John Gibson: Yes. Peter, again, I’ll go back. What we see is on business applications, business starts, again, they’re back to pre-pandemic levels. So I was always trying to explain to people that when you look — when I look at it because we’re doing our budget points, I’m looking back almost five fiscal years now and fiscal year ’19 stands out because then you see all this entity going on in the other fiscal years. Business starts are down from where they were historically. And that’s why when I even look at some of our retention in the small end, that doesn’t surprise me because even in good times or bad times, a small business that starts two years later, most of them aren’t in business. So when I look at it, there’s a good new business starts.
When I looked at our sales from the third quarter, they were strong across the board, not just in ERTC but across the board. And so I really — again, I’ll go back. I’m not seeing anything on a macro level that would indicate to me that there are macro issues or there are demand issues relative to the products and services that we’re offering.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Mark Marcon with Baird.
Mark Marcon: A couple of questions. One is basically in terms of the margin guide or the preliminary thoughts with regards to margins for next year. To what extent would you expect to see any sort of improvement in terms of the margins ex the impact of float income? And how are you thinking about that?
Efrain Rivera: Yes, it’s a good question. Mark, I don’t think float will play as big an impact on margin expansion as it did this year. I will hold the answer to that question. And so I’ve gone through the budget process because it will depend on where I end up in terms of float income for next year. We anticipate that it will grow so that will have a modest impact on the — it will exert a positive impact on margin next year. But remember, Mark, one other thing is that we called out ERTC as moderating, that’s going to exert a countervailing force. So when I pull those two together, I’ll figure it out and answer on Q4. But I don’t think — I think there will be at the end of the day, likely real improvement in operating margin when all is said and done.
Mark Marcon: Do you think there will or will not be?
Efrain Rivera: Will, that’s my expectation. But I haven’t done.
Mark Marcon: But ex quote, we should see some margin improvement. And then — and then with regards to — I know you’re in the budget process now, but are you anticipating an increase in terms of the sales force and in terms of the overall headcount within the business? Or are the technological innovations that you’re making sufficient to basically continue to drive the business with the same headcount?
Efrain Rivera: Yes. Good question. I’ll answer it in two ways and then let John give his commentary because I’m sure he will be scrutinizing every headcount in the sales budget. But the short answer is that we’re where it makes sense to add headcount to drive greater sales, we are likely to do that, and I’ll let John talk to that. But I think you rightly identify something that has been the feature of the Company, which is increasingly if you look at not only in the U.S. but also in Europe, where we also have a growing business, a lot of our sales are done digitally and do not require at least at a minimum the level of sales involvement that our field sales force provides. So you’re going to have a mix. And I don’t think that we know quite yet whether there are adds, but I would be careful I know our competitors tout their headcount adds as a precursor or a driver of growth that is not necessarily where we are at.
