News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Tell HN: Anthropic expires paid credits after a year. Parent comment

Re:Tell HN: Anthropic expires paid credits after a year by benabbott on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @02:26PM (#44802145)
Because it does not cost them to provide in-game items (skins, weapons, etc.)

On the other hand, certainly does cost companies to provide compute.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tell HN: Anthropic expires paid credits after a year by Tade0 on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @07:06PM (#44805624)
How does Starbucks avoid the same with their vouchers?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tell HN: Anthropic expires paid credits after a year by xeromal on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @08:27PM (#44806245)
They hold 2 billion dollars worth of gift cards on the books.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tell HN: Anthropic expires paid credits after a year by foxglacier on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @09:42PM (#44806731)
They probably have a good model for what percentage of those will never be redeemed so they wouldn't have to count the whole $2 billion as a liability. The OP's one big customer would be harder to predict the future behavior of.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tell HN: Anthropic expires paid credits after a year by otterley on Wednesday August 06, 2025 @02:26AM (#44808402)
That’s not how accounting works. There’s no such thing as a probabilistic liability.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tell HN: Anthropic expires paid credits after a year by jacquesm on Wednesday August 06, 2025 @03:25AM (#44808796)
Let me introduce you to actuarial science:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actuarial_science

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tell HN: Anthropic expires paid credits after a year by otterley on Wednesday August 06, 2025 @11:50AM (#44813626)
I’m aware of actuarial science, but what does that have to do with accounting?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tell HN: Anthropic expires paid credits after a year by foxglacier on Thursday August 07, 2025 @10:36PM (#44832824)
Yes there is. See provisions and contingent liabilities.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tell HN: Anthropic expires paid credits after a year by otterley on Friday August 08, 2025 @03:56PM (#44841017)
Neither of these show up either on a balance sheet or cash flow statement. If a contingent liability is probable, you have to record it as a liability per GAAP.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tell HN: Anthropic expires paid credits after a year by foxglacier on Monday August 11, 2025 @11:17AM (#44865110)
Oh. Then what's the effect of the growing pile of unredeemed non-expiring gift vouchers that companies issue? Is there a little asterisk next to liabilities saying "but don't worry, we're sure we'll never have to pay this"?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tell HN: Anthropic expires paid credits after a year by ManlyBread on Wednesday August 06, 2025 @04:07AM (#44809150)
What? They have to run the servers all the same.
[ Parent | on HN ]