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Financial Reporting Advisory Services
Grant Thornton’s Financial Reporting Advisory Services (FRAS) team supports organisations through a diverse range of accounting and reporting services including transaction accounting, analysis and adoption of new International Financial Reporting Standards, training on new and complex standards, and other related services that enable organizations to achieve greater transparency and navigate through the ever-changing regulatory landscape.
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CFO Advisory Services
Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and finance teams periodically face difficulties in financial reporting and accounting. To address these issues and challenges GT’s team looks to reduce the periodic uncertainty faced by our clients around difficult reporting and accounting standards and can help overcome these difficulties with our CFO advisory services.
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International Financial Reporting Standards
Capability in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is one of our core skills. We have access to a full-time team responsible for high quality, consistent application of IFRS throughout the global organisation.
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International Public Sector Accounting Standards
We are equally experienced in the adoption and implementation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).
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In-Country Value
Grant Thornton is honored to be one of the Certifying Bodies to implement the National In-Country Value (ICV) Program for the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT)
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Staff Secondment Services
Finding qualified, skilled professionals for a specific purpose and time period can be a significant challenge for many organisations. We alleviate that challenge with a talent pool of highly motivated and technically trained individuals who have excellent soft skills and the agility to adapt quickly to varied client environments.
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Transformation Advisory
We can help you identify, understand and manage potential risks to safeguard your business and comply with regulatory requirements.
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M&A and Transactions Advisory
We can support you throughout the transaction process – helping achieve the best possible outcome at the point of the transaction and in the longer term.
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Forensics
At Grant Thornton, we have a wealth of knowledge in forensic services and can support you with issues such as dispute resolution, fraud and insurance claims.
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Restructuring
We have an established standard of excellence for Restructuring within the United Arab Emirates with a focus on client success throughout a complex period of the business life cycle.
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Incorporation and Compliance
Grant Thornton assists businesses in setting up and complying with these regulations and acts as adviser for companies to ensure their activities, policies and procedures follow the guidelines specified by respective regulations.
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ICFR
Grant Thornton is a market leader in providing Internal Controls over Financial Reporting (ICFR) services to many well-known entities in UAE.
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Islamic Finance
Grant Thornton's Islamic Financial Services team comprises a global network of professionals with in-depth knowledge of Islamic finance and providing practical, value added assistance to their clients across a range of specialisms and issues.
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Regulatory Compliance
Grant Thornton holds a proven track-record in Regulatory Compliance advisory, our range of services will facilitate robust guidance to help you manage your regulatory risks and affairs, our teams of specialists assist our clients in the following areas:
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Corporate Tax
Our diversified team of corporate tax subject matter experts combines a perfect blend of international experience across several industry sectors, technical expertise, and commercial nuances with a commitment to deliver exceptional value to your business.
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VAT
The VAT team at Grant Thornton is well versed with the VAT Laws applicable across the region and holds valuable experience and professional accreditation in assisting clients across diverse industries to comply with the VAT obligations.
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Transfer Pricing
Grant Thornton UAE assists its clients in providing transfer pricing solutions that are implementable and operational, considering the facts and concerns of its clients.
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International Tax and Tax Due Diligence
Grant Thornton UAE supports multinational groups to optimise their tax structures. We can also assist businesses in analysing existing group transactions and inter-group supplies, as well as advising on potential implications of various taxes to facilitate an efficient Group tax structure.
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Economic Substance Requirements
Economic Substance rules were introduced in the UAE in 2019, requiring UAE businesses that undertake certain ‘Relevant Activities’ to maintain and demonstrate adequate substance.
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Customs and International Trade
The team at Grant Thornton is positioned centrally to assist the businesses with global cross-border tax structuring, planning and compliance needs.
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Excise Tax
We provide Excise Tax related advisory and compliance services to the producer, importer, and the storekeeper of excisable goods
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Business Process Outsourcing Services
Our team at Grant Thornton offers comprehensive and cost effective outsourced solutions, enabling stakeholders and business owners to focus on their core business goals.
Leveraging ERP to create value
Organisations invest in implementing their “Enterprise Resource Planning” (ERP) solutions.
The investment of so much effort can invariably lead to exhaustion, and the eventual solution could easily start to mirror the legacy system it was meant to replace, there are numerous horror stories abound - of enterprise transformations going wrong. The scenario is fairly common - companies filing lawsuits, huge organisational issues along with other major challenges. Common causes tend to be highlighted quite frequently but much less so, are the missed opportunities, says Shahid Safdar, Technology Advisory Director at Grant Thornton.
Most organisations focus on costs, schedules, hardware, software features, and other technology problems when they are implementing their new ERP systems. ERP implementations, however, are much more than information technology projects. These projects provide excellent opportunities to transform the entire organisation. Approaching an ERP implementation with certain “value-add” objectives defined at the outset will help get the most from the investment made in time and money, and deliver capabilities that were not possible in legacy systems.
Some opportunities worth considering are:
Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR)
A new ERP implementation provides organisations with an opportunity to streamline the operation and “trim the fat” – the aspects of day-to-day operations that are unnecessary or, merely unable to keep pace with evolving business requirements. BPR begins with mapping how existing processes are performed and then comparing them with suggested business processes provided by the ERP software.
Most ERP software processes are based upon “best practices” that have been gleaned from an extensive and varied install base and refined over time. These processes serve as a good starting point for redefining the way things are done, and the closer you can approximate these “best practices,” the easier your implementation is likely to be.
Workflow and Automation
The use of legacy systems typically results in a high volume of manual and repetitive processes which span multiple departments and are prone to error and delay. This situation tends to be compounded further by long-term employees who have come to see their jobs as “steering” these processes through different stages of completion.
A new ERP system presents an opportunity to remove error prone and inefficient manual based processes with workflow tools. ERP enabled workflow automates most employee-process interactions by leveraging business rules, tasks, and checklists to deliver the required process outcomes. Physical intervention in repetitive activities is cut-out enabling employees to focus on more value driven tasks.
Reporting
An ERP implementation provides a great opportunity to enhance reporting and make it more responsive, to provide training and to increase the ability of staff to analyse key data. It is likely that existing (pre ERP) reporting processes have developed over time. Reports may be written in computer programming languages by the IT department and they may typically be run overnight, as a batch process.
Though batch reporting through the IT department may not go away entirely, handling most future reporting needs, especially ad-hoc reporting, at the point of consumption will become a possibility. The role of IT will shift from being a developer of reports to supporting end users and focusing on effective and efficient delivery using the most appropriate reporting tools.
Talent Management
A new ERP implementation provides an excellent opportunity to initiate a talent management programme – especially if one does not exist or the existing one needs a refresh. The new system will likely change the organisational makeup, job descriptions and skill sets will need to change dramatically, with some positions being eliminated while others are created.
Because of this dramatic change in the expectations placed upon staff, organisations should proactively address the inevitable personnel issues and take the opportunity to help guide staff through the ERP implementation and prepare them for their new roles once the system is live.
Consider the following benefits:
Competency and skills planning - planning for competency and skills enables an organisation to identify the critical talents and skill sets essential for each position. This effort will result in a skills foundation that becomes the baseline for monitoring employee success throughout and after the ERP implementation process.
Career and compensation planning - this type of planning provides a growth and advancement roadmap for employees that illustrates what is possible for them during the ERP implementation, as well as what they may transition into once the new system is up and running. Career and compensation planning also outlines the proper rewards employees will receive for obtaining the necessary skills and making a successful transition.
Recruiting and performance management - early preparation for filling the inevitable vacancies will help your organisation attract and hire the right people with the right skills. Continually monitoring and assessing the progress of existing talent development helps you compare staff performance progress to organisational objectives and ensures that legacy staff members are responding to the new skill requirements.
Business intelligence (BI)
BI enables better decision-making based upon deeper analysis of raw data via the use of tools such as:
Key performance indicators (KPI) – can be used to help define and evaluate progress towards long-term goals and objectives; and measured and tracked over time for more informed decision-making.
Scorecards - this type of tool tracks the progress of departments and/or personnel within their defined responsibilities, as well as any consequences arising from their actions.
Dashboards - tools that are easy to read graphical web sites or portals that consolidate and summarise information from numerous sources (reports, KPIs, other scorecards etc.) into one location. Dashboards can illustrate for example, how well an organisation is performing overall and can be customised for individual executives who can drill down for more detailed information.
Alerts & exceptions - BI systems are set up with pre-set or dynamic thresholds to provide alerts or exceptions for immediate action to remedy or, take advantage of a particular situation. This could be something fairly rudimentary such as configuration of pre-determined stock re-order levels or, something a little more complex, such as integration with various mechanisms that support “machine-to-machine” communication (IoT) etc.
A BI capability tagged onto an effective ERP implementation can serve as a catalyst for the creation of a data-mining initiative - a project that helps derive greater analysis of patterns that may be inherent within the data, and that can be used for developing even greater actionable business insights / support faster and proactive decision making (i.e. a “Big Data” initiative).
The opportunities outlined above are not all-inclusive, there are multiple additional benefits that can be generated by defining and undertaking a well thought out ERP implementation, the areas that have been highlighted are merely a selection that stand out for obvious consideration.
Organisations also need to appreciate the macro environments in which they operate in and the demands that may be placed upon them by broader economic drivers or evolving legislation. Something that is currently very much at the forefront of triggering business change, especially in the GCC region, is the imminent application of VAT (value added tax) – expected to be in place by early 2018. VAT is a transactional tax with complex local country compliance requirements.
For businesses that may be in the process of or, on the cusp of implementing an ERP system, correct configuration is essential to ensuring that large scale errors are not present in both the charging of VAT to customers, the production of VAT-relevant documentation and the reporting of VAT relevant information. The challenge is to understand all the available options and make decisions that best support your business, invoicing and indirect tax reporting obligations.
Since most ERP systems have a life expectancy in the region of 15-20+ years, experiencing a full ERP implementation will not be a common occurrence for most organisations. At no other time in the history of your organisation will you have the opportunity to make large scale and sweeping changes in how the organisation operates. Are you ready to maximise the opportunity and take advantage of your ERP implementation to transform your organisation?