The company reported net income of $647.5 million in the most recently reported quarter, about a .6-percent-increase from $651.6 million. Revenue rose to $3.7 billion from $3.67 billion, up 2 percent on a constant currency basis.

CEO Carlos Rodriguez said during the recent earnings webcast that the result represented  “continued sequential improvements driven by record level retention, and the more modest 6-percent decline in pays for control versus 9-percent last quarter."

Rodriguez said the company had strong bookings “in our down-market business” in the first quarter that helped. He also commented that the way a year starts often does not indicate how it will end. Years with slower starts often finish strong and vice versa..

He noted the company has about 200 live clients on its Next Gen Payroll platform with more than 500 systems sold.