And as Tony said, we have a really strong start to the season, a good first-half, and now it’s about execution for the balance of the year.
George Tong: Got it. Very helpful, thank you.
Jeff Jones: Thanks, George.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Scott Schneeberger of Oppenheimer & Company. Your question please, Scott.
Scott Schneeberger: Thanks very much. Congratulations, Tony. Guys, I guess jumping off, I’m curious about it was strong revenue in the quarter apparently from the extension season. So, now that that’s completely in the rearview mirror, do you have a quantification of what that impact was, how that would contribute to this year, this fiscal year’s revenue growth relative to expectations or just absolutely? Thanks.
Tony Bowen: Yes. We don’t have a specific number, Scott, and thank you, by the way, for the congratulations. We talked all along about California, obviously being a bit of a potential tailwind going into this fiscal year given what happened last year. We saw some of that come to fruition definitely in October. I think just broadly, volume was kind of strong across the country. We obviously realized some net average charge on top of the volume in assisted. And then, as Jeff said on his opening comments, Emerald Advanced had a really good season. We made a number of changes to that product, and the number of loans that we gave out was materially higher than last year, which obviously we participate in, so, just a number of things on the revenue side.
Also on the expense side, I mean expenses were down despite revenue being up. So, that’s obviously a really good start, but we always like to keep in mind the first two quarters is about 10% of our revenue for the year. So, despite having a good start, we’re still early in the game. We have a lot of business to do. Tax season looks like it’s starting well from our perspective, even though it’s a little bit slower for the industry. So, long way to go, but we feel good about the start of the year.
Scott Schneeberger: Thanks, Tony. Just following on that last line you mentioned, you said starting well for you, but slow for the industry. So, you think, outperforming early or are you starting slow as well? I didn’t tie with something I thought I heard what you say earlier. And then, the follow on to that is, real quick, let me just slide in the second part. Yes, I think Jeff attributed to EITC in that situation. Are you guys — have you done survey work? Are you think that’s why it is — that’s why you think it is or might it just be slow? I’m curious what you’re seeing, hearing from consumers, is there a need for money? I thought there might have been this year and that might have pushed them earlier, although I understand why they would wait under that dynamic. Thanks a lot, but I appreciate you tackling it all together.
Tony Bowen: Let me start with the clarification because I probably wasn’t clear enough. So, I think the overall industry is starting slower, And that would include us, obviously. We’re a big part, especially at the early part of the industry. And that’s not atypical. I mean, I think you see that, Scott, you’ve been around this business for a long time, a lot of times early in the season, especially when you compare on a day-to-day basis, typically shows softer volume. I think CTC is exaggerating that a little bit this year. We know we talked to clients who are waiting, even though they don’t technically need to, to kind of see what eventually gets finalized and then just filing their taxes to that point. That’s all just timing.
I think when we look at the things we can control, our operational execution, our pricing mix, our volume of new clients, prior clients, everything looks good. So, that’s what I mean by starting well for us even though volume is slower than where it will ultimately land. We know that’s just timing. That’s all going to catch up here in the next few weeks. I’ll let Jeff hit the EITC point.
Jeff Jones: Yes. I mean, it’s obviously EITC in CTC clients, there’s going to be some overlap there. So, Tony just commented on that. But again, our focus early season on value prop and refund advanced messaging, that’s strong. We are in the market. We’re communicating that value. And what you may see the most is what you see on television that advertising creative is performing very well with refund advance. But underneath that is a lot of very specific targeted work we’re doing with audiences. And we know that’s an important segment to do better with this year.
Scott Schneeberger: Great. Thanks for all that clarification, guys. AI Tax Assist, I just want to it’s early for you, but I just want your first read, if we could, about that and maybe a part two of this one because I like the part twos and threes, the decision to price free on the paint SKUs. Just kind of what was behind that strategy, not free and free, I get it, but just a little bit more elaboration on that approach. But more importantly on the first question, just what are the early signs that you’re seeing from that rollout?
Tony Bowen: Yes, I mean, I’ll reiterate your point. It is absolutely early, both in absolute terms about Generative AI and certainly for us with AI Tax Assist. I’m very pleased with how quickly we brought this product to market, both in DIY and in our call center operations, two different products. And the team is looking at lots of things every day. I mean, ultimately, what we want to see is what’s the consumer behavior? How often are they using AI Tax Assist versus self-help versus opting for a tax professional to help them? That’s unknown at this point. They have great choices. The user experience is very strong, but we’re watching that kind of simple human behavior. Ultimately, we want to see if this product can help drive higher conversion inside DIY.
