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Accrued Liabilities (Details) - USD ($)
$ in Thousands
 3 Months Ended
Jan. 31, 2017
Oct. 31, 2016
Accrued Liabilities, Current [Abstract]    
Accrued payroll and employee benefits $ 3,771 $ 4,183
Accrued contract and operating costs 109 0
Reserve for product warranty costs [1] 585 516
Accrued material purchase [2] 7,106 6,908
Accrued service and performance [3] 4,167 6,030
Reserve for service agreement costs 1,000 2,700
Accrued taxes, legal, professional and other 2,650 3,263
Accrued Liabilities, Current 18,388 20,900
Product Warranty Accrual, Warranties Issued 400  
Product Warranty Accrual, Payment and Adjustments 300  
Increase in reserve for service agreement costs 1,700  
loss reserve on service agreements 1,000 2,700
reserve for performance guarantees $ 3,100 $ 3,300
[1] Activity in the accrued product warranty costs for the three months ended January 31, 2017 included additions for estimates of future warranty obligations of $0.4 million on contracts in the warranty period and reductions related to actual warranty spend of $0.3 million as contracts progress through the warranty period or are beyond the warranty period.
[2] The Company acts as a procurement agent for POSCO Energy under an Integrated Global Supply Chain Agreement whereby the Company procures materials on POSCO's behalf for its Asian production facility. This liability represents amounts received for the purchase of materials on behalf of POSCO. Amounts due to vendors is recorded as Accounts payable.
[3] Activity in service agreement costs represents an decrease in loss accruals on service contracts of $1.7 million from $2.7 million as of October 31, 2016 to $1.0 million as of January 31, 2017. The decrease primarily relates to module exchanges performed during the three months ended January 31, 2017. The accruals for performance guarantees also decreased from $3.3 million as of October 31, 2016 to $3.1 million as of January 31, 2017 for guarantee payments to customers offset by additional accruals for the minimum output falling below the contract requirements for certain contracts.