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Audit approach overview
Our audit approach will allow our client's accounting personnel to make the maximum contribution to the audit effort without compromising their ongoing responsibilities
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Annual and short period audit
At P&A Grant Thornton, we provide annual and short period financial statement audit services that go beyond the normal expectations of our clients. We believe strongly that our best work comes from combining outstanding technical expertise, knowledge and ability with exceptional client-focused service.
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Review engagement
A review involves limited investigation with a narrower scope than an audit, and is undertaken for the purpose of providing limited assurance that the management’s representations are in accordance with identified financial reporting standards. Our professionals recognize that in order to conduct a quality financial statement review, it is important to look beyond the accounting entries to the underlying activities and operations that give rise to them.
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Other Related Services
We make it a point to keep our clients abreast of the developments and updates relating to the growing complexities in the accounting world. We offer seminars and trainings on audit- and tax-related matters, such as updates on Accounting Standards, new pronouncements and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) issuances, as well as other developments that affect our clients’ businesses.
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Tax advisory
With our knowledge of tax laws and audit procedures, we help safeguard the substantive and procedural rights of taxpayers and prevent unwarranted assessments.
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Tax compliance
We aim to minimize the impact of taxation, enabling you to maximize your potential savings and to expand your business.
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Corporate services
For clients that want to do business in the Philippines, we assist in determining the appropriate and tax-efficient operating business or investment vehicle and structure to address the objectives of the investor, as well as related incorporation issues.
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Tax education and advocacy
Our advocacy work focuses on clarifying the interpretation of laws and regulations, suggesting measures to increasingly ease tax compliance, and protecting taxpayer’s rights.
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Business risk services
Our business risk services cover a wide range of solutions that assist you in identifying, addressing and monitoring risks in your business. Such solutions include external quality assessments of your Internal Audit activities' conformance with standards as well as evaluating its readiness for such an external assessment.
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Business consulting services
Our business consulting services are aimed at addressing concerns in your operations, processes and systems. Using our extensive knowledge of various industries, we can take a close look at your business processes as we create solutions that can help you mitigate risks to meet your objectives, promote efficiency, and beef up controls.
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Transaction services
Transaction advisory includes all of our services specifically directed at assisting in investment, mergers and acquisitions, and financing transactions between and among businesses, lenders and governments. Such services include, among others, due diligence reviews, project feasibility studies, financial modelling, model audits and valuation.
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Forensic advisory
Our forensic advisory services include assessing your vulnerability to fraud and identifying fraud risk factors, and recommending practical solutions to eliminate the gaps. We also provide investigative services to detect and quantify fraud and corruption and to trace assets and data that may have been lost in a fraud event.
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Cyber advisory
Our focus is to help you identify and manage the cyber risks you might be facing within your organization. Our team can provide detailed, actionable insight that incorporates industry best practices and standards to strengthen your cybersecurity position and help you make informed decisions.
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ProActive Hotline
Providing support in preventing and detecting fraud by creating a safe and secure whistleblowing system to promote integrity and honesty in the organisation.
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Accounting services
At P&A Grant Thornton, we handle accounting services for several companies from a wide range of industries. Our approach is highly flexible. You may opt to outsource all your accounting functions, or pass on to us choice activities.
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Staff augmentation services
We offer Staff Augmentation services where our staff, under the direction and supervision of the company’s officers, perform accounting and accounting-related work.
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Payroll Processing
Payroll processing services are provided by P&A Grant Thornton Outsourcing Inc. More and more companies are beginning to realize the benefits of outsourcing their noncore activities, and the first to be outsourced is usually the payroll function. Payroll is easy to carve out from the rest of the business since it is usually independent of the other activities or functions within the Accounting Department.
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Our values
Grant Thornton prides itself on being a values-driven organisation and we have more than 38,500 people in over 130 countries who are passionately committed to these values.
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Global culture
Our people tell us that our global culture is one of the biggest attractions of a career with Grant Thornton.
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Learning & development
At Grant Thornton we believe learning and development opportunities allow you to perform at your best every day. And when you are at your best, we are the best at serving our clients
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Global talent mobility
One of the biggest attractions of a career with Grant Thornton is the opportunity to work on cross-border projects all over the world.
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Diversity
Diversity helps us meet the demands of a changing world. We value the fact that our people come from all walks of life and that this diversity of experience and perspective makes our organisation stronger as a result.
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In the community
Many Grant Thornton member firms provide a range of inspirational and generous services to the communities they serve.
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Behind the Numbers: People of P&A Grant Thornton
Discover the inspiring stories of the individuals who make up our vibrant community. From seasoned veterans to fresh faces, the Purple Tribe is a diverse team united by a shared passion.
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Fresh Graduates
Fresh Graduates
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Students
Whether you are starting your career as a graduate or school leaver, P&A Grant Thornton can give you a flying start. We are ambitious. Take the fact that we’re the world’s fastest-growing global accountancy organisation. For our people, that means access to a global organisation and the chance to collaborate with more than 40,000 colleagues around the world. And potentially work in different countries and experience other cultures.
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Experienced hires
P&A Grant Thornton offers something you can't find anywhere else. This is the opportunity to develop your ideas and thinking while having your efforts recognised from day one. We value the skills and knowledge you bring to Grant Thornton as an experienced professional and look forward to supporting you as you grow you career with our organisation.
Auditing the auditors part 2
29 Feb 2016Conclusion
Last week I discussed about the global development in the accountancy profession amid news of inappropriate financial reporting or accounting scandals happening around the world, and the response of national professional regulators by setting up a regulatory body to oversee the conduct of an audit of companies by the external auditors [hereinafter, interchangeably referred to as external auditors or Certified Public Accountants (CPA) practitioners].
In our jurisdiction, our Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy (BOA) has adopted our own external audit Quality Assurance Review (QAR) Program, but is yet to implement it. Our Securities Exchange Commission, on the other hand, has been working on the revision of its Rules on Financial Statements Reporting that will include, among others, the implementation of its own QAR System of external auditors accredited by the commission, but is yet to be finalized and approved for implementation. Pending the implementation and approval for a QAR Program/System, there is no local regulatory body that currently audits the auditors in this country, which situation may be good or bad, or should I say, may pose both challenges and/or opportunities to our regulators; to companies being audited or the auditees; and to CPA practitioners, whether big firms or small or medium practitioners (SMP).
It is, indeed, a challenge to our regulators, at present, inasmuch as the extent of compliance of the CPA practitioners with the prescribed auditing and ethical standards and regulatory policies, particularly on the extent of the adoption or nonadoption of the quality assurance elements into the practice of the CPAs in the Philippines, is not known because they have not yet conducted a QAR on these CPA practitioners. Moreover, it could also taint the image of the whole Philippine accountancy profession because of the failure to implement the QAR Program/System, as it is one of the criteria set in the Asean corporate governance scorecard.
To the companies being audited, it is maybe a challenge as well, as they are not assured of the quality of audits conducted by their external auditors, which may expose them to undetected material or significant weaknesses in their internal control and may lead to material misstatements or fraud in their financial statements.
On the whole, the present developments would be an opportunity for CPA practitioners, especially for SMPs, as such would give them time to prepare, prior to the eventual implementation of the pending, but definitely coming, QAR Program/System. It is an opportunity that should be taken advantage by SMPs for them to evaluate their current practices and determine gaps needed to be addressed in order to put in place the necessary audit quality control in their practice before the QAR Program implementation. This may include the preparation of a Quality Control, Ethics and Risk Manual and development of a system for conflict checks and client acceptance risk assessment. In this regard, no less than our accredited CPA professional organization, the Philippine Institute of CPAs, has developed a voluntary QAR Program that will soon be available to all CPA practitioners, mostly for SMPs, where they can opt to be subjected to peer review to assist them in pointing out areas where audit quality improvements can be made to their respective audit practices. I kept on saying SMPs because QAR is not at all new to large CPA firms or firms that belong to international networks. These large firms have been subjected to internal QARs by their respective international network firms to ascertain their compliance with international auditing and quality control standards, and ethical and technical standards prescribed by their network firm. However, the BOA cannot use the results of the internal QAR of these local large CPA firms as the results are private in nature, and are not made available to the public. Moreover, the US PCAOB has conducted inspections or QAR to certain local large CPA firms who handle audits of local entities related to, or significant component of, US public companies.
In the end, auditing the external auditors creates a number of benefits to all stakeholders of the accountancy profession: (1) the BOA can ascertain the compliance of CPA practitioners/external auditors to the auditing and quality control standards, and ethical and technical standards it prescribes; thus, further uplifting the practice of accountancy in the Philippines to higher level of standards; (2) to CPA practitioners, the audit QAR shall help promote a culture of quality and good governance in their respective accounting practices; (3) the companies being audited will have peace of mind knowing that their external auditors put great regard to audit quality when they make independent assessments of compliance with financial reporting standards; and (4) more important, to the general public or users of audited financial statements (FS) for there will be a higher level or reasonable assurance that the financial information embodied in the FS certified by external auditors are reliable and credible.
In conclusion, the adoption and implementation of the QAR Program/System will generate a culture of quality and good governance among CPA practitioners, who become committed to ethical and quality control audit standards, and who uplift the delivery of audit services that will put reliability and credibility to the audited FS used by local and foreign businessmen in making sound business decisions. By then, our accountancy profession shall be able to justify its existence, and the significance of its role as one of the drivers of our nation’s development, economic growth and global competitiveness.
Jun Cuaresma is the managing partner and chief operating officer of P&A Grant Thornton. P&A Grant Thornton is a leading audit, tax advisory and outsourcing services firm and is the Philippine member of Grant Thornton International Ltd. He has been in public accounting for his entire professional career, with over 30 years of solid experience in the audit of local and international companies in various industries.
This column accepts contributions of articles from accountants that are of interest to the accountancy profession, in particular, and to the business community, in general. These can be e-mailed to boa.secretariat.@gmail.com.
As published in Business Mirror dated 29 February 2016
