Chad Richison: I mean, we’ve seen — the headcount for customer has been very stable. And so, as we’re looking at 2024 guidance, we’re expecting the same, very stable, as it relates to headcount per customer.
Operator: Our next question comes today from Steve Enders of Citi. Please proceed.
Steve Enders: Okay. Great. Thanks for taking the question. And maybe for Chad, just when we get a better sense for, I guess why now is the right time to shift to a Co-CEO structure and why is the time for you to be focusing more on the product and strategic side of the business today?
Chad Richison: Yeah, well. I mean, it’s been 25 years and I have the right person to do it with, this wasn’t — I mean, this is something that we’ve been going through. As Chris mentioned on his prepared remarks, I mean, Chris has taken a tour through the company and has operated 10 of our significant departments already in the company. And so, it’s something that I’ve been excited about, but I mean, the long and the short is, I mean innovations where I oftentimes supply my greatest gifts and that’s where I’m best at it, and there are new technologies and toys to build with now. It’s an exciting time. I’ve had a lot of fun running special projects that in September of last year, our product department which I’ve mentioned this at the Barclays Conference, began reporting to me again.
So I’ve really enjoyed working with them. I’ve been focused on that as well as our sales strategy. And look, I’m not retiring. I mean I don’t even know what that would look like. I’d like to compete, be part of a team and the long and the short, Chris and I can accomplish more together than I could alone.
Steve Enders: Okay. That’s helpful. And then maybe we can get an update on how the Beti adoption is going, pushing that back into the base and maybe how things have — like, what the expectations are for this year for where they could potentially go?
Chad Richison: Yeah. I mean, I’m not going to say we’re pushing Beti back into the base. I think that to the extent a client sees the value and they’re ready to use Beti within their organization, we’re there to provide that. We are meeting clients where they live in usage right now, and helping them achieve value, regardless, whether they use Beti or not. I will say though, as I continue to say, Beti drives a lot of efficiencies for businesses. It makes a giant impact for both them and their employees. Our go-to-market strategy has been 100% Beti since July of 2021, and in regards to current clients, we’re meeting them where they live and we’re helping them achieve value because our systems are very robust without Beti. And it keeps getting missed but GONE is a very significant product. I mean it automated quite a lot for a business. And so, a lot of our clients are achieving a lot of value through using that product as well right now.
Operator: Our next question today comes from Kevin Veigh with UBS. Please proceed.
Kevin Veigh: Great. Thanks so much. And congratulations on the better-than-expected results. Just wanted to talk about the buyback for a minute. I mean it seems like, maybe the first time it’s been scale. Just any thoughts around that and as we think about the buyback into ’24, again it looks like the average share [repurchase price about $1.78] (ph), just want to start there, so any thoughts on that?
Chad Richison: Yeah, so for the quarter we bought back a little over 2% of the company. And for the full year, I think we bought back 1.5 million shares. So we’ve been active buying back stock of the company. We still have a significant amount left on our buyback program. So we look to be — and we’ve always been very opportunistic as we’re looking to buy shares back.
Kevin Veigh: Then if you think about kind of the Beti adoption across existing clients, and the implementation, has that kind of run its course at this point or is there any way to think about how that flexes over the course of 2024?
Chad Richison: Well, I believe there’ll continue to be clients that see and want to utilize the value of Beti. And so, yes, we will have more clients and as they see the value and choose to come on to Beti to actually achieve that value, we’re going to be there to help them. I will say we’re meeting clients where they live with our product right now. And that’s a good place for us. That’s a good place for clients. We’re meeting them where they live and we’re helping them achieve the value available to them in the software, whether they use Beti or not, it’s a single database system. It’s very easy-to-use and there’s all kinds of areas where our clients are receiving value, especially right now, as we’ve even introduced GONE, that’s giving us more-and-more conversations because everybody wants to automate time-off request. I mean there’s nobody that doesn’t want to automate time-off request. So we’re having a lot of success with that as well right now.
Kevin Veigh: Great. Thank you.
Chad Richison: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from Siti Panigrahi with Mizuho. Please proceed.
Siti Panigrahi: Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to ask about CRR strategy. I know last — last few quarters you talked about how CRR going to focus on cross-selling Beti. But what I understand, it’s normally focused. So what’s the CRR strategy right now? Are they cross-selling any other module? And how should we think about that cannibalization opportunity that earlier you talked about CRR by spending more time pushing Beti, how is that going to change and the impact for 2024?
Chad Richison: Sure, so what I would say is, even as we looked into this year, it wasn’t as much that the CRRs were out-pushing Beti as much as they were out converting the Beti’s that had already, told us they are wanting to go. And that does take some time with the CRRs to do that and that time they spent doing that, making sure we get appropriate usage, prevented them from being able to do certain other task. I mean, I would say that right now, and I’ve been saying this even probably mentioned this on last quarter, we’re not preventing a CRR from going out and selling, there’s just a certain criteria of usage that we look for both before you sell a client a product as well as after you sold a client a product to make sure that the value is being achieved.
So I would just say that there is a little bit different process that they go through now in regards to selling, as you’ve heard me say before, it’s easier to sell a client a product and to get them to actually use it the correct way to achieve value and we’ve been very focused on both of those pieces, both in last year and that will continue into 2024.
Siti Panigrahi: Thanks, Chad. And then last quarter you talked about some of the impact from macro, mainly like pre-employment checks, those kind of services. How has that been trending since then?
Chad Richison: Yeah. I would say, you know, we talked a little bit about it last quarter that it was still positive, but not growing at the rate that we had — had been experiencing in the past. I would say it’s still similar. I mean, the market is tight, you’re not seeing people change jobs as much as what you may have in the past, but it’s still up, it’s just that it’s still a little soft in that area on the pre-employment services.
Siti Panigrahi: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question today comes from Jared Levine with TD Cowen. Please proceed.
Jared Levine: Thank you. In terms of the competitive environment, have you noticed any change in 1Q or 4Q, and if so, is it broad-based or limited to certain competitors?
Chad Richison: No, I mean, it’s always been a very highly competitive environment. I’ve — without naming them, I’ve talked to talked about our competitors. I still think we’re primarily the new company and we celebrated 25 years last year. So all that’s to say, I think we’ve all known each other for a long-time, we’ve all been highly competitive, and that’s always been the case.
Jared Levine: Got it. And then looking at the…
Chad Richison: And that’s a positive thing.
Jared Levine: Yeah. Then looking at the 1Q guidance here, how does the absolute dollar form filings revenue embedded within that, why don’t you guys compare it to the 1Q ’23 form fillings revenue, just in terms of how much of a headwind year-on-year the growth that represents?
Chad Richison: Yeah. I mean the forms filing is somewhat of a headwind in Q1. We’ve seen that for several years ago, really not any new forms after the ACA forms came out, so I mean, it’s kind of been the same type of forms that we typically file. We’ve talked about the number of people that we have on our system and that’s typically — that growth rate typically follows kind of the forms filing growth for the quarter.
Jared Levine: Great. Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from Jason Celino with KeyBanc. Please proceed.
Jason Celino: Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe, Craig, you talked about a wider range, the guidance this year based on different scenarios, where I think you said, interest rates and other strategic initiatives. Maybe can you just talk about what to expect into the low-end versus what you’re baking in at the high-end?
Craig Boelte: I mean, there’s different things that we’re factoring in on the full year guide. This is much wider than what we’ve done in the past. I mean, the main driver is going to be the fed funds rate and what they do with that. You’ve heard anywhere from 3% to 7% decreases in rates. So we wanted to make sure we gave a range that we could fit that in if any of those scenarios happen.
Jason Celino: Okay. Perfect. And then on the customer growth for going-forward, maybe for 2024, internally, what types of initiatives like marketing, targeting, do you plan to implement or do to trying to reaccelerate that? Thanks.
