Guarantees and Indemnifications

Product warranty costs

Accrued liabilities are recorded to reflect the Company’s contractual obligations relating to warranty commitments to customers. Warranty coverage of various lengths and terms is provided to customers depending on standard offerings and negotiated contractual agreements. An estimate for warranty expense is recorded at the time of sale based on the length of the warranty and historical warranty return rates and repair costs.

Changes in the carrying amount of accrued product warranty costs are summarized as follows:



	Three Months Ended
	December 31
(in millions)	2017			2016
Balance at beginning of year	$	186		$	87
Warranty costs incurred	(21		)	(10		)
Product warranty accrual	21			9
Changes in estimates for prior years	—			(2		)
Balance at December 31, 2017	$	186		$	84

Letters of credit

The Company has contingent commitments in the form of letters of credit. Outstanding letters of credit are issued by banks on the Company’s behalf to support certain contractual obligations to its customers. If the Company fails to meet these contractual obligations, these letters of credit may become liabilities of the Company. Total outstanding letters of credit at December 31, 2017, were $216 million. These commitments are not reflected as liabilities on the Company’s Condensed Consolidated Statement of Financial Position.

Indemnifications

The Company enters into indemnifications with lenders, counterparties in transactions, such as administration of employee benefit plans, and other customary indemnifications with third parties in the normal course of business. The following are other than customary indemnifications based on the judgment of management:

In connection with agreements for the sale of portions of its business, the Company at times retains various liabilities of a business that relate to events occurring prior to its sale, such as tax, environmental, litigation and employment matters. The Company at times indemnifies the purchaser of a Rockwell Collins business in the event a third party asserts a claim that relates to a liability retained by the Company.

The Company also provides indemnifications of varying scope and amounts to certain customers against claims of product liability or intellectual property infringement made by third parties arising from the use of Company or customer products or intellectual property. These indemnifications generally require the Company to compensate the other party for certain damages and costs incurred as a result of third party product liability or intellectual property claims arising from these transactions.

Under a 2014 Tax Sharing and Indemnification Agreement entered into by B/E Aerospace prior to its acquisition by the Company, the Company assumes certain potential tax liabilities related to the 2014 KLX spin-off from B/E Aerospace. If it is determined that the KLX spin-off by B/E Aerospace fails to qualify for certain tax-free treatment as a result of the Company's merger with B/E Aerospace (for example, if the merger is viewed as part of a plan or series of related transactions that includes the KLX spin-off or the KLX spin-off is found to have been used principally as a device for the distribution of earnings and profits), or because of the failure of the KLX spin-off to initially qualify for the tax-free treatment, the B/E Aerospace subsidiary could incur significant tax liabilities pursuant to the Tax Sharing and Indemnification Agreement or otherwise. During the three months ended December 31, 2017, the Company received notification of the resolution of a competent authority filing between the U.K. and U.S. related to 2010 pre-acquisition U.K. tax adjustments. Pursuant to the Tax Sharing and Indemnification Agreement the Company accrued, through purchase accounting, a $9 million payable to KLX.

The amount the Company could be required to pay under its indemnification agreements is generally limited based on amounts specified in the underlying agreements, or in the case of some agreements, the maximum potential amount of future payments that could be required is not limited. When a potential claim is asserted under these agreements, the Company considers such factors as the degree of probability of an unfavorable outcome and the ability to make a reasonable estimate of the amount of loss. A liability is recorded when a potential claim is both probable and estimable. The nature of these agreements prevents the Company from making a reasonable estimate of the maximum potential amount it could be required to pay should counterparties to these agreements assert a claim; however, the Company currently has no material claims pending related to such agreements.