Fields of Play
Maintaining Your Trust
To grow and create value, your company must have the trust of its customers, lenders, and investors.
The integrity of your company’s financial information and the reliability and security of your technology are critical components in garnering this trust and gaining access to global capital markets. Whether you are managing issues associated with globalization, addressing technology vulnerabilities in the connected economy, or looking to assure the fairness of your financial information — SGV & Co. can help.
We have invested substantially in innovating and digitalizing our global risk-based methodology and the related technology-based knowledge and enablers. Our auditors are trained on our digital audit methodology, data analytics and documentation tools.
The methodology is supplemented by comprehensive standards and quality controls that are applicable to every client engagement.
List of Assurance services
Audit, Review, and Related Services
External audit services
We provide independent assurance on financial and non financial information to meet regulatory and other stakeholder requirements utilizing world-class business process-based methodologies and supporting tools. Our Global Audit Methodology and Documentation Approach is a risk-based approach that focuses on the drivers of the business, the associated risks, and the potential effects on financial statements accounts, and delivers a consistent, high-quality audit anywhere in the world.
Review Services
We provide review services by performing inquiry and analytical procedures that provide the company with a reasonable basis for expressing limited assurance that there are no material modifications that should be made to the statements in order for them to be in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles or, if applicable, with another comprehensive basis of accounting. This service generally includes limited review of interim financial statements.
Security offerings
We provide assurance services with respect to equity or debt securities offerings by audit clients, including prospectus review, consent to include our report in connection with our audit or review of financial statements, proforma financial information, and issuance of comfort letter.
Agreed-upon procedures
We perform agreed-upon procedures, in accordance with relevant professional standards, applied to financial or nonfinancial data to which the accountant and the client and any appropriate third parties have agreed, and to report on factual findings. These agreed-upon procedures reports may include: confirmation of customer balances included in a listing of accounts receivable and reporting on the findings; attendance at a physical inventory count and performance of test counts and reporting on the findings; and recalculation of debt covenants and reporting on the findings.
Extended audit services
We provide customized assurance services beyond the traditional external audit scope, such as services on branch project audit, audit of a specific account, and inventory and fixed asset count.
Financial Accounting Advisory Services (FAAS)
Our services are designed to help you build effective and efficient finance functions and address the issues caused by changing regulatory requirements and market conditions. Through the innovative application of technology and data analytics tools, we can support you with regulatory, governance and accounting issues and attest impacts that result from an audit. Our integrated service offerings and focused sector experience can help you determine, monitor and disclose financial and nonfinancial insights to your stakeholders, upholding the CFO agenda and providing you with insights to support compliance with evolving financial reporting requirements.
Finance support services
Corporate treasury and commodities
We help companies shift toward centralization of the treasury management function. We provide broad services for a variety of finance functions, such as treasury, hedging, risk management, derivatives and commodity trading.
Consolidation and reporting
We provide assistance in every aspect of the consolidation and reporting process, helping businesses achieve faster, higher quality reporting, control risks and develop their financial acumen. Clients achieve this by standardizing internal controls, reducing dependency on individual employees, reorganizing processes and implementing tools for a fast close process.
Remediation services
Restoring confidence in financial reporting can rebuild market confidence, mitigate the risk of future occurrences and signal to investors, regulators and stakeholders that the company is heading in the right direction. Remediation services is about alleviating financial reporting risk areas, identifying root causes, and implementing corrective actions to reveal and preempt possible pitfalls. With our knowledge of accounting and reporting, process standardizing and leading services, our remediation teams can help find ways to reduce deficiencies that might affect the timely production and quality of financial reports.
Corporate governance and regulation
Governance processes in a company are triggered by globalization, expanding risk factors, developing technologies and society’s expectations. We can help companies by providing up-to-date knowledge of corporate governance trends and approaches for effective oversight and management.
Training services
We provide a range of business-specific training services for companies, delivering technical knowledge and a global perspective. We are constantly updating our training curriculum to reflect changing guidelines and emerging trends.
Systems, process and analytics
Analytics and data intelligence
FAAS analytics is the collection, combination and exploration of financial data to help organizations create insights that support their decision-making processes. This may allow them to improve accounting data integrity and quality, helping them produce more reliable reports and insights within the accounting, finance, governance and regulatory space. Our team supports clients by applying advanced analytics within an organization’s finance and accounting activities. We help identify business insights and hidden patterns in financial data so clients can benefit from a more agile and accurate decision-making process, with greater confidence and transparency in financial reporting. Analytics services can also be applied to financial instruments and corporate treasury, financial processes, audit support and sustainability.
Advanced processes
We support companies in the design and implementation of automated internal control systems, including internal control workflow, which establishes continuous process assurance while increasing efficiency. Dashboarding and reporting are part of this service, together with advanced analytical features, such as data mining, statistical analysis for identification of relationships and statistical correlations, and artificial intelligence.
Accounting and reporting
Accounting advice
We provide organizations with support when entering into contracts, combining deep commercial and accounting insights, helping management make the most appropriate commercial and accounting decisions.
Accounting change
We help address your complex technical accounting questions. We can help your company navigate large-scale financial reporting changes, from moving to a new accounting framework (e.g., due to regulatory change or as cross-border transaction) to adopting a new accounting policy (e.g., revenue recognition, financial instruments, leasing or insurance contracts).
Government and regulatory accounting
We cover all aspects of accounting and financial reporting exclusively for the government and public sector, including International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Philippine Financial Reporting Standards (PFRS). This includes the transition from cash accounting to accruals accounting or reporting under an internationally recognized set of accounting standards.
Management accounting
We help companies align their internal reporting with their accounting policies. It may include management reporting or reporting on individual long-term contracts covering both financial and nonfinancial data.
Accounting policies and procedures
Accounting policies are the cornerstone of an organization’s financial control environment, bridging the gap between technical accounting literature and business practice. This includes a quick assessment and analysis of existing policies, assistance in creating a completely new and customized accounting manual, and deployment and training support for the team.
Transaction accounting
We help companies enhance value by supporting management as they execute transformational events, such as an acquisition or divestiture, to inspire stakeholder confidence and reflect well on the business, its brand, management and directors. Transaction accounting services comprise of financial reporting and accounting assistance, including white papers, analyses and models related to significant capital events, such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A), joint ventures, divestitures, and sales of stock and debt. Support can be provided during due diligence by identifying accounting and financial reporting policies and issues that should be investigated during diligence; it could also include helping management develop content for white papers and assess the accounting implications of alternative considerations. Other areas where companies may need help are in the complex issues surrounding purchase price allocation accounting, as well as legal entity and group reconstruction, financial reporting process improvement, accounting policy manual alignment, GAAP conversions and disclosure effectiveness.
Managed services
Managed services are structured as a strategic long-term arrangement to provide a select set of value-added services addressing the client’s most challenging requirements. The services are output-based and give companies access to SGV teams, industrialized processes and technology on a longer-term and non-project basis. We help clients plan the appropriate use of managed services for increased efficiency and continuous improvement. Managed services are broadly categorized to three clusters: Reporting, Transaction accounting and Finance of the future. Certain FAAS services could be offered as managed services with a longer-term, multi-client and non-project-based delivery.
Technology-enabled accounting and reporting solutions
FAAS combines IT capabilities, industry insights, and accounting and reporting knowledge to support you in an efficient, effective and differentiated way. Projects are typically centered on one of these three activities:
- Providing an EY application or tool
- Tailoring commercial applications for
your specific needs - Helping you get more from your
existing applications and tools
FAAS can assist you with industrialized, customized templates or bespoke developments. Industrialized products are tools offered globally which can easily be configured to help your organizations’ finance and accounting departments. Examples of these tools are the Process Mining tool (a technology that analyzes performance data in order to improve process flows), a software application that is an automated end-to-end processing of invoices by applying Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Policy Sphere (a web-based tool that can serve as a multidimensional central repository for policies, other related documents, governance and approval workflows), among others. Bespoke developments are tools that are developed by FAAS professionals as a part of the delivery of specific engagements and are designed for that particular engagement only. We can also assist in management reporting and key performance indicators (KPIs), which include defining an internal reporting framework for your management reporting, business planning and corporate scorecards. This service helps set a clear direction of the path to either minor or significant change to the abovementioned processes, aligning where possible. Internal and external reporting and developing new processes can be further adjusted in the future as required. Amending your KPIs to new measures of performance may also have an indirect implication on segment reporting requirements. In this case, it may also be necessary to amend the perimeter of the business being measured and ascertain the appropriate asset and liability allocations. It is also important to ensure that accepted transfer pricing techniques are applied to income and costs from the new segments.
Forensic & Integrity Services
We understand how organizations navigate complex environments; how pressures, attitudes and culture influence employee actions; and how to leverage data analytics to improve compliance and investigation outcomes. We are committed to making integrity the cornerstone of a better working world.
Investigation and compliance
Experienced in forensic accounting, technology systems and risk management, we investigate areas where clients suspect there is a problem. We also help clients manage risk, investigate alleged misconduct, measure the financial implications when issues arise, and provide support when necessary.
Transaction forensics
Our Forensic Diligence professionals assist organizations and legal counsel in identifying and mitigating financial, operational and reputational risks inherent to mergers and acquisition transactions. We provide due diligence services primarily related to anti-corruption, FCPA due diligence and investigate potential issues with cross-border transactions.
Claims & disputes
We help companies and their legal counsel prepare the calculations, analyses and strategies required for complex commercial disputes. Ultimately, we help safeguard the value of an organization’s business and help generate legitimate gain from their contracts and transactions.
Forensic data analytics
We work in engagement teams to carry out both reactive and proactive forensic analysis on large amounts of data that involve data linking, statistics and predictive modeling. Our engagement activities include business understanding, data collection and import, quality review, and data visualization and reporting.
Privacy & cyber response
We perform computer forensic analysis using the latest technology to assist investigations and discover electronic evidence. This includes data acquisition and validation, processing of data, and forensic analysis and reporting.
Discovery
Our Discovery, information governance and forensic professionals can help answer the “who, what, where, when and how” questions that help organizations meet their discovery and compliance needs.
Climate Change and Sustainability Services (CCaSS)
We help clients identify, manage and deliver sustainability strategies that address nonfinancial matters such as environmental and social risks. We assist our clients in building their resilience to navigate the ever-changing business environment and create long-term value.
Sustainability advisory and supply chain
We help organizations understand their emerging sustainability, supply chain or environment, social and governance (ESG) risks (e.g., human rights, modern slavery, resource constraints, climate change, conflict minerals). We also help build resilience and strengthen their ‘social license to grow’ so that they can survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive and accountable operating environment. This includes sustainability maturity assessment; stakeholder engagement, prioritization, analysis; materiality assessments and benchmarking; advice on sustainability risks in the value chain; supply chain sustainability management; assisting in identifying human rights risks in the supply chain and advising on risk management and reporting; training, development and capacity building; policy development and research; and portfolio sustainability risk assessment.
Nonfinancial reporting advisory and assurance
We help organizations transition to new ways of communicating their sustainability performance and address the demand of other key stakeholders for greater and more meaningful assurance over nonfinancial disclosures. Advisory services include the development of sustainability, integrated annual reports and other communications, collection and collation of nonfinancial data, report benchmarking, integrated reporting advice and development. Assurance services cover nonfinancial disclosures, reported metrics, principles and information, internal, management and board communications, and product claims.
Outcomes measurement
We help companies understand and evaluate the broader value impacts and outcomes associated with their operations, programs and projects. These include developing an outcomes measurement framework; impact analysis including aid and social return; strategies and programs to meet social and natural capital impact objectives and shared value; community investment, aid and partnership strategies; natural capital assessments and valuations; and building internal capacity to measure and report impact.
Climate change
In today’s environment, businesses can no longer ignore the physical and regulatory impacts of climate change on their operations. We help organizations maximize opportunities by efficiently meeting compliance requirements, managing risks and thinking strategically. This includes green bond advisory and assurance; greenhouse and energy audit; energy management, modelling and audits; energy monitoring; carbon target development; marginal abatement cost curves; assessing the life cycle of products and services; climate risk and vulnerability assessments; climate change adaptation strategies and processes; and policy and program evaluations.
Environment, health and safety
We assist organizations in making strategic and operational decisions that drive the effective management of environment, health and safety, with an aim to prevent incidents, or in the worst of outcomes – a workplace fatality or environmental catastrophe. This includes statutory, compliance and internal HSE audits; EHS due diligence; gap analysis against legislation or internal policy; developing, implementing and reviewing HSE Management Systems and assurance frameworks; safety culture and behavioral maturity assessment; and resource efficiency, waste and packaging advice.
Technology Risk Services
As confidence and trust in data and technology are becoming a greater societal concern, understanding risk arising from the implementation and use of technology is increasingly important to accelerating business performance and achieving sustainable growth. The ability to understand these risks and bridge the knowledge gap that often exists between business and IT is the core strength of Technology Risk professionals. Specialized knowledge of IT is integral to the execution of high-quality audits and the need to safeguard internal controls. Technology Risk helps decision-makers to attain confidence and embed trust through third-party communications on internal control and regulatory compliance to customers (and their external auditors), investors, management, regulators and other stakeholders.
Financial Audit Information Technology (FAIT)
Through this service, we gain a better understanding of technology risks and assess the related controls to help management implement better controls. Better controls and insights result in better information. Better information helps people make faster and more confident decisions.
This service involves performing IT-related procedures in support of financial statement audits and/or as part of the integrated audit, including evaluating IT general control design and operating effectiveness and testing application controls. We examine management controls within an IT infrastructure, in conjunction with a financial statement audit, internal audit or other form of attestation engagement. IT audits allow for:
· Understanding IT-enabled business change (what is changing and why)
· Deconstructing the flow of transactions and data in business processes from initiation to reporting
· Critically analyzing business processes to identify where risks could occur
· Assessing controls in place to address those risks
· Advising on opportunities to enhance processes or controls, leveraging the significant technology investments made by clients
Through these efforts, we provide insights, candid observations and permitted services to help translate uncertainty into confidence, especially in the areas of emerging technologies and risks.
Attestation Services - System & Organization Controls (SOC) Report and Agreed-Upon Procedures (AUP)
SGV helps businesses strengthen ties with customers, investors, partners, and other key players by enhancing the trustworthiness of communication about their internal controls. Our Attestation Services are independent evaluations designed to:
· Verify the accuracy of management's assertions regarding IT processes and controls.
· Assess business processes and controls against established attestation and specifically agreed-upon procedures standards.
Through our System & Organization Controls (SOC) offerings, following assurance and attestation standards, we evaluate the robustness of:
· Controls at service organizations pertinent to user entities in the context of financial reporting governance.
· Safeguards concerning security, privacy, confidentiality, availability, and processing integrity.
· The controls within manufacturing, production, or distribution enterprises that are integral to clients’ vendor risk management strategies.
· The extent of an entity's cybersecurity risk management program and the effectiveness of its cybersecurity controls.
We also perform Agreed-Upon Procedures, aligned with applicable professional guidelines, concerning financial or nonfinancial information set forth by the company, SGV and any relevant third parties, and we provide clear reports on our factual discoveries.
SGV's Attestation Services empower organizations to cultivate and project assurance in their systems and processes. This, in turn, fosters trust, helping them maintain existing customer relationships and attract new clientele.
Expanded Assurance Services
- Cybersecurity Program Assessment (CPA)
A comprehensive, independent assessment of the company’s cybersecurity risk management program to identify recommendations for improvement. Similar to an audit, which provided the Board (and other stakeholders) with heightened confidence in the completeness and accuracy of the financial statements, this assessment will provide the Board with independent, objective insights into the design and implementation of cyber risk management activities. CPA 2.0 Framework has a total of 25 domains and covers ~500 control objectives.
- Regulatory Readiness and Framework Assessment
Assessment of organization’s compliance with various regulations and laws that are in place. Through regulatory readiness assessment, we ensure that the organizations can remain compliant with various regulations and laws that are in place in different jurisdictions. The exercise ensures that the organization’s chosen framework accommodates evolving security standards.
- Pre-Implementation Assessment
Assessment of business and IT process risks and controls to identify internal control gaps prior to a system go-live. The audit committee and management expect us to have a point of view on the risk to internal control over financial reporting and/or the audit prior to the go-live when companies undertake major system implementation. This will lead to early identification of potential design issues which will allow the company to address them prior to go-live and potentially avoid costly remediation in production.
- Post-Implementation Review
Assessment of business and IT process risks and controls to identify internal control gaps post the system go-live (after stabilization period). The audit committee and management expect us to have a point of view on the risk to internal control over financial reporting and/or the audit post go-live when companies underwent a major system implementation. This will lead to an assessment if the new system was delivered to address the business requirements (including financial reporting) and determine areas where the client can maximize the use of the system.
Our services
Fields of Play
Financial services organization
Financial Services Organization
FSO works with clients in the banking, capital markets, insurance, wealth and asset management sectors. As today’s financial services market is global, constantly changing and highly regulated, we offer a dynamic approach to help manage uncertainties and the opportunities these present. The SGV / EY-Philippines office is one of the key FSO locations in the Asia-Pacific. The Asia-Pacific FSO operates across four markets: ASEAN, Greater China, Korea, and Oceania and four Service Lines: Consulting, Assurance, Tax, and Strategy and Transactions. Our strong global teams, local capabilities and seamless collaboration bring innovative problem-solving, breakthrough performance gains and sustainable value creation to our clients and stakeholders.
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