Accrued Expenses and Other Current Liabilities

9 Months Ended

Apr. 30, 2011

Accrued Expenses and Other Current Liabilities

Accrued Expenses and Other Current Liabilities

(9)            Accrued Expenses and Other Current Liabilities

                Accrued expenses and other current liabilities consist of the following:

	April 30, 2011	July 31, 2010
Accrued wages and benefits	$      18,084,000	21,607,000
Accrued warranty obligations	8,846,000	10,562,000
Accrued commissions and royalties	4,329,000	2,997,000
Accrued business acquisition payments	492,000	1,350,000
Other	11,325,000	16,882,000
Accrued expenses and other current liabilities	$      43,076,000	53,398,000

We provide warranty coverage for most of our products for a period of at least one year from the date of shipment. We record a liability for estimated warranty expense based on historical claims, product failure rates and other factors. Some of our product warranties are provided under long-term contracts, the costs of which are incorporated into our estimates of total contract costs.

Changes in our product warranty liability during the nine months ended April 30, 2011 and 2010 were as follows:

	April 30, 2011	April 30, 2010
Balance at beginning of period	$    10,562,000	14,500,000
Provision for warranty obligations	5,976,000	5,330,000
Reversal of warranty liability	(1,120,000)	(888,000)
Warranty obligation transferred with sale of certain assets and liabilities	-	(400,000)
Charges incurred	(6,572,000)	(6,677,000)
Balance at end of period	$      8,846,000	11,865,000