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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.
Protecting your business from cybercrime
23 Feb 2016By: Adam Lippa
22 February 2016
If there’s one truth in today’s cyber age, it’s that no business is immune from a cyberattack. Given the increasing amount of business information that’s stored online—or in external-facing (aka Internet-connected) devices—it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there are a seemingly endless number of cyber criminals out there vying for your data and pertinent information.
While an attacker may reap a more significant reward from hacking into a larger company, it’s a lot easier—and, in some ways, can be more lucrative—to target small businesses. This is primarily because, simply put, small businesses think they’re too small to be attacked. They don’t have the big bucks to invest in an IT department, so they often forgo an IT defense system altogether. This is a huge mistake.
It doesn’t have to cost a lot to avoid becoming a victim of cybercrime. Essentially, you need a two-pronged defense strategy—one that keeps external threats out and simultaneously manages the internal ones. There are a few elements you can implement to do this effectively, without breaking the bank.
External threats
Detecting an unprotected network is rather easy to do. Cyber criminals deploy automated searches using botnets—a type of code—that run scans of various networks and sends reports back to the attacker. The simplest way to prevent an attack, therefore, is to protect your system from being identified by the attackers and botnets, in the first place.
The best way to do this is by installing a firewall. You may need assistance in configuring this defense measure—which really won’t cost very much—but essentially you want to choose the setting “deny all” to prevent all external threats from entering your network. Once that’s done, you can create an approved list of sites and network traffic that the firewall can allow in.
Another way to combat external threats is to change all your defaults—namely, the default passwords on all external-facing devices (such as your router and firewall), as well as the names of your wireless networks. A virtually impenetrable password is at least 15 characters long, with a good mix of numbers and upper and lower case letters.
When it comes to naming your wireless network, avoid anything that would allow an outsider to figure out which network is yours. The more obscure the name, the better—and always make sure to have a strong password and the wireless encryption turned on.
To make sure you’ve plugged as many external security holes as possible, take advantage of free online network scanners available at websites like qualys.com. These sites scan your system for known vulnerabilities and offer suggestions to fix any holes. Performing this 15-minute scan every quarter is a baseline recommendation so you are aware of any recent security weaknesses with your network.
Internal threats
For most “inside jobs” there was likely some existing weaknesses or vulnerabilities to internal IT security and controls. When it comes to protecting your company’s data and important information from the inside, your ultimate goal is to remain in control—and limit the number of people that have access to your classified information.
Many of the steps required to achieve this are very similar to managing external threats—strong passwords, for example, are essential when protecting important areas of information. You also want to use reputable, up-to-date anti-malware and anti-virus software, and ensure only Administrators have access to such installations.
Lastly, it’s critical to have a good method of backing up your data—and for most small businesses, the cloud is the safest and most cost-effective way to do this. Backing up important information properly will allow your business to recover from loss due to theft, hardware malfunctions or data corruption.
While leveraging some IT security consultants is never a bad thing, by following the above steps you can keep those costs to a minimum, and set down some basic but critical security measures to keep your business networks safe.
The author is the Manager of Advisory Services at Grant Thornton LLP (Canada). Grant Thornton International Ltd. is a leading global business adviser that helps dynamic organizations unlock their potential for growth. Punongbayan & Araullo (P&A) is the Philippine member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd. For inquiries, you may direct them to 988-2288 ext. 760 or visit our website at grantthornton.com.ph
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Notes to editors:
About P&A Grant Thornton
P&A Grant Thornton is a leading professional services firm with a proven track record of high-quality work. P&A provides value-added services to clients through a client-caring team of audit, tax and business professionals who utilize leading-edge systems and technology and are guided by the highest standards of quality, integrity and competence.
About Grant Thornton International Ltd*
Grant Thornton is one of the world's leading organisations of independent assurance, tax and advisory firms. These firms help dynamic organisations unlock their potential for growth by providing meaningful, actionable advice through a broad range of services. Proactive teams, led by approachable partners in these firms, use insights, experience and instinct to solve complex issues for privately owned, publicly listed and public sector clients. Over 31,000 Grant Thornton people, across 100 countries, are focused on making a difference to clients, colleagues and the communities in which we live and work.
Grant Thornton International is a non-practicing, international umbrella entity organised as a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. References to "Grant Thornton" are to the brand under which the Grant Thornton member firms operate and refer to one or more member firms, as the context requires. Grant Thornton International and the member firms are not a worldwide partnership. Services are delivered independently by member firms, which are not responsible for the services or activities of one another. Grant Thornton International does not provide services to clients.
*All references to Grant Thornton International in the press release and this “Notes to editor” section are to Grant Thornton International Ltd. Grant Thornton International Ltd is a non-practicing, international umbrella entity organized as a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales.
As published in The Philippine Star dated 23 February 2016