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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.
Ma. Victoria Españo and the 'Butterfly' Effect
18 Jan 2018IN the business community, she is known for her extensive experience in taxation and organizational management. Ma. Victoria Españo, the new president of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX), however, admits that her journey to her current leadership role has been unexpected and unplanned, much like a “butterfly effect.”
“I have always been searching for something new to learn,” confesses Españo. “My mother would chide me for being a ‘butterfly’—always moving from one job to another. She was worried I’d be left with measly retirement benefits as I was too restless to stay in one job.”
This restless spirit, the constant hunger to make things better, learn new skills and competencies, are the very tools she uses in her current role in Punongbayan & Araullo (P&A Grant Thornton), one of the Philippines’ top 5 auditing firms. As its chairperson and chief executive officer, Españo is known for her management style that enforces strict discipline, as well as inspires people to achieve unexpected but remarkable results, ultimately developing followers into leaders.
Toughening up
Hard lessons from a long career in taxation saw the young and restless Españo toughen up into a lady boss.
After graduating as a Department of Science and Technology scholar of the BS Math for Teachers program at Philippine Normal University, she became a legislative liaison specialist at the National Tax Research Center (NTRC) of the Department of Finance (DoF). She got actively involved in the formulation of significant tax legislations such as the expanded value-added tax and the comprehensive tax reform program in the late 1980s.
She thrived in interesting yet ‘taxing’ times: the country was under a debt moratorium, inflation and interest rates were skyrocketing, and government assets were being sold to avert a fiscal crisis. “To a big extent, the work was very much highly politicized, as may be expected. We would talk to legislators to push for certain tax reforms,” said the former bureaucrat, who counts the late NTRC Executive Director Angel Yoingco and former DoF Undersecretary Milwida Guevara as her mentors.
Españo found herself juggling her work at the DoF, completing her master’s degree in accountancy, passing the CPA Board exam, and building a young family. Still, her restlessness drove her to shift careers. She quit her DoF post for an auditing firm, but then returned after two weeks, convinced that her role in tax policy formulation is important. Soon after, she again left for Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific Company (AG&P), then the country’s leading construction company. She even briefly dabbled in entrepreneurship, selling goods in a tiangge (bazaar) just to know what she really wanted to do.
After experiencing several work roles in six organizations over a span of 12 years, Españo finally found a home in P&A Grant Thornton in 1997. “I fell in love with tax practice! I found the challenging work that I was searching for in P&A, as there was so much room for me to grow and continuously improve. Our founders, Ben Punongbayan and Jose Araullo, have created an environment where people can thrive and flourish,” she shares. “Dealing with clients that share the same growth mindset is also inspiring.”
Rebuilding for success
Españo joined P&A Grant Thornton as a tax manager more than 20 years ago at the height of the Asian financial crisis. It was a challenging time but also a good one for audit and business advisory. Companies were scrambling to restructure debts and clean up their books to survive.
She became a partner in P&A in 1999, and later headed its tax advisory and compliance division, from 2002 to 2005. After a decade, she became managing partner and chief operating officer (COO), and was named as CEO after only two years, eventually succeeding P&A founder Benjamin Punongbayan as chairperson. “The demands of the role are huge, but I am blessed to have a very supportive husband and three patient and appreciative children,” Españo emphasized.
P&A vastly transformed since its partnership with Grant Thornton in 2003 and amid rapid technological changes. “As we started the new affiliation in 2003, we knew we had to strengthen our strategy and business development activities and produce thought leadership initiatives. We did successfully, with the strong commitment of the partners of the firm and its people, and the support of our clients,” said Españo. Today, P&A Grant Thornton has more than 900 employees and 21 partners in audit and assurance, tax advisory and compliance, advisory services, and business process solutions (outsourcing). At the helm of the auditing firm, she continues to lead the organization to prepare its people for the future.
Transforming financial leaders of the future
Españo said her transformational leadership experience in P&A comes in handy in wearing her new hat as the new president of FINEX, the country’s premiere organization of finance professionals and business leaders advocating financial expertise and good corporate governance.
She also leans on her vast experience in a number of professional memberships, including being elected to the global Board of Governors of Grant Thornton International Ltd. in 2015 (where she is still a member), and a member of highly influential organizations such as the Management Association of the Philippines, Women’s Business Council (WBC), Shareholders’ Association of the Philippines (SharePhil), Makati Business Club, and the Association of CPAs in Public Practice. She is also a fellow of the Institute of Corporate Directors and a member of the Board of Directors of the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA), where she is serving a three-year term until June 2020, and will be the chair of the PICPA Metro Manila Council by July 2018.
Businesses are transforming and preparing for the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution. Españo shares: “I have seen how FINEX, as the leading national organization of finance professionals and practitioners, contributes to the advancement of financial knowledge and expertise. Through the able leadership of our past presidents and the multitude of members who have actively participated and supported its different initiatives over the past 50 years, the institute has made significant achievement in supporting the development of finance executives, strengthening our government institutions and building a stronger Philippine economy.”
She sees FINEX’s significant role in the transformation. “It’s necessary to encourage a growth mindset in our professionals, especially the new blood, no matter what level they are in. Let’s develop them, not just technically but holistically: think critically and creatively, collaborate and support initiatives outside of their job description,” the new FINEX president said.
For the young and the restless who will map out the workplace of the future, the new FINEX head has this piece of advice: “Look at every opportunity as a chance to grow rather than merely something you need to do because it’s work. Get going and make things happen. Transform things, now.”
As published in The Manila Times, dated 19 January 2018