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GUARANTEES AND PRODUCT WARRANTIES
6 Months Ended
Apr. 30, 2018
Standard Product Warranty Disclosure [Abstract]  
GUARANTEES AND PRODUCT WARRANTIES
8.
GUARANTEES AND PRODUCT WARRANTIES
 
From time to time, our subsidiaries guarantee third party payment obligations in connection with the sale of machines to customers that use financing. We follow FASB guidance for accounting for guarantees (codified in Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 460). As of April 30, 2018, we had 27 outstanding third party payment guarantees totaling approximately $0.9 million. The terms of these guarantees are consistent with the underlying customer financing terms. Upon shipment of a machine, the customer assumes the risk of ownership. The customer does not obtain title, however, until the customer has paid for the machine. A retention of title clause allows us to recover the machine if the customer defaults on the financing. We accrue liabilities under these guarantees at fair value, which amounts are insignificant.
 
We provide warranties on our products with respect to defects in material and workmanship. The terms of these warranties are generally one year for machines and certain components and shorter periods for service parts. We recognize a reserve with respect to this obligation at the time of product sale, with subsequent warranty claims recorded against the reserve. The amount of the warranty reserve is determined based on historical trend experience and any known warranty issues that could cause future warranty costs to differ from historical experience. A reconciliation of the changes in our warranty reserve is as follows (in thousands):
 
 
 
Six Months Ended
 
 
 
April 30,
 
 
 
2018
 
2017
 
Balance, beginning of period
 
$
1,772
 
$
1,523
 
Provision for warranties during the period
 
 
2,205
 
 
1,614
 
Charges to the reserve
 
 
(1,754)
 
 
(1,605)
 
Impact of foreign currency translation
 
 
30
 
 
9
 
Balance, end of period
 
$
2,253
 
$
1,541
 
 
The year-over-year increase in our warranty reserve was primarily due to an increase in the number of machines under warranty resulting from increased sales volume, as well as an increase in average warranty cost per machine as our machines under warranty shifted to more complex, higher-performance machines.