As discussed in the “Management Representation Letter” section of this chapter, Section 302 of SOX requires the CEO and CFO of public companies to sign a certification statement when the financial statements are filed with the SEC. You can access these documents through a public company’s website. For example, in your web browser, search “Starbucks Investor Relations.” The website link will be the first item in the search. Select SEC Filings. On the SEC Filings page you can search for all of Starbucks’ filings with the SEC. In the Year filter, select the most current year or you can leave it as All Years, and in the Groupings Filter, select Annual Filings, then click Submit. The 10-K filings will appear. You can download the 10-K in Word, PDF, or Excel format. Once downloaded, scroll to the end of the document. (It is very long, usually about 200 pages.) The certification statements are the last pages of the Starbucks 10-K. (Note that you can use this same procedure to access the 10-K for any public company.)

Required

Read the certification statements and compare them to the management representation letter in Illustration 14.12. Differentiate between the certification statement and the management representation letter. Be specific with your responses.