Paylocity Holding Corporation (PCTY) Q4 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Paylocity Holding Corporation Fourth Quarter 2026 Fiscal Year Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Ryan Glenn, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and welcome to Paylocity's earnings results call for the fourth quarter and fiscal '26, which ended on June 30, 2026. I'm Ryan Glenn, Chief Financial Officer; and joining me on the call today are Steve Beauchamp, Executive Chairman; and Toby Williams, President and CEO of Paylocity. Today, we will be discussing the results announced in our press release issued after the market closed. A webcast replay of this call will be available for the next 45 days on our website under the Investor Relations tab. Before beginning, we must caution you that today's remarks, including statements made during the question-and-answer session, contain forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to numerous important factors, risks, and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from the results implied by these or other forward-looking statements. Also, these statements are based solely on the present information and are subject to risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For additional information, please refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the risk factors contained therein and other disclosures. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements. Also during the course of today's call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. We believe that non-GAAP measures are more representative of how we internally measure the business, and there is a reconciliation schedule detailing these results currently available in our press release, which is located on our website at paylocity.com under the Investor Relations tab and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Please note that we are unable to reconcile any forward-looking non-GAAP financial measure to the directly comparable GAAP financial measure because the information which is needed to complete a reconciliation is unavailable at this time without unreasonable effort. With that, let me turn the call over to Steve.

Thanks, Ryan, and thanks to all of you for joining us on our fourth quarter and fiscal '26 earnings call. Our differentiated value proposition of providing the most modern platform in the industry continues to resonate in the marketplace and helped drive recurring revenue growth of 12.4% and total revenue growth of 11% in Q4. For fiscal '26, recurring revenue grew 12.2% and total revenue grew 11% as we ended the year with approximately $1.8 billion of revenue. Our sustained multi-year investment in R&D and commitment to driving innovation continues to fuel durable recurring revenue growth and expanded average revenue per client as the combination of HCM, finance, and IT in one single platform, all underpinned by our expanded AI capabilities and core employee record data represents the most comprehensive offering in the market. A critical component of this strategy is the launch of Paylocity Ignite AI, which is designed to help accelerate productivity for HR, finance, and IT teams across companies of all sizes and industries. Our approach to AI remains focused on driving value for our clients rather than adding complexity through stand-alone features. Ignite AI is woven directly into core workflows to help clients complete the tasks faster, surface insights more quickly, and move from answers to action. For example, within recruiting, our candidate agent uses job description analysis, recruiter-defined criteria, and candidate application data to help identify strong potential matches while giving recruiters the ability to review, audit, and adjust the criteria. Similarly, clients can leverage our talent rediscovery agent to scan their existing talent pool to identify candidates whose skills, experiences, education, and certifications align most closely with current job requirements and reengage qualified talent with personalized invitations to apply for open rules. Given the demonstrated and measurable productivity improvements that the candidate fit and talent rediscovery agents will drive for our clients, we believe both agents represent an incremental opportunity for direct AI-driven monetization. Additionally, our Answer & Insight Agent makes HR and payroll teams more efficient. Rather than relying on spreadsheets or manual analysis to uncover data-driven insights, administrators can ask natural language questions and receive faster, client-specific answers in their flow of work. As part of this continued evolution, we are also introducing our Ignite AI Hub, a centralized dashboard that gives clients greater visibility and control over how AI is used across their organization. The Ignite AI Hub helps close the visibility gap by measuring real productivity gains, including questions answered, tasks completed, and issues resolved across our payroll time and recruiting agent. It also allows leaders to see which agents are active, configure them based on their organization's needs, and identify opportunities for additional automation. The early feedback from our clients reinforces the value proposition of Ignite AI. It is embedded in the workflows our clients already use, powered by the data they already trust, and designed to support people rather than replace them. As an auto dealer client with more than 600 employees told us, Paylocity's AI feels like another team member, while a non-profit client with over 500 employees described it as an extra set of hands that still preserves the human element of approval and decision-making. That combination of productivity, trust, and control is critical in HR and payroll where accuracy, transparency, and compliance are paramount. This positive sentiment is similarly reflected in the growing utilization of our AI capabilities with the number of AI interactions nearly doubling quarter-over-quarter. Product expansion has been a key part of Paylocity's growth algorithm for over a decade, and we believe the launch of Paylocity Ignite AI, combined with the continued expansion of our broader HCM, finance and IT portfolio, will help to drive further growth in our average revenue per client, which reached roughly $37,200 in fiscal '26 compared to $35,300 in fiscal '25, an increase of more than 5%. We also continue to see significant growth in our client base in fiscal '26 to 44,400 clients, representing approximately 7% growth from fiscal '25. Our commitment to product development also continues to be recognized in the market with Paylocity recently recognized by HR Tech Outlook Magazine as the Top Payroll Software for 2026. I would now like to pass the call to Toby to provide further color on the quarter.

Thanks, Steve. In Q4 and fiscal '26, our differentiated position in the market was reflected in solid sales and go-to-market execution, and we have continued investing in our go-to-market functions to carry this momentum into fiscal '27. We also saw another strong year of channel referral performance, primarily from benefit brokers who once again represented more than 25% of new business in fiscal '26. The sustained success of our broker channel continues to be driven by our modern platform, third-party integration, and API capabilities, and because we do not compete against our broker partners by selling insurance products. We remain committed to investing in and supporting the broker channel with the goal of continuing to deliver real value and true partnership and support to our referring brokers and their clients. We have also continued to drive product innovation to meet client needs and bring to market meaningful new solutions that both create differentiation and drive ARPU. In addition to our recent launch of our Elevate Solutions, in June, we also announced the launch of Paylocity Retirement, a new offering that brings plan administration and employee savings tools directly to the Paylocity platform. Retirement benefits are a critical component of an employee's long-term financial well-being, but many employers still manage these programs through disconnected systems, manual file transfers, and separate employee portals. This fragmentation creates additional administrative work for HR and payroll teams, increases the risk of errors, and can make it more difficult for employees to engage with their retirement savings. As Steve highlighted, we are also excited about the continued evolution of our AI capabilities and the incremental value we expect to deliver to our more than 44,000 clients through the recent launch of Ignite AI. To further expand the AI capabilities across our platform, we also recently announced the acquisition of Aidora, which will enhance our leave of absence management capabilities through a fully automated AI native system that streamlines the full leave of absence life cycle from eligibility and planning to payroll coordination and compliance. This is one of the most complex areas of regulatory compliance in HR, which is typically also manual in nature for both HR teams and employees. With Aidora as part of Paylocity, the full leave of absence process will be automated, leveraging Aidora's AI native product, delivering a seamless employee experience with clear time lines, personalized guidance, and transparent pay expectations, all through natural language interaction, and HR teams will be able to shift their focus from managing manual payroll and complicated compliance processes to supporting their people. We are excited by the opportunity to integrate Aidora's advanced capabilities into our existing suite, delivering incremental value to our clients that we can directly monetize in the form of a premium offering for incremental AI-driven capabilities. Following our acquisition of Grayscale last year, we are also integrating Grayscale's AI-powered recruiting automation capabilities into our platform in the form of a premium offering, helping companies hiring at scale move faster through candidate matching, automated engagement, and continuous candidate check-ins. Collectively, the launch of Ignite AI, Elevate Solutions, Paylocity Retirement, and the ongoing integration of Grayscale and Aidora into the Paylocity platform highlights our dual focus on embedding AI into high-value workflows while continuing to broaden the platform with solutions that reduce manual work and help clients unlock more value from the Paylocity platform. And this commitment to product innovation and world-class service continues to be reflected in our industry-leading revenue retention rates, which once again remained above 92% in fiscal '26. Our strong culture, industry-leading software innovation, and exceptional sales and operational execution would not be possible without the dedication and commitment of our employees. As we close out a very strong fiscal '26, I'd like to thank all of our people and teams for a fantastic year, and we appreciate everything that you do. The strong culture at Paylocity also continues to be recognized externally as we recently were named by TIME as one of America's Best Companies 2026 and by Forbes as one of America's Best Employers for Women 2026. I would now like to pass the call to Ryan to review the financial results in detail and provide initial outlook on fiscal '27.

Thanks, Toby. Recurring revenue for the fourth quarter was $415.6 million, an increase of 12.4%, with total revenue up 11% from the same period last year. As Toby noted, our sales and operations team had another solid quarter, and we were pleased to come in $11.3 million above the top end of our revenue guidance with the majority of our Q4 revenue beat coming from recurring and other revenue. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $145.5 million or 32.7% margin and exceeded the top end of our guidance by $12.9 million. For fiscal '26, adjusted EBITDA was $654.9 million or 37% margin and an increase of 12.3% on a dollar basis from fiscal '25, resulting in leverage of 50 basis points. Excluding the impact of interest income on funds held for clients, adjusted EBITDA margin for fiscal '26 was 32.4%, reflecting operating leverage of 120 basis points versus fiscal '25 and a year-over-year increase of 16.4% on a dollar basis. Additionally, we continue to show strong growth on free cash flow with fiscal '26 free cash flow margin of 24.2%, representing an increase of 24.8% on a dollar basis from fiscal '25. Excluding the impact of interest income on client-held funds, we expanded free cash flow by approximately 40% in fiscal '26, representing margin expansion of 370 basis points. While fiscal '27 will be a difficult comparison due to the tax legislation that provided one-time benefits in fiscal '26, we continue to have confidence in our ability to further expand free cash flow margin on a multi-year basis. We continue to make significant investments in research and development and to understand our overall investment in R&D, it is important to combine both what we expense and what we capitalize. On a combined non-GAAP basis, total R&D investments were 14.5% of revenue in fiscal '26. And on a dollar basis, our year-over-year investment in total R&D increased by 12.6% in fiscal '26 when compared to fiscal '25. On a non-GAAP basis, sales and marketing expenses were 21.9% of revenue in the fourth quarter and 20.3% of revenue in fiscal '26. On a non-GAAP basis, G&A costs were 8.9% of revenue in fiscal '26, and we remain focused on continuing to drive leverage in our G&A expenses on an annual basis. Briefly covering our GAAP results. For Q4, gross profit was $300.4 million, operating income was $84.4 million, and net income was $60.3 million. For the full year, gross profit was $1.2 billion, operating income was $386 million, and net income was $269.7 million. In regard to funds held for clients and interest income, our average daily balance of client funds was $3.4 billion in Q4 and $3.3 billion for fiscal '26. We are estimating the average daily balance will be approximately $3.0 billion in Q1 of fiscal '27 with an average annual yield of approximately 340 basis points, representing approximately $25.5 million of interest income in Q1. On a full year basis, we're estimating the average daily balance will be approximately $3.4 billion to $3.5 billion in fiscal '27 with an average yield of approximately 300 basis points, representing approximately $103 million of interest income. In regard to interest rates, our guidance assumes [ 2 25 ] basis point rate cuts in the back half of fiscal '27 with a cut in each of January and March reflected in our guidance. Additionally, given the confidence we have in our business and our strong cash flows, we repurchased approximately 466,000 shares for $48.1 million in aggregate repurchases during Q4. In total for fiscal '26, we repurchased approximately 2.8 million shares for $398.1 million in aggregate repurchases, helping to drive our diluted share count down 3.1% in fiscal '26. As of June 30, we had approximately $1.3 billion remaining under the existing repurchase program, which we will opportunistically execute against on a go-forward basis while also maintaining flexibility in our capital allocation plan to invest for future growth. In regards to the balance sheet, we ended the fiscal year with $271.9 million in cash, cash equivalents and invested corporate cash, and $81.3 million outstanding on our credit facility. Finally, I'd like to provide our financial guidance for Q1 and fiscal '27, which includes the impact of 2 25 basis point interest rate cuts in the back half of fiscal '27 and flat workforce levels in fiscal '27 versus fiscal '26. Note, beginning in fiscal '27, we will amortize deferred contract costs over an 8-year useful life, an increase from the current 7-year convention. This change is reflected in our guidance and will result in an increase to adjusted EBITDA margins in fiscal '27 of approximately 120 to 140 basis points, which is dependent on our overall business performance and timing and volume of sales and client implementations. For the first quarter of fiscal '27, recurring and other revenue is expected to be in the range of $414 million to $419 million or approximately 10% growth over first quarter fiscal '26 recurring and other revenue. And total revenue is expected to be in the range of $439.5 million to $444.5 million or approximately 8% growth over first quarter fiscal '26 total revenue. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $152 million to $156 million and adjusted EBITDA, excluding interest income on funds held for clients, is expected to be in the range of $126.5 million to $130.5 million. And for fiscal '27, recurring and other revenue is expected to be in the range of $1.777 billion to $1.792 billion or approximately 8% growth over fiscal '26 recurring and other revenue. Total revenue is expected to be in the range of $1.880 billion to $1.895 billion or approximately 7% growth over fiscal '26. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $690 million to $700 million, and adjusted EBITDA, excluding interest income on funds held for clients, is expected to be in the range of $587 million to $597 million, representing approximately 80 basis points of leverage at the midpoint. In conclusion, as we kick off fiscal '27, we remain confident in our differentiated value proposition, go-to-market strategy, operational strength, and product road map and believe our predictable business model and execution, durable recurring revenue growth, and prudent approach to guidance sets us up for a strong fiscal '27. With a combination of industry-leading recurring revenue growth and free cash flow margin, a long track record of strong and consistent revenue retention and expanding both our client base and average revenue per client, we have a high level of confidence in our ability to continue to drive sustainable revenue growth and increase margin on a multi-year basis. Operator, we are now ready for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Brad Reback with Stifel.

It's now a couple of quarters in a row of accelerating subscription revenue growth. Can you maybe unpack what's driving the business higher here?

Brad, it's Toby. I mean, I think, I'll start with just -- I think there's solid execution around the business. So if you go through the backdrop of a stable demand environment, I think we've had really strong performance from a go-to-market standpoint across our sales and marketing teams. I think we've had really strong performance from a service perspective with our client retention. And then I think we've also had significant momentum, which you can see in all the product announcements and launches from Elevate to Retirement to Grayscale and recruiting to Aidora with leave of absence management and then everything that we've announced with Ignite AI. So I think you're seeing all the things come together in pretty balanced execution in every area of the business, again, against what I think is a stable backdrop from a demand environment standpoint.

That's great. And just a quick follow-up. With 7% unit growth in '26, how should we think about kind of the opportunity in '27? What type of sales force growth you need to achieve that? And maybe just wrapping that up, what type of efficiencies, especially with Gen AI, is the sales force seeing right now?

Yes. I think over the last few years, we've seen relative balance between the unit growth and then ARPU growth, and it wasn't quite 50-50, but it was pretty close as we came through '26. And so I think we had another very balanced year of performance from a unit and ARPU standpoint. And I think the comments that we've made over the last few years are we don't -- you don't plan it to the decimal, but I think it's a balanced approach that we take as we're putting together the plan for '27, and certainly as we're putting together the guidance for '27. And so I think our approach as we come into '27 and the expectations are that we'll see that have more relative balance between units and ARPU than we may have seen in 5, 6 years ago, something like that. And then I think from an investment standpoint, as we looked at the investments across the go-to-market teams in the course of building the plan, the guidance for '27, I mean, I think we've been really happy with the execution that we've seen. We've focused on productivity, I think, more so over the last few years, and we've made the investments in both field and inside sales and across our marketing teams, including channels that have been able to produce, I think, the balance that you see. And I think our approach in terms of those investments is pretty similar and pretty consistent as we come into '27.

Our next question comes from the line of Brian Peterson with Raymond James.

This is Jessica on for Brian. Just a quick one. So as you -- I think I'm talking about the broader platform and all the investments you've done with your product innovation, are you starting to see -- in your go-to-market motion are customers coming to you more with considering Paylocity as -- with AI-first requirements? Are they seeing Paylocity as a partner for AI and other capabilities? And how is it influencing win rates in your sales cycles?

Yes. So I'll take the question. I would say that we do have more conversations with clients in the buying process around AI needs, what they're looking for from an AI perspective. I think many of our products require a fair amount of work on behalf of the clients, think of things like payroll, recruiting, time and labor management. And so inserting agentic capabilities in there where they feel like they are driving efficiencies, it's -- they're getting less errors, it's more seamless process. That's certainly a big part of the conversation and then demoing those capabilities for the customer so they can see that. I mean that's one avenue of innovation that we've seen. I think a second thing that AI has unlocked is some newer product SKUs that maybe we wouldn't have imagined before. I think the Grayscale and Aidora acquisitions are really good examples of us being able to add on AI-native capabilities that allow us to really drive productivity back to the customers and then being able to kind of monetize that. And so that -- you put all of that together and you've got agents built through the platform driving efficiency. You've got new product SKUs that are AI-first. I think AI is certainly becoming a greater part of the conversation with our prospects and driving some results for us.

Really great to hear. And then following along your comment there. As you're thinking about capital allocation and everything you have on your balance sheet, how should we think about the stack rate of your priorities if you're thinking about M&A versus further organic investments versus buybacks? So what should we think about this?

Yes. I think we're really happy with how fiscal '26 played out, which allowed us to both repurchase a reasonable amount of stock, so $400 million bought back in fiscal '26, which combined with continued leverage on stock-based comp resulted in diluted share count down about 3%. So I think you'll see us continue to opportunistically repurchase stock in '27. We still have about $1.3 billion available under our authorization. And on top of that, we're investing for growth. So the Grayscale and Aidora acquisitions that we made recently, both funded with cash on balance sheet are good examples of that. So I think we're in a position with strong cash flows, increasing profitability where we can reduce share count while also investing for future growth.

Our next question comes from the line of Mark Marcon with Robert W. Baird.

Congrats on the great year. When I take a look at the ARPU growth, I was wondering if you could comment to what extent is that being driven by some of your more established SKUs versus what you're seeing in terms of like Airbase and some of the newer products that you've just come out with and what you're seeing there? And then I've got a follow-up.

Sure. I think, Mark, if you kind of go back in time and you think of where we were coming out of COVID, we were in the process of launching a number of engagement products. So add-ons on the learning, surveys, Community Plus, and we are seeing really good traction with those products. And so those have continued to increase as long as -- as well as the core products, things like recruiting and benefits and time. And so those are probably a bigger driver if you looked at last year's performance just because they've been around longer, they're bigger, they're more established. But we're really excited about the releases that we've had when you combine the Airbase acquisition and the entrance into finance and IT, combined with the product releases that we announced now, this has been as robust a new launch product road map that we've had in many, many years. And I think the other part that's exciting is we think the monetization opportunity for these, just from a PPM perspective, is relatively high. And so when you combine that with all the execution that we've had on top of it, I think that's what's produced the results.

That's great. And then can you talk about 2 other things. One, just what the retention rate was? And then in terms of looking at your guidance in terms of the margins, particularly taking into account the change in the amortization schedule, we've always noted that you're conservative with regards to your guidance, but it doesn't seem like it implies much margin expansion. And so I'm wondering how should we think about margins? I know you're introducing all sorts of new products. Those probably don't have the same margin level as your established products. So I don't know if you were assuming or just being conservative with regards to what the contribution would be from those? Or how we should think about margin expansion for this year and then going on beyond this year, while acknowledging that you've always been really conservative as well.

Yes, Mark, I can take both of those. I think first on the retention, it continues to be at 92% plus. So really happy with the operations team's performance in fiscal '26. Relative to guidance, I think probably the context would be if you think about the leverage we drove on operating EBITDA in fiscal '26, 120 basis points of leverage. As a reminder, we started fiscal '26 from a guidance standpoint at 20 basis points. So as you saw the strong top line overperformance throughout the year, that fell to the bottom line, and we were able to increase margin every single quarter last year. When you think about the last 2 years, we've driven about 350 basis points of organic operating EBITDA margin. And we continue to believe that on a go-forward basis over multiple years, we will see continued margin expansion. Specific to '27, I think we're in a period where we're absolutely investing in AI, specifically with Ignite AI, which both Steve and Toby talked about in their prepared remarks, seeing really nice momentum there, a number of new product releases between Paylocity Retirement, Elevate Solutions, and 2 new acquisitions with Grayscale and Aidora, both of which I think we're really excited about and are seeing nice momentum in. Both of those acquisitions are subscale from a margin standpoint and represent a slight headwind in '27 as well. So as you combine each of those elements, I think we're starting '27 pretty similar to where we are -- we started '26 when you take into account each of those and the ASC 606 change. And again, I think similar to what we saw in '26, if we see continued momentum across the business, I think the expectation would be top line overperformance would fall to increased margin as we go throughout the year.

I think the only point I would add, Mark, is we don't feel that these new products are going to be margin dilutive over time. We feel like the products are going to drive great value to the clients, and we're going to be able to drive great value -- great margin out of them. So I would not consider that as a headwind.

Our next question comes from the line of Samad Samana with Jefferies.

This is Jordan on for Samad. Great to see the strong recurring growth. It seems like strength was largely attributable to execution. But based on the data that we've been seeing, it seems like employment growth stabilized a bit during the quarter. I'm curious, what did you see within your own base as we think about the initial fiscal '27 guidance? What are the employment assumptions baked within that outlook?

Yes, Jordan. So we continue to see very, very stable macro. So consistent with what our commentary was for the first 9 months of fiscal '26. We saw client workforce levels up in Q4, and that continues to be up year-over-year nicely. Consistent with the guidance philosophy, we're assuming flat workforce levels in '27, which would be a slight degradation from what we've seen recently.

Awesome. And then maybe a quick follow-up on the purpose-built agents automating and paying other administrative tasks within the Ignite platform, it seems like you can meaningfully reduce man hours for your clients. You've spoken to that. You've also spoken monetization. I'm curious, how are you thinking about the mechanism there? Could that be broader price increases? Or is that more so going to be maybe consumption-based pricing for those who are leveraging those agents more than others?

I think we're open to where the market goes from a pricing perspective. We're really focused on delivering value to the clients. And when we deliver enough value to the clients, we look to be able to monetize that value. And so with Grayscale and Aidora, those are great examples where we're going to take AI native products and monetize those. With our Ignite agents, they're going to make existing processes for our clients much more efficient. It's going to create differentiation in the marketplace and allow us to win more business. And if we see opportunities where we can package something up and we offered enough value to the clients, then we'll monetize it. So it's really kind of a two-pronged approach.

Our next question comes from the line of Siti Panigrahi with Mizuho.

Congrats on a good quarter. Just to extend Jordan's last question in terms of monetization. So you have done a few acquisitions as well as launch new products, add-on modules. So when you look at the opportunity for fiscal '27 in terms of monetization, how do you rank order all these add-on products based on your discussion with your customers?

Well, we're excited about all the products, I would say. We've got Elevate and Retirement in market right now, and we've got really good momentum behind those. So we're pretty excited about those. As you know, when we do an acquisition, it does take some time to really integrate that platform, their capabilities into our platform. We'll have Grayscale launch next, and we're actively working on Aidora. So I would probably put it kind of in that order of where we've launched them. Ignite is coming out with our clients this month, and so we're excited about that as well. But I think it's really the platform story as a whole that we really continue to strengthen, and that's what's really creating the differentiation and the momentum in the business.

Okay. And then another question, Ryan. I mean in terms of buyback, it was a strong year. And also, I think you still have $1.3 billion authorization probably left. How are you planning to balance in terms of capital allocation, in terms of buyback versus keeping some dry powder for future M&A?

Yes. I think consistent with my answer a few minutes ago, I think we can absolutely do both, and we've got the ability and the flexibility with the balance sheet and strong cash flows to be able to continue to repurchase stock. I would expect to continue to drive down diluted shares outstanding while also certainly being open from an acquisition standpoint. So I think the expectation consistent with what you saw us do in '26 is we've got the ability to do both in '27.

Our next question comes from the line of Jared Levine with TD Cowen.

I wanted to dig into Airbase cross-sell progress 1 year in. I guess, how would you characterize this first year in and the 10% to 20% penetration within 3 to 5 years. Is that still a reasonable target based on what you saw this first year?

Yes, I think it is. I mean, I go back to when we did the acquisition, that was certainly how we described, and that's also consistent with how we would have described what the targets would be for any new product that we launch, whether it's built or acquired. And I think that's how we talked about it at the time of the acquisition. I think as we sit a little over a year in, yes, I think we're very pleased with the process, progress that we've made and still believe that, that's the path that we're on from -- ultimately from a penetration standpoint. So I think we're really pleased with the progress that the team has made.

Got it. And then Ryan, I want to dig into free cash flow here. So you did have a pretty notable uptick in PP&E purchases in 4Q here. What's the outlook here as we think to '27 in terms of CapEx? And I guess, more broadly, free cash flow, just being mindful you don't formally guide to free cash flow, but just any puts and takes would be helpful here.

Yes. I mean, I think the big picture answer is we continue to expect to drive free cash flow margin forward on a multi-year basis. And we increased our targets in the early part of fiscal '26 and absolutely continue to believe those are the right multi-year targets. As I mentioned on the prepared remarks, we did have a one-time benefit in fiscal '26, which was a big part of the year-over-year increase we saw in addition to natural scale in the business. And I think the Q4 PP&E purchases are really timing. We were able to opportunistically pull forward some of the spend that would have likely occurred in the first half of '27 into '26. I think what that looks like in '27 is PP&E is probably in the 1% to 1.5% of revenue range versus about 2% this year. So I would expect to get some leverage there. And then, again, a little bit of lumpiness relative to free cash flow. I would expect that to increase on a dollar basis in '27, might see a little bit of a headwind in margin specifically just given the challenge around grow over.

Our next question comes from the line of Daniel Jester with BMO Capital Markets.

Maybe just in terms of the product and sales enablement, you mentioned multiple times in the call sort of the amount of products relatively new that you're going to be giving to your sales force this year. So can we spend a moment about sort of how you're enabling your sales team to go out with this? And maybe in terms of engaging with customers, there's a lot obviously here. There's a lot of change happening in the world with regards to AI. How are you helping sort of customers get over the finish line?

Yes. Thanks, Dan. I mean I think, as you know, we've had a fairly robust history of launching products into the market, launching products to our sales teams, and preparing those teams from both a new logo acquisition to drive attach and then also back into our client base, driving penetration. And I think we've taken a similar approach with each of the launches that we've had over the last 9 months or so with the Elevate Solutions, with Aidora and Grayscale that we're working on now and everything that we've done from an Ignite standpoint and also Retirement. So we've had a long string over the last 9 months of things that we've launched, and we've taken the same methodical approach in terms of working through the training and the preparation with -- from our product teams to our sales and go-to-market teams and our service teams as well. And so I think we've run the same playbook as we've gone through each and every one of those launches over the last 9 months as we have historically in the business. And I think the early indications are that we've seen really nice traction with each one of those products or offerings that we've launched. And so I think sitting here today, we feel really good about the momentum that we have, the team's ability to consume all of that material and be effective in the market with our clients. And so I think sitting here coming into '27, yes, we -- I think we're really happy with the momentum that we've had in all of those launches. I think we're also really happy with the traction that we've seen early days still, but the traction that we've seen with the sales teams and with our clients.

That's great. And then, Ryan, maybe for you on -- as you're ramping all of these AI products, can you just help us think about sort of your cost structure and any implications for gross margins as we're considering our models for next year?

Sure. Yes. I mean I think on gross margins, there will be a little bit of a benefit from the useful life change that we noted. That's probably of the 120 to 140 basis points, about 60% of that will be seen in sales and marketing and about 40% will be seen in gross margin. Beyond that, I think we continue to have confidence in our ability to scale. We are certainly leveraging AI and broader automation efforts across our operations teams, and we are seeing some really positive signs, both from a margin standpoint as well as from a client and employee satisfaction perspective as well. And we would expect to be able to continue to leverage those throughout '27.

Our next question comes from the line of Terry Tillman with Truist.

Giancarlo on here for Terry. Congrats on the quarter. Just on the product road map, you mentioned a lot of progress moving forward. How do you actually train the sales force for new products? And how do they pitch the customers?

Well, we've got a number of different teams focused on either different market segments or different parts of our product portfolio as well as we've got teams focused on sales back to the client base. So it's really a matter of fitting that product into the right organization, training them on the value proposition, and then really supporting them. We've got a strong solution consultant team that are kind of product experts that work with them behind the scenes, so they don't have to know all the intricacies of the product. That allows them to ramp much faster. And then just the content marketing and training teams to be able to launch that. I think as Toby said, we really have a strong playbook on doing this. We've been doing this for a lot of years, and we've had great success with doing that. And so we are really happy to have to run that playbook many times going into FY '27 and the sales force is super excited.

Our next question comes from the line of Ian Black with Needham & Company.

This is Ian Black on for Scott Berg. Brokers are obviously a key source of lead generation. Does the new Retirement offering enhance that sales channel?

Yes. I mean I think from an overall channel standpoint, I think we were really pleased with the performance that we saw, again, throughout not just Q4, but throughout fiscal '26. And I think part of that is benefit brokers and then part of that is financial advisers. And I think we've seen great receptivity from a financial adviser standpoint with the retirement offering. I think that fits well with how we've crafted the relationship with them. So overall, I think, channel performance was really strong throughout the course of '26. We continue to see momentum with both the financial advisers and brokers. And I think the Retirement solution is certainly a part of that.

Our next question comes from the line of Jason Celino with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

I just wanted to ask about the Q4 recurring performance. From a prior question, it sounds like it was more booking strength related. But what was the inorganic contribution? Because I think it was the first quarter that included Grayscale. Would recurring growth still have accelerated even when stripping out any M&A contribution?

Yes, it would have still accelerated. The impact of Grayscale was negligible in the quarter. We would have still accelerated even without Grayscale.

Okay. Perfect. And then maybe it was kind of glazed over another question, but can you speak to maybe the change in the useful life assumptions? Curious kind of what led to the process there? And then it would obviously be incremental to your 40% to 45% longer-term margin ambitions. I just wanted to ask that.

Yes. So I think for context on the useful life and deferred contract costs, ASC 606 was implemented for us in 2019. So we've had a 7-year convention for several years at this point. I think in the normal course of the business, annually, the team assesses both qualitative and quantitative factors to confirm that the 7-year life was accurate. And business, obviously, is much larger than it was in 2019. And I think we continue to see both very strong client retention. We see increasing client relationship life. We see increasing average clients -- average employees per client. So we go through that qualitative and quantitative assessment each year, and the facts were such that we're moving from 7 years to 8 years beginning in fiscal '27.

Our next question comes from the line of Raimo Lenschow with Barclays.

This is Shel McMeans on for Raimo. I have a 2-parter here on macro, and that's all. So it was nice to see the healthy 7% client growth for the year. And I'd love to hear how that growth trended throughout the year and just given the mixed macro backdrop, in particular, how did that look in the most recent June quarter? And I appreciate there's some seasonality there. So maybe comparing that to the prior Q4 quarter. And then related to that, if there's been any kind of changes in your conversations or any impact whatsoever regarding the situation in the Middle East or any other dynamics out there?

Yes. I think if you look at the overall client growth or unit growth over the course of the last 2 fiscal years, it's been fairly consistent year-to-year around that 7% level. And so I think for the last 24 months, you've seen relative consistency on a year-to-year basis in the unit growth. And then when you look at that quarter-to-quarter, I don't -- I think it was pretty fairly smooth through the course of fiscal '26 as it was relatively in fiscal '25, apart from, as you said, the seasonality that you see in the business, which again is primarily in Q3, having a larger onboarding of clients, which is in January. So I think if you look at the last 2 years, you see relative consistency both in the total unit growth and in the quarter-to-quarter spread of those units, both within the year and on a year-to-year basis. So there's nothing that stands out to me in terms of anything in any of the quarters, certainly in '26 that I would point to.

Our next question comes from the line of George Kurosawa with Citi.

Okay. Great. I'm on for Steve Enders. I wanted to touch on the FY '27 guidance. You all have had a pretty consistent philosophy in setting yourselves up for a beat and raise cadence, which obviously delivered on in '26. Just when you think about the elements of conservatism or potential upside that are embedded into FY '27, it sounds like employment levels might be one of those. Any other areas that you would point out when you're putting the guide together?

Yes. I think the guidance philosophy that we've employed certainly in fiscal '26 and prior to that is exactly how we approach '27. So we feel like, obviously, the momentum across the business is strong from a product go-to-market and operational perspective. You saw the strong performance throughout fiscal '26 and the slight acceleration in revenue growth. So we feel like we're really well set up for a strong fiscal '27. And our hope and expectation would be if we continue to see that strong performance, we would be able to exceed our guidance and raise the guidance, both from a revenue and margin standpoint as we go throughout the year.

Okay. That's helpful. And then on AI, the AI products that you're rolling out, I think our sense is that primary approach to-date have been more indirect monetization of AI. It sounds like you are leaning more into some separately monetized SKUs. Maybe you could just talk about kind of what's driving that change in approach? And if there's anything different about maybe the commercialization approach, how you're thinking about pricing those products?

Yes, sure. I think when you apply AI to very specific use cases, you have an opportunity to drive efficiencies greater than you would have without AI. And so I think just look at our most recent acquisition with Aidora, lead management is a very complicated process. It's one where you have to really interact with employees and managers. They have a ton of back and forth questions. It's just a very -- traditionally, a fairly manual process. AI really allows you to build an AI-native first chatbot that can really automate so much of this interaction, have so much intelligence back and forth that you're taking a manual process and you're really driving a lot of value back to the customer, you're creating a much better employee experience. And when you do that, you have an opportunity to be able to monetize that. And, yes, we're going to keep our options open from a monetization perspective. We have per user pricing, we have PPM pricing, and we're certainly open if we have to consider utilization-based pricing. It's really about trying to drive the right value equation back to the customer so that they win from a productivity perspective, and we can obviously get paid for the value we're delivering.

Our next question comes from the line of Allan Verkhovski with U.S. Bancorp BTIG.

Congrats on the strong finish to the year. Maybe first, just on future M&A. How are you prioritizing opportunities across your HR, finance, and IT verticals? And then I've got a quick follow-up.

Yes. I think if you look back over the course of our history, we've prioritized the areas that have the most strategic value where we think we're meeting the biggest client needs. And I think we've done -- we've certainly done deals in -- across the platform, whether that's in HCM or in the finance area. We certainly had partnerships along the way, too, that have helped add from a product capability standpoint. I think the approach is the same as we look through '27. I think we see areas of opportunity across each part of the platform and I think we've always taken a fairly balanced approach of building and adding to the portfolio where we could from an acquisition standpoint, where we thought we had an opportunity to buy something in the market that would accelerate the product road map and that we would stand a good chance of integrating really tightly into the platform. And I think that's the exact same lens that we're bringing forward into '27.

Got it. And then just double-clicking on an earlier question regarding gross margins. Given your comments about confidence in your ability to scale as you continue investing in AI capabilities across the platform, can you go a touch deeper in what gives you conviction that gross margins can improve from roughly 75% today to the 80% plus target you outlined at $3 billion in revenue?

Yes. I mean I think we obviously, one, have a long history of expanding gross margins on an annual basis, and we did that again in fiscal '26. And I think we've got the ability across a number of factors. One is natural scale as the business gets larger, as we continue to drive automation and leverage AI across those teams, we are seeing those benefits today, and I think we're still in the very early stages. So when you combine natural scale pricing power, I think, with some of the third-party vendors as well and then you layer on the AI and automation, I think that gives us the confidence that on a multi-year basis, the 80% plus increased gross margin target we have is the right one.

Our next question comes from the line of Jacob Smith with Guggenheim Securities.

On Elevate Solutions, when we look around across the SMB market, more and more vendors are going after the service layer, and it feels like that's where the industry is broadly headed. With that backdrop, given Elevate sits in direct adjacency to your core payroll and HCM motion, could the adoption curve and pace of revenue be faster than what we've seen with Paylocity for finance and IT? And any update you could give on the rollout of Elevate so far this quarter, that would be helpful.

Yes. So I think we're very happy with the early results from receptivity of Elevate in the marketplace. I think you did hit on one of the key points and why we launched those, which is Elevate Solutions, historically, solutions like that would be very, very service-intensive. And we really see an opportunity with both the strength of our platform and how broad our platform has become and the addition of many of the AI capabilities that we're adding to the platform that we can deliver, still with a service touch, which is certainly important to our customers and a relationship, but we can do that much more efficiently. And so that's what gave us confidence to be able to kind of launch that product, and we're seeing great receptivity in the marketplace. Too early to tell where that's going to go from a long-term perspective, but it will definitely be a contributor into fiscal '27. And maybe more importantly, we see that as a long-term growth driver as we think about on a multi-year basis.

Great. And just a quick follow-up there. How are you thinking about the delivery build-out to service this managed services business at scale? Is that something that would be an investment area heading into FY '27?

All the new products require some level of investment when you first launch them. And then as you gain scale on those products, we're confident that we can get them to our gross margins and many of them, frankly, are incremental gross margins, and that's been a driver for us as we've launched new products. And so we feel good that we've got the right pacing for that. Some of that is investment in the product and tech. Some of that's in the teams that support it. Obviously, some of that's in the sales force. But we've had a long history of being able to launch a number of products, while at the same time, always marching forward from an overall margin and a gross margin perspective. And we don't see any reason why we can't continue to do that with the grouping of products that we have announced for this fiscal year.

Our next question comes from the line of Craig Maurer with CT Partners.

This is [ Isabel ] on for Craig. I just wanted to get clarification on the accounting change and just how we get to the 120 to 140 bps. Can you clarify the timing of when this benefit will come? Is there a one-time true-up of all existing contracts that gets us to this magnitude? Or is this the level of ongoing benefit that we should expect going forward even beyond '27?

It's the latter. So there's a one-time true-up in the sense that '27 versus '26 will be benefited by 120 to 140 basis points, but it does not hit in Q1 specifically. Think of that as ratable over the course of '27. And just to clarify that, is 120 to 140 basis points additive to adjusted EBITDA, which is included in the margins -- sorry, in the guidance we provided today.

I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to management for closing remarks.

Thank you. I just want to say thanks, everybody, for your interest in Paylocity, and thanks to all of our people and teams for a great fiscal '26. Thanks for your interest. Have a good night.

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.