-
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
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Tax compliance
We aim to minimize the impact of taxation, enabling you to maximize your potential savings and to expand your business.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Global culture
Our people tell us that our global culture is one of the biggest attractions of a career with Grant Thornton.
-
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
-
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.
-
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.
-
In the community
Many Grant Thornton member firms provide a range of inspirational and generous services to the communities they serve.
-
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.
-
Fresh Graduates
Fresh Graduates
-
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.
-
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.
THE global economy has had its fair share of a rollercoaster ride last year. The onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic was swift and in a short span of time, economic projections took a turn for the worse. The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic left companies spinning in a downward spiral in an instant, all looking at a fast solution to keep operations up and running amid the imposition of health protocols and the necessity of employing remote transactions. The unforeseen impacts of the outbreak tested the resiliency of firms and their ability to adapt to changing situations.
Toward the end of 2020, when businesses have gradually learned to adapt to modern means of corporate management and operations, economic experts and analysts have expressed optimism that 2021 will be a year of soft or subdued recovery. In January, the World Bank announced in a report that the global economy is seen to grow in 2021 following a contraction last year. The report cited that while there is an anticipated recovery, governments and policymakers still have a tough challenge to face — that of addressing issues in debt management, budget policies, and structural reforms, among others.
In the Philippines, the same optimistic outlook was recorded. In another report, the World Bank forecast that although it sees the Philippine economy contracting by 8.1 percent in 2020, it will likely bounce back by 5.9 percent this year and by 6.0 percent in 2022. The rosy projection is in line with optimistic results of the fourth quarter survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS). Data gathered by the SWS showed that 91 percent of Filipinos remain hopeful that the economy will be able to weather the economic impacts of the global health crisis and will recover this year.
The results of these reports find support from signs of gradual economic progress including recovery of developed countries, increased remittances from overseas Filipino workers and the planned rollout of a mass vaccination program.
Three months into the anticipated year of recovery, the Philippine government announced that it is imposing another enhanced community quarantine as part of efforts to quell the spread of the Covid-19 virus, a statement which has since stirred renewed uncertainties across various economic sectors.
The announcement of another lockdown dashed hopes for recovery at least for the early part of the year for different firms, particularly those in the hospitality and tourism sectors, industries considered massively affected by the imposition of safety protocols during the pandemic. In addition to these industries, small businesses and start-ups constitute another sector, which remains in need of fresh support from the government during the new normal.
MSMEs in the Philippines
According to data released by the United Nations in October, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) comprise a majority of businesses in the Philippines and employ more than half (63 percent) of the country’s total workforce. Data from recent years also showed that these businesses constituted a considerable portion of the country’s gross domestic product. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas also stated that most MSMEs are situated within low-income areas and as such, serve as drivers of growth for local economies.
The current community quarantine in the country is another challenge that small businesses will have to face even as they find ways to go beyond their operational blueprints to spur business recovery. A year earlier, when the pandemic set in, a big chunk of MSMEs experienced challenges in operations. While a number of these businesses continued to operate albeit at decreased capacity, the first community quarantine put a dent on these companies’ financial statements.
Government support for small businesses
The Asian Development Bank cited in a post-webinar report that six months after the virus outbreak, many of these small businesses reopened despite a continued decline in domestic demand. Although the number of MSMEs, which reported low incomes decreased, overall, there was still a drop-in income across the segment. Challenges MSMEs faced during the period include access to additional funding. This is as MSMEs mainly relied on their own funds and other financial sources to stay afloat.
Government support was listed as one of the top measures that MSMEs desired, including business subsidies and tax reliefs. In addition, credit access provided by banks and financial institutions was also mentioned as a form of assistance that small businesses are looking forward to receiving. Such forms of assistance were earlier cited by the BSP as tools that can help MSMEs bounce back from the effects of the pandemic on their financials.
The recent passage of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (Create) Act provides significant tax reliefs to MSMEs in a bid to help them recover from the effects of the pandemic. Under the Create Law, small and medium corporations with net taxable income of not more than P5 million and total assets of not more than P100 million can avail of the 20-percent corporate income tax starting July 1, 2020. Small businesses with sales of not more than P3 million will pay 1 percent percentage tax only instead of 3 percent from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2023.
Moving forward, government assistance for micro-entrepreneurs can come in the form of direct financial aid. In fact, the government has laid out initial funding for MSMEs under its 2020 Covid-19 Rehabilitation Support Program. More similar funding projects either from the national government or local government units are anticipated to help small businesses cope with the effects of the health crisis.
The reality is that MSMEs must continue to address key challenges amid the pandemic. While these businesses are facing these issues head on by ramping up adaptive business measures, optimizing online platforms, reducing expenses and diversifying their product offerings, receiving government support would allow them to step up their game in solving these challenges.
To be able to spur economic growth and recovery, the answer is clear. The government (both the national and local government units) must come up with new initiatives and policies that will respond better to the needs of MSMEs, a sector that has already been dubbed a driver of economic growth. By implementing a mix of sound monetary and fiscal policies on top of continued financial support, the government can help fast-track the recovery of MSMEs which can, in the future, help the economy grow.
Wendell Ganhinhin is a partner and head at the Cebu and Davao Branches of P&A Grant Thornton. P&A Grant Thornton is one of the leading audit, tax, advisory, and outsourcing firms in the Philippines with 23 partners and more than 900 staff members. We’d like to hear from you! Tweet us: @GrantThorntonPH, like us on Facebook: P&A Grant Thornton, and email your comments to pagrantthornton@ph.gt.com. For more information, visit our website: www.grantthornton.com.ph
As published in The Manila Times, dated 07 April 2021