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Basis of Presentation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
9 Months Ended
Oct. 31, 2020
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Basis of Presentation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies Basis of Presentation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Fiscal Year
The Company’s fiscal year ends on January 31. For example, references to fiscal 2021 and 2020 refer to the fiscal year ending January 31, 2021 and January 31, 2020, respectively.
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (GAAP) and applicable rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) regarding interim financial reporting. Accordingly, they do not include all disclosures normally required in annual consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. Therefore, these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and notes included in the Company’s final prospectus dated September 15, 2020 and filed with the SEC pursuant to Rule 424(b)(4) on September 16, 2020 (Final Prospectus).
In management’s opinion, these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared on the same basis as the annual financial statements and reflect all adjustments, which include only normal recurring adjustments necessary for the fair statement of the Company’s financial position as of October 31, 2020 and the results of operations for the three and nine months ended October 31, 2020. The results of operations for the three and nine months ended October 31, 2020 are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the full year or any other future interim or annual period.
Principles of Consolidation
The condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Snowflake Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. All intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated in consolidation.
Segment Information
The Company has a single operating and reportable segment. The Company’s chief operating decision maker is its Chief Executive Officer, who reviews financial information presented on a consolidated basis for purposes of making operating decisions, assessing financial performance, and allocating resources. For information regarding the Company’s long-lived assets and revenue by geographic area, see Note 14.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the condensed consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. Such estimates include stand-alone selling prices (SSP) for each distinct performance obligation, internal-use software development costs, expected period of benefit for deferred commissions, the useful lives of long-lived assets, the carrying value of operating lease right-of-use assets, valuation of the Company’s common stock, stock-based compensation, and accounting for income taxes.

The Company bases its estimates on historical experience and also on assumptions that management considers reasonable. The Company assesses these estimates on a regular basis; however, actual results could differ from these estimates.

The World Health Organization declared in March 2020 that the recent outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) constituted a pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused general business disruption worldwide beginning in January 2020. While the Company has experienced, and may continue to experience an adverse impact on certain parts of its business, including a lengthening in the sales cycle for some prospective customers and delays in the delivery of professional services and trainings to customers, the Company’s results of operations, cash flows, and financial condition have not been adversely impacted to date. However, as certain customers or partners experience downturns or uncertainty in their own business operations or revenue resulting from the spread or resurgence of COVID-19, they may continue to decrease or delay their spending, request pricing discounts, or seek renegotiations of their contracts, any of which may result in decreased revenue and cash receipts for the Company. In addition, the Company may continue to experience customer losses, including due to bankruptcy or customers ceasing operations, which may result in an inability to collect accounts receivable from these customers. The full extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic will directly or indirectly impact the Company’s business, results of operations, cash flows, and financial condition will depend on future developments that are highly uncertain and cannot be accurately predicted.

The global impact of COVID-19 continues to rapidly evolve, and the Company will continue to monitor the situation and the effects on its business and operations closely. The Company does not yet know the full extent of potential impacts on its business or operations or on the global economy as a whole, particularly as the COVID-19 pandemic continues and persists for an extended period of time. Given the uncertainty, the Company cannot reasonably estimate the impact on its future results of operations, cash flows, or financial condition. As of the date of issuance of the condensed consolidated financial statements, the Company is not aware of any specific event or circumstance that would require it to update its estimates, its judgments, or the carrying value of its assets or liabilities. These estimates may change as new events occur and additional information is obtained, and are recognized in the condensed consolidated financial statements as soon as they become known. Actual results could differ from those estimates, and any such differences may be material to the Company’s condensed consolidated financial statements.
Revenue Recognition
The Company accounts for revenue in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 606, Revenue From Contracts With Customers (ASC 606) for all periods presented.

The Company delivers its platform over the internet as a service. Customers choose to consume the platform under either capacity arrangements, in which customers commit to a certain amount of consumption at specified prices, or under on-demand arrangements, in which the Company charges for use of the platform monthly in arrears. Under capacity arrangements, from which a majority of revenue is derived, the Company typically bills its customers annually in advance of their consumption. Revenue from on-demand arrangements typically relates to initial consumption as part of customer onboarding and, to a lesser extent, overage consumption beyond a customer’s contracted usage amount or following the expiration of a customer’s contract. Revenue from on-demand arrangements represented 3% of the Company’s revenue for each of the three and nine months ended October 31, 2020, and 4% of the Company’s revenue for each of the three and nine months ended October 31, 2019. The Company recognizes revenue as customers consume compute, storage, and data transfer resources under either of these arrangements. In limited instances, customers pay an annual deployment fee to gain access to a dedicated instance of a virtual private deployment. Deployment fees are recognized ratably over the contract term.

Customers do not have the contractual right to take possession of the Company’s platform. Pricing for the platform includes embedded support services, data backup and disaster recovery services, as well as future updates, when and if available, offered during the contract term.

Customer contracts for capacity typically have a term of one to four years. To the extent customers enter into such contracts and either consume the platform in excess of their capacity commitments or continue to use the platform after expiration of the contract term, they are charged for their incremental consumption. In many cases, customer contracts permit customers to roll over any unused capacity to a subsequent order, generally on the purchase of additional capacity. Customer contracts are generally non-cancelable during the contract term, although customers can terminate for breach if the Company materially fails to perform. For those customers who do not have a capacity arrangement, the Company’s on-demand arrangements generally have a monthly stated contract term and can be terminated at any time by either the customer or the Company.

For storage resources, consumption for a given customer is based on the average terabytes per month of all of such customer’s data stored in the platform. For compute resources, consumption is based on the type of compute resource used and the duration of use or, for some features, the volume of data processed. For data transfer resources, consumption is based on terabytes of data transferred, the public cloud provider used, and the region to and from which the transfer is executed.

The Company’s revenue also includes professional services and other revenue, which consists of consulting, on-site technical solution services, and training related to the platform. Professional services revenue is recognized over time based on input measures, including time and materials costs incurred relative to total costs, with consideration given to output measures, such as contract deliverables, when applicable. Other revenue consists of fees from customer training delivered on-site or through publicly available classes. Professional services and other revenue represented 7% and 6% of the Company’s revenue for the three and nine months ended October 31, 2020, respectively, and 5% and 4% of the Company’s revenue for the three and nine months ended October 31, 2019, respectively.

The Company determines revenue recognition in accordance with ASC 606 through the following five steps:

1) Identify the contract with a customer. The Company considers the terms and conditions of the contracts and the Company’s customary business practices in identifying its contracts under ASC 606. The Company determines it has a contract with a customer when the contract has been approved by both parties, it can identify each party’s rights regarding the services to be transferred and the payment terms for the services, it has determined the customer to have the ability and intent to pay, and the contract has commercial substance. At contract inception, the Company evaluates whether two or more contracts should be combined and accounted for as a single contract and whether the combined or single contract includes more than one performance obligation. The Company applies judgment in determining the customer’s ability and intent to pay, which is based on a variety of factors, including the customer’s payment history or, in the case of a new customer, credit and financial information pertaining to the customer.
2) Identify the performance obligations in the contract. Performance obligations promised in a contract are identified based on the services that will be transferred to the customer that are both capable of being distinct, whereby the customer can benefit from the service either on its own or together with other resources that are readily available from third parties or from the Company, and are distinct in the context of the contract, whereby the transfer of the services is separately identifiable from other promises in the contract. The Company treats consumption of its platform for compute, storage, and data transfer resources as one single performance obligation because they are consumed by customers as a single, integrated offering. The Company does not make any one of these resources available for consumption without the others. Instead, each of compute, storage, and data transfer work together to drive consumption on the Company’s platform. The Company treats its virtual private deployments for customers, professional services, on-site technical solution services, and training each as a separate and distinct performance obligation. Some customers have negotiated an option to purchase additional capacity at a stated discount. These options generally do not provide a material right as they are priced at the Company’s SSP, as described below, as the stated discounts are not incremental to the range of discounts typically given.

3) Determine the transaction price. The transaction price is determined based on the consideration the Company expects to receive in exchange for transferring services to the customer. Variable consideration is included in the transaction price if, in the Company’s judgment, it is probable that a significant future reversal of cumulative revenue recognized under the contract will not occur. None of the Company’s contracts contain a significant financing component. Revenue is recognized net of any taxes collected from customers, which are subsequently remitted to governmental entities (e.g., sales and other indirect taxes).

4) Allocate the transaction price to performance obligations in the contract. If the contract contains a single performance obligation, the entire transaction price is allocated to the single performance obligation. Contracts that contain multiple performance obligations require an allocation of the transaction price to each performance obligation based on a relative SSP. The determination of a relative SSP for each distinct performance obligation requires judgment. The Company determines SSP for performance obligations based on overall pricing objectives, which take into consideration market conditions and customer-specific factors, including a review of internal discounting tables, the services being sold, the volume of capacity commitments, and other factors.

5) Recognize revenue when or as the Company satisfies a performance obligation. Revenue is recognized at the time the related performance obligation is satisfied by transferring the promised service to a customer. Revenue is recognized when control of the services is transferred to the customers, in an amount that reflects the consideration that the Company expects to receive in exchange for those services. The Company determined an output method to be the most appropriate measure of progress because it most faithfully represents when the value of the services is simultaneously received and consumed by the customer, and control is transferred. Virtual private deployment fees are recognized ratably over the term of the deployment as the deployment service represents a stand-ready performance obligation provided throughout the deployment term.

Revenue consists of the following (in thousands):
Three Months Ended October 31,Nine Months Ended October 31,
2020201920202019
Product revenue$148,473 $69,213 $375,506 $169,797 
Professional services and other revenue11,151 3,799 26,078 7,259 
Total$159,624 $73,012 $401,584 $177,056 
Stock-Based Compensation
The Company measures and recognizes compensation expense for all stock-based awards, including stock options, restricted stock awards, restricted stock units (RSUs) granted to employees, directors, and non-employees, and stock purchase rights granted under the Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) to employees, based on the estimated fair value of the awards on the date of grant. The fair value of each stock option granted and ESPP is estimated using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model. The determination of the grant-date fair value using an option-pricing model is affected by the estimated fair value of the Company’s common stock as well as assumptions regarding a number of other complex and subjective variables. These variables include expected stock price volatility over the expected term of the award, actual and projected employee stock option exercise behaviors, the risk-free interest rate for the expected term of the award, and expected dividends. The fair value of each RSU is based on the fair value of the Company’s common stock on the date of grant.
Stock-based compensation is generally recognized on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period. The Company also grants certain awards that have performance-based vesting conditions. Stock-based compensation expense for such awards is recognized using an accelerated attribution method from the time it is deemed probable that the vesting condition will be met through the time the service-based vesting condition has been achieved. If an award contains a provision whereby vesting is accelerated upon a change in control, the Company recognizes stock-based compensation expense on a straight-line basis, as a change in control is considered to be outside of the Company’s control and is not considered probable until it occurs. Forfeitures are accounted for in the period in which they occur.
Concentration of Credit Risk
Financial instruments that potentially subject the Company to credit risk primarily consist of cash, cash equivalents, investments, restricted cash, and accounts receivable. The Company maintains its cash, cash equivalents, investments, and restricted cash with high-quality financial institutions with investment-grade ratings. For accounts receivable, the Company is exposed to credit risk in the event of nonpayment by customers to the extent of the amounts recorded on the condensed consolidated balance sheets.

For purposes of assessing concentration of credit risk and significant customers, a group of customers under common control or customers that are affiliates of each other are regarded as a single customer. The Company’s significant customers that represented 10% or more of revenue or accounts receivable, net for the periods presented were as follows:
RevenueAccounts Receivable, Net
Three Months Ended October 31,Nine Months Ended October 31,October 31,January 31
202020192020201920202020
Customer A***12 %**
________________
*Less than 10%
Accounts Receivable
Accounts receivable includes billed and unbilled receivables, net of allowance of doubtful accounts. Trade accounts receivable are recorded at invoiced amounts and do not bear interest. The expectation of collectability is based on a review of credit profiles of customers, contractual terms and conditions, current economic trends, and historical payment experience. The Company regularly reviews the adequacy of the allowance for doubtful accounts by considering the age of each outstanding invoice and the collection history of each customer to determine the appropriate amount of allowance for doubtful accounts. Accounts receivable deemed uncollectible are charged against the allowance for doubtful accounts when identified. Allowance for doubtful accounts was not material as of October 31, 2020 and January 31, 2020.
Unbilled accounts receivable represents revenue recognized on contracts for which billings have not yet been presented to customers largely due to overage and on-demand capacity usage, as well as time-and-materials billed in arrears. The unbilled accounts receivable balance is due within one year. As of October 31, 2020 and January 31, 2020, unbilled accounts receivable of $3.1 million and $2.0 million, respectively, was included in accounts receivable, net on the condensed consolidated balance sheets.
Deferred Commissions
Sales commissions tied to new customer or customer expansion contracts earned by the Company’s sales force are considered incremental and recoverable costs of obtaining a contract with a customer. These incremental costs are deferred and then amortized over a period of benefit that is determined to be five years. The Company determined the period of benefit by taking into consideration the length of terms in its customer contracts, life of the technology, and other factors. Amounts expected to be recognized within one year of the balance sheet date are recorded as deferred commissions, current, and the remaining portion is recorded as deferred commissions, non-current, on the consolidated balance sheets. Amortization expense is included in sales and marketing expenses in the consolidated statements of operations. As a result of modifications to the Company’s sales compensation plan during the nine months ended October 31, 2020, a portion of the sales commissions paid to the sales force is earned based on the rate of the customers’ consumption of the Company’s platform, in addition to a portion of the commissions earned upon the origination of the new customer or customer expansion contract. Sales commissions tied to customers’ consumption are not considered incremental costs and are expensed in the same period as they are earned. Deferred commissions are periodically analyzed for impairment. There were no impairment losses relating to the deferred commissions during each of the three and nine months ended October 31, 2020 and 2019.
Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted
In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-13, Financial InstrumentsCredit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments, which requires a financial asset measured at amortized cost basis to be presented at the net amount expected to be collected, with further clarifications made more recently. For trade receivables, loans, and other financial instruments, the Company will be required to use a forward-looking expected loss model rather than the incurred loss model for recognizing credit losses which reflects losses that are probable. Credit losses relating to available-for-sale debt securities are required to be recorded through an allowance for credit losses rather than as a reduction in the amortized cost basis of the securities. This guidance is effective for the Company for its fiscal year beginning February 1, 2023 and interim periods within that fiscal year. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of the adoption of this guidance on its condensed consolidated financial statements.

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-15, Intangibles—Goodwill and Other—Internal-Use Software, which aligns the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred in a hosting arrangement that is a service contract with the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred to develop or obtain internal-use software (and hosting arrangements that include an internal-use software license). The accounting for the service element of a hosting arrangement that is a service contract is not affected by this new guidance. This new guidance is effective for the Company for its fiscal year beginning February 1, 2021 and interim periods within its fiscal year beginning February 1, 2022. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of the adoption of this guidance on its condensed consolidated financial statements.

In December 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-12, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes, which simplifies the accounting for income taxes by eliminating some exceptions to the general approach in ASC 740, Income Taxes in order to reduce cost and complexity of its application. This new guidance is effective for the Company for its fiscal year beginning February 1, 2022 and interim periods within its fiscal year beginning February 1, 2023. Early adoption is permitted. The Company does not expect the adoption of this guidance will have a material impact on its condensed consolidated financial statements.