Starbucks Corporation - Understanding Financial Statements

1. Starbucks Corporation:  Understanding Financial Statements

a)        The nature of Starbuck’s business is to provide best quality beverages in a more fancy coffee shop. They focus in purchasing and roasting good quality of coffee beans and selling them by creating all kinds different beverages. According to Starbucks consolidated statements of earnings for fiscal years 2012 to 2013 we are able to see increased in revenue and total operating expenses. In the balance sheet from 2012 to 2013 we can also see that the total assets has increased by looking at the factors such as cash equivalents and property, plant and equipment. The goal of starts is always been to make money providing good quality over quantity and open to their customers to enjoy their coffee in nice stores where they even have free internet access and good set-up for customers to even get some work done while having their beverage without rushing them to leave.

b)        The commonly financial statements prepare for external reporting purposes are: balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. In the case of Starbucks their statements are consolidated which means combining financial statements of a parent company (Starbucks) and its subsidiaries and group it into one report. Starbucks titles their financial statements little different since their consolidated, these titles are: consolidated statements of comprehensive income, consolidated balance sheet and consolidated statements of cash flows.

c)        The publicly traded corporations typically prepare financial statements for external reporting purposes each quarter, which means every three months, four times a year.

d)        The company’s financial group (e.g. controller, staff accountants), CEO and CFO if the company has CFO are the ones responsible for the financial statements. The potential users of the Starbucks financial statements are investors to assess the risk and return of their investments.

e)        Starbucks external auditor is Deloitte & Touche LLP. The opinion letters that Starbucks received in 2013, one is the audited consolidated balance sheet of Starbucks and subsidiaries as of September 29, 2013 and related consolidated statements of earnings, comprehensive income, equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended September 29, 2013, providing them with an audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB, Internal Control- Integrated Framework (1992) and expressing an unqualified opinion dated November 18, 2013 on company’s internal control over financial reporting. The second letter is the audited internal control over financial reporting by providing them with an audit in accordance with PCAOB the consolidated statements as of and for the fiscal year ended September 29, 2013 and expressing an unqualified opinion on company’s financial statements.