Basis of Presentation and Accounting Policies (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2015

Receivables are stated net of an allowance for doubtful accounts of $25.5 million at June 30, 2015 and $19.4 million at September 30, 2014. In addition, receivables are stated net of an allowance for certain customer returns, rebates and incentives of $9.7 million at June 30, 2015 and $11.6 million at September 30, 2014.

Recent accounting pronouncements

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In May 2014, the FASB issued a new standard on revenue recognition from contracts with customers. This standard supersedes nearly all existing revenue recognition guidance and involves a five-step approach to recognizing revenue based on individual performance obligations in a contract. The new standard will also require additional qualitative and quantitative disclosures about contracts with customers, significant judgments made in applying the revenue guidance, and assets recognized from the costs to obtain or fulfill a contract. This guidance is effective for us for reporting periods beginning October 1, 2018. We are currently evaluating the impact the adoption of this guidance will have on our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.

Product warranty obligations

We record a liability for product warranty obligations at the time of sale to a customer based upon historical warranty experience. Most of our products are covered under a warranty period that runs for twelve months from either the date of sale or installation. We also record a liability for specific warranty matters when they become probable and reasonably estimable. Our product warranty obligations are included in other current liabilities in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet.

Fair value of financial instruments

Fair Value of Financial Instruments

U.S. GAAP defines fair value as the price that would be received for an asset or paid to transfer a liability (exit price) in an orderly transaction between market participants in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or liability. U.S. GAAP also classifies the inputs used to measure fair value into the following hierarchy:



Level 1:	Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.



Level 2:	Quoted prices in active markets for similar assets or liabilities, quoted prices for identical or similar assets or liabilities in markets that are not active, or inputs other than quoted prices that are observable for the asset or liability.



Level 3:	Unobservable inputs for the asset or liability.

We recognize all derivative financial instruments as either assets or liabilities at fair value in the Consolidated Balance Sheet. We value our forward exchange contracts using a market approach. We use a valuation model based on observable market inputs including forward and spot prices for currency and interest rate curves. We did not change our valuation techniques during the nine months ended June 30, 2015. It is our policy to execute such instruments with major financial institutions that we believe to be creditworthy and not to enter into derivative financial instruments for speculative purposes. We diversify our foreign currency forward exchange contracts among counterparties to minimize exposure to any one of these entities. Our foreign currency forward exchange contracts are usually denominated in currencies of major industrial countries. The U.S. dollar-equivalent gross notional amount of our forward exchange contracts totaled $1,430.6 million at June 30, 2015. Currency pairs (buy/sell) comprising the most significant contract notional values were United States dollar (USD)/euro, USD/Swiss franc, USD/Canadian dollar, Swiss franc/euro, Mexican peso/USD, Singapore dollar/USD, and Swiss franc/Canadian dollar.

We value interest rate swap contracts using a market approach based on observable market inputs including publicized swap curves.

Fair value measurement of non-derivative instruments

We also hold financial instruments consisting of cash, short-term investments, short-term debt and long-term debt. The fair values of our cash, short-term investments and short-term debt approximate their carrying amounts as reported in our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet due to the short-term nature of these instruments.

Income Taxes

At the end of each interim period, we estimate a base effective tax rate that we expect for the full fiscal year based on our most recent forecast of pre-tax income, permanent book and tax differences and global tax planning strategies. We use this base rate to provide for income taxes on a year-to-date basis, excluding the effect of significant unusual or extraordinary items and items that are reported net of their related tax effects. We record the tax effect of significant unusual or extraordinary items and items that are reported net of their tax effects in the period in which they occur.

- Definition

Disclosure of accounting policy for income taxes, which may include its accounting policies for recognizing and measuring deferred tax assets and liabilities and related valuation allowances, recognizing investment tax credits, operating loss carryforwards, tax credit carryforwards, and other carryforwards, methodologies for determining its effective income tax rate and the characterization of interest and penalties in the financial statements.

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