-
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.
-
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.
Seeking reassurance: How the restaurant industry can recover
Mailene Sigue-Bisnar
20 Jan 2021
As the coronavirus pandemic rages, our Facebook timelines got filled with farewell posts from beloved small restaurants. Many netizens mourned their loss, especially those hole-in-the-wall establishments in or near universities or office buildings. “Made so many memories here, you will be missed,” one netizen wrote, voicing sadness for the closure of a famous eatery on Katipunan Avenue that many students flocked to.
As the pandemic continues to affect the restaurant industry, it is not difficult for owners to lose hope. Some measures they had to take were losing both customers and staff, adjusting to consumer preferences and closing their establishments. The enhanced community quarantine imposed on Luzon last March forced restaurant owners to close their doors for months, leaving them to decide between offering delivery services or waiting for the lockdown to be lifted. Takeouts and deliveries seemed possible, but most small restaurants were not ready for it, as they had to prepare food differently, invest in good packaging and sacrifice their unique dine-in experience. And waiting for the lockdown to be lifted can be likened to surrendering, as money only went to paying rent and utilities. Lots of tough decisions had to be made.
To recover, restaurant owners must examine their strengths and capabilities to come up with effective recovery strategies.
The past as an indicator
Even before Covid-19, the industry was already facing various challenges. The clamor for regularization surely caused owners to make the necessary adjustments. Prices of meat and seafood rose, affecting restaurants offering dishes based on those. Concept restaurants were also becoming oversaturated with similar offerings, making competition stiff. The pandemic only magnified the effects of these trends in those subsectors.
Although this is the case, it is not advisable to view the effects of Covid-19 as just worsening existing industry problems. For example, an underperforming establishment in the fast-food segment would still be doing better than a relatively small concept restaurant. Fast-food restaurants are exceeding their historical figures during the lockdowns, but numbers are likely to return to pre-Covid-19 levels after the pandemic ends.
Making tough decisions
For a restaurant, the path to survival starts with examining the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of each branch or store. Restaurant chains should review which portion of its footprint is performing or, at least, breaking even. Another key performance indicator to investigate closely is same-store sales performance. Using such data, management would be able to determine each store’s profitability and act accordingly.
If maximizing value is the goal, eliminating underperforming stores would be vital, as buyers are unlikely to invest in a company that unnecessarily shells out money. The most optimal strategy would be reorganizing around a profitable store base and taking out unprofitable leases.
On a more positive note, record years of fundraising and low-interest rates attracted private equity interest and investment in mergers and acquisitions. Buyers are not only interested in fast-food chains doing well amid Covid-19, but also casual and fine dining restaurants that are struggling.
What matters to buyers is the potential of still making money in the long term. Geography will have an impact on the profit of a store in an urban area, since the number of corporate gatherings is declining. Establishments in neighborhoods are suddenly outperforming those restaurants.
Long-term impact
Since there is hope for saving distressed restaurants with recent reports on the rollout of coronavirus vaccines, some trends may be more permanent.
Taking advantage of third-party delivery companies helped establishments thrive during the pandemic-induced economic downturn. The dependency on them has generated problems, including increase in service charges, which digs deeper into a restaurant’s profit margin. Once normal eating patterns return to normal, restaurants may gain negotiating leverage since their dependence would decrease.
Unfortunately, the impact of Covid-19 on casual and high-end dining may last. Since business lunches at high-end restaurants have stopped, restaurants that depend on these now struggle to generate income. Furthermore, many corporations cut down on client entertainment expenses this year, with their operations adhering to at-home arrangements. This begs the question on whether these restaurants would thrive again once business interactions return to normal.
Another problem would be the lack of employees, such as servers and chefs. Restaurant closures were likely to urge these people to leave the industry, and so the talent pool continues to diminish.
Relief from the government
The government has offered various tax relief measures for both big and small businesses with the passage of Republic Act 11494, or the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act. These include tax benefits for health workers, equipment, retirement and a longer period for claiming net operating losses carry over.
For micro, small and medium enterprises, agencies and institutions such as the Finance and Trade departments, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Social Security System, Philippine Economic Zone Authority and the Senate all issued various memos and announcements aimed to help ease doing business. These include the Small Business Wage Subsidy program; a 30-day grace period on commercial rent; postponement of rental payments for locators in certain ecozones; and the proposed Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act. For more details on these, it is recommended that small business owners regularly check the websites of these state units to keep themselves updated on the relief offerings that may be useful to them.
Pathways to success
Besides being certified foodies and having well-curated taste buds for good food, restaurant owners must be able to navigate the path to stability and profit. Doing so requires skills and knowledge that go beyond the four walls of the kitchen. They can seek advice from professionals and experts who are well-versed in the business side of the industry. This can be one way to become productive in assessing and proceeding with unbiased examinations of their business’ current situation.
Hopefully, the coronavirus would be eliminated soon, so that Filipinos can once again enjoy dining out with friends and family. The resilience of business owners in this trying time can make or break the future of the restaurant industry. It is up to them to play their cards right with chosen experts, so that they may find the way to not only recovery, but also growth.
Mai Sigue-Bisnar is a partner of the Audit and Assurance and Advisory Services Divisions of P&A Grant Thornton. P&A Grant Thornton is one of the leading audit, tax, advisory, and outsourcing firms in the Philippines with 22 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 mai.sigue-bisnar@ph.gt.com or
pagrantthornton@ph.gt.com. For more information, visit www.grantthornton.com.ph.
As published in The Manila Times, dated 20 January 2021