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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
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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
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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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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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Our people tell us that our global culture is one of the biggest attractions of a career with Grant Thornton.
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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
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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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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.
IT’S the most wonderful time of the year once again! More people can be seen strolling and shopping in the metro’s shopping malls, bazaars, and tiangges—availing of the season’s back-to-back sales and promotions on products. As more people go out to spend, however, vehicle traffic has also increased, resulting in congested roads and highways, longer time on the roads going to our destination and back home, and longer queues on the check out counters.
The stressful volume of vehicle traffic in the metro has led a lot of us to shop online. Online shops such as Amazon, Lazada, Zalora, Shopee, and OLX have recently gained popularity in the country. According to Statista, one of the leading statistics companies on the internet, revenue in the eCommerce in the Philippines amounts to US$1,237 million in 2017, and is expected to show an annual growth rate of 16.2%, resulting in a market volume of US$2,619 million in 2022.
Benefits of buying online
Consumers flock to online shops due to convenience, discounts and savings, and the wide array of selection in one website.
With just a few clicks, consumers can easily begin buying from shopping websites from their own internet-connected desktop computers, laptops, and mobile phones. After checking out their finds, consumers can begin waiting for the delivery of their purchases at their doorsteps in just a few days. The experience offered by these websites have lured some consumers away from the typical brick-and-mortar stores, going away with the usual physical experience of the product before the actual purchase.
Discounts and savings are what’s also driving consumers to online shops. In 2009, the Alibaba Group transformed China’s Single’s Day, the country’s de facto holiday for Chinese singletons, into a global shopping sale and generated huge revenues from this event. Last November 12, the Alibaba Group reported that it was able to generate US$25.3 billion of gross merchandise volume, which was greater than the total revenues generated by United States’ Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
With lesser people going to shopping malls and physical stores due to worsening traffic volume conditions and busier working schedules, people go to online shopping websites to purchase goods and services. These consumer market conditions are seen as an opportunity by major retailers. They have tapped the online platform to bring their products to new and existing consumers and generate additional revenues.
Opportunities in the market
As e-commerce industry in the Philippines grows, industry players have entered into several transactions to seize the opportunities the market brings. Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. recently acquired a 20% stake in the company that operates e-commerce site BeautyMNL, a leading local online retailer of personal care and beauty products. SM Investments Corporation has affiliated with Lazada to offer various fashion finds, accessories, and home and office products, among others. The Ayala Group completed its acquisition of a 49% stake in fashion and beauty website Zalora. In its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the Ayala Group aims to capture the growing opportunities in e-commerce amid a robust domestic consumer market and an increasingly digital environment.
Other than the obvious takers of opportunities, logistics companies have also beefed up their capacities to ride on the growing trend and on the ongoing “Build-Build-Build” program of the national government. One of the considerations in purchasing certain goods or services online is the transportation cost. Most consumers want to ensure that the cost of bringing the items or services to their doorsteps are reasonable enough, and that the time it will take for the delivery to reach them should take only days. According to FedEx, 44% of the reasons why consumers abandon their carts online are due to high shipping costs. Hence, logistics companies are now reducing more unnecessary costs accumulated in the process, improving operational efficiencies by leaning towards more automated processes, and building warehouses in major city hubs to support last mile deliveries, to become more attractive service providers.
Lately, conglomerates have been acquiring logistics providers to expand existing operations and to capture the growing deliveries as a result of increasing purchases online. This year, Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp. together with SM Investments Corp. bought indirect interests in the 2GO Group. Meanwhile, Metro Pacific’s MetroPac Movers, Inc. acquired Ace Logistics, a logistics firm also engaged in e-commerce delivery, after acquiring four other logistics businesses in 2016.
Future
The rise of online consumers is most likely expected to continue in the coming years due to the increase in the number of consumers getting connected to the internet, the increase in consumers’ disposable income as a result of the tax reform program of the national government and, of course, due to worsening road traffic conditions in major cities.
Our government, through the Department of Trade and Industry, have been very supportive of the growth of the e-commerce industry and has created a Philippine E-Commerce Roadmap 2016-2020. The objective is for e-commerce to contribute 25% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product by 2020.
Amidst the growth of online shopping, consumers shape the market. They gradually force industry players to adjust to rapidly changing conditions and to create an environment where both parties have a win-win situation: consumers save time while shopping, and retailers are allowed to make their products more accessible, not only in the domestic market, but also in the international market. After all, it is the digital age, it is a great time to make the gaps smaller, the markets larger, and Christmas merrier.
Andrew Macarayo is the In-charge 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. We are in Makati, Cavite, Cebu and Davao. For comments on this article, please email andrew.macarayo@ph.gt.com or PAGrantThornton.marketscomm@ph.gt.com. For our services,visit www.grantthornton.com.ph.
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As published in Mindanao Times, dated 29 December 2017