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Why Grant Thornton
Whether you’re growing in one market or many, looking to operate more effectively, managing risk and regulation, or realising stakeholder value, our firms can help.
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Culture and experience
Grant Thornton’s culture is one of our most valuable assets and has steered us in the right direction for more than 100 years.
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Global scale and capability
Beyond global scale, we embrace what makes each market unique, local understanding on a global scale.
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Join our network
In a world that wants more options for high quality services, we differentiate in the market to grow sustainably in today’s rapidly changing environment.
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Leadership governance and quality
Grant Thornton International Ltd acts as the coordinating entity for member firms in the network with a focus on areas such as strategy, risk, quality monitoring and brand.
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Africa
24 member firms supporting your business.
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Americas
31 member firms, covering 44 markets and over 20,000 people.
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Asia-Pacific
19 member firms with nearly 25,000 people to support you.
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Europe
53 member firms supporting your business.
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Middle East
8 member firms supporting your business.
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Business consulting services
Our business consulting services can help you improve your operational performance and productivity, adding value throughout your growth life cycle.
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Business process solutions
We can help you identify, understand and manage potential risks to safeguard your business and comply with regulatory requirements.
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Business risk services
The relationship between a company and its auditor has changed. Organisations must understand and manage risk and seek an appropriate balance between risk and opportunities.
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Cybersecurity
As organisations become increasingly dependent on digital technology, the opportunities for cyber criminals continue to grow.
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Forensic services
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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Mergers and acquisitions
We work with entrepreneurial businesses in the mid-market to help them assess the true commercial potential of their planned acquisition and understand how the purchase might serve their longer-term strategic goals.
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Recovery and reorganisation
Workable solutions to maximise your value and deliver sustainable recovery.
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Transactional advisory services
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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Valuations
We provide a wide range of services to recovery and reorganisation professionals, companies and their stakeholders.
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IFRS
At Grant Thornton, our IFRS advisers can help you navigate the complexity of financial reporting from IFRS 1 to IFRS 17 and IAS 1 to IAS 41.
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Audit quality monitoring
Having a robust process of quality control is one of the most effective ways to guarantee we deliver high-quality services to our clients.
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Global audit technology
Our global assurance technology platform provides the ability to conduct client acceptance, consultations and all assurance and other attestation engagements.
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Corporate and business tax
Our trusted teams can prepare corporate tax files and ruling requests, support you with deferrals, accounting procedures and legitimate tax benefits.
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Direct international tax
Our teams have in-depth knowledge of the relationship between domestic and international tax laws.
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Global mobility services
Through our global organisation of member firms, we support both companies and individuals, providing insightful solutions to minimise the tax burden for both parties.
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Indirect international tax
Using our finely tuned local knowledge, teams from our global organisation of member firms help you understand and comply with often complex and time-consuming regulations.
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Transfer pricing
The laws surrounding transfer pricing are becoming ever more complex, as tax affairs of multinational companies are facing scrutiny from media, regulators and the public
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Africa tax desk
A differentiating solution adapted to the context of your investments in Africa.
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Banking Holding banking to account: the real diversity and inclusion pictureWe explore how the banking sector can continue to attract, retain and nurture women to build a more diverse and inclusive future.
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Sustainability From voluntary to mandatory ESG: How banks can future-proof their operationsAs we move from voluntary ESG initiatives to mandatory legislation, we explore what the banking sector needs to prioritise.
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IFRS IFRS 9 - Audit of Expected Credit LossesGPPC releases The Auditor’s response to the risks of material misstatement posed by estimates of expected credit losses under IFRS 9
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growthiQ Steering your company to long-term successHistory has something important to tell us about the difficulties of steering a business to long-term success – through seismic shifts in technology, consumer demands and product development. With that in mind it’s unsurprising that over half the world’s largest companies in the early 1900s had shut their doors by the late 1990s. Some, however, have endured.
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International Financial Reporting Standards Implementation of IFRS 17 ‘Insurance Contracts’The auditor’s response to the risks of material misstatement arising from estimates made in applying IFRS 17 ‘Insurance Contracts’
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IFRS Get ready for IFRS 17After twenty years of development the IASB has published IFRS 17 ‘Insurance Contracts’, find out more.
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Global business pulse - industry analysis Mid-market recovery spreads to more industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Global business pulse - industry analysis A very uneven recovery across industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Global business pulse - Sector analysis Clear patterns of damage from COVID-19 across the industriesThe index results for 12 key sectors of the mid-market reveal just how much or little the various parts of the economy were impacted by COVID-19.
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Not for profit Mission: possible – putting impact at the heart of charityGlobal charitable continues to decline and charity leaders are increasingly looking at their own unique impact journey.
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Access to finance Raise finance to invest in changePrepare your business to raise finance to invest in change.
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Private equity firms Private equity in the mid-market: reshaping strategies for 2021When the global COVID-19 pandemic stormed across the globe in early 2020, the private equity sector was hit hard but deals are coming back to the market.
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Mid-market businesses Getting ready for private equity investmentOur specialists explore how private equity firms are now working with their portfolios and how the mid-market can benefit from investment.
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Mid-market businesses Myth-busting private equityNervous about partnering with Private Equity? We explore some of the common myths we come across when speaking to mid-market businesses about PE investment.
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Public sector Helping build the government of tomorrow, todayLearn about the Grant Thornton US public sector team.
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Global business pulse - industry analysis Mid-market recovery spreads to more industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Global business pulse - industry analysis A very uneven recovery across industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Global business pulse - Sector analysis Clear patterns of damage from COVID-19 across the industriesThe index results for 12 key sectors of the mid-market reveal just how much or little the various parts of the economy were impacted by COVID-19.
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Industries European Real Estate PodcastJessica Patel, Tax Partner at Grant Thornton UK speaks with tax partners and directors across the network to share their insights on the real estate market and some of the challenges.
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Industries European Real Estate PodcastJessica Patel, Tax Partner at Grant Thornton UK speaks with tax partners and directors across the network to share their insights on the real estate market and some of the challenges.
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Global business pulse - industry analysis Mid-market recovery spreads to more industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Global business pulse - industry analysis A very uneven recovery across industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Global business pulse - industry analysis Mid-market recovery spreads to more industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Global business pulse - industry analysis A very uneven recovery across industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Retail How retail is positioning for successCOVID-19 provided some hard lessons for the retail industry. It is time to turn those into sustainable and well executed growth strategies in 2021.
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Telecoms Can tech and telecom leverage economic headwindsAs most businesses brace for an economic downturn, tech and telecom could see new prospects. But, to turn the headwinds to your advantage, you need to find your unique opportunities and risks.
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Technology Mid-market tech companies lead the way on diversity and inclusionWe explore how the mid-market tech sector can continue to build and nurture a culture that’s increasingly more diverse and inclusive for women.
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Tax Resetting global tax rules after the pandemicBusinesses are seeing rising challenges, and finance heads are dealing with a range of new measures. To say the next 12 months are critical for businesses is an understatement.
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TECHNOLOGY International tax reform: the potential impact on the technology industryIn this article, we’ve summarised key elements of the global tax reform proposals, their potential impact on technology industry and advice from our digital tax specialists on what technology companies can do to prepare.
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Telecoms Can tech and telecom leverage economic headwindsAs most businesses brace for an economic downturn, tech and telecom could see new prospects. But, to turn the headwinds to your advantage, you need to find your unique opportunities and risks.
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TMT TMT industry: Fully charged or on standby?Our research revealed five key trends that resonated with Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) industry leaders around the world. We asked a panel of our experts from UK, US, India Ireland and Germany, to give us their reaction to the findings.
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Cybersecurity One size fits nothingTechnology companies must adopt a new approach to digital risk: those that successfully develop a reputation for digital trust by demonstrating an unwavering commitment to cyber security and data privacy will be able to carve out a competitive advantage.
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Technology, media & telecommunications Why it’s time for a 5G reality checkFigures suggest the mobile sector is maturing. While data usage continues to soar, mobile revenues are expected to flatten out over the next few years.
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International business Mid-market businesses lifted by rising tide of optimismOptimism among global mid-market business leaders rose to 67% in the first half of this year and they are markedly more optimistic about their prospects with global optimism having increased by 8%.
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Global business pulse - industry analysis Mid-market recovery spreads to more industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
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Hotels COVID-19: Checking in with the hotel industry one year onCOVID-19 provided some hard lessons for the hotel sector. It is time to turn those into sustainable and well executed growth strategies.
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Global business pulse - industry analysis A very uneven recovery across industriesThe index results for 13 key industries of the mid-market reveals a very uneven recovery from COVID-19
- By topic
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Women in Business 2024
2024 marks the 20th year of monitoring and measuring the proportion of women occupying senior management roles around the world.
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COP28: Mid-market firms should seize the opportunity from adaption and innovation
COP28 was the first time there has been a global stocktake on progress against the Paris Agreement.
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Scanning the horizon: Mid-market sets sights on global trade growth
The latest International Business Report (IBR) data shows that mid-market businesses have high expectations for global trade.
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Mid-market businesses less optimistic, despite record numbers expecting increased profitability
A closer examination of the data offers some explanation of this apparent contradiction.
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Women in tech: A pathway to gender balance in top tech roles
Grant Thornton’s 2024 Women in Business data suggests we are far from achieving parity within the mid-market technology sector.
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Women in leadership: a pathway to better performance
What makes the benefits of gender parity compelling is the impact it can have on commercial performance.
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Women in Business 2024
2024 marks the 20th year of monitoring and measuring the proportion of women occupying senior management roles around the world.
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Women in business: Regional picture
We saw an increase in the percentage of senior management roles held by women, on a global level, but there are some significant regional and country variations.
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Pathways to Parity: Leading the way
To push towards parity of senior management roles held by women, who leads within an organisation is vital.
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Generating real change with a long-term focus
The most successful strategy to achieve parity of women in senior management is one which stands alone, independent of an ESG strategy.
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People at the heart of great business
Businesses have started to put guidelines and incentives in place, focused on driving employees back to the office.
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Focusing and developing a solid strategy around diversity, equity and inclusion
Grant Thornton Greece is pioneering a growing set of diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives that centre around three strategic pillars.
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Ten considerations for preparing TCFD climate-related financial disclosures
Insights for organisations preparing to implement the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)’s Standards.
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COP28: Mid-market firms should seize the opportunity from adaption and innovation
COP28 was the first time there has been a global stocktake on progress against the Paris Agreement.
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Transition Plan Taskforce publishes its final disclosure framework
As organisations in the private sector make commitments and plans to reach net zero, there's a growing need for stakeholders to be able to assess the credibility of their transition plans.
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Promoting ESG excellence through tax
ESG considerations have never been more important for an organisation’s long-term success, but how can tax be used to add value to an ESG agenda?
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International business: Mid-market growth and expansion
The mid-market looks to international business opportunities for growth.
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Top five constraints to international business in the mid-market
Top five major constraints that are testing the mid-market’s ability to grow their businesses internationally.
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Brand and international marketing – breaking global barriers
Brand has been identified as a key driver of mid-market success when looking to grow and develop international business.
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The key to international business: Investing in people
How can recruitment and retention help grow international business?
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Building resilience in international business
Evolving supply chains and trade patterns amid ongoing global uncertainty.
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IFRS Alerts
IFRS Alerts covering the latest changes published by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).
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Example Financial Statements
General guidance for preparers of financial statements that supports the commitment to high quality, consistent application of IFRS.
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Insights into IFRS 2
Insights into IFRS 2 summarises the key areas of the Standard, highlighting aspects that are more difficult to interpret and revisiting the most relevant features that could impact your business.
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IFRS 3
Mergers and acquisitions are becoming more common as entities aim to achieve their growth objectives. IFRS 3 ‘Business Combinations’ contains the requirements for these transactions.
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IFRS 8
Our ‘Insights into IFRS 8’ series considers some key implementation issues and includes interpretational guidance in certain problematic areas.
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IFRS 16
Are you ready for IFRS 16? This series of insights will help you prepare.
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IAS 36
Insights into IAS 36 provides assistance for preparers of financial statements and help where confusion has been seen in practice.
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IFRS 17
Explaining the key features of the Standard and providing insights into its application and impact.
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Pillar 2
Key updates and support for the global implementation of Pillar 2.
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Global expatriate tax guide
Growing businesses that send their greatest assets – their people – overseas to work can face certain tax burdens, our global guide highlights the common tax rates and issues.
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International indirect tax guide
Navigating the global VAT, GST and sales tax landscape.
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Global transfer pricing guide
Helping you easily find everything you need to know about the rules and regulations regarding transfer pricing and Country by Country reporting for every country you do business with.
Whether it’s robotics, artificial intelligence or the cloud, advances in technology present a golden opportunity for the finance function. But what’s the best way to maximise potential gains: an enterprise-wide solution, or a more targeted approach?
Few would deny that investing in up-to-date technology can bring competitive advantage and first-rate connectivity. But many firms are held back by a lack of knowledge or willingness to invest in digital transformation even though we live in a world shaped by cloud and wireless technologies.
There is little doubt that a new wave of back-office technologies is upon us. As Chris Stephenson, financial management leader at Grant Thornton US, says: “Robotic process automation (RPA) and machine learning are enabling automation and scale opportunities that have not necessarily been there before.
“In addition, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) are creating scenarios where a virtual finance platform can be built on top of core systems without having to change or update them. This gives finance the freedom to improve without moving or changing the core essential systems that typically have a large overhead to change.”
Is finance behind the curve?
Grant Thornton UK partner Mark O’Sullivan says there are two main challenges for finance: “It is often not as forward as other functions in seeking investment in the latest systems,” he says. “Resources tend to be focused on operational and customer-facing technology. The payback on finance systems investment can be extremely rapid but is rarely well articulated.”
The second challenge is capacity. “We often see high levels of capability within mid-sized businesses with entrepreneurial, innovative team members. However, they simply don’t have the time to focus on technology projects due to ‘business as usual’ commitments taking precedence.”
Chris agrees that finance departments don’t always have time for major transformations but says that to complement these major shifts, teaching continuous improvement across the organisation can make a huge impact in a short time.
“Challenge every accountant to find one hour of efficiency and, while the individual wins will be small, the overall time freed up will be significant,” he says.
Don’t introduce tech for the sake of it
Mark makes a similar point in the advice he always gives to any mid-sized business before spending any money on technology. First, they should engage with their current systems and look at capabilities to see if they could extract more from them.
“The one mistake I see companies of all sizes making, but particularly smaller and mid-sized businesses, is a lack of planning and engagement with their teams to define the requirements. So many are sat on existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) or finance systems that give them the capability to do so much more than they currently do.
“Take the purchase-to-pay process as an example. Many companies can optimise their existing systems to deliver greater automation, rather than investing in new robotics and RPA tools.”
“Too many people see adding more technology as a magic bullet. You can implement technological solutions but if the adoption is poor because they haven’t engaged users and explained why it’s beneficial, they just wither and die, which leads to frustration and reticence to engage in these types of projects in the future.”
Targeted approach or enterprise wide?
The approach companies should take depends on the organisation. One of the challenges Mark sees around an enterprise solution is a lack of clear business case for the change. “I do a lot of work with mid-sized private-equity backed businesses and when I meet the backers they consistently tell me they’re frustrated. All too often a group IT director will come to them with a large investment in ‘end-to-end digital transformation’. However, when asked about the return on investment (ROI) very few are able to provide a robust analysis of the business benefits.”
In some cases enterprise-wide digital transformation is exactly what is needed. For example, Mark is currently working with a mid-sized business where the connectivity between the warehouse management, e-commerce platform and finance systems necessitates an enterprise wide change because investment in technology will enable a business-wide transformation.
Alternatively, says Mark, a discrete business case that delivers a clear ROI is sometimes a better, more affordable option. “One process that often breaks down in finance is receipt of supplier invoices with no purchase order (PO) number on them. I worked with a business recently and we could see that there was a huge backlog of supplier invoices waiting to be reconciled to original purchase orders.
“This was driving a huge amount of manual effort with a dedicated, full-time team to work through and ensure suppliers were being paid in a timely fashion. It was also driving lack of predictability and control over cash outflows.”
“We worked with a technology partner that provides robotic process automation solutions to create a tool that imitated the activity of a human in reconciling the invoice to the PO. Automating that specific activity alone released the equivalent of five full-time finance heads to focus on more value added finance activity.”
Plan ahead to avoid mistakes
Mark says that the lack of a strong business case is the area where most businesses have fallen down when he’s been called in to a work with a client after something has gone wrong in terms of technological disruption. “Progressive businesses use us right from the start and acknowledge the capability and the experience that we can support them with,” he says.
“But, if we are brought in when things have gone wrong, the first thing I ask for is the original business case. Sometimes you get a shrug of the shoulders. It is rare that people have put together a proper business case that articulates not only the financial benefits but also the improvements in the ways of working and how they’re going to put a project delivery structure around it.”
The situation frustrates Mark as finance functions are often sitting on massive amounts of interesting data but they have no time to do anything with it “because they’re manually downloading data out of one system, manipulating it in Excel, reviewing it manually in printout form and then reloading it into an accounting system in the form of general accounting journals.”
Nor should cost always be a blocker. He refers to a mid-size retailer’s CFO who mentioned it was difficult to make the case for a new finance system because, “Every time I bring it up I get shouted down and told that the money could be spent setting up five new stores.”
“However, when we looked at the business case, because they were only looking at the cost aspect of it, when we were able to factor in the ROI, the return was better than they had achieved on some recent stores.”
Overcome the scars of the past
Technological advances should be embraced, says Mark. “We always say to people who are considering any kind of digital project to try to ignore the scars of the past and to understand that the rules have changed around what a technology project looks like these days and it can be done much more quickly and cost-effectively.
“We’re talking to a lot of companies about how to do this. The quality of application program interfaces (APIs) these days is phenomenal – you can have a best-of-breed Oracle planning tool sat alongside an SAP general ledger, for example.
“Privately owned firms should be talking to somebody like Grant Thornton. The opportunities are so vast and if they’re not engaged with it then they risk falling behind their competitors.”
Emmanuelle Muller-Schrapp, finance and IT transformation partner at Grant Thornton France, agrees. “Out-of-the-box solutions are key to enhancing finance transformation. Software as a service (Saas), for example, is carrying many hopes with its quick set-up and scalable cost.
“We’re finding that technology is taking a stronger hold on business with Saas models that are broad enough to cover different requirements and business cases, standard and compliant processes, and stronger audit trails.”
Emmanuelle feels these solutions require a new way to address IT projects: “Businesses need to be more agile, change management-driven, with a continuous improvement philosophy.
“The main priorities for today’s CEO are innovation, proactive performance management and digital processes that are compliant with regulation. On the latter, the big challenge is to identify sustainable solutions that quickly add value at the right cost.”
Find out more
To find out more about how your company can take advantage of digital opportunities, contact Mark O’Sullivan, Emmanuelle Muller-Schrapp, Chris Stephenson or your local Grant Thornton firm.