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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.
A new world of financial reporting: General purpose financial statements repurposed
03 Jan 2018As business practices evolve and transactions become more complex, the world of financial reporting continuously changes to address the increasing needs of the business community. Both the international and local financial reporting standards continue to transform to include, in addition to the fair representation of past events, a high-level depiction of risk management practices and business strategies.
In welcoming 2018, the general purpose financial statements will be repurposed to enhance predictive value and usefulness to various stakeholders. In achieving so, the International Accounting Standards Board introduced two major standards, namely the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 9, Financial Instruments, and IFRS 15, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, which has veered away from the usual historical cost accounting, requiring the development of business and loss models, the exercise of professional judgment, and more significant estimates. These new standards will change how internal and external stakeholders will view the preparation and use of general purpose financial statements.
For internal stakeholders, the new world of financial reporting requires enhanced interaction and coordination among those charged with governance, senior executives, those involved in line operations, and those involved in staff functions. It requires that management decisions and business strategies are well rounded and communicated to the entire organization, because financial reports in this modern environment will include expectations of the future, resulting from current decisions.
Compared with previous financial reports where credit losses are recognized upon a loss event, the new world of financial reporting through IFRS 9 requires recognizing credit losses based on the probability the loss event will happen.
Furthermore, the new world of financial reporting through IFRS 15 requires a more detailed analysis of contracts with customers, with respect to performance obligations, duration, pricing, and other relevant terms. Such analysis is required because of the recognition of assets and liabilities arising from contracts with customers supplemented with more detailed disclosures on how current contracts will impact future operations.
Corollary to these changes, the new financial reporting framework also allows recognition of gains arising from good business decisions that are dependent on highly probable satisfaction of conditions. Thus, various stakeholders within the organization, from top to bottom, should coordinate properly to secure, to the extent possible, good expectations of the future arising from current business decisions, which will be reflected in the general purpose financial statements.
Similar to the impact on internal stakeholders, the new world of financial reporting requires external stakeholders to exercise critical thinking in reviewing the financial statements. Predictive value has been enhanced, too, as expectations of the future have been incorporated in the general purpose financial statements. External stakeholders will not only see the results of past decisions, but will be able to analyze how current decisions will impact future results, specifically those pertaining to credit losses and contracts with customers. Thus, the business decisions of external stakeholders, as a result of the enhanced requirements of the new financial reporting standards, are more informed of their future risks and returns.
Moreover, the extensive use of professional judgment in applying new standards also provides external stakeholders with high-level information about how corporate governance works, how management thinks, how risks are managed, and how the companies operate. Such judgment reveals how aggressive or conservative management is with respect to their operational, market, and credit risk and, also, how management contracts with their customers. Thus, the general purpose financial statements have been repurposed to be more useful in making business decisions based on carefully analyzing future expectations.
The new world of financial reporting does not only modify how internal and external stakeholders view the financial statements, but has also changed how accountants in all sectors function in today’s contemporary environment. There has been a heightened level of responsibility to analyze and communicate valuable information to various stakeholders.
For private accountants, the new world of financial reporting will not only entail an understanding of the usual reporting process. Private accountants should have an in-depth comprehension of the business and how various decisions will be reflected in the financial statements, thereby becoming a valuable partner in the success of the business.
External auditors, on the other hand, will need to enhance their procedures and capabilities to validate not only the numbers, but also the use of sound judgment in preparing the financial statements. An enhanced level of professional skepticism is required to complement the exercise of sound judgment.
Regulators, too, will have a substantial role in molding this new world of financial reporting. The regulatory supervision in ensuring that the new standards will be implemented consistently and properly across companies and industries is vital to achieving this cause.
Academicians also play a vital role in shaping the new world of financial reporting—being the educator of future private accountants, external auditors, and regulators. Education should also extend beyond numbers and emphasize the importance of holistic analysis of financial reporting (i.e., a result of coordinated effort, from business decisions to end results, of everyone within the organization).
The financial reports for the year ending December 31, 2018 will be different from previous years. While some may think of the new reporting standards as burdensome in terms of implementation, such change is required for better business decisions in the future.
The world of financial reporting has changed; it has evolved. We must be willing to take on the challenge of being more transparent in our financial reports to properly represent the impact of our decisions on future risks and returns. Simply put, past results will not always perfectly guide future performance, but future expectations from current business decisions will provide more valuable insights into how risks can be managed and how returns can be maximized. Now that the general purpose financial statements have been repurposed, are you ready for the new world of financial reporting?
Jamil Saripada is a senior manager of Audit & Assurance, P&A Grant Thornton. P&A Grant Thornton is one of the leading audit, tax, advisory and outsourcing firms in the Philippines, with 21 partners and over 850 staff members. For your comments, please email jamil.saripada@ph.gt.com or PAGrantThornton.marketscomm@ph.gt.com. For more information about P&A Grant Thornton, visit our website www.grantthornton.com.ph.)
As published in The Manila Times, dated 3 January 2018