Good afternoon. Thank you for attending the Paycom Software Second Quarter 2024 Quarterly Results Conference Call. My name is Cameron, and I'll be your moderator for today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call, with an opportunity for questions-and-answers at the end. I would now like to pass the conference over to your host, James Samford, Head of Investor Relations. You may proceed.

Thank you, and welcome to Paycom's earnings conference call for the second quarter of 2024. 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 the 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. Also during today's call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income, 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. I will now turn the call over to Chad Richison, Paycom's CEO and President. Chad?

Thanks, James, and thank you to everyone joining our call today. I'll focus my comments on the progress we are making on our 2024 initiatives, and then I'll turn it over to Craig, who will review our financials and guidance before taking questions. This year, we remain focused on providing world-class service to our clients, solidifying client ROI achievement, and deepening our automation capabilities through product innovation. I'm very pleased with the progress we are making on these client focused initiatives as they are resonating across our client base. As a result of our initiatives, our client usage metrics and our net promoter score are up and trending positively. Beyond that, I'm very pleased with our achievements on the product front. We continue to lead the industry in automation. Our clients consistently confirm this view. We continue to eclipse our functionality with even greater automation as we rapidly move towards full solution automation. The enhancements we made to our development processes at the end of 2023 enabled us to transform our solutions even faster. Year-to-date, we have more than doubled our development productivity rates and implemented functionality for our clients that eliminates redundant payroll and HR work through automation and employee usage. We are rapidly eclipsing the industry by delivering a fundamentally differentiated value proposition for our clients, which ultimately results in a better employee experience. We are focused on continuing to automate the most automated solution in the industry. Two examples of automation in our industry are Beti and GONE. Every month, millions of checks are processed directly by employees using Beti, delivering our clients measurable ROI through this truly unique solution. One example is an existing client who has been with us for six years. This is a 2,500 employee company that recently adopted Beti. Since allowing their…

Thanks, Chad. Before I review our second quarter 2024 results and our outlook for the third quarter and full year 2024, I'd like to say a few words about my future plans here at Paycom. I joined this incredible company nearly 19 years ago and had the privilege of shepherding the company from a few million dollars of revenue to one approaching $2 billion in revenues. It has been a career that has surpassed all of my dreams and I want to thank Chad for bringing me in as a partner in this journey. As a new grandfather, it is time for me to prepare for my next chapter and I'm announcing my plan to retire from my role as CFO sometime in the next nine to 12 months. And after that, I expect to remain with Paycom in an advisory role. With that, let's dig into Q2 results by reminding everyone that my comments related to certain financial measures will be on a non-GAAP basis. Second quarter revenue of $438 million came in at the top end of our range and was up 9% over the comparable prior year period. Within total revenues, recurring revenue was $430 million for the second quarter of 2024, representing 98% of total revenues for the quarter and growing 9% from the comparable prior year period. GAAP net income in the quarter was $68 million, or $1.20 per diluted share based on approximately 56.8 million shares. Non-GAAP net income for the second quarter was $92 million or $1.62 per diluted share. Second quarter adjusted EBITDA of nearly $160 million, or 36.5% margin was better than expected, primarily due to expense discipline in the quarter. We continue to aggressively invest in areas of AI, automation, international expansion, and our value proposition for the client. Adjusted…

Thank you. We will now begin the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Raimo Lenschow with Barclays. You may proceed.

Hey, thank you. And Craig, all the best. Well, I guess we still have a few quarters. My question is around Beti. Chad, in your prepared remarks, you talked about increased inbound like, can you talk a little bit about the perception that Beti now has in your installed base and I'm thinking about the whole installed base and how it's turning into like a sales tool as the industry is understanding the benefit of that for its own business, but also for the employee base? Thank you.

Sure. And so new clients, and everyone by the way, everybody does get a question and a follow-up. He didn't necessarily state that on the call, but Raimo, what's happening with new clients coming in, that's why they're coming in to use it. I mean, they're coming to Paycom to actually utilize Beti. I did talk about a client on the call who had been with us for six years. They have 2,500 employees, they implemented Beti and they were able to reduce their payroll department by half and it went from four days for them working on payroll to mere hours. And so within our client base, we continue to meet clients where they are today as we work our client value achievement strategy to help them maximize the most ROI with where they are today. And then as far as new clients coming on, it's been no change. I did talk about on the call how we've had more unit sales this year than what we have in the past. And so our sales staff is doing really good in our go-to-market as well.

Okay. Perfect. And if I -- now that I'm allowed to follow up like may I squeeze one in? You talked about the sales reps that were added this quarter like a record number. How do you think about that cadence on the hiring side, especially on sales? If you think about what you're seeing in your installed base and you think about the economy, like how do you think that will progress? Thank you and congrats from me.

Yeah. So we're better staffed in sales than what we've been in probably five or six years. And what I mean by that is having all teams with the sales manager in it fully staffed and then just the number of staff that we have on each. And so, Amy Walker took over sales and had been with us for 14 years prior to that. She took over sales in April and since that time has really got them in a position, us in a position on the sell-side where we're strong from a staffing perspective and again, our sales tactics and techniques to be able to go out there and even sell more as we're differentiated in the industry.

The next question is from the line of Samad Samana with Jefferies. You may proceed.

All right. Thank you. And Craig, congrats on becoming a new grandfather, it's exciting news.

Thank you.

So maybe I'll start with you or for either one of you, but just as I think about the narrowing of the guidance outlook, what assumptions changed or what did you experience and what are you tweaking to get to that new narrow range? Is it a change in new business assumptions? Is it a change in CRR bookings retention? Just help us understand the mechanics of the change going forward, especially considering that 2Q came in a little bit better than you expected.

Yeah. I mean as we came into the year, I mean our plan had a wide range of initiatives and opportunities. And the high range had assumptions depending on some timing and the magnitude of some of those initiatives. So some of it was timing and now that we have more visibility during the year and it's progressed, we're going to narrow that range.

Understood. And then maybe, Chad, if I could follow up on Raimo's question about the sales hiring and you talked about capacity. Should we think about that as maybe a leading indicator, the hiring that you just did in terms of what you're seeing in the market, either opportunity increasing and new hiring behind that, or is this hiring in anticipation of? Just maybe help us understand what type of signal that suggests, especially because we haven't really gotten an update on office opening disclosures in a while and this seems like a pretty important development.

Yeah. I mean I would say that I've always felt like we've had the best sales organization. I think having the best products part of that. We focus very hard on sales this year. We were very focused on it and what we wanted to accomplish with it. And being fully staffed does allow us to get to the opportunity to be able to open up offices, again, when it's right for us. Right now, we're really focused on unit growth and sales skills development. In second quarter, we sold 24% more units than what we had sold second quarter of the previous year. That's but one data point that Amy just took over in April. So that's helping. And being staffed really helps with that. The more people that you're staffed with, the more you're going to sell. And so we're having a lot of success right now with the sales group and staffing is a big part of that.

The next question is from the line of Mark Marcon with Baird. You may proceed.

Hey. Good afternoon, and thanks for taking my questions. And let me add my congrats, Craig, that's huge in terms of being a grandpa. Not really.

Thank you.

So I wanted to ask a little bit about some of the investments that you're making, Chad. Can you talk a little bit about, the investments behind service as well as R&D. And specifically, I'm looking at the gross margins and trying to think through. You've ramped up the investments. It sounds like the NPS scores are going up as a result. How should we think about the further pace of the investments both in terms of cost of service as well as R&D and how that's going to unfold over the course of the year? And then I've got a follow-up.

Yeah, Mark. I'll take the gross margin part of that question. One thing on the gross margins, like you mentioned, is a headcount. But this quarter, we brought our fifth building at Corporate Online. And so we saw an increase in the depreciation both on the building and on the equipment and furniture and fixtures as it related to that building. So part of that gross margin was the additional depreciation, which also hit other lines of depreciation in the income statement.

And I'll kind of add on to that. I mean, from a hiring perspective in operations, I mean we're hiring. So we're open for business. We're hiring there. And again, we only have 5% of the market. We have a differentiated product. We're focused on our sales methods. We're focused on our service and of course, heavily, heavily focused on product, which leads to our R&D expense. I know that, that jumped up in there in the second quarter, but that's because we're putting out a lot of product. As I said on the call, we've put out twice as much a product release of this past month than we did in January. And January was also a good month for product releases. And so, we sell our product. I mean, our products where all our values derived from our clients. And so it's just very important that we're always focusing on that. We have very ambitious goals in regard to our product as well. And so -- but we're also mindful of our spend and we're mindful of having quality revenue that generates a strong bottom line. And so all that's included when we go through this for what we're going to budget and spend.

Great. And then it sounds like, I mean, with a 24% increase in terms of units sold so far year-to-date, is that part of the reason why we would anticipate seeing an acceleration with regards to the revenue growth in Q3 relative to Q2? Just wondering how baked in is that as opposed to hoping for additional incremental sales from the new salespeople.

Sure. So let me correct one thing, 24% is the unit growth for the second quarter over prior second quarter. Year-to-date, we're about 15% in unit growth, I was just making the point since Amy has taken over. Now I will say, so far for third quarter starts, July starts, which are always the largest of a quarter. Your first quarter month is the largest revenue of any quarter. Our July starts are up 40% from a revenue perspective. And so again, these are about one data point, but it's from where we're starting. And we get to start with the best product, we get to start with the best sales training and we get to start with the best service model. And so for us, it's a continuation of work in our 2024 plan into next year.

The next question is from the line of Joshua Reilly with Needham. You may proceed.

Yeah. Thanks for taking my question. Just wanted to understand better with the better new customer activity, but the lower -- the high-end of the guidance is slightly lower. How should we think about the impact from the payment -- the extra run for payroll runs revenue coming out of the model? Has that been in line with your expectations? I just wanted to understand if there's any other impact to the high-end of the guidance. Thank you.

Yeah. I would say all of the current client factors that we discussed even at the end of 2023, those still exist today as far as additional payroll run opportunities and inefficiencies gained when someone uses our product correctly. And so all those factors continue to exist, but we also have many mitigating factors that we're able to guess and pull the levers on. And again, we have a lot of confidence in what's going on with both our sales organization, our service organization and of course, our product with what gives us confidence as we head into the end of this year and then as well as 2025.

Got it. And then last quarter, you discussed getting better utilization of modules that have already been sold to customers. Any update there in terms of getting customers to maybe utilize the modules that have already been sold at a faster pace than what was -- we've seen over the last year? Thank you.

And so yes, anytime we focus on something, we're going to have some results from that. We've been focused all year on the client value achievement strategy, which does include meeting clients where they are and helping them achieve that ROI. It's impacting our service model from a positive and it's impacting our net promoter scores. And those are commitments that we're not going to be backing off of.

The next question is from the line of Steven Enders with Citi. You may proceed.

Hey, great. Thanks for taking the question there. I guess maybe just kind of pull it on the last couple of lines of questioning. Just how is kind of the back to base motion kind of trending? And I guess on the back of what sounds like solid new units coming on board. Just how are you feeling about that back to base motion and kind of what that's implying for the growth outlook versus what you were expecting before?

Yeah. My opinions on that haven't really changed. I mean, it's very important for us to meet each client where they're at and make sure that they're utilizing the product to get the full value of it. And we're still very focused on that. I mean, you look throughout the history of Paycom, we sold a lot of product and it's very important that clients are utilizing it the right way to get ROI out of it. There's a lot of things we're also working on in product and developing and releasing that also helps with that. And so, it's not like we've abandoned working with clients to be able to help them purchase new modules from us that can help them drive that ROI. But we have changed the game a little bit in making sure that we're doing our part to make sure that clients are achieving the level of ROI needed for their satisfaction. And so that really hasn't changed for us as far as what we're doing throughout 2024 and what we're focused on here.

Okay. That's helpful. And then I guess maybe is there an update on kind of a Beti penetration or adoption so far from versus the last disclosure?

Yeah. It continues to go up every month. I mean, we're adding -- again, we're adding more and more clients in each client that starts, they're starting with greater Beti usage than we have in the past. And so -- and those that are using it and have been using it, it continues to go up. And so with good technology that's easy to use, usage continues to move forward. Of course, we do have a percent of our client base still that may not be receiving the full benefit that it may have to offer at this point just because it's not the right time for them or what have you or it doesn't fit specifically with their initiatives. And so those clients were meeting them where they live. And sometimes they do come on. Again, I talked on the call about a 2,500-employee company that finally said yes, it did reduce their labor cost in regards to working the payroll system by half and they went from four days of working on payroll to merely hours. So that's available to everyone out there. But again, we're servicing clients where they are right now today and that's what we're focused on. And we'll move forward with clients on their timeline, not ours. And then when it comes to new prospects coming in, we want them to receive the full value that we have to offer so that they can achieve that ROI, which is available only through Beti for new clients.

The next question is from the line of Kevin McVeigh with UBS. You may proceed.

Great. Thanks so much. [Technical Difficulty]

[Technical Difficulty] database count from that perspective. So -- and we're furthering Beti as well. I mean, Beti is not the same product it was at the first of the year than what it is today. And so we're continuing to advance all of our solution with automation.

Great. And then with the extended buyback, is there any way to think about the approach around that? Just relative to there's been some obviously variability over the last year or so, just any thoughts moving forward as to pace or progression of the buyback?

Yeah. No, I mean, as we mentioned on the call, I mean, we bought back a significant amount of shares and we actually bought back 574,000 just during Q3 in a large amount since July 1st. So really an opportunistic approach to the buyback. And we were -- the other one was about to expire, so we put this one in-place for another two years at $1.5 billion.

Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Siti Panigrahi with Mizuho. You may proceed.

Hi. This is Phil on for Siti. You guys mentioned you added Beti in Canada, Mexico, Ireland, and the UK. Are there plans to add Beti to other countries?

Yes. As we develop them and as you know, certain countries have certain factors that go into their unemployment law. So -- but as we develop these countries, absolutely, we would expect that to be happening.

Well, thank you.

The next question is from the line of Jason Celino with KeyBanc Capital Markets. You may proceed.

Great. Thanks. This is Zane Meehan on for Jason Celino. Just one from me on the uptick in the EBITDA margin guide, nice to see that moving up by 50 bps. Just wanted to ask what's driving that increase and where you might be getting more efficient in the next or in the second half of the year? Thanks.

Yeah. I mean, we kind of look across the entire organization and just look for efficiencies. I mean there's no levers we're really trying to pull to do that. And really it was the second-quarter be really flowing through to the full year and then raising it on top of that. So really nothing that we're pulling any levers for.

Great. Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Alex Zukin with Wolfe Research. You may proceed.

Hey, guys. This is Ryan on for Alex Zukin. Just one question on the CRR teams. So can you just provide an update on where the CRR teams were focused in the quarter? Are you still structuring commissions towards Beti conversions of the base and system usage or are they starting to lean more back into the upsell, cross-sell motions? And to the extent that they are still focused on the Beti conversions, when could we see them kind of shift back to the upsell, cross sell focus?

Yeah. I mean for competitive reasons, I mean, I'm not going to get into exactly what a CRR's process is today that's different than what it was last year. But I will say that, to a CRR, they work with each client, and not every client is in the same situation, which means a CRR's approach isn't the same as they go into their entire territory, if you will. And so it really depends on if I'm working with the client that has not yet gone through the client value achievement strategy fully or if I'm working with the client that has. And so that's not to say that they can't provide opportunity and additional -- that they don't have additional revenue opportunities with each client. It's just there's certain methods, that we go through today to ensure that clients are achieving that before we just sell them. So -- and I wouldn't say that's a dramatic change from any other quarter, we've had this year.

Great. Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Bhavin Shah with Deutsche Bank. You may proceed.

Great. Thanks for taking my question. Just first for Craig. Just you mentioned bringing the fifth building online during the quarter. Any changes to thinking in terms of CapEx for the year? Is 12% of revenue still the right range to think about? And any of those builds that are planned in the near-future that at the tip of your mind?

Yeah. I mentioned that we just finished the last building. We've got a couple more projects throughout the end-of-the year. So kind of as we talked earlier, what we thought the percent would be for the year somewhere in that 11% to 12%, probably still thinking that. As we look at next year, we really don't have any large projects on the plan. So we mentioned even on the last call, that we would expect CapEx to be potentially single-digits next year as a percent of revenue and that really bodes well for the free-cash flow conversion, which we're also focused on.

That makes sense. And just quickly following-up. It appears that Paycom is now partnering with an employment verification service. Can you just maybe elaborate on what this partnership can bring to Paycom from a financial perspective for this year and maybe also a business perspective, how are you guys thinking about partnership opportunities more broadly?

I mean, I wouldn't say we think much of it. I mean any opportunities I think that are in regards to data type things are not necessarily strategic in nature from that standpoint and not necessarily differentiated from -- so from my standpoint, I think that if there's something we can provide our clients that helps them have a better experience with Paycom, that's what we want to look at and focus on and most things would fall in-line with that.

The next question is from the line of Daniel Jester with BMO. You may proceed.

Yeah. Great. Good evening, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe, Chad, on you think about the product roadmap and the focus on automation, should we be expecting sort of more specific modules to help drive that outcome for your customers? Are you going to be reengineering things that you've already put out there to increase the level of automation? sort of any sort of high-level thoughts about the direction you're embarking on here?

Sure. And so I guess we focus on problems to solve and what we want to automate. That's where we start regardless of whether or not that's in our current system of innovation or whether or not that's something new that we add. And so we start with what problem are we solving. And so when you're looking at automation, it's across the entire suite. But it will include additional module opportunities, but those develop as you -- as you're doing the right thing and then you're at the end of your process, you're able to discover the ROI for each and see if there is a revenue opportunity for that. We don't start with the revenue opportunity. We start with automating problems for our clients and solving problems. And sometimes we get to share in those problems we solve through additional revenue opportunities.

Okay. Thank you. And then just on the four international geographies everybody is available now, have you sold any locally domiciled clients or is it still US centric clients that have employees abroad? Thank you.

Now you asking if we've sold a client that has zero U.S. employees and they're just in the country with zero domestic employees? Is that your question? You may have fallen off. I'm going to answer that question and assume it was. For sure, Canada, I believe, we could have clients that just had that. That was our first one released. I would be surprised at this point if we have a client just in Mexico or the UK or Ireland that doesn't have a U.S. base connection. But I would expect in Canada, we would have some of the talent.

The next question is from the line of Jake Roberge with William Blair. You may proceed.

Yeah. Thanks for taking the question. Just wanted to follow-up on that global payroll front. I'm curious what you're seeing on the demand front for geos like Canada that have been in the market for a bit longer and just how long it takes for new geos to start ramping more meaningfully?

Yeah. I mean, having native payroll in any -- Canada was the very first time we actually ever developed a separate country. We were U.S. for 25 years. And so we learned a lot in Canada. And then we learned a lot more in Mexico and the UK and a lot of the developments we were able to do for a lot of those companies or countries, some of them were transferable, some of the items. And so we've learned a lot by going through this process. Also, we very much strengthened our global HCM product. I mean, it's not just native payroll. We have a very strong global HCM product that we continue to automate as well. And so all of that ties together to make a strong value proposition.

Okay. That's helpful. And then when we think about the revenue cannibalization of those payroll reruns, when do we officially lap those tougher comps? Is that something that will still be a bigger headwind heading into next year or could that actually be much less pronounced given it will be a smaller base as we've kind of gotten through that this year? Thanks.

Yeah. I mean, again, the factors that we talked about that were impacting us at the end of the year are the same factors that impact us today. When you're talking about how fast or what have you. We also have mitigating factors that factor into that as well. But when you're talking about what happens there, you're really talking about how fast is our client base going to utilize the most efficient product in the industry and then utilize it the right way. And so, we've kind of quantified the expectation of the opportunity that could be cannibalized from good usage, but it's also differentiation. And I think we get that back in other areas. So all that's to say is, when will we be through that type of thing, I don't know, but I do think that there's mitigating factors that we're able to deploy. Again, to achieve client value, to help the client achieve value that they're helping us there as well.

The next question is from the line of Jared Levine with TD Cowen. You may proceed.

Thank you. In terms of float revenue, can you discuss what the updated annual guide is embedding surrounding float revenue, including Fed fund rate assumptions? And was there any extending of duration during the quarter or plan for the rest of the year here?

Yeah. I mean, we're definitely looking at extending the duration as we're talking about some rate cuts the back half of the year. So as you're looking at the full year, we start to kind of factor in some of those potential rate cuts that seem more certain at this point. And then as you start to layer in and extend duration, you're basically on that amount of money, you're basically taking a rate cut because it's going to be lower than the short-term rate that you could get on that. So yes, we're definitely looking at that.

Okay. So considering it, but that's not currently in motion right now. And then in terms of the sales performance, can you discuss how specifically within the inside sales, how you're doing in terms of those sub-50 employee clients, just given the notable new logo acceleration?

Yeah. I mean the logo acceleration is going to be our mid-market group to 50 and above. The below 50 represents approximately 4% or less of our overall revenue and that hasn't been going up as a percentage.

Sure. Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Zachary Gunn with FT Partners. You may proceed.

Hey, there. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to ask in terms of new client wins, has there been any change from a mix perspective of where you're seeing those wins come from, whether it's competitive takeaways or in-house or regional? Just any context there on the competitive side.

No. I mean, we've been in a very competitive industry for 26 years. This is our 26th year. Arguably, we're the new guys from specifically who we really compete with. And so it's the usual suspects that we continue to compete against and with when we're out there in the market.

Got it. Thanks.

There are no further questions waiting at this time. I would like to pass the conference back over to Chad Richison for closing remarks.

All right. I want to thank everyone for joining our call today. I want to personally thank my colleague and friend Craig for his dedication to Paycom and the amazing example he has set for brilliant careers. Our employees are working hard and strategically across the board. I want to thank all of our employees for their effort toward our plans to eclipse the industry with automation. We look forward to seeing investors at several conferences this quarter, including the Deutsche Bank Technology or the Deutsche Bank Technology Conference in Dana Point in August and the Citi Global Technology Conference in New York -- New York City in September. Thank you, all, and operator, you may disconnect the call.

Thank you. That concludes the Paycom Software second quarter 2024 quarterly results conference call. Thank you for your participation and enjoy the rest of your day.