TRINET GROUP, INC.

Form 10-Q - Quarterly Report

For the Quarterly Period Ended March 31,September 30, 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

For purposes of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (Form 10-Q), the terms “TriNet,” “the Company,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to TriNet Group, Inc., and its subsidiaries. This Form 10-Q contains statements that are not historical in nature, are predictive in nature, or that depend upon or refer to future events or conditions or otherwise contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of words such as, but not limited to, "ability," “anticipate,” “believe,” “can,” “continue,” “could,” “design,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “hope,” "impact," “intend,” “may,” “outlook,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “strategy,” “target,” "value," “will,” “would” and similar expressions or variations intended to identify forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, among others, TriNet’s expectations regarding: our ability to support the economic recovery of our clients and SMBs; our ability to respond appropriately to the impact of COVID-19 on our business and our clients' businesses; the impact on our prospects, clients and business of our Connect 360 service model;model, the impact of our TriNet Financial Services Preferred product, and our 2nd annual TriNet PeopleForce conference; the effect that our offering of $500 million of our 3.50% senior notes and of our replacement of our existing revolving facility with our new $500 million revolving facility will have on our business; the timing and strategies we employ with respect to corporate investments and capital expenditures; expectations regarding medical utilization rates by our WSEs; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on regulations and government programs; the impact of our 2020 Recovery Credit program and our 2021 Credit Program and their suitability for generating client loyalty and retention; our ability to modify or develop service offerings to assist clients affected by COVID-19; the impact of our vertical approach; our ability to leverage our scale and industry HR experience to deliver vertical service offerings; the growthimpact of our plans to continue to grow our client base; planned improvements to our technology platform; our ability to drive operating efficiencies and improve the client experience; the impact of our client service initiatives; the volume and severity of insurance claims and the impact of COVID-19 on those claims; metrics that may be indicators of future financial performance; the relative value of our benefit offerings versus those SMBs can independently obtain; the principal competitive drivers in our market; our plans to retain clients and manage client attrition; our investment strategy and its impact on our ability to generate future interest income, net income, and Adjusted EBITDA; seasonal trends and their impact on our business, including due to COVID-19; fluctuations in the period-to-period timing of when we incur certain operating expenses; the estimates and assumptions we use to prepare our financial statements; and other expectations, outlooks and forecasts on our future business, operational and financial performance.

Important factors that could cause actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements are discussed above and throughout our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 filed with the SEC on February 16, 2021 (our 2020 Form 10-K), including those appearing under the heading “Risk Factors” in Item 1A, and under the heading “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Item 7 of our 2020 Form 10-K, as well asthose appearing under the heading “Risk Factors” in Part II, Item 1A of this Form 10-Q and under the heading “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in this Form 10-Q and our Form 10-Q filings for the quarters ended March 31, 2021 June 30, 2021, and those appearing in our other periodic filings with the SEC, and including risk factors associated with: the economic, health and business disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our clients and prospects, insurance costs and operations; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the laws and regulations that impact our industry and clients; our ability to mitigate the business risks we face as a co-employer; our ability to manage unexpected changes in workers’ compensation and health insurance claims and costs by worksite employees; the effects of volatility in the financial and economic environment on the businesses that make up our client base and the concentration of our clients in certain geographies and industries; the impact of failures or limitations in the business systems we rely upon; the impact of our 2020 Recovery Credit program;program and 2021 Credit Program; adverse changes in our insurance coverage or our relationships with key insurance carriers; our ability to improve our technology to satisfy regulatory requirements and meet the expectations of our clients and manage client attrition; our ability to effectively integrate businesses we have acquired or may acquire in the future; our ability to effectively manage and improve our operational processes; our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel; the effects of increased competition and our ability to compete effectively; the impact on our business of cyber-attacks and security breaches; our ability to secure our information technology infrastructure and our confidential, sensitive and personal information; our ability to comply with constantly evolving data privacy and security laws; our ability to manage changes in, uncertainty regarding, or adverse application of the complex laws and regulations that govern our business; changing laws and regulations governing health insurance and employee benefits; our ability to be recognized as an employer of worksite employees under federal and state regulations; changes in the laws and regulations that govern what it means to be an employer, employee or independent contractor; our ability to comply

with the laws and regulations that govern PEOs and other similar industries; the outcome of existing and future legal and tax proceedings; fluctuation in our results of operation and stock price due to factors outside of our control, such as the volume and severity of our workers’ compensation and health insurance claims and the amount and timing of our insurance costs, operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements; our ability to comply with the restrictions of our credit facility and meet our debt obligations; and the impact of concentrated ownership in our stock. Any of these factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from our anticipated results.

Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, but are based on management’s expectations as of the date of this Form 10-Q and assumptions that are inherently subject to uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from our current expectations and any past results, performance or achievements. Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.

The information provided in this Form 10-Q is based upon the facts and circumstances known as of the date of this Form 10-Q, and any forward-looking statements made by us in this Form 10-Q speak only as of the date of this Form 10-Q. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any of the information provided in this Form 10-Q, except as required by law.

The MD&A of this Form 10-Q includes references to our performance measures presented in conformity with GAAP and other non-GAAP financial measures that we use to manage our business, to make planning decisions, to allocate resources and to use as performance measures in our executive compensation plans. Refer to the Non-GAAP Financial Measures within our MD&A for definitions and reconciliations from GAAP measures.

Website Disclosures

We use our website (www.trinet.com) to announce material non-public information to the public and to comply with our disclosure obligations under Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD). We also use our website to communicate with the public about our Company, our services, and other matters. Our SEC filings, press releases and recent public conference calls and webcasts can also be found on our website. The information we post on our website could be deemed to be material information under Reg FD. We encourage investors and others interested in our Company to review the information we post on our website. Information contained in or accessible through our website is not a part of this report.

We leverage our scale and industry HR experience to deliver our service offerings for SMBs in specific industry verticals. We believe our vertical approach is a key differentiator for us and creates additional value for our clients driven by service offerings that are tailored to address industry-specific HR needs. We offer six industry-tailored vertical services: TriNet Financial Services, TriNet Life Sciences, TriNet Main Street, TriNet Nonprofit, TriNet Professional Services, and TriNet Technology.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to financial measures presented in accordance with GAAP, we monitor other non-GAAP financial measures that we use to manage our business, to make planning decisions, to allocate resources and to use as performance measures in our executive compensation plan. These key financial measures provide an additional view of our operational performance over the long-term and provide information that we use to maintain and grow our business.

The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is used to enhance the understanding of certain aspects of our financial performance. It is not meant to be considered in isolation from, superior to, or as a substitute for the directly comparable financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Our revenues consist of professional service revenues (PSR) and insurance service revenues (ISR). PSR represents fees charged to clients for processing payroll-related transactions on behalf of our clients, access to our HR expertise, employment and benefit law compliance services, and other HR-related services. ISR consists of insurance-related billings and administrative fees collected from clients and withheld from WSEs for workers' compensation insurance and health benefit insurance plans provided by third-party insurance carriers.

In April 2020, we created our Recovery Credit program to assist in the economic recovery of our existing SMB clients and enhance our ability to retain these clients. Eligible clients will receivereceived one-time reductions against fees for future services, accounted for as a discount, to be received over the following 12 months. We

As of June 30, 2021, we have fully recognized a reduction in total revenues of $12the $145 million in the first quarter of 2021maximum amount for the Recovery Credit allocated proportionallyand no further reduction to PSR ($5 million) and ISR ($7 million).

We also recognized a $25 million reduction to revenue under our 2021 Credit Program.Program in the first quarter of 2021. This amount reflects estimated credits that will be paid to eligible clients under this program, based on the expected performance of our health insurance costs in 2021, and is currently limited to $25 million. These credits are recorded as a reduction to ISR and are payable within 12 months to eligible clients as of March 31, 2021. To the extent we experience higher than expected health insurance costs during the remainder of 2021, this estimate may be reduced. There was no change in this estimate in the third quarter.

Monthly total revenues per Average WSE is a measure we use to monitor the success of our pricing strategies. This measure increased 6%8% during the firstthird quarter of 2021 and the nine months ended September 30, 2021 compared to the same periodperiods in 2020.

We also use the following measures to further analyze changes in total revenue:

The table below provides a view of the changes in components of operating income for the first quarter ofand nine months ended September 30, 2021, as compared to the same periodperiods in 2020.

Operating Expenses

OE includes cost of providing services (COPS), sales and marketing (S&M), general and administrative (G&A), systems development and programming (SD&P), and depreciation and amortization expenses (D&A).

We manage our OE and allocate resources across different business functions based on a percentage of NSR, which has decreased to 55% in the first quarter of 2021 from 58% when compared to the same period in 2020. The lower percentage of OE to NSR in 2021 when compared to 2020 was primarily driven by the increase in NSR.

During the firstthird quarter ofand the nine months ended September 30, 2021, we experienced OE growthincreases of 5%12% and 10%, respectively, when compared to the same periodperiods in 2020. The ratioDuring the third quarter and the nine months ended September 30, 2021, the percent of OE to total revenues was 17% and 16%, compared to the 18% and 17% in the first quarter of 2021 andsame periods in 2020.

There have been no material changes to our critical accounting policies as discussed in our 2020 Form 10-K.