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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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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.
Last week, President Rodrigo Duterte sent to Congress the proposed national budget for 2017. This P3.35-trillion budget, which represents an increase of 11.6 percent over the current year’s budget, is by far the country’s biggest.
The President described his budget proposals as “for the people and by the people.” That seems true. Look at the budget details, provisions by sector. The largest allocation, P1.34 trillion, is for social services, more than half of which for education, culture, and manpower development. Actually, the increase in intended expenses for social services is even higher compared with the increases in all other sectors combined.
On the other hand, if we view the proposed budget in terms of program or objective, we’ll see that an increasing share of the budget is allocated for public infrastructure with capital outlays 15.6 percent larger than the current operating expenditures which will increase by a little over 10 percent. This supports the President’s assessment that this is an expansionary budget. The government is intentionally increasing the share of public spending at 21 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), which is much higher than the average government spending of 16.6 percent of GDP over the past ten years.
Also, consistent with the President’s strong platform of social order, the provision collectively for the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has risen by about 19 percent, and this does not yet include his promised increase in salaries for the police and soldiers which will be made in another proposal.
All of these increases in cash outflows come with an expected strain on the country’s fiscal position. The deficit, or excess of expenses over revenues, is expected to be higher at almost P480 billion or 3 percent of the GDP (previously targeted at 2 percent by the Aquino government for both 2015 and 2016).
Fiscal conservatives might want to sound the alarm, but we have to put this in perspective. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to view the operations of the national government like a regular corporation. For example, if we are to lend money to Philippines Inc. to fund this 2017 plan, should we be worried? The quick answer is: No.
First, a higher deficit need not be a serious concern because the Philippines has a healthy level of international reserves (or foreign currency financial assets of the government that can back its liabilities). Latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) puts the country’s international reserves at $85.5 billion—a respectable level that is even higher compared with those of richer countries like Canada, Australia and several large European economies.
Second, the peso value of the country’s debt may be increasing but the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is at its lowest level. If we simplify GDP as the country’s total revenues, we can say that its debt is more sustainable because the country’s ability to pay back its borrowed money has significantly improved these past few years. A testament to this improvement is the numerous credit rating upgrades we received during Aquino’s term.
Third, a creditor will be happy to note that there is a steady stream of cash inflows to Philippines, Inc. We all know of the contributions of our OFWs—remittances of $28.5 billion were recorded for 2015 according to the BSP, and the yearly increase is expected to continue. Besides the OFWs, our local workers in the BPO sector are also bringing in foreign currency inflows. Revenues of the BPO sector is estimated conservatively at $22 billion in 2015 and we can assume that a large part of this represents salaries of the industry’s 1.3 million employees.
Fourth, the President and his finance team promised a tax reform package that aims to increase the government’s tax revenues. At the center of the soon-to-be proposed tax package is the lowering of tax rates for corporations and a more progressive income tax brackets for individuals. These will then be compensated by the expansion of the value-added tax base and the indexation to inflation excise taxes on oil. Overall, the President believes that the government’s revenue collections as a percentage of the GDP will even improve to 18 percent by 2022 versus the 2015 level of 15.8 percent.
Lastly, the increase in deficit is actually lower than the combined increases in education and infrastructure budgets.
A creditor might observe that Philippines, Inc. is borrowing funds to support the training of its employees (citizens) and to expand its property, plant and equipment—areas that are expected to provide higher returns in the future compared with the cost of borrowing today. What they say in the private sector is also true for the public sector—you have to spend money to make money.
Renan Piamonte is an Audit & Assurance partner of P&A Grant Thornton. P&A Grant Thornton is one of the leading Audit, Tax, Advisory, and Outsourcing firm in the Philippines, with 21 Partners and over 700 staff members.
As published in The Manila Times dated August 24, 2016