Paycom Software, Inc. (PAYC)

Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

This Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations is intended to provide a reader of our financial statements with management’s perspective on our financial condition, results of operations, liquidity, and certain other factors that may affect our future results. The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with (i) the accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto for the three and six months ended June 30, 2026, (ii) the audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto for the year ended December 31, 2025 included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K (the “Form 10-K”) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on February 19, 2026 and (iii) the discussion under the caption “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in the Form 10-K. Except for certain information as of December 31, 2025, all amounts herein are unaudited. Unless we state otherwise or the context otherwise requires, the terms “we,” “us,” “our” and the “Company” refer to Paycom Software, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries. All amounts presented in tables, other than per share amounts, are in millions unless otherwise noted.

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

The following discussion contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are any statements that refer to our estimated or anticipated results, other non-historical facts or future events and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our business strategy; anticipated future operating results and operating expenses, cash flows, capital resources, dividends and liquidity; competition; trends, opportunities and risks affecting our business, industry and financial results, including macroeconomic factors; future expansion or growth plans and potential for future growth, including internationally; our ability to attract new clients to purchase our solution; our ability to retain clients and induce them to purchase additional applications; our ability to accurately forecast future revenues and appropriately plan our expenses; market acceptance of our solution and applications; our expectations regarding future revenues generated by certain applications; the return on investment for users of our solution, as well as how certain applications may impact client employee usage and client satisfaction; our ability to attract and retain qualified employees and key personnel; future regulatory, judicial and legislative changes; how the performance of certain of our offerings is sensitive to changes in the labor market; our plan to expand our sales capacity and our ability to effectively execute such plan; the sufficiency of our existing cash and cash equivalents to meet our working capital and capital expenditure needs over the next 12 months; our plans regarding our capital expenditures and investment activity as our business grows, including with respect to research and development and the expansion of our facilities; our plans to pay cash dividends; and our plans to repurchase shares of our common stock through a stock repurchase plan using cash and/or borrowings under our senior secured revolving credit facility (the “Revolving Credit Facility”). In addition, forward-looking statements also consist of statements involving trend analyses and statements including such words as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “potential,” “should,” “will,” “would,” and similar expressions or the negative of such terms or other comparable terminology.

Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance, and are based only on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include, among others, the following:

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the possibility of security vulnerabilities, cyber-attacks and network disruptions, including breaches of data security and privacy incidents, data loss, and business interruptions;

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changes in laws, government regulations and policies and interpretations thereof;

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our compliance with data privacy laws and regulations;

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our ability to develop enhancements and new applications and to keep pace with emerging technologies;

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our ability to compete effectively in an evolving human capital management (“HCM”) industry;

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our ability to maintain and expand existing client relationships and add new clients, including challenges related to attracting and retaining larger clients;

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the possibility that our solution fails to perform properly or our clients are not satisfied with our services;

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our dependence on our key executives;

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our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel;

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our ability to manage our growth and organizational change effectively;

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our ability to manage risks associated with our automation strategy;

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the impact of adverse economic and market conditions, including those related to fluctuations in interest rates, trade policies, labor trends, global health crises and geopolitical conflicts;

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fluctuations in our financial results due to factors beyond our control;

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our failure to develop and maintain our brand cost-effectively;

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our ability to expand into international markets and manage risks associated with international operations and sales;

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our reliance on relationships with third parties;

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regulatory and compliance risks related to our background checks business;

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our failure to adequately protect our intellectual property rights;

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seasonality of certain operating results and financial metrics; and

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the other factors set forth in Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors” of the Form 10-K and our other reports filed with the SEC.

Forward-looking statements are based only on information currently available to us and speak only as of the date of this Form 10-Q. We do not undertake any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which such statements were made, except to the extent required by law.

Overview

We are a leading provider of a comprehensive, cloud-based HCM solution delivered as Software-as-a-Service. We provide functionality and data analytics that businesses need to manage the complete employment lifecycle, from recruitment to retirement. Our solution requires virtually no customization and is based on a core system of record maintained in a single database for all HCM functions, including payroll, talent acquisition, talent management, human resources management and time and labor management applications. Our user-friendly software allows for easy adoption of our solution by employees, enabling self-management of their HCM activities in the cloud, which reduces the administrative burden on employers and increases employee productivity.

Substantially all of our revenues are generated from (i) fixed amounts charged per billing period plus a fee per employee or transaction processed and (ii) fixed amounts charged per billing period. Our billing period varies by client and is typically based on when each client pays its employees, which may be weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly or monthly. Over time, an increasing number of clients will be billed on a monthly basis for certain HCM applications and services, regardless of the client’s payroll cycle. We serve a diverse client base in terms of size and industry. Our revenues are primarily generated through our sales force that solicits new clients and our client relations representatives who sell additional applications to existing clients.

Our principal marketing efforts include national and local advertising campaigns, email campaigns, social and digital media campaigns, search engine marketing methods, sponsorships, tradeshows, print advertising and outbound marketing including personalized direct mail campaigns. In addition, we generate leads and build recognition of our brand and thought leadership with relevant and informative content, such as white papers, blogs, podcast episodes and webinars.

Throughout our history, we have built strong relationships with our clients. As the HCM needs of our clients evolve, we believe that we are well-positioned to expand the HCM spending of our clients, and we believe this opportunity is significant. To be successful, we must continue to demonstrate the operational and economic benefits of our solution, as well as effectively hire, train, motivate and retain qualified personnel.

Growth Outlook, Opportunities and Challenges

Our payroll application is the foundation of our solution, and all of our clients are required to utilize this application in order to access our other applications. Consequently, we have historically generated the majority of our revenues from our payroll applications, although our revenue mix has evolved and will continue to evolve as we develop and add new non-payroll applications to our solution.

We believe our strategy of focusing on incorporating AI and automation across our full solution is an important differentiator for attracting new clients and key to long-term client satisfaction and client retention. Our software vision is that people should not perform payroll-related and HCM-related tasks that systems can automate. We have designed our software so users do not have to be system experts or even need training to access information. For example, our industry-first command-driven AI engine, IWant™, provides an easy, automated avenue for seeking information about employee data without having to navigate through the software.

Our continued growth depends on attracting new clients by continuing to leverage our sales force productivity, penetrating existing markets and expanding into new markets, targeting a high degree of client employee usage across our solution, and introducing new applications to our existing client base. Client adoption of new applications and, historically, client employee usage of both new and existing applications have been significant factors in our recurring revenue growth. We

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believe our ability to continue to develop new applications and to improve existing applications will enable us to increase recurring revenues in the future. In addition, we plan to expand our sales capacity in the future to grow our market presence.

The market for HCM software is highly competitive, rapidly evolving and fragmented. We expect competition to remain intense as new market entrants and disruptive technologies emerge and aggressive pricing and client retention strategies persist. These market pressures can directly affect our recurring revenue growth and our ability to attract and retain clients. We believe our long-term focused investments in automation, client ROI achievement, and world-class service can strengthen our recurring revenue growth and annual revenue retention rate.

Our target client size is organizations with 50 to 10,000 or more employees. While we continue to serve a diversified client base ranging from small businesses to organizations with many thousands of e

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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

This Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations is intended to provide a reader of our financial statements with management’s perspective on our financial condition, results of operations, liquidity, and certain other factors that may affect our future results. The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements (prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“U.S. GAAP”)) and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Form 10-K”). The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. See “Cautionary Statements” for a discussion of the uncertainties, risks, and assumptions associated with those statements. Actual results could differ materially from those discussed in or implied by forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those discussed below and elsewhere in this Form 10-K, particularly in the section entitled “Risk Factors.” Unless we state otherwise or the context otherwise requires, the terms “we,” “us,” “our” and the “Company” refer to Paycom Software, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries. All amounts presented in tables, other than per share amounts, are in millions unless otherwise noted.

Overview

We are a leading provider of a comprehensive, cloud-based human capital management solution delivered as Software-as-a-Service. We provide functionality and data analytics that businesses need to manage the complete employment lifecycle, from recruitment to retirement. Our solution requires virtually no customization and is based on a core system of record maintained in a single database for all human capital management (“HCM”) functions, including payroll, talent acquisition, talent management, human resources (“HR”) management and time and labor management applications. Our user-friendly software allows for easy adoption of our solution by employees, enabling self-management of their HCM activities in the cloud, which reduces the administrative burden on employers and increases employee productivity.

Substantially all of our revenues are generated from (i) fixed amounts charged per billing period plus a fee per employee or transaction processed and (ii) fixed amounts charged per billing period. Our billing period varies by client and is typically based on when each client pays its employees, which may be weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly or monthly. Over time, an increasing number of clients will be billed on a monthly basis for certain HCM applications and services, regardless of the client’s payroll cycle. We serve a diverse client base in terms of size and industry. Our revenues are primarily generated through our sales force that solicits new clients and our client relations representatives (“CRRs”) who sell additional applications to existing clients.

Our principal marketing efforts include national and local advertising campaigns, email campaigns, social and digital media campaigns, search engine marketing methods, sponsorships, tradeshows, print advertising and outbound marketing including personalized direct mail campaigns. In addition, we generate leads and build recognition of our brand and thought leadership with relevant and informative content, such as white papers, blogs, podcast episodes and webinars.

Throughout our history, we have built strong relationships with our clients. As the HCM needs of our clients evolve, we believe that we are well-positioned to expand the HCM spending of our clients, and we believe this opportunity is significant. To be successful, we must continue to demonstrate the operational and economic benefits of our solution, as well as effectively hire, train, motivate and retain qualified personnel.

Growth Outlook, Opportunities and Challenges

As a result of our significant revenue growth and geographic expansion, we are presented with a variety of opportunities and challenges. Our payroll application is the foundation of our solution, and all of our clients are required to utilize this application in order to access our other applications. Consequently, we have historically generated the majority of our revenues from our payroll applications, although our revenue mix has evolved and will continue to evolve as we develop and add new non-payroll applications to our solution.

We believe our strategy of focusing on incorporating artificial intelligence (“AI”) and automation across our full solution is an important differentiator for attracting new clients and key to long-term client satisfaction and client retention. Our software vision is that people should not perform payroll-related and HCM-related tasks that systems can automate. We have designed our software so users do not have to be system experts or even need training to access information. For example, our industry-first command-driven AI engine, IWant, provides an easy, automated avenue for seeking information about employee data without having to navigate through the software.

Our continued growth depends on attracting new clients by continuing to leverage our sales force productivity, penetrating existing markets and expanding into new markets, targeting a high degree of client employee usage across our solution, and introducing new applications to our existing client base. Client adoption of new applications and, historically, client employee usage of both new and existing applications have been significant factors in our recurring revenue growth. We believe our ability to continue to develop new applications and to improve existing applications will enable us to increase recurring revenues in the future. In addition, we plan to open additional sales offices in the future to further expand our market presence.

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The market for HCM software is highly competitive, rapidly evolving and fragmented. We expect competition to remain intense as new market entrants and disruptive technologies emerge and aggressive pricing and client retention strategies persist. These market pressures can directly affect our recurring revenue growth and our ability to attract and retain clients. We believe our long-term focused investments in automation, client ROI achievement, and world-class service can strengthen our recurring revenue growth and annual revenue retention rate.

Our target client size is organizations with 50 to 10,000 or more employees. While we continue to serve a diversified client base ranging from small businesses to organizations with many thousands of employees, the average size of our clients has grown significantly as we have organically grown our operations and increased the number of applications we offer. We believe larger employers, such as organizations with greater than 1,000 employees, represent a substantial opportunity to increase our revenues per client, with limited incremental cost to us. With the launch of our Global HCM solution and expansion of payroll services into certain international markets, we expect that our ability to serve organizations with international employees makes our solution more attractive to larger companies, many of which have a global presence. Because we charge our clients on a per employee basis for certain services we provide, any increase or decrease in the number of employees of our clients will have a positive or negative impact, respectively, on our results of operations. As a result, the performance of certain of our offerings is sensitive to changes in the labor market. In addition, a multitude of macroeconomic pressures, such as inflation and changes in interest rates, impact our clients’ hiring practices to varying degrees and, in turn, impact our revenues.

We believe the challenges of managing the ever-changing complexity of payroll and HR will continue to drive companies to turn to outsourced providers for help with their HCM needs. The HCM industry historically has been driven, in part, by legislation and regulatory action, including COBRA, changes to the minimum wage laws or overtime rules, and legislation from federal, state or municipal taxation authorities.

Growing our business has resulted in, and will continue to result in, substantial investments in sales professionals, operating expenses, system development and programming costs (including those related our full solution automation and AI initiatives) and general and administrative expenses, which have increased and will continue to increase our expenses. Historically, our revenue growth and geographic expansion have driven increases in (i) facility costs related to data centers, the expansion of our corporate headquarters, operations facilities and additional sales office leases and (ii) salaries and benefits and stock-based compensation expense. Automating our core business systems is creating new efficiencies that have led to reductions in headcount and, as a result, contributed to a decrease in certain employee-related expenses during the year ended December 31, 2025. Due to lower headcount, we expect that certain employee-related expenses will be lower in 2026 as compared to 2025.

Key Metrics

In addition to the U.S. GAAP and non-GAAP metrics discussed elsewhere in this Form 10-K, we also monitor the following metrics to evaluate our business, measure our performance and identify trends affecting our business:

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Clients. When we calculate the number of clients at period end, we treat client accounts with separate taxpayer identification numbers (or, in certain circumstances, separate client codes) as separate clients, which often separates client accounts that are affiliated with the same parent organization. We track the number of our clients to provide an accurate gauge of the size of our business. Unless we state otherwise or the context otherwise requires, references to clients throughout this Form 10-K refer to this metric.

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Clients (based on parent company grouping). When we calculate the number of clients based on parent company grouping at period end, we combine client accounts that have identified the same person(s) as their decision-maker regardless of whether the client accounts have separate taxpayer identification numbers (or, in certain circumstances, separate client codes), which often combines client accounts that are affiliated with the same parent organization. We track the number of our clients based on parent company grouping to provide an alternate measure of the size of our business and clients.

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Sales Teams. We monitor our sales professionals by the number of sales teams at period end. For the purposes of this metric, CRRs and emerging markets representatives are considered one sales team. Each outside sales team typically consists of a sales manager and approximately seven other sales professionals. Certain larger metropolitan areas can

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support more than one outside sales team. We believe the number of sales teams is an indicator of potential revenues for future periods.

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Annual Revenue Retention Rate. Our annual revenue retention rate tracks the percentage of revenues that we retain from our existing clients. We monitor this metric because it is an indicator of client satisfaction and revenues for future periods.

We calculate annual revenue retention rate for

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