‘Macro Environment’ Impacting Ad ‘Spend Patterns,’ Says Bill.com

Bill.com estimates 400,000 businesses, many of them single-proprietor enterprises, used its electronic payment services in fiscal 2022 ended June 30, a threefold increase year over year, said CEO Rene Lacerte on a fiscal Q4 earnings call Thursday. But toward the end of the fourth quarter, “we started to see signals of the macro environment impacting spend patterns, especially in discretionary categories like advertising,” he said. Bill.com began in June to see its total payment volume growth rates “moderate,” said Chief Financial Officer John Rettig. “This trend continued into July and early August,” he said. “While it appears that the macro environment is influencing business spend, we continue to see very strong customer acquisition, engagement and retention.” The current macro environment “presents numerous near-term uncertainties,” said Rettig. “Our fiscal 2023 outlook anticipates customers will continue to react to the external factors and temper spend throughout the year, similar to the trends we saw emerging in late Q4 and early this quarter.” Bill.com believes “there is a significant greenfield opportunity ahead of us to help millions of businesses manage their cash flows, and transform their financial operations,” said Rettig. Its total addressable market (TAM) includes more than 30 million small businesses in the U.S. and 70 million globally, the majority of which “still use manual paper-based processes,” said CEO Lacerte. “Our TAM is significant.”