERP conversions are one of the primary factors for companies to reevaluate how they are handling indirect tax. One example in the fourth quarter resulted in a high five-figure new contract with a global consumer products company. This company moved to Oracle Cloud and, in doing so, rebid their indirect tax solution as they were unhappy with their existing provider, one of our competitors.

正如我所提到的，ERP 轉換是公司重新評估其處理間接稅方式的主要因素之一。第四季的一個例子是與一家全球消費品公司簽訂了一份價值五位數的新合約。該公司遷移到 Oracle 雲，並在此過程中重新投標其間接稅解決方案，因為他們對其現有提供者（我們的競爭對手之一）不滿意。

Vertex won this deal because of our ability to operate in a one-to-many environment and seamlessly integrate with both their ERP provider, Oracle Cloud, and their global instance of Salesforce commerce. The customer also had peace of mind moving their tax engine to Vertex based on the valued experienced one of their entities has had with our returns outsourcing service.

Vertex 贏得了這筆交易，因為我們能夠在一對多環境中運營，並與他們的 ERP 提供者、Oracle Cloud 及其全球 Salesforce 商務實例無縫整合。由於他們的實體之一在我們的退貨外包服務中擁有寶貴的經驗，客戶還可以安心地將他們的稅務引擎轉移到 Vertex。

In the SAP ecosystem, we had a notable win with a global provider of equipment and services to the oil and gas industry. For this customer, an S/4HANA transformation drove a company-wide initiative to centralize global tax compliance. This led to seven figures of additional revenue for Vertex. The support of our partners at SAP, as well as Deloitte, were also keys to this new business win.

在 SAP 生態系統中，我們與一家為石油和天然氣行業提供設備和服務的全球供應商取得了顯著的勝利。對於該客戶，S/4HANA 轉型推動了公司範圍內的計劃，以集中全球稅務合規性。這為 Vertex 帶來了七位數的額外收入。SAP 以及德勤的合作夥伴的支持也是贏得這項新業務的關鍵。

In the Microsoft ecosystem, a global manufacturer of nutritional supplements selected Vertex to support its migration to Dynamics 365. And in the Workday ecosystem, we won several new deals, including one of the major stock exchanges, a regional healthcare system, and a provider of financial software for the healthcare industry.

在 Microsoft 生態系統中，一家全球營養補充品製造商選擇 Vertex 來支援其遷移到 Dynamics 365。在 Workday 生態系統中，我們贏得了幾筆新交易，包括主要證券交易所之一、地區醫療保健系統以及醫療保健行業財務軟體提供者。

During the quarter, we also saw good examples of how audit pressure and compliance risks are driving business our way. As an example, we won a new deal with a mid-market business solutions company that was using its homegrown billing system as a platform to calculate indirect tax liabilities. The company's tax department was manually entering tax rates into this system. Inevitably, this approach led to inaccuracies for the customer, which, in turn, led to audit pressure and liability for back taxes and penalties.

在本季度，我們也看到了審計壓力和合規風險如何推動業務發展的好例子。例如，我們贏得了與一家中端市場業務解決方案公司的新交易，該公司使用其本土計費系統作為計算間接稅負債的平台。該公司的稅務部門手動將稅率輸入到該系統中。這種方法不可避免地會給客戶帶來不準確的結果，進而導致審計壓力以及欠稅和罰款的責任。

The company's tax department worked quickly to get the technology needed to update its systems, and Vertex prevailed in the results in RFP, in part due to our leading tax content database and ability to handle the vagaries of tax calculations across a product list with more than 5 million separate SKUs.

該公司的稅務部門迅速開展工作，獲取更新其係統所需的技術，Vertex 在 RFP 的結果中獲勝，部分原因是我們領先的稅務內容數據庫以及處理跨產品列表的變幻莫測的稅務計算的能力500萬個獨立的SKU。

As we noted in our annual sales tax rates and rules report last month, US sales tax rate changes reached a 10-year high in 2023, in addition to hundreds of new taxes that were imposed. With over 20,000 taxing jurisdictions globally, keeping up with these regulatory changes in escalating complexity of the tax environment, both domestically and internationally, is a massive tax for any tax department.

正如我們上個月在年度銷售稅率和規則報告中指出的那樣，除了徵收數百項新稅外，美國銷售稅率變化在 2023 年達到了 10 年來的新高。全球有超過 20,000 個稅務管轄區，對於任何稅務部門來說，跟上這些監管變化以及國內和國際稅務環境複雜性的不斷升級，都是一項巨額稅收。

Now, I'd like to highlight a couple of the wins on the international front that I'm very proud of. We won a high-profile new logo in the fourth quarter with a major luxury brand in the jewelry industry. This customer launched an online marketplace so its customers could have a secondary market in which they buy, sell, and trade its products, many of which have long waiting lists at retail stores.

現在，我想重點介紹我在國際戰線上取得的幾項令我感到非常自豪的勝利。我們在第四季度與珠寶行業的一個主要奢侈品牌贏得了備受矚目的新標誌。該客戶推出了一個線上市場，以便其客戶可以擁有一個二級市場來購買、銷售和交易其產品，其中許多產品在零售商店都有很長的等待名單。

This customer quickly acknowledged that the tax complexity for a global marketplace was beyond their internal capabilities, as well as the compliance risk that this represented. This led to a search for a third-party provider. Thanks to the trusted relationship we have built with the US division of the company, we added this prestigious new client through our customer base.

該客戶很快承認，全球市場的稅務複雜性超出了他們的內部能力，以及由此帶來的合規風險。這導致尋找第三方提供者。由於我們與該公司美國部門建立的信任關係，我們透過我們的客戶群添加了這個享有盛譽的新客戶。

Additionally, Vertex was selected by one of the fastest-growing middle market providers of software for the Office of the CFO. Internal system changes to its billing platform resulted in an evaluation of its existing solution. Vertex won based on the ability to operate seamlessly in the company's new IT environment, while providing the expertise to smoothly execute the migration process.

此外，Vertex 還被成長最快的中間市場軟體供應商之一選為財務長辦公室的軟體供應商。其計費平台的內部系統變更導致對其現有解決方案進行了評估。Vertex 憑藉在公司新 IT 環境中無縫運行的能力以及提供順利執行遷移過程的專業知識而獲勝。

In addition, the customer determined that Vertex's tax content was more thorough and accurate than the competition. We are excited about this win because this new customer is owned by a private equity firm that also owns a competitor of ours that was included in the RFP process. Even so, the competitor could not successfully compete in solving the tax complexity of the portfolio company. They also did not enjoy the high level of confidence and trust to deliver that Vertex received from the advisory community that influenced our win.

此外，客戶認為 Vertex 的稅務內容比競爭對手更全面、更準確。我們對這次勝利感到很興奮，因為這個新客戶由一家私募股權公司擁有，該公司也擁有我們的競爭對手，該公司已納入 RFP 流程。即便如此，競爭對手仍無法在解決投資組合公司的稅務複雜性方面取得成功。他們也沒有從影響我們勝利的諮詢社群中獲得 Vertex 的高度信心和信任。

As I look to 2024, I'm extremely confident in the momentum we continue to build. I am excited about the rapidly growing pipeline from our recent partnership with Shopify and their move upmarket. And I am seeing tangible progress to drive margin improvements with our ongoing investments in generative AI to support tax content expansion, software development, and creation of new customer experience tools.

展望 2024 年，我對我們繼續發展的勢頭充滿信心。我對我們最近與 Shopify 的合作以及他們向高端市場的進軍而迅速增長的管道感到興奮。我看到，透過我們對產生人工智慧的持續投資，以支援稅務內容擴展、軟體開發和新客戶體驗工具的創建，在推動利潤率提高方面取得了切實進展。

Finally, let me say a few words about our Pagero tender offer. From the outset, we were well advised on the nuances of Swedish law for tender offers, which open the potential for additional parties to join in the bidding. We were prepared for what unfolded and determined to stay true to our disciplined investment philosophy.

最後，讓我談談我們的 Pagero 收購要約。從一開始，我們就了解了瑞典要約收購法律的細微差別，這為更多各方參與投標提供了可能性。我們已經為即將發生的事情做好了準備，並決心忠於我們嚴謹的投資理念。

With our differentiated approach of combining our VAT compliance solution with e-invoicing capabilities through a single portal, we are solving highly valued challenge for tax departments. We've been clear the e-invoicing component could be solved via a partnership or acquisition. And when Pagero presented us with both options, we pursued it at the right price.

透過我們透過單一入口網站將增值稅合規解決方案與電子發票功能結合的差異化方法，我們正在解決稅務部門面臨的高度重視的挑戰。我們已經明確電子發票組件可以透過合作或收購來解決。當佩吉羅向我們提供這兩種選擇時，我們以合適的價格追求它。

Currently, our multi-year partnership agreement with Pagero that we announced last October remains in place. We are comfortable with the strength of the terms of that agreement. So in the near term, that is how we will continue to handle e-invoicing opportunities.

目前，我們去年 10 月宣布的與 Pagero 的多年合作協議仍然有效。我們對該協議條款的強度感到滿意。因此，在短期內，這就是我們將繼續處理電子發票機會的方式。

At the same time, we have considerable options with other e-invoicing companies that are attracted to our highly sought after customer base. And with recent legislation delaying the implementation of e-invoicing in France and Poland, we will remain strategic in our actions. I look forward to sharing more about our plans for this market opportunity in the future.

同時，我們與其他電子發票公司有相當多的選擇，這些公司被我們備受追捧的客戶群所吸引。由於最近的立法推遲了法國和波蘭電子發票的實施，我們將在行動中保持策略性。我期待更多地分享我們未來針對這一市場機會的計劃。

In conclusion, I remain very confident in the path ahead. The fundamentals of our business are strong, and we are well positioned to capitalize on the significant market opportunity in today's increasingly complex tax landscape.

總而言之，我對未來的道路仍然充滿信心。我們的業務基礎雄厚，我們處於有利位置，可以利用當今日益複雜的稅務環境中的重大市場機會。

John will now take you through the financials for 2023 and our guidance for 2024. John?

John 現在將帶您了解 2023 年的財務狀況以及我們對 2024 年的指導。約翰？

Thanks, David, and good morning, everyone. I'll now review our results in detail and provide financial guidance for the first quarter and full year 2024.

謝謝大衛，大家早安。我現在將詳細回顧我們的業績，並提供 2024 年第一季和全年的財務指導。

In the fourth quarter, revenue was $154.9 million, up 18.1% compared to last year's fourth quarter. And for the full year, total revenue was $572.4 million, up 16.4% from 2022. As David mentioned, this exceeded the high end of both our fourth-quarter and full-year revenue guidance by $7.9 million.

第四季營收為1.549億美元，較去年第四季成長18.1%。全年總營收為 5.724 億美元，較 2022 年成長 16.4%。正如 David 所提到的，這超出了我們第四季和全年收入指引的上限 790 萬美元。

Note that in the fourth quarter, contract renewals with several major customers resulted in usage tier true-ups of approximately $3 million to $4 million. For comparison's sake, last year's fourth-quarter usage tier true-ups were in the $1 million to $2 million range.

請注意，在第四季度，與幾個主要客戶的合約續約導致使用層調整約為 300 萬至 400 萬美元。為了進行比較，去年第四季的使用量真實成長在 100 萬美元到 200 萬美元之間。

Subscription revenue in the fourth quarter increased 17.9% over last year's fourth quarter to $130.7 million. Full-year subscription revenue was $480.8 million, up 15.7% year over year.

第四季訂閱營收比去年第四季成長 17.9%，達到 1.307 億美元。全年訂閱收入為 4.808 億美元，年增 15.7%。

Services revenue in the fourth quarter grew 19.7% over last year's fourth quarter to $24.2 million. Full-year services revenue was $91.6 million, up 20.2% year over year.

第四季服務收入比去年第四季成長 19.7%，達到 2,420 萬美元。全年服務收入為9,160萬美元，年增20.2%。

And cloud revenue was $60.6 million, up 29.9% from last year's fourth quarter. Full-year cloud revenue was $214.6 million, up 27.1% year over year, and exceeding our full-year guidance. The higher-than-expected full-year growth was in part due to the usage tier true-up revenue, which contributed about 0.5 percentage point to the full-year cloud revenue growth rate.

雲端營收為 6,060 萬美元，比去年第四季成長 29.9%。全年雲端收入為 2.146 億美元，年成長 27.1%，超出了我們的全年指引。全年成長高於預期的部分原因是使用層調整收入，為全年雲端收入成長率貢獻了約0.5個百分點。

Annual recurring revenue, or ARR, was $512.5 million at the end of the year, representing 18.9% year-over-year growth. Net revenue retention, or NRR, remained strong at 113%. This was up from 110% in the comparable 2022 period and up from 111% in the third quarter.

截至年底，年度經常性收入 (ARR) 為 5.125 億美元，年增 18.9%。淨收入保留率 (NRR) 仍維持在 113% 的強勁水準。這高於 2022 年同期的 110%，也高於第三季的 111%。

Gross revenue retention or GRR, was 95% at quarter-end, within our targeted range of 94% to 96%. Average annual revenue per customer, or AARPC, which is based on our direct customer count, was $118,910 in the fourth quarter, up from $112,690 in the third quarter of 2023.

季度末的總收入保留率 (GRR) 為 95%，在我們 94% 至 96% 的目標範圍內。第四季每客戶平均年收入 (AARPC) 為 118,910 美元，高於 2023 年第三季的 112,690 美元。

For the remainder of the income statement discussion, I will be referring to non-GAAP metrics. These non-GAAP metrics are reconciled to GAAP results in the earnings press release that was issued this morning. Gross profit for the fourth quarter was $109.6 million, and gross margin was 70.7%. This compares with gross profit of $94.4 million and a 72% gross margin in the same period last year.

對於損益表討論的其餘部分，我將提及非公認會計準則指標。這些非公認會計原則指標已與今天早上發布的收益新聞稿中的公認會計原則結果進行了調整。第四季毛利為1.096億美元，毛利率為70.7%。相較之下，去年同期的毛利為 9,440 萬美元，毛利率為 72%。

Gross margin on subscription software revenue was 76.8%, compared to 78.4% in last year's fourth quarter and 78.3% in the third quarter of 2023. The decrease in gross margins was driven by increased cloud and hosting costs to support customers in the multi-cloud environments.

訂閱軟體收入的毛利率為 76.8%，而去年第四季為 78.4%，2023 年第三季為 78.3%。毛利率下降的原因是為支援多雲環境中的客戶而增加的雲端和託管成本。

Services gross margin was 38.2%, compared to 36.8% in last year's fourth quarter and 35.3% in the third quarter of 2023.

服務毛利率為38.2%，去年第四季為36.8%，2023年第三季為35.3%。

Turning to operating expenses. In the fourth quarter, research and development expense was $11.3 million compared to $11 million last year. For the full year, R&D was $52.2 million. With capitalized software spend included, R&D spend was $23.5 million for the fourth quarter and $100.7 million for the full year, which represents 15.2% of revenue for the fourth quarter and 17.6% of revenue for the full year.

轉向營運費用。第四季的研發費用為 1,130 萬美元，去年同期為 1,100 萬美元。全年研發費用為 5,220 萬美元。包括資本化軟體支出在內，第四季研發支出為 2,350 萬美元，全年研發支出為 1.007 億美元，分別佔第四季營收的 15.2% 和全年收入的 17.6%。

Selling and marketing expense was $34.4 million, up 3.5% from last year's fourth quarter. For the year, selling and marketing expense was $129.2 million, up 12.1% from last year.

銷售和行銷費用為 3,440 萬美元，比去年第四季成長 3.5%。全年銷售及行銷費用為 1.292 億美元，較去年成長 12.1%。

And general and administrative expense was $31.4 million, up $2.6 million from last year. For the full year, general and administrative expense was $124.9 million compared to $112.7 million last year.

一般及管理費用為 3,140 萬美元，比去年增加 260 萬美元。全年一般及行政費用為 1.249 億美元，去年為 1.127 億美元。

Both fourth-quarter and full-year adjusted EBITDA exceeded the upper end of our guidance. With our growth investment program largely completed in mid-2023, we are seeing improved earnings leverage, which was apparent in the fourth quarter.

第四季和全年調整後 EBITDA 都超過了我們指引的上限。隨著我們的成長投資計劃於 2023 年中期基本完成，我們看到獲利槓桿有所改善，這一點在第四季度就很明顯。

Adjusted EBITDA was $32 million, an increase of $11 million or over 52% year over year. In addition, the fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA margin was 20.7%. For the full year, adjusted EBITDA was $100.8 million, up $22.2 million from last year.

調整後 EBITDA 為 3,200 萬美元，年增 1,100 萬美元，增幅超過 52%。此外，第四季調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 20.7%。全年調整後 EBITDA 為 1.008 億美元，比去年增加 2,220 萬美元。

As you may recall, our ERP conversion in the second quarter resulted in short-term disruptions to billings, which, in turn, impacted our cash flow in the second and third quarters. This was largely resolved by the end of the fourth quarter as we delivered $28.8 million of free cash flow.

您可能還記得，我們​​第二季的 ERP 轉換導致了帳單的短期中斷，這反過來又影響了我們第二季和第三季的現金流。這個問題在第四季末基本解決，我們交付了 2880 萬美元的自由現金流。

Note that DSO remained at elevated levels in the fourth quarter, but we expect to resolve this by end of the first half of 2024.

請注意，第四季度 DSO 仍處於較高水平，但我們預計到 2024 年上半年末即可解決此問題。

For the full year, free cash flow was $6.1 million compared to $3.4 million last year. We ended the fourth quarter with over $68.2 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents. Total bank debt was $46.9 million, and investment securities totaled $9.5 million. For additional liquidity, we also have $200 million of unused availability under our line of credit.

全年自由現金流為 610 萬美元，去年為 340 萬美元。截至第四季末，我們擁有超過 6,820 萬美元的非限制性現金和現金等價物。銀行債務總額為 4,690 萬美元，投資證券總額為 950 萬美元。為了增加流動性，我們的信用額度下還有 2 億美元的未使用可用資金。

With Vertex's strong execution, we have built a foundation for growth and profitability that we expect to be a shareholder value-creating engine for years to come. The growth investments we've made position us to deliver consistent revenue growth in the mid- to high-teens, which we, in turn, expect to drive earnings leverage and expanding adjusted EBITDA margins.

憑藉 Vertex 強大的執行力，我們已經為成長和獲利奠定了基礎，我們預計將在未來幾年成為股東價值創造引擎。我們所做的成長投資使我們能夠實現中雙位數到高雙位數的持續收入成長，反過來，我們預計這將推動獲利槓桿並擴大調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率。

Reflecting this confidence, we are guiding above consensus for 2024. Accordingly, for the first quarter of 2024, we expect total revenue in the range of $152 million to $156 million, which would represent 16% year-over-year growth at the midpoint, and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $29 million to $31 million, which would represent an increase of approximately $8 million or 45% at the midpoint.

為了體現這種信心，我們對 2024 年的指導方針高於共識。因此，我們預計 2024 年第一季的總營收將在 1.52 億美元至 1.56 億美元之間，中間值將年增 16%，調整後的 EBITDA 將在 2,900 萬美元至 3,100 萬美元之間，這意味著中點增加約800 萬美元或45%。

For the full year 2024, we expect total revenue in the range of $650 million to $660 million, representing annual revenue growth of 14% at the midpoint. While the full-year revenue growth embedded in our guidance is slightly lower than what we delivered for the full year of 2023, this is due to two factors: first, over the last two years, we have deliberately increased our focus and commitment to enabling and supporting our global alliance partners who implement our software and help drive software subscription revenue to our business. As a result of this shift of focus, you are seeing and will continue to see a reduced growth rate for our services business. We expect services revenue to grow in the mid- to single-digits on a percentage basis in 2024.

對於 2024 年全年，我們預計總收入在 6.5 億美元至 6.6 億美元之間，年收入中位數成長 14%。雖然我們的指導中包含的全年收入增長略低於我們在 2023 年全年實現的收入增長，但這是由於兩個因素造成的：首先，在過去兩年中，我們刻意增加了對實現支持我們的全球聯盟合作夥伴實施我們的軟體並協助推動我們業務的軟體訂閱收入。由於這種重點轉移，您正在看到並將繼續看到我們服務業務的成長率下降。我們預計 2024 年服務收入將實現中個位數百分比成長。

Secondly, we do not expect the high level of fourth-quarter usage tier true-up revenue that I mentioned earlier to reoccur in the fourth quarter of 2024. Offsetting this, in 2024, we expect cloud revenue growth to accelerate to approximately 28% and software subscription revenue to accelerate to more than 16%.

其次，我們預期我之前提到的第四季使用層調整收入的高水準不會在 2024 年第四季再次出現。抵銷這一影響的是，到 2024 年，我們預計雲端收入成長將加速至 28% 左右，軟體訂閱收入將加速至 16% 以上。

For the full year of 2024, we expect adjusted EBITDA in the range of $130 million to $135 million, representing an increase of $32 million or 31% at the midpoint, and a full-year adjusted EBITDA margin of just over 20%.

對於 2024 年全年，我們預計調整後 EBITDA 在 1.3 億美元至 1.35 億美元之間，中間增加 3,200 萬美元或 31%，全年調整後 EBITDA 利潤率略高於 20%。

David will now make some closing comments before we open up for Q&A. David?

在我們開始問答之前，大衛現在將發表一些結束語。大衛？

Thanks, John. As I said at the top of the call, I'm very pleased with our execution in 2023. By any measure, it was a terrific year for Vertex.

謝謝，約翰。正如我在電話會議開頭所說，我對 2023 年的執行感到非常滿意。無論以何種標準衡量，對於 Vertex 來說，今年都是了不起的一年。

Vertex has always been a consistent, durable, profitable grower, even back to our days as a privately held, family run business. But the growth investments we made from 2020 through mid-2023 have further energized the company from top to bottom. Accordingly, with continued strong execution, we see plenty of runway and opportunity to continue the standard of performance we set in 2023 in the years to come.

福泰 (Vertex) 一直是一家始終如一、持久、盈利的種植商，即使回到我們作為一家私人家族企業的時代也是如此。但我們從 2020 年到 2023 年中期進行的成長投資進一步為公司從上到下注入了活力。因此，憑藉持續強勁的執行力，我們看到了充足的跑道和機會，可以在未來幾年繼續保持我們在 2023 年設定的績效標準。

With that, we will take your questions.

這樣，我們將回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Chris Quintero, Morgan Stanley.

（操作員指令）Chris Quintero，摩根士丹利。

Hey, guys. Congrats on the outstanding results here; really, really impressive. You all are clearly seeing the benefits of this long investment cycle that you just concluded. So just taking a step back, as you look back on that journey and all the areas that you invested in, from your perspective, what have been the key one to two needle movers for you that have really made the most impact today?

大家好。在這裡恭喜你們取得了優異的成績；真的非常令人印象深刻。你們都清楚地看到了剛結束的這個長投資週期的好處。因此，退後一步，當您回顧這段旅程以及您投資的所有領域時，從您的角度來看，對您來說真正對今天產生最大影響的一到兩個關鍵推動因素是什麼？

Thanks, Chris. I would say that our investment in our partner ecosystem and alliances has really strengthened our growth vectors. And then when you couple that with the new products we brought to market around our customer success function, really enabling the customer success function to drive those new offerings and the products we acquired through acquisition, I would say the combination of those two things has really fueled and been an additive to our consistent growth story.

謝謝，克里斯。我想說，我們對合作夥伴生態系統和聯盟的投資確實增強了我們的成長動力。然後，當你將其與我們圍繞客戶成功職能推向市場的新產品結合起來時，真正使客戶成功職能能夠推動這些新產品和我們透過收購獲得的產品，我想說這兩件事的結合確實推動並成為我們持續成長故事的補充。

Got it. That's really helpful. And then really great to see that cloud growth guide of 28% for next year. What gives you the confidence in that guide and where do you expect to see more of the growth to come from? Is it more migrations from the on-prem version or just a testament to that really strong new logo growth that you're seeing?

知道了。這真的很有幫助。然後很高興看到明年的雲端成長指南為 28%。是什麼讓您對該指南充滿信心？您希望看到更多的成長來自何處？是從本地版本進行了更多遷移，還是只是您所看到的新徽標真正強勁增長的證明？

Yeah. I think the tailwinds of our business, if you think about the consistent regulatory pressure that our customers are facing, we had a record year in compliance changes last year, and you couple that with the ongoing digital transformations that are going on across the industry, both of those two things, I think, are going to play out strongly in '24 and beyond. And I think that really is where we're going to see -- why we're so confident in our cloud growth.

是的。我認為我們業務的順風車，如果你考慮到我們的客戶面臨的持續監管壓力，去年我們在合規性變化方面創下了創紀錄的一年，再加上整個行業正在進行的數位轉型，我認為這兩件事都將在24 年及以後發揮強勁作用。我認為這確實是我們將會看到的——為什麼我們對雲端成長如此有信心。

I don't see any fundamental shift in the migration process. I think that will continue to be a smaller part. And again, remember with our cross-sells, Chris, a lot of our cross-sells are customers who might have a self-hosted software and now want to go to cloud software for the next offering. And so I think with that cross-sell motion and the NRR motion that we're enjoying, I think you'll see cloud growth there. So I think that's really the drivers of that cloud success in '24.

我沒有看到遷移過程有任何根本的轉變。我認為這將繼續是一個較小的部分。克里斯，請記住，在我們的交叉銷售中，我們的許多交叉銷售都是可能擁有自託管軟體但現在希望使用雲端軟體來提供下一個產品的客戶。因此，我認為透過我們正在享受的交叉銷售運動和 NRR 運動，我認為您會看到雲端的成長。所以我認為這確實是雲端在 24 年取得成功的驅動力。

Excellent. Thanks, David. Congrats again.

出色的。謝謝，大衛。再次恭喜。

Matt Pfau, William Blair.

馬特普福，威廉布萊爾。

Great. Thanks for taking my questions. And great results, guys. Wanted to follow up on the commentary related to e-invoicing and Pagero, and I think given the bidding war that perspired there, I think there's a view that Pagero was a very unique asset in addressing e-invoicing.

偉大的。感謝您回答我的問題。夥計們，結果很好。我想跟進與電子發票和 Pagero 相關的評論，我認為考慮到那裡發生的競購戰，我認為有人認為 Pagero 在解決電子發票方面是一個非常獨特的資產。

But based on your comments, it makes it seem like even if the Pagero partnership doesn't work out, there's other potential partnerships or perhaps acquisition options out there. So is that correct? And any more detail you can provide on how you're thinking about addressing that opportunity longer term?

但根據您的評論，即使 Pagero 合作夥伴關係不成功，似乎還有其他潛在的合作夥伴關係，或者可能還有收購選擇。那麼這是正確的嗎？您能提供更多關於您如何考慮如何長期抓住這一機會的詳細資訊嗎？

Yeah, Matt, thank you. I definitely believe that Pagero at the right price was an interesting asset for us, but the e-invoicing solution without the single portal combined with that compliance is not as high a value. And so clearly, what makes it -- what the differentiated value is our customer base, combined with the way we've married up our VAT compliance solution and an e-invoice provider, is really how we're going to differentiate in the market.

是的，馬特，謝謝你。我絕對相信，價格合適的 Pagero 對我們來說是一項有趣的資產，但沒有單一入口網站且符合合規性的電子發票解決方案的價值並不高。很明顯，我們的客戶群的差異化價值是什麼，再加上我們將增值稅合規解決方案和電子發票提供者結合起來的方式，才是我們在市場上脫穎而出的真正原因。

And so I'm very comfortable and confident that given the invoicing volume of our customer base, we have a lot of options about how we're going to solve for that other piece. Pagero at the right price was a wonderful asset, but it is clearly not the only game in town by any means.

因此，考慮到我們客戶群的發票量，我感到非常放心和有信心，對於如何解決其他問題，我們有很多選擇。價格合適的 Pagero 是一筆極好的資產，但無論如何，它顯然不是城裡唯一的遊戲。

Great. And just a follow-up on the e-invoicing. I wanted to also clarify the comments around the timeline for implementation of that regulation in some countries. It seems like perhaps we're still a few years out from that opportunity becoming a more material driver. So you all have some time here to formulate your strategy. Is that correct? Just wanted to confirm those comments.

偉大的。這只是電子發票的後續工作。我還想澄清有關在一些國家實施該法規的時間表的評論。看來我們距離成為更物質驅動力的機會還有幾年的時間。所以你們都有一些時間來制定你們的策略。那是對的嗎？只是想確認這些評論。

Yeah. There's certainly activity in the market now that that's opportunity that we want to get after. But some of the bigger economies that are looking at it have pushed out their dates, which just, again, affords us the ability to be very strategic and disciplined in what we do, which is something we've always tried to do to drive long-term shareholder value, and I see it playing out strongly again in this scenario.

是的。現在市場上肯定有活動，這就是我們想要抓住的機會。但一些正在考慮這一問題的較大經濟體已經推遲了他們的日期，這再次使我們能夠在我們所做的事情上保持戰略性和紀律性，這是我們一直在努力做的事情，以推動長期發展長期股東價值，我認為在這種情況下它再次表現強勁。

Okay, perfect. Appreciate you taking my questions.

好的，完美。感謝您回答我的問題。

Steve Enders, Citi.

史蒂夫恩德斯，花旗銀行。

Hi, thanks for taking the questions. This is George on for Steve. Maybe just first to start, you guys laid out this investment plan and obviously reaping the rewards of that. When you think about the success that you're seeing, this acceleration of growth across a number of metrics, does that bring you back to the drawing table to maybe reconsider a more aggressive reinvestment posture going to 2024?

您好，感謝您提出問題。這是喬治替史蒂夫發言。也許剛開始，你們就制定了這個投資計劃，並且顯然收穫了回報。當您思考所看到的成功，以及多個指標的加速成長時，您是否會重新考慮到 2024 年採取更積極的再投資姿態？

George, thanks for the question. I will tell you that we continue to invest heavily in our R&D function to bring new products to market. The investment strategy we embarked on over the last three years was really to build out a much more mature go-to-market approach across Europe, US, middle market, advancing our ecosystem profile, also that we had more tentacles into the market to deliver value as we brought -- either bought companies, acquired companies, or added new products to our portfolio. And so I don't see any slowdown in the R&D function at all.

喬治，謝謝你的提問。我會告訴您，我們將繼續大力投資研發部門，將新產品推向市場。我們在過去三年中採取的投資策略實際上是在歐洲、美國、中間市場建立一種更成熟的進入市場方法，提升我們的生態系統形象，同時我們也有更多的觸角進入市場來交付我們帶來的價值－要麼收購公司，要麼收購公司，要麼在我們的投資組合中添加新產品。因此，我認為研發功能根本沒有任何放緩。

We can be much more tactical now when we add in the go-to-market areas because we've got the base and the quality of talent and team ready to execute on that. And so I think that's really -- and then I would want to highlight the back office efforts we've put in place around our ERP system really give us a scalable infrastructure to really drive margin over time through our G&A operations.

當我們添加進入市場領域時，我們現在可以更具戰術性，因為我們已經具備了執行該目標的基礎和人才素質以及團隊。所以我認為這確實是 - 然後我想強調我們圍繞 ERP 系統所做的後台工作確實為我們提供了一個可擴展的基礎設施，可以透過我們的 G&A 業務隨著時間的推移真正提高利潤率。

Okay, super helpful. And then the record-high NRR, it was great to see. Maybe you could just talk a little bit about -- break that down a little bit. What's been resonating? Is there any CPI component to that? And is there any CPI component baked into '24 that might look a little different? Just kind of any help on --

好的，超級有幫助。然後是創紀錄的 NRR，很高興看到。也許你可以談談——稍微分解一下。什麼引起了共鳴？其中有 CPI 成分嗎？24 世紀 24 年代消費者物價指數 (CPI) 成分是否可能看起來有些不同？只是有任何幫助--

There's basically -- George, there's three components to what drives our NRR. About 50% of it comes from the cross-sells of new offerings into our installed base; about 25% comes from selling more of an existing product to a customer, we call them entitlements, where they're going through revenue bands and we end up -- it cost them more; and then the last 25% comes from price increases.

基本上，喬治，驅動我們 NRR 的因素有三。其中約 50% 來自於我們現有客戶群中新產品的交叉銷售；大約 25% 來自於向客戶銷售更多的現有產品，我們稱之為權利，他們在收入範圍內，我們最終會付出更多的代價；最後25%來自物價上漲。

And I think the execution in Q4 really reflects consistent performance across all three with a little bit of uptick in the cross-sell and entitlements area. But nothing unique in the price area; we're pretty disciplined in our price increases. That's really not fueling the bulk of this at this point.

我認為第四季度的執行確實反映了這三個方面的一致表現，交叉銷售和權利領域略有上升。但在價格方面並沒有什麼獨特之處；我們在漲價方面非常有紀律。目前這確實還沒有推動這一點。

Okay, great. Thanks, and congrats on the quarter.

好的，太好了。謝謝，並恭喜本季。

Adam Hotchkiss, Goldman Sachs.

亞當·霍奇基斯，高盛。

Great. Thanks for taking the questions. David, you mentioned some of the new logo wins in Europe. I'm curious how you view the competitive environment there, given it seems there's a lot of interest across the Office of the CFO to get involved with some of the new e-invoicing regulations. Are your go-to-market team seeing any of this in RFPs, companies looking to get ahead of this today? Or do you think there's going to be a little bit more of a reactionary type of focus from companies in Europe given some of the delays in regulations? Appreciate it.

偉大的。感謝您提出問題。大衛，你提到了新標誌在歐洲的一些勝利。我很好奇您如何看待那裡的競爭環境，因為 CFO 辦公室似乎對參與一些新的電子發票法規很感興趣。您的行銷團隊是否在 RFP 中看到了這些內容，以及希望在今天取得領先的公司？或者您認為，鑑於監管方面的一些延誤，歐洲公司的關注點會更加反動？欣賞它。

Thank you, Adam, for the question. The beauty and the benefit of -- and the pain of working in the indirect tax space is, unless there's true pain, there's not advanced budget for it. So one of the things we've learned over the years is you want to have the right solution just in time to solve the problem. But getting there too soon doesn't always generate additional revenue because there's not a lot of discretionary spend.

謝謝亞當提出的問題。在間接稅領域工作的好處和痛苦是，除非有真正的痛苦，否則沒有預付預算。因此，我們多年來學到的一件事是，您希望及時找到正確的解決方案來解決問題。但過早實現這一目標並不總是能產生額外收入，因為可自由支配的支出並不多。

And so I think we're -- we see that consistently playing out here. And that's why I feel like we can be very strategic with our decision making as we move forward here. Our Europe team has done a great job of building a very strong customer reference base, which is essential in the indirect tax community.

所以我認為我們——我們看到這種情況一直在這裡發生。這就是為什麼我覺得我們在前進的過程中可以非常有策略地制定決策。我們的歐洲團隊在建立非常強大的客戶參考基礎方面做得非常出色，這對間接稅界至關重要。

And certainly, with some of the offerings we brought forward like Chain Flow Accelerator, which is really differentiated in the SAP space, and if you think about, again, our largest -- one of our larger ecosystems along with Oracle is SAP, and we're enjoying some really nice positioning inside of the SAP customer environment right now. So I still feel like we're very well positioned in that space.

當然，我們推出的一些產品，例如 Chain Flow Accelerator，它在 SAP 領域確實與眾不同，如果您再次考慮一下，我們最大的生態系統之一（與 Oracle 一起）是 SAP，我們現在正在SAP 客戶環境中享受一些非常好的定位。所以我仍然覺得我們在這個領域處於非常有利的位置。

Great. That's really helpful color. And then, John, on margins, just curious if there's anything you're contemplating this year from an incremental investment perspective given the evolving e-invoicing environment around Pagero or those considerations will be beyond this year?

偉大的。這真是有用的顏色。然後，約翰，關於利潤，我只是好奇，考慮到 Pagero 周圍不斷變化的電子發票環境，今年您是否會從增量投資的角度考慮任何事情，或者這些考慮因素將超出今年？

Yeah. I think from a margin perspective, again, we talked a little bit about where we stand and what we feel about the future. I don't anticipate anything significant coming in that's not already contemplated in our guidance.

是的。我認為從利潤的角度來看，我們再次討論了我們的立場以及我們對未來的感受。我預計不會有任何重大的事情在我們的指導中尚未考慮到。

I think we feel good about the investments we've made heretofore in R&D and bringing things together. And I think we feel like we're going to stay that path and continue to work with the partners that we've been talking to, certainly from an e-invoicing standpoint.

我認為我們對迄今為止在研發和整合方面所做的投資感到滿意。我認為我們感覺我們將堅持這條道路，並繼續與我們一直在交談的合作夥伴合作，當然從電子發票的角度來看。

But we've got real good momentum and traction regarding some of the R&D efforts and some of the other areas for, again, additional new products and things going forward. So I don't anticipate a big wholesale change in terms of how we're thinking about investment to get after additional spend.

但我們在一些研發工作和其他一些領域獲得了真正良好的動力和牽引力，以實現更多新產品和未來的發展。因此，我預計我們在考慮額外支出後的投資方面不會發生巨大的整體變化。

Okay, really helpful. Thanks, David. Thanks, John.

好的，真的很有幫助。謝謝，大衛。謝謝，約翰。

Samad Samana, Jefferies.

薩馬德·薩馬納，杰弗里斯。

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats on the great numbers. First one, maybe, John, for you. If I just look, you guys have seen growth get much, much stronger, but OpEx has been very, very limited in terms of expansion since December of '22. So should we think about the company being at the right level of OpEx? How should we think about maybe that going forward?

早安.感謝您回答我的問題，並祝賀您獲得瞭如此多的數字。第一個，也許是給你的，約翰。如果我只是看一下，你們會發現成長變得非常非常強勁，但自 22 年 12 月以來，營運支出的擴張一直非常非常有限。那麼我們是否應該考慮公司的營運支出是否處於正確的水平？我們該如何思考未來的發展？

I know you've given margin guidance, but just philosophically, help us understand if we're at the right place in terms of headcount and maybe where you expect it should trend. And then I have a follow-up for you, David.

我知道您已經給出了利潤率指導，但只是從哲學上講，幫助我們了解我們在員工人數方面是否處於正確的位置，以及您期望的趨勢。然後我有一個後續行動要給你，大衛。

Yeah. Thanks, Samad, for the question. I think as we've talked about it before, the significant amount of our investments took place in the years leading up to 2023. Middle of the year of '23, we did see an inflection point, we felt, with the go-live of the ERP system and a number of the other areas really getting to the level that we had anticipated when we undertook the journey. So I feel very good about where that is.

是的。謝謝薩馬德提出的問題。我認為正如我們之前討論過的那樣，我們的大量投資發生在 2023 年之前的幾年。23 年中，我們確實看到了一個拐點，我們認為，隨著 ERP 系統的上線，其他一些領域確實達到了我們在踏上旅程時所預期的水平。所以我對那個地方感覺很好。

I think we will continue to expand from a headcount standpoint because, again, there's growth opportunities and things that are out there that we'll get after. But we do anticipate and, as you would see from our guidance, getting leverage out of our cost infrastructure. Again, we've talked about G&A, we've talked about some level of selling and marketing expense seeing that there, and we're always being opportunistic from an R&D standpoint.

我認為從員工數量的角度來看，我們將繼續擴大規模，因為我們將追求成長機會和事物。但我們確實預計，正如您從我們的指導中看到的那樣，我們將利用我們的成本基礎設施發揮槓桿作用。再次，我們討論了一般行政費用，我們討論了一定程度的銷售和行銷費用，從研發的角度來看，我們始終是機會主義的。

So we feel good about where we are now from a headcount standpoint, from an expense standpoint, but there is some level of growth built into it. But again, you'll start to see that leverage really come through now that those big investment dollars are past us.

因此，從員工數量和費用的角度來看，我們對現在的狀況感到滿意，但其中還是有一定程度的成長。但同樣，你會開始看到槓桿作用真正發揮作用，因為那些巨額投資已經過去了。

Great. And then, David, just on the partnership side, especially the big ones like SAP and Oracle, how are you seeing the joint go-to-market efforts there? Is it doing as you expected? Is it doing better than expected? And maybe how should we think about how partnerships will contribute to the strong 2024 cloud revenue growth?

偉大的。David，在合作夥伴方面，尤其是像 SAP 和 Oracle 這樣的大公司，您如何看待那裡的聯合上市工作？它的表現如你所料嗎？效果比預期的好嗎？也許我們應該如何思考合作關係將如何為 2024 年雲端收入的強勁成長做出貢獻？

Yeah. Thank you, Samad. We continue to see really solid performance across the base there. And I think you really have to marry it well with the alliance community because it's combination of the two that is really differentiated for us and supports the strong win rate we have. And I think the pipeline of activity, as we look forward, a lot of what the team accomplished in 2023 didn't even benefit from some of the ECC migration efforts that we think are going to play out in '24, '25, and '26.

是的。謝謝你，薩馬德。我們繼續看到那裡的基地表現非常強勁。我認為你真的必須將它與聯盟社區很好地結合起來，因為這兩者的結合對我們來說確實是與眾不同的，並且支持我們擁有強大的勝率。我認為，正如我們所期待的，團隊在 2023 年完成的許多工作甚​​至沒有從我們認為將在 24 年、25 年和 2025 年發揮作用的一些 ECC 遷移工作中受益。 '26。

And so I think the team has done a good job of positioning inside -- positioning us inside of those ecosystems. And our conscious effort now to slow down our services growth to really reward our partner ecosystem further, I think, is really aligned to what we want to envision growing this business as we go forward here.

因此，我認為團隊在內部定位方面做得很好——將我們定位在這些生態系統內部。我認為，我們現在有意識地努力減緩我們的服務成長，以真正進一步獎勵我們的合作夥伴生態系統，這與我們在此前進時發展這項業務的願景確實是一致的。

Great. Appreciate you taking my questions. Thank you.

偉大的。感謝您回答我的問題。謝謝。

Alex Sklar, Raymond James.

亞歷克斯·斯克拉，雷蒙德·詹姆斯。

Great. Thank you. David, you've talked about high-teens growth and targeting upwards of 20% growth. In some of the recent quarters, you just delivered on 19% ARR growth. Has anything changed in terms of your belief on the organic opportunity ahead for Vertex? Thanks.

偉大的。謝謝。David，您談到了青少年的高速成長以及 20% 以上的成長目標。在最近的一些季度中，您的 ARR 成長了 19%。您對福泰 (Vertex) 未來有機機會的信念有什麼改變嗎？謝謝。

Thanks, Alex. No, I see the -- I still see -- again, you have to look at the tailwinds. I really look at what are the macro events that are driving opportunities to us. And I think business model changes and mergers and acquisitions at the enterprise space continue to play out. The regulatory environment is only getting more complex and painful. And again, we're competing largely against in-house systems that ultimately need to be replaced.

謝謝，亞歷克斯。不，我再次看到——我仍然看到——你必須看看順風。我認真研究了哪些宏觀事件為我們帶來了機會。我認為企業領域的商業模式變化和併購將繼續發揮作用。監管環境只會變得更加複雜和痛苦。再說一次，我們主要與最終需要更換的內部系統競爭。

And so I think when you take those two and add in ongoing digital transformations and ERP upgrades, the strength of what we've envisioned happening and what we embarked on over three years ago in our investment strategy is really playing out quite nicely. And I don't see that changing in the near term at all.

因此，我認為，當你將這兩者加上正在進行的數位轉型和 ERP 升級時，我們所設想的事情以及我們三年多前在投資策略中開始的事情的力量確實發揮得相當好。我認為這種情況在短期內根本不會改變。

Okay, great color there. And maybe one for you, John. Just in terms of guidance philosophy and how we should look at the 2024 outlook, I think in past years, you've spoken to not being a huge embedded beat-and-raise cadence until you get later into the year. I'm just curious if anything changed in terms of how you approach the guidance this year.

好吧，那裡的顏色很棒。也許還有一個適合你，約翰。就指導理念以及我們應該如何看待 2024 年前景而言，我認為在過去幾年中，您曾說過，在進入今年晚些時候之前，不要採用巨大的嵌入式擊敗和加註節奏。我只是好奇今年你們對待指導方針的方式是否有任何變化。

It's a great question. No, I appreciate it very much, Alex. I think we are very consistent and thoughtful about our guidance methodology. And I think we expect that we'll continue with that same as we move forward. I think we feel it's done us well to be thoughtful and conservative about how we set that. And then the way that we approach it is not anticipated to change.

這是一個很好的問題。不，我非常感激，亞歷克斯。我認為我們的指導方法非常一致且深思熟慮。我認為我們希望在前進的過程中繼續這樣做。我認為我們認為對我們如何設定這一點深思熟慮和保守是有好處的。然後我們處理它的方式預計不會改變。

All right. Great. Thank you, both.

好的。偉大的。謝謝你們倆。

Daniel Jester, BMO Capital Markets.

Daniel Jester，BMO 資本市場。

Yeah, great. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. David, you gave us a little bit of update about your efforts around AI in the prepared remarks. I'd love it if you could expand on the areas of opportunity in '24 and how are your customer conversations progressing along those lines?

很好。大家，早安。感謝您提出我的問題。David，您在準備好的演講中向我們介紹了您在人工智慧方面所做的一些最新努力。如果您能擴展 24 年的機會領域，我會很高興，您的客戶對話在這些方面進展如何？

Yeah, so thanks for the question, Dan. We continue to be really disciplined in our investment here. We've made a conscious effort to look at ways to improve productivity and drive more efficiency in our business, and we're seeing some really good sprouts of opportunity.

是的，謝謝你的提問，丹。我們在這裡的投資仍然非常嚴格。我們有意識地努力尋找提高生產力和提高業務效率的方法，並且我們看到了一些非常好的機會。

I think on the customer front, it's probably, in the long run, more exciting because, obviously, I think we can drive more revenue from the business. One of the things our customers have always valued in our brand is around trust, and it's trust that we can be more accurate than they can do on their own.

我認為，從長遠來看，在客戶方面，這可能更令人興奮，因為顯然，我認為我們可以從業務中獲得更多收入。我們的客戶在我們的品牌中一直看重的事情之一就是信任，並且信任我們可以比他們自己做的更準確。

And so the conversations and the reason we're inviting our customers into the dialogue early in the process is to make sure they retain that confidence. And so we've set up a number of design programs and labs to engage them in that journey to make sure we're meeting their expectations and not undermining trust in the process.

因此，對話以及我們在流程早期邀請客戶參與對話的原因是為了確保他們保持這種信心。因此，我們設立了許多設計項目和實驗室，讓他們參與這個過程中，以確保我們滿足他們的期望，並且不會破壞對這個過程的信任。

Great. That's great color. And then maybe one for you, John. If I look at deferred revenue on the balance sheet, in 2021 and 2022, that was kind of growing in the teens. But exiting the year, we've slipped to growth in the mid-single digits. So is there anything that we should be thinking about with regards to deferred revenue and the visibility you have on the growth algorithm for '24? Thank you.

偉大的。那顏色真棒。也許還有一份適合你，約翰。如果我看看 2021 年和 2022 年資產負債表上的遞延收入，就會發現該收入呈現十幾歲的成長。但今年結束後，我們的成長率已下滑至中個位數。那麼，關於遞延收入以及您對 24 世紀成長演算法的可見性，我們應該考慮什麼？謝謝。

Yeah. Thanks for the question, Dan. No, there's nothing that's changed with respect to our visibility or how we think about the business in terms of our confidence and ability to read into deferred revenue and what's on the horizon.

是的。謝謝你的提問，丹。不，我們的知名度或我們對業務的看法沒有任何改變，我們的信心和能力解讀遞延收入和即將發生的事情。

I would tell you that with the change back in 2021, we did change how we do some of our pricing for on-prem software. That's become a much smaller piece; but over time, that's come down. And so that's why you see a little bit of a change relating to the deferred revenue over time.

我想告訴您，隨著 2021 年的變化，我們確實改變了本地軟體的一些定價方式。那已經變成了一個小得多的部分；但隨著時間的推移，這種情況有所下降。這就是為什麼隨著時間的推移，您會看到與遞延收入相關的一些變化。

So that migration was expected to take place and has. But no, from an overall standpoint, our ability to see into the future with our customers, the contract length, and the way that that's manifesting itself in deferred revenue has been virtually unchanged.

因此，這種遷移是預期會發生的，而且已經發生了。但從整體角度來看，我們與客戶一起展望未來的能力、合約期限以及遞延收入的體現方式幾乎沒有改變。

Great. Thank you very much.

偉大的。非常感謝。

Pat Walravens, Citizens JMP Securities.

Pat Walravens，JMP 證券公民。

Great. Thank you, and let me add my congratulations on the Q4 results; it's fabulous. So David, and part of this comes from questions I've gotten from investors, but prior to Pagero, I would not have expected Vertex to be willing to pay nearly $600 million for an asset and to partner with someone like Silver Lake to get the financing. So how should we think about Vertex's future appetite for M&A? How big a transaction are you willing to do? And should you maybe have more cash on the balance sheet to provide more flexibility around those kinds of things in the future?

偉大的。謝謝，讓我對第四季的結果表示祝賀；太棒了。David，這部分來自我從投資者那裡得到的問題，但在 Pagero 之前，我不會期望 Vertex 願意支付近 6 億美元購買一項資產，並與像 Silver Lake 這樣的人合作以獲得融資。那我們該如何看待Vertex未來的併購意願呢？您願意進行多大的交易？您的資產負債表上是否應該有更多現金，以便將來在此類事情上提供更大的靈活性？

Thanks, Pat. I think one of the things I enjoy with our Board is they're willing to do what's necessary to support the long-term strategy of the company and the confidence they have in management to execute on that.

謝謝，帕特。我認為我喜歡董事會的一件事是，他們願意做必要的事情來支持公司的長期策略，並對管理層執行該策略充滿信心。

And I think what happened over the last three years is the company has continued to perform better than expected, beating our own budget and guidance expectations. We've completed that investment cycle. And the Board was supportive that there was an opportunity. And then at the right price, we would do what was necessary to make it happen. And so I don't think that philosophy will change at all given the strength of our execution and the strength of the organization's performance.

我認為過去三年公司的表現持續優於預期，超出了我們自己的預算和指導預期。我們已經完成了該投資週期。董事會也支持這是一個機會。然後以合適的價格，我們會採取必要的措施來實現這一目標。因此，鑑於我們的執行力和組織績效的實力，我認為理念根本不會改變。

If the right opportunity presents itself and it serves our customers' long-term needs, our Board will support doing what's necessary to make it happen. What that is, the world will be informed as we go forward. But rest assured, there's strong confidence across from the Board down through management on that.

如果合適的機會出現並且能夠滿足客戶的長期需求，我們的董事會將支持採取必要措施來實現這一目標。那是什麼，隨著我們的前進，世界將被告知。但請放心，從董事會到管理階層都對此充滿信心。

Great. Thank you. And I think everyone does appreciate how you stay disciplined on that.

偉大的。謝謝。我認為每個人都欣賞你在這方面保持紀律的方式。

(Operator Instructions) Brad Reback, Stifel.

（操作員說明）Brad Reback，Stifel。

Great. Thanks very much. Gentlemen, can you remind us, with the true-ups, how that impacts ARR both in the quarter and going forward?

偉大的。非常感謝。先生們，您能否透過事實提醒我們，這對本季和未來的 ARR 有何影響？

Yeah. Thanks for the question, Brad. The true-ups, the way that it works is the true-up is really for periods that have passed. So it's a direct impact to revenue for the prior overages that took place.

是的。謝謝你的提問，布拉德。調整，它的運作方式是調整確實是針對已經過去的時期。因此，這對先前發生的超額收入產生了直接影響。

But what's typically happening at the same time, Brad, is those same customers are renewing for a new contract going forward. And typically, that's coming in at a higher tier. So you are getting benefit from that customer renewing at a higher tier. So it's very similar to the amount that goes backwards, but ARR is the forward look. And so the forward look typically has an increase in it when you come out of a customer entitlement upgrade like that.

但布拉德，通常同時發生的情況是，這些客戶正在續簽新合約。通常情況下，這是在更高的層次上進行的。因此，您可以從該客戶的更高等級續約中受益。所以它與向後的金額非常相似，但 ARR 是向前看。因此，當您完成這樣的客戶權利升級後，前瞻性通常會增加。

Great. And then as the cloud business gets bigger and bigger, can you also remind us what the impact is on gross margin longer term? Thanks.

偉大的。隨著雲端業務變得越來越大，您能否提醒我們，從長期來看，這對毛利率有什麼影響？謝謝。

Yeah, that's a great question, Brad. Thank you. Now, over time, what we have seen is that customers are moving. There is a migration toward the cloud. We have mentioned that our cloud revenue and our cloud margins, if you will, were a little bit lower than our on-prem margins. But a lot of that had to do with some of the leverage that we got. And as more uptake in the multi-tenant cloud starts to take place, we are seeing those margins increase.

是的，這是一個很好的問題，布拉德。謝謝。現在，隨著時間的推移，我們看到客戶正在遷移。目前正在向雲端遷移。我們已經提到過，我們的雲端收入和雲端利潤率（如果你願意的話）比我們的本地利潤率要低一些。但這很大程度上與我們獲得的一些影響力有關。隨著多租戶雲端的使用開始增加，我們看到這些利潤正在增加。

So we feel very good about that. We feel that the margins, again, with the volume that we're getting that the margins will find themselves just under where the on-prem margins were, obviously, there's a cost there to host and keep the cloud costs going. But we feel very good that those margins will be able to stay in that range of where they are right now.

所以我們對此感覺非常好。我們再次認為，隨著我們獲得的數量，利潤率將低於本地利潤率，顯然，託管和維持雲端成本持續存在成本。但我們感覺非常好，這些利潤率將能夠保持在目前的範圍內。

Awesome. Thanks very much.

驚人的。非常感謝。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Joe Crivelli for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回給喬·克里維利（Joe Crivelli）發表閉幕詞。

Thanks, everybody, for joining us today. If you have any follow-up questions or if you'd like to schedule additional time with the team, please send me an e-mail at investors@vertex.com -- I'm sorry, investors@vertexinc.com. Have a great rest of your day, and we look forward to speaking with you in the coming weeks.

謝謝大家今天加入我們。如果您有任何後續問題，或者您想安排更多時間與團隊交流，請給我發送電子郵件：investors@vertex.com - 抱歉，investors@vertexinc.com。祝您度過愉快的一天，我們期待在未來幾週內與您交談。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連線。