Usio（USIO）2026年度第2四半期決算説明会：売上高19％増、業績予想を引き上げ

主要な要点

• 2026年度第2四半期の売上高は前年同期比で19%増加し、第1四半期の15%増から加速しました。受取利息を除く事業部門全体の成長率は20%に迫りました。
• 調整後EBITDAは2倍以上の110万ドルに達しました。GAAP基準の純利益は280,000ドル（1株当たり0.01ドル）となり、2四半期連続で黒字を達成しました。
• カード事業の売上高はPayFac売上高の43%増が牽引し、28%増の900万ドルとなりました。PayFacはカード事業売上高の4分の3以上を占めました。
• ACH事業の売上高は21%増加し、アウトプット・ソリューション事業の売上高は22%増加しました。総決済金額と処理件数はともに27%増加しました。
• Usioは2026年度の売上高成長率見通し（ガイダンス）を従来の10%〜12%から14%〜16%に引き上げ、調整後EBITDAの黒字維持を引き続き見込んでいます。
• 経営陣は、Usio Ion、高利益率のリアルタイム決済（RTP）構成比の向上、アウトプット・ソリューション事業の製造コスト削減、スポンサー銀行からの優遇価格適用を、潜在的な収益性向上要因として挙げました。

主要財務データ

上半期の営業キャッシュフローは前年同期を下回りました。ただし、前年同期に受領した150万ドルの従業員保持税額控除（ERC）分を調整すると、営業キャッシュフローは増加しました。

事業および運用業績

カードおよびPayFac事業

カード事業の売上高は28%増の900万ドルとなり、第2四半期として過去最高を記録しました。処理金額は13%増加し、取引件数は19%増加しました。

PayFacは引き続き主要な成長エンジンであり続けました。売上高は43%増加し、カード事業売上高の75%以上を占めました。2026年度上半期において、PayFacの加盟店数は34%増加しました。

経営陣はこの勢いの要因を、統合型ソフトウェアベンダー（ISV）のパートナーシップ基盤の拡大によるものとしています。これらのソフトウェアパートナーが加入者を拡大し、加盟店をUsioのプラットフォームに移行させることで、Usioの決済処理金額が加算されます。また、第3四半期には教育分野に特化した新規顧客やISVの立ち上げも見込まれています。

ACHおよびリアルタイム決済

ACHの売上高は21%増加しました。取引件数は34%増、取扱金額は28%増、不渡手形・小切手処理件数は35%増となりました。その後、7月の月間ACH取引件数は過去最高を更新しました。

Usioは前年同期のゼロから、12の大手顧客向けにリアルタイム決済（RTP）取引を処理するまでになりました。一部の顧客は取引をPINレスデビットからRTPへと移行しています。経営陣は、RTPは取引当たりの売上高が低いものの利益率が高いため、売上高には緩やかな逆風となる一方で、収益性を支える効果があると述べました。

カード発行事業

カード発行事業は引き続き売上面で圧迫を受けましたが、購入額は11%持ち直しました。カードへのチャージ額は横ばい、取引件数はわずかに減少したものの、それぞれの指標は前四半期比で改善しました。

同部門は当四半期中に16社の新規顧客と契約を締結し、20社以上の顧客が導入手続き中または処理量の拡大段階にあります。スクールバウチャー（就学支援）プログラムは約5〜6州に拡大しており、経営陣は潜在的な総処理量を約15億ドルと見積もっています。初期の給付は主にACHを通じて行われており、資金供給は新学期開始時だけでなく学期を通じて実施される見込みです。

Usioはまた、下半期にフィンテックパートナーを通じて複数の大学向けに奨学金返還金の給付を開始する予定です。このパートナーは現在、別の決済処理業者を通じて30の大学にサービスを提供していますが、Usioへの移行時期や規模については不透明な部分が残っています。

アウトプット・ソリューション事業

アウトプット・ソリューション事業の売上高は22%増加し、第1四半期の19%から加速しました。印刷・郵送数は43%増加し、処理・配信された電子文書数は49%増加しました。

新しい高速プリンターが稼働を開始しました。経営陣によると、従来のプリンターと比較して速度が約4倍、解像度が4倍となっています。Usioは、この機器により人件費、保守費用、インクコストを削減しつつ、より高品質な業務への対応能力を拡大できると期待しています。

アウトプット・ソリューション事業は当四半期中に11件の新規契約を締結し、2件の契約を更新しました。経営陣は、同事業の主な季節的増収要因は税務関連業務やその他の定期的プロジェクトによる第1四半期のものであり、第2四半期の業績は主に継続的な取引によるものであると指摘しました。

Usio Ion

旧PostCreditであるUsio Ionは、一部の顧客を対象にベータテストを実施中です。この製品は、Usioのカード発行、アクワイアリング（加盟店管理）、ACH、およびアウトプット・ソリューションの各業務を横断して機能するように設計されています。

経営陣は、Ionが顧客資金からの利息、カード利用額、および高速決済サービスから売上を創出することを期待しています。Usioは現在、常に約8,000万ドルから1億ドルの顧客資金を保有しています。経営陣は、Ionによって日々の残高が2億ドル以上上乗せされ、合計で約3億ドルまで増加する可能性があると考えています。なお、これらの数値は経営陣による機会の評価であり、実現した残高を示すものではありません。

経営陣による業績見通し（ガイダンス）

Usioは、2026年度の売上高成長率予測を従来の10%〜12%から14%〜16%に引き上げました。また、通期の調整後EBITDAについても引き続き黒字を見込んでいます。

経営陣は、23%〜25%の売上総利益率が短期的な予測モデルとして引き続き適切であると述べました。25%を超える水準への引き上げは、利息に基づくフロート（預り金）収入が非常に高い限界利益率をもたらすIonの本格展開に大きく依存することになります。

利益率を押し上げるその他の潜在的要因としては、RTP取引の構成比拡大、アウトプット・ソリューション事業における製造コストの削減、および第3四半期から始まるスポンサー銀行からの優遇価格適用が挙げられます。

リスクと注目点

• Ionは現在も開発段階にあり、経営陣は本格展開には時間がかかると述べています。予想される利益率への貢献は、顧客による導入状況やプラットフォーム上に保持される資金量に依存します。
• PINレスデビットからRTPへの移行は、経営陣が取引利益率の改善を期待しているものの、報告される売上高をわずかに減少させる可能性があります。
• カード発行事業は引き続き売上の逆風に直面しています。第2四半期におけるカードチャージ額は横ばいとなり、取引件数はわずかに減少しました。
• 受取利息は加盟店の事前資金供給残高のタイミングや期間によって変動します。経営陣は、前四半期比での減少は金利変動によるものではないと述べています。
• 上半期中の現金減少は、年次現金支出、自社株買い、ならびに資産計上されたIon開発を含む成長施策への継続的な投資によるものです。

アナリストとの質疑応答の要点

アナリストの関心は、PayFac事業の成長の持続可能性、売上総利益率の拡大、およびIonの規模に集中しました。経営陣はPayFacのモデルを「UsioがISVを追加し、それらのISVが成長し、その加盟店がUsioの決済処理顧客となる」という数年単位の好循環サイクルであると説明しました。同社は、現在の43%というPayFacの売上高成長率は、最近の戦略変更ではなく、長年にわたるソフトウェアパートナーの追加と導入の成果を反映したものだと述べました。

利益率に関して、経営陣は23%〜25%という短期的な売上総利益率目標を改めて強調しました。顧客残高から生じる受取利息は高い限界利益率をもたらすため、Ionはその水準を超えるための最大の触媒と見なされています。

経営陣はまた、人工知能（AI）がソフトウェア開発を容易にし、SaaSプロバイダーが組込型金融サービスを通じて差別化を図ることを後押しする可能性があると述べました。Usioはこれにより、カード機能とACH機能を統合した自社の「PayFac-in-a-Box」サービスの機会が拡大すると考えています。

買収に関して、経営陣はUsioが引き続き機会を検討しているものの厳選する姿勢を維持しており、大きな問題を抱えることなく適切な価格で買収できる補完的な資産に焦点を当てていると述べました。

決算説明会文字起こし全文

決算説明会の完全なトランスクリプト

経営陣による説明

Operator

Welcome to Usio's Second Quarter Fiscal 2026 Earnings Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Michael White, Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Michael White

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining our call today. Welcome to Usio's Second Fiscal Quarter 2026 Conference Call. The earnings release, which we issued today after the market closed, is available on our website at usio.com under the Investor Relations tab.

On this call with me today are Louis Hoch, our Chairman and CEO; and Greg Carter, Executive Vice President of Payment Acceptance and Chief Revenue Officer. In addition, Houston Frost, Senior Vice President and Chief Product Officer; and Jerry Uffner, Head of Card Issuing, will be available during the question-and-answer session.

Let me remind our listeners that certain statements made during the call today constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities and Litigation Act of 1995 as amended and more fully discussed in our press release and in our filings with the SEC. Following our prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session for those who registered as a financial professional.

Let me offer just a few brief comments on the quarter before turning it over to Greg and Louis. We once again met or beat all analyst expectations on both the top and bottom lines while also delivering our second consecutive quarter of positive GAAP net income and earnings per share. Revenue growth remained strong in the second quarter, up 19%, accelerating from 15% in the first quarter. Excluding the impact of interest income, growth at the business unit level was even stronger, approaching 20%. This has led to a very strong first half of the year.

As we move through the second half of the year, we remain focused on executing our strategy and leveraging our innovative technology and diversified business operations to drive continued growth across the markets we serve. In 3 of our product lines, credit card, ACH and Output Solutions, revenue was up over 20%, illustrating continued strength across Usio. Once again, a majority of the quarter's revenue was recurring in nature with no one client accounting for more than 10% of total revenue. Client retention remains high.

Total processing transactions also set new records with total payment dollars processed up 27% and transactions up 27%. Profitability continued to improve. Gross profit dollars increased 12% with margins improving sequentially from the first quarter. Total selling, general and administrative expenses were down approximately $190,000 from a year ago. Excluding depreciation, amortization and stock-based compensation, SG&A was down marginally from a year ago despite the 19% increase in revenues.

We remain focused on maintaining a disciplined cost structure as we continue to grow, providing further opportunity for operating leverage. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.1 million for the second quarter of 2026, more than double that of the year ago quarter. For the first half of the year, we generated $1.9 million of adjusted EBITDA, our best first half in years. We reported positive net income of $280,000 or $0.01 per share in the quarter. Again, net income was from core operations and does not include any unusual, nonrecurring extraordinary or onetime items. This marks our second consecutive quarter of positive GAAP net income, an important milestone and an area where we remain intensely focused.

While operating cash flow was lower in the first half compared to last year, adjusting for the $1.5 million employee retention credit received in the prior year period, operating cash flow actually increased year-over-year. Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the quarter were $6.4 million, down from the beginning of the year, primarily reflecting the timing of several annual cash outlays during the first half. In addition, we used approximately $371,000 to repurchase 281,000 shares of our common stock during the 6 months ended June 30, 2026, including $235,000 in the second quarter. We also continue to invest in strategic growth initiatives, including capitalized development work on Usio Ion.

Overall, we are very pleased with our performance through the first half of the year. We are delivering strong revenue growth across the business and maintaining disciplined control of our cost structure to translate that growth into improved profitability. With that momentum and the opportunities we see ahead, we believe we are well positioned for a strong second half of 2026.

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Greg Carter.

Greg Carter

Thank you, Michael, and good afternoon, everyone. It was another strong quarter for Card. Revenue was up 28% year-over-year to $9 million with growth accelerating from the first quarter and the best ever second quarter revenue. Dollars processed were up 13% and transactions processed were up 19% from a year ago. Once again, results were driven by the strength of our PayFac business, where revenue was up 43% in the quarter. PayFac continues to represent over 3/4 of Card's revenue and is the primary driver behind the inflection in our revenue growth rate.

The second quarter was consistent with the growth path we established years ago when we introduced our evolutionary PayFac technology. The formula is straightforward. PayFac's innovative technology attracts new accounts, they get implemented, they steadily bring their merchants onto our platform, and those merchants' volumes grow over time. Just the first 6 months of this year, merchant count has increased to 34%. So we have the flywheel of growth spinning nicely.

For instance, our large bodega-oriented health care account has been steadily ramping. In fact, based on the industry buzz created by this implementation, we now have another very similar opportunity. Headed into the school year, we are seeing nice growth with our education-oriented accounts, and we anticipate a nice pickup in the third quarter from a couple of new ISVs that are ramping up. There have also been more omnichannel sales wins, something we've been emphasizing with our sales organization. Whether they be entities that need onetime or on-demand printing services or a complementary disbursement solution, we signed more of those type of accounts in the second quarter and continue to do so.

Our consolidated sales team is more cohesive and more interactive than it's ever been as a part of the implementation of Usio One, and we only expect the system to improve overall sales performance. In general, we're just getting more productive and efficient. In addition to the increased productivity of our sales organization, we are likewise seeing improved efficiency in our operations, which is helping margins.

Essentially, everyone in Card's back office is a certified payments professional. So we now have an increasingly professionally educated and highly tenured organization. We just continue to get better in all facets of the business.

Now I would like to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Louis Hoch.

Louis Hoch

Thank you, Greg, and welcome, everyone. The second quarter was another strong quarter. For the second time this year, we met or exceeded analyst revenue, adjusted EBITDA and EPS estimates, and we generated positive GAAP net income and EPS. All of our key performance indicators were strong. Total payment dollars increased 27%. Payment transactions processed were also up 27% and revenues were up over 20% in 3 of our business lines. At the midway point, we are on pace for one of our best years. And based upon our performance and outlook, we are raising our full year revenue growth guidance, and we believe there is tremendous potential for even more growth ahead.

There's a lot to talk about this quarter, so let me get right into our performance and the drivers behind our success. In our most profitable business, ACH, revenues increased 21% with transactions up 34%, dollar volume up 28% and returned check processing up 35%. That momentum has continued into the third quarter with July setting a new monthly ACH transaction record. If these trends continue, we will be on pace for our sixth consecutive quarter of ACH transaction volume growth.

PINless debit and real-time payment transactions have both remained strong. While we are seeing some customers shift transactions from PINless debit to RTP, RTP transactions generally generate higher margins despite carrying a lower cost per transaction. As a result, this shift will benefit overall profitability, although modestly weighing on the top line revenue. We are now processing RTP transactions for 12 accounts from 0 last year, and we expect to see RTP revenue continue to grow at a strong rate. As one of the industry's new payment channels, our ability to capture RTP volume is indicative of our ability to innovate and develop new technology that is responsive to emerging payment needs.

Card issuing delivered an improved quarter despite continued revenue headwinds, demonstrating the strength of the business model, disciplined expense management and a meaningful progress on strategic growth initiatives. Purchase volume rebounded up 11%, although card loads were flat and transactions down slightly. These are all improvements on a sequential basis. In the quarter, issuing signed 16 new clients with over 20 clients in implementation or with volume scaling.

Of course, one of our most exciting opportunities on the horizon is the school voucher programs. Some states have already begun going live with additional states expected to follow over the second half of this year and into 2027. The potential scale of these programs is significant. One state alone is expected to disburse approximately $1.2 billion. And while these programs represent an exciting opportunity for our card issuing business, a lot of the initial disbursements have been ACH.

In line with our strategy, this one account is a revenue opportunity for multiple channels of our payments platform. Importantly, this program is with an existing client with whom we've already integrated. So some of the heavy lifting is finished. Consequently, we can focus on all of our energies on getting these programs rolled out. We also expect to begin distributing university loan payment refunds for several universities through a fintech strategic partner during the second half of the year.

Our partner currently works with 30 universities through another processor, and we believe there is an opportunity to transition those programs to Usio over time. The potential payment volumes are significant, making this another exciting growth opportunity for card issuing.

Output Solutions continues to have an outstanding year. Revenues increased 22% in the second quarter, accelerating from 19% growth in the first quarter. Pieces processed and mailed increased 43%, while electronic documents processed and delivered were up 49%. It was Output Solutions' strongest second quarter by a wide margin with the business setting a new monthly revenue record in each successive month of the first half of the year.

We also have our new high-speed printer online, representing a significant upgrade to our production capabilities. The new equipment is approximately 4x faster than our existing printer and offers 4x the resolution, expanding our ability to support both transactional and higher quality print work. Importantly, we expect it to be more cost effective as well. The increased speed requires less labor for the same level of output, while newer technologies should reduce maintenance costs and even lower ink cost despite the significantly higher print quality.

To get a sense of these capabilities of this new equipment, I encourage you to take a look at the video that we posted on our Usio LinkedIn page. In the second quarter, Output signed 11 new contracts and renewed 2 other existing agreements. This includes a large alternative retail deregulated electric provider that happens to be one of the 3 largest in the state of Texas. It is also encouraging to note that their success is not going unnoticed. Inbound traffic is on the rise, which over time, we believe will be a boost to the business.

In addition to the growth opportunities within our existing business, we have some new products under development that we expect to be launching in the near future. Most importantly is Usio Ion, the name we have chosen for PostCredit. While there's still work to do, we are making great progress. The concept has been floated by a number of existing clients, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. We expect to host a demonstration of Ion in the near future and look forward to giving you a closer look at the platform so you can get a feel for the opportunity we believe it represents.

Let me close by reiterating our continued focus on margins and profitability. We have several tailwinds that we believe can support continued margin improvement. These include more profitable transaction mix from products such as RTP, our lower production cost at Output Solutions and the continued rollout of Ion. At the same time, we remain focused on our cost structure. As one example, our increased processing volumes have enabled us to secure improved pricing from our sponsoring banks beginning in the third quarter.

Together, we believe these initiatives provide multiple opportunities to drive greater operating leverage and improved profitability as we continue to grow. As a result, we are now raising our full year guidance. For fiscal 2026, we now expect revenue growth of 14% to 16%, up from our previous guidance of 10% to 12% expectations. We also expect to continue to generate positive adjusted EBITDA as we remain focused on driving greater profitability and operating leverage across our business.

So a great first half with a lot of strong results and increasing prospects for better growth and profitability. Most of our businesses are growing at better than 20%, and we have exciting opportunities to sustain, if not improve our long-term growth. There's also an intense focus on profitable growth.

I want to thank the Usio employees for their continued dedication and commitment to growing our business, strengthening our company and creating long-term value for our shareholders.

Operator, you can now open the call to questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

The first question comes from Neil Cataldi with Blueprint Capital.

質疑応答

Neil Cataldi

Great quarter. My first one is you mentioned PayFac merchant accounts up 34%. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about this flywheel, as you called it, maybe for those newer to the story. What's the flywheel? And why is it really kicking in right now?

Greg Carter

Well, as I said, the beauty of our PayFac model is we secure these ISVs or these software companies that may have anywhere from 100 to 500 subscribers today. Fast forward if their business model goes like our current ISVs 4, 5 years down the road, that merchant base goes to 500 to 1,000. And as those onboard with the software companies, we get access for providing payments to those entities.

So that, combined with the number of ISVs we've put on over the past several years, that's the flywheel of growth. It's an incredibly robust business model. And again, as we add more ISVs, the ISVs then in turn add merchants, which become our merchants by default. And that's the third leg of the stool. New ISVs, ISV growth and then merchant growth within that community.

Neil Cataldi

That's helpful. It's great to see that kicking in. A couple more. So last quarter, you guided gross margins to improve towards 23% to 25% you said in the short term. 24% today is great. And I think the color on this call has been very helpful. With the new programs launching that you just discussed, is it reasonable to assume that maybe we can go even above 25% over the next few quarters?

Louis Hoch

The key to the growth there is going to be the full launch of Ion, which the way we make money off of Ion is through float primarily and some card spend, but float is obviously 100% margin for us. So Ion is going to be a big catalyst for increasing our margins.

Neil Cataldi

Okay. And regarding net interest income, which I think is what you're talking about, how should we think about a recovery there through the second half as the education programs come on?

Louis Hoch

Well, the education programs, some of them have already started a little bit. Most of that traffic is occurring through ACH. And we remain very excited about the 2 verticals in the education or the 2 instances. One is school voucher programs that we talked about. I believe we've gone from 3 states to 2 states to -- how many do we have now? Around 5 or 6 that we'll be doing voucher programs for. And what's nice about these programs is it's not like all the money is disbursed when school starts, it actually happens over the course of a school year.

So we'll start seeing some good volume from that occur when school kicks off here in August and September. And the other program is Title IV payments. Those are school loan -- yes, school loan refunds, which we have 1 university coming live in this third, fourth quarter. But that one customer or that one reseller works today with 30 universities, and we're hopeful that we're going to get all of that traffic.

Neil Cataldi

Okay. And just to clarify, I think -- did you say 5 or 6 states on the school vouchers? Or did I not hear that correct?

Louis Hoch

Yes. That's correct. I think the last time we talked, it was 2, and we've added a few.

Neil Cataldi

Okay. And maybe some ballpark on what total volumes would be across the 5 to 6?

Louis Hoch

Around $1.5 billion.

Neil Cataldi

Okay. Okay. And my last one is just on the ACH tailwinds. So Nacha, I think I'm saying that right, data shows that the P2P ACH is growing like 21%, same day is up 30%. The industry seems to be moving towards what you guys have built, which is this like embedded multi-rail kind of infrastructure.

So my question is, as AI, I think, sort of transforms SaaS companies and how they operate, do you guys have any thoughts on how embedded payments become more of a determining factor in which platforms win? And do you think that's sort of starting to show itself a bit in the ACH tailwinds you're seeing?

Louis Hoch

Well, it's definitely going to benefit PayFac, which includes Card and ACH. But AI is making some software development tasks easier. And what used to be competitive in software development was building software and having great infrastructure. Now people are able to reproduce it easier. So those software companies are looking for ways to increase the value of their platforms. And the best way to do it is to embed payments and make a financial tool out of your software application, which is an absolute perfect fit for our PayFac-in-a-Box offering. And so we think as time evolves with AI, that will create even more opportunities for us in PayFac.

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

The next question comes from Barry Sine with Litchfield.

Barry Sine

Very good quarter, both the results and the nice surprise in positive guidance. It's almost as if you guys are carrying around lucky rabbit foot. I'm trying to understand the drivers. You gave out a lot of key points. And it seems to me that the new -- well, I guess, not so new anymore, Usio One strategy really is working. You've changed the compensation. You're now -- your team is cross-selling all the products. So we're seeing new customers. We're seeing new products with existing customers. And then you also have introduced new products like RTP, and it sounds like Ion is part of the new guidance. Can you elaborate a little bit more, please?

Louis Hoch

Well, obviously, we're very excited about Ion. We think that's a catalyst for not only top line growth, but will increase our margins, and we look forward to the full rollout of that. It's going to take time for us to do that. But we already have a handful of customers beta testing for us and the results are good. And every part of our business is doing really, really well. And it's showing credibility to our strategy of having all payment channels, too.

We're seeing some PINless transactions go to RTP. And while RTP transactions have less revenue, they have higher margins. But if we didn't have RTP, we would have missed out on that traffic and that traffic continues to grow really well. When RTP allows for debits instead of just pushing funds, we'll see a big jump in usage of RTP for our customer base. But our existing customers continue to grow and we're doing a great job of landing new deals as well. And so we're just -- we're optimistic about this year and our future growth.

Barry Sine

So if I can drill down a little bit more on PayFac. So in the past, you've talked about -- I don't know if I missed it, but the PayFac growth rate in the quarter. But you've also, in the past, had a bit of a challenge onboarding PayFac customers or PayFac merchants rather not customers. It seems like you've solved that. Could you give us a bit of an update on PayFac and where you are now? I mean it seems much improved versus a couple of years ago.

Greg Carter

Yes, Barry, it's really lather, rinse and repeat. I mean we've been doing the same thing for the last 7 years. And what we're seeing now is all that comes to fruition. While we sincerely appreciate everyone's patience, if you look back historically, there has been a slow but steady upward climb of the PayFac revenue model, and now we're just seeing the benefits of that. So it isn't that we're -- we found some secret sauce.

Really, the key is adding as many ISVs as we can possibly accommodate into the implementation queue and then working with each entity, each ISV individually to help them with that transition on the merchants. And really, that's been the secret. But I think it's also just a culmination of doing this for many years and that patience and persistence is paying off.

Barry Sine

What was PayFac growth in the quarter?

Greg Carter

43% over a year ago.

Barry Sine

Okay. And I want to zero back in on Ion. When you announced the acquisition of PostCredit, maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't give it a lot of thought. It was a relatively small transaction. I'm not sure it was even operational. It was a platform that was used to handle expenses for movie productions in Hollywood. You guys have taken that. You've revamped it. And I'm very surprised that Louis called that out as 1 of your 3 catalysts for this year. So you've taken a tiny little product that you pay very little for. Maybe you can remind us, revamped it and now it's a major -- you're looking at it as a major catalyst for growth this year?

Louis Hoch

Well, what's exciting about Ion is that it was on our road map to develop and then when Houston located this company and did his due diligence, we figured out we could implement the product faster. So we really just bought software and it kind of leapfrogged our development. So what we were looking at developing 18 months to 2 years, we're able to do in 6 months. So that implementation time frame for us has really shortened and it allowed us to potentially go into the market quicker.

And Ion is -- the most exciting thing about Ion is the margin that's created from float. But it's also going to increase our visibility for risk and fraud. It potentially will allow us to settle funds quicker to our customers, which we will definitely charge for that action. And then we're going to see usage on cards when they use the program -- the product as an expense management system. So it is the first product that sits on top of all of our divisions, and that is really exciting to us because it works for Output customers to be sending in their prepaid postage to us.

For Card Issuing, it works for card load money to go into. For acquiring, it works for us to settle funds from ACH and from card transactions for the merchants to go in and either leave the funds there or withdraw it to whatever bank of their choice. But we believe that there's over $200 million on a daily basis that we can potentially have in the Ion platform. So today, in any given time, we have $80 million to $100 million that's not ours. If we can increase that to $300 million, that's a substantial float for us.

Barry Sine

So to understand that, it sounds like Ion revenue will show up in the number of the product categories or service categories that you guys announced, including interest income or interest revenue. Is that correct?

Louis Hoch

Yes. Well, it's definitely going to -- the card transactions will show up in Card Issuing and interest income, we'll leave that up to Michael to figure out where that one is going to go. But it's a product that sits upon all of our -- on top of all of our divisions. So where we book it is a good problem to have, right?

Barry Sine

Yes. A very high-class problem to have. Lastly, you just hit -- it sounds like you hit another home run with Ion. You did that several years ago with Output Solutions. Do you have any more rabbits in your hat, Louis, in terms of acquisitions? What are you guys looking at? What are the priorities? Is there anything imminent? I mean, you've now got a very good track record with acquisitions. Can you -- are you going to follow that up with additional ones?

Louis Hoch

Yes. We look at deals all the time, and we're just very selective. And I guess that's part of the reason why we've been successful. But we continue to look. And if it's complementary and we can buy it right and whatever we're buying doesn't have any issues, we'll go for it.

Barry Sine

But it doesn't sound like there's anything imminent on the horizon right now.

Louis Hoch

Barry, if there was, I wouldn't be able to talk about it on this call, right?

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

The next question comes from Kris Tuttle with Blue Caterpillar.

Kris Tuttle

They're really more housekeeping. As you know, I'm kind of newly modeling you guys, and there were just a couple of minor variances. On Output Solutions, is there some seasonality there on Q3 -- I mean, Q2, I'm sorry, which came in like just -- it was a great improvement year-over-year, but just a little bit less than I expected. And I'm just curious to know if that level, the [ 5669 ], is if that represents any kind of seasonality?

Louis Hoch

Yes. Output does experience seasonality, but that happens in Q1 when we perform tax-related print and mail and electronic document delivery, 1099s, property taxes for a lot of counties. And in Q1, we actually printed a large amount of voter registration cards for the state of Texas, which is a reoccurring deal, but it only happens once every 2 years for us. So the seasonality occurs in Q1. Q2, we just did a great job. And so the majority of that is reoccurring.

Kris Tuttle

I get it. So Q1, you get a bit of an extra bump and then Q2, Q3, Q4 are more just based on strength of the business, which, as you pointed out, is at a new higher level.

Louis Hoch

Yes.

Kris Tuttle

Okay. The other variance really was in the cost of services, pretty nice margin improvement. And I'm just making sure that, that's -- it's not some sort of one-off thing that happened. Maybe you could just talk a little bit about the mechanics of that. And you had a very good cost of services number this quarter.

Louis Hoch

Yes. We're comfortable in the 23% to 25% gross margins. To get above 25%, Ion is going to be a big catalyst for us. So if you're modeling, if you're 23% to 25%, you'll be in the ballpark.

Kris Tuttle

Okay. All right. Great. And the last one, and this is really small. Interest on ACH and complementary services was like down a bit sequentially, which is on trend a little bit, but I'm just curious to understand what's driving that.

Michael White

So this is Michael. I can answer that one. It's really just -- it's dependent on the amount of time that merchants are keeping funds in their Usio prefunding balance essentially. So the number kind of -- the number of deposits we have on hand on behalf of others fluctuates on a day-to-day basis. So there really wasn't a change in rates or anything like that. It was the timing of cash that we had. So to Louis' point, we're expecting the rollout of Ion to have more of our customers' funds on hand at any given time. So that's why we're expecting that interest income to jump up.

Kris Tuttle

Okay. I got it. And yes, very much appreciate your updated guidance as we discussed in Vegas towards the upper end of what you had initially talked about earlier in the year. So we look forward to seeing you perform against that and see where we end up for the fiscal year. So thanks a lot for all your fine work.

Louis Hoch

Thank you, Kris.

Greg Carter

Thank you.

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.