Special Charges

12 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Special charges are incurred in connection with various transformative initiatives, restructuring and exit activities, and organizational changes to improve our business alignment and cost structure. Although these charges are infrequent and unusual in nature, additional Special charges are expected to be incurred. It is not practicable to estimate the amount of these future expected costs until such time as the evaluations are complete. The following table summarizes the Special charges recognized for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2020, 2019 and 2018.


Special charges	Year Ended September 30
	2020		2019		2018
Global information technology transformation	$	15.9	$	1.3	$	—
Workforce reduction plan	6.7		—		—
Integration-related activities	13.1		$	19.8	$	38.4
Site consolidation and other cost optimization activities, including related severance cost	5.8		7.3		15.9
Disposition	—		—		24.5
Legal claim recovery	—		—		(1.2)
Total Special charges	$	41.5	$	28.4	$	77.6

Global Information Technology Transformation

In fiscal 2019, management initiated a global information technology transformation, including rationalizing and transforming our enterprise resource planning software solutions and other complementary information technology systems. In addition to the expenses noted in the table above, $22.0 million and $2.0 million was capitalized as software in Other intangible assets and software, net for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

The objective of this initiative is to consolidate and streamline our key workstreams that interact with customers and vendors and support our financial reporting processes while maintaining the security of our data. The solutions designed under this initiative will be implemented over the next five to seven years.

Workforce Reduction Plan

On September 15, 2020, we committed to a workforce reduction plan as part of the continued business optimization initiatives to advance our strategy and growth platforms and improve our operations and cost structure. The workforce reduction plan includes a voluntary retirement program and involuntary severance actions. For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2020, we have incurred $6.7 million related to this initiative within Special charges. We expect substantially all costs related to the execution of the workforce reduction plan to be incurred in fiscal year ended 2021, which will bring the aggregated total cost to approximately $35 million.

Integration-Related Activities

We incurred costs, including severance and benefit costs, associated with business realignment and integration activities focused on reducing complexity, increasing efficiency, and improving our cost structure. We acquired several businesses in the fiscal years ended September 30, 2020 and 2019 as disclosed within Note 3. Business Combinations for which we also continue to incur integration-related costs and severance costs.

Site Consolidation and Other Cost Optimization Activities, Including Related Severance Cost

We continue to streamline our operations and simplify our supply chain by transforming and consolidating certain manufacturing and distribution operations.

Dispositions

In fiscal 2018, we recorded a loss of $24.5 million in Special charges related to the UHS Settlement Agreement.

Legal Claim Recovery

In fiscal 2018, we received a settlement payment for a legal claim and recorded a gain of $1.2 million in Special charges.

For all accrued severance and other benefit charges described above, we record reserves within Other current liabilities. The following table summarizes the reserve activity for severance and other benefits for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2020 and 2019:


Balance as of September 30, 2018	$	8.5
Expenses	16.4
Cash Payments	(15.1)
Reversals	(1.3)
Balance as of September 30, 2019	$	8.5
Expenses	14.6
Cash Payments	(11.1)
Reversals	(0.7)
Balance as of September 30, 2020	$	11.3