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Audit of annual and consolidated financial statements
Objectivity, expertise and experience are crucial when it comes to assurance services. And above all developing a strong working relationship with our clients is the foundation of our service approach.
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Assurance related advisory services
Assurance related advisory services are based on the knowledge and expertise that are the staff of life of our auditors.
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Global audit technology
We apply our global audit methodology through an integrated set of software Tools.
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Accounting related consulting
Accounting in accordance with UGB, US-GAAP or IFRS is in constant motion. The integration of new regulations into their own accounting systems poses special challenges for companies.
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Corporate Taxes
Experts at Grant Thornton Unitreu have many years of experience and provide the full spectrum of tax services. They are familiar with the specifics of the Austrian market in all aspects of tax and economic law. Tax consultants at Grant Thornton Unitreu take pride in developing and concluding effective and individual solutions.s.
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International Tax
Our teams have in-depth knowledge of the relationship between domestic and international tax laws.
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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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Value Added Tax (VAT)
Experts at Grant Thornton Unitreu have many years of experience and provide the full spectrum of tax services. They are familiar with the specifics of the Austrian market in all aspects of tax and economic law. Tax consultants at Grant Thornton Unitreu take pride in developing and concluding effective and individual solutions.s.
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Private Wealth
Our experienced Private Wealth Team distinguishes itself through its long-term and trustworthy advice to private clients, owner-managed companies and private foundations.
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Real Estate Consulting
Real estate, buy-side tax due diligence when purchasing real estate by (i) acquiring shares in real estate companies (share deal) or by (ii) purchasing real estate directly (asset deal)
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Global Mobility Services
Assignment management is a task with many aspects and many contact persons. For successful expatriate management you need not only a local tax consultant, but a network, which successfully cooperates across borders. Grant Thornton has member companies in more than 130 countries with Global Mobility experts who regularly exchange information.
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Bookkeeping & Financial accounting
Financial accounting is the basis for many decisions in the company. Only those who prepare their figures clearly and get a good overview of their company can recognize weak points in time and react to negative developments. The use of state-of-the-art software (BMD) allows you to access your figures at any time. Digital document management and a document management system for data archiving are a matter of course. We take care of your financial accounting.
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Preparation of annual & consolidated financial statements
Depending on the size of your company and the legal form chosen, you are obliged to prepare annual financial statements. In addition, shareholders, owners and management want to be provided with financial information on a regular basis. We support you in fulfilling your recording obligations and thus ensure that you present companies, the bank and other addressees with meaningful and reliable figures.
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Payroll Services
Payroll services are among the subject areas that are changing rapidly and constantly gaining in complexity. This is where tax law, social security law, labour law, residence law and other legal matters come together. Our experts will help your team to stay up-to-date and solve complex issues. But we are also happy to take care of your entire payroll accounting.
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Tax Compliance
Tax authorities keep entrepreneurs and freelancers constantly engaged with tax issues, so they play a central role in almost every business decision. Depending on your needs, our services range from the preparation of tax returns, the execution of tax calculations with a thorough review of the data as a basis for assessment, to international tax compliance for several countries.
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Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a software-based technology that mimics a series of activities within and between systems based on a set of instructions typically to complete a process.
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Valuation
Our business consulting services can help you improve your operational performance and productivity, adding value throughout your growth life cycle.
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Transaction Support
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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Merger & Acquisition
M&A, Merger & Acquisition
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Restructuring & Going Concern Forecast
Recovery & Reorganization
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IT Audit
Increasing networking and digitalisation are bringing about far-reaching changes in the business world. Modern accounting is no longer conceivable without complex IT systems. At the same time, however, this also increases the risks for companies, especially when handling data. Confidentiality, availability and integrity of data are central security requirements that must also be met with regard to the correctness of IT-supported accounting. Our IT auditors are experts in operational IT operations and develop targeted measures for you to counteract risks and to check the security and reliability of your IT systems.
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Internal Audit
Internal Audit helps companies and organisations to achieve their goals by analysing and evaluating the effectiveness of risk management, controls and management and monitoring processes. Internal Audit focuses on independent and objective audit (assurance) and consulting services that improve the value creation and business activities of your company.
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Special Attestation
At present, practically all types of IT services can be outsourced to service providers. Advancing technological developments, especially the possibilities for virtualizing server systems, are a major driver for companies to increasingly outsource IT services. Frequently, nested outsourcing structures can also be found in which service companies outsource certain IT services to subcontractors.
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Expert dispute resolution & advisory
Grant Thornton Austria offers comprehensive services in the field of business-oriented expert services with a broad range of competencies from banking to communication. The core activity of experts is the objective recording of findings and the preparation of expert opinions - regardless of all external circumstances. Our experts Gottwald Kranebitter and Georg H. Jeitler, as sworn and court-certified experts, ensure that the highest professional standards and the principle of objectivity are observed.
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Crisis Management
Crisis Management
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Blockchain & Crypto-Assets
Blockchain as a carrier technology for crypto currencies and smart contracts, among other things, is becoming increasingly important. Grant Thornton Austria offers comprehensive audit and confirmation services for block chain technologies and business models.
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Corporate & Brand Strategy
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.

The global pandemic has provided an enormous shock to businesses and, for many in the mid-market, fundamentally tested their ability to deal with crisis and disruption. Indeed, according to Grant Thornton's IBR data, 42.2% of global respondents think they will need to improve crisis management processes after the COVID crisis.
But those businesses with robust governance and contingency were able to respond to disruption more quickly and, in doing so, minimised their exposure to risk and improved their reputations accordingly. As businesses look to the future and attempt new initiatives, a proactive risk and governance approach can successfully deliver innovation and growth.
Start thinking of risk assurance as realising the opportunities
There is often a tendency to look upon risk and governance as solely defensive measures. Often focused on compliance - and aimed at avoiding negative consequences – the benefits of good governance is frequently overlooked.
Eddie Best, global co-leader of business risk services and partner at Grant Thornton UK, says: "It's actually about creating value. It's as much about the upside and making sure programmes are successful as it is about managing the downside.
"It's about supporting customer-facing initiatives, but also bringing technical rigour. It means asking questions from a security perspective, for example, or thinking how is data being handled.”
Good risk management and governance come from appreciating that they are intrinsically linked to new business initiatives and operations – not an afterthought to them. “You look at the opportunity and cover off the risk management piece that goes with it", says Best.
Revisit the fundamentals of your governance framework
Victor Sekese, group chief executive at Grant Thornton South Africa, says: "Boards have been challenged; in the board's minds currently are two things: (A) survival now, and (B) survive beyond COVID-19. And they're starting now to deal with the key issues. The pandemic is forcing businesses to go beyond lip service to their governance frameworks and compel them to go back to basics."
It comes down to the board setting its strategy and risk appetite and then cascading that approach through the business successfully, through delegating authority, and implementing appropriate processes and reporting around key investments and programmes, and making sure the technology environment is robust.
Best says: "It's nothing more than good commercial business management. The best-run businesses, typically have the CEO, board and management teams continually looking at all these aspects refreshing priorities, strategy, comms, so that they're keeping pace with what's going on."
Review your strategy more regularly
In the past, businesses would develop a plan and perform a refresh and review with the board quarterly. Today, companies need to do that more regularly. "If you don't keep your eye on the ball, someone else will eat your lunch, or the economy takes a dive or government policies changes. The pace is fundamentally different and much more tech-driven.
"Those thought processes around sense checking your strategy, and your priorities are almost a daily, real-time imperative now."
Balance the technology with people and processes in decision-making
Businesses need to keep track in real-time through the use of technology. They should embrace powerful tools that distil complexity and provide data through dashboards, such as monitoring highly complex supply chains. But Best says technology is a double-edged sword. It does enable quicker, often better decisions but it comes with its own cost, complexity and risk.
"At a programme level in the past, decision processes would follow a waterfall approach where you have a structured plan with stage gates, and go, no-go decisions. Today, people are moving into the agile methodology where there is less structure. People come together for scrums, make decisions and then have shorts bursts of activity. It's a more informal but nimble approach to delivering key programmes.
"However, you don't see so many programme management officers as you used to, which can be a good thing because it enables pace. The downside is that there's not as much visibility and sometimes not enough rigour to decisions. Basic things like interconnection between different project streams sometimes get missed. When people run at pace and take away layers of governance and documentation around some of these projects, mistakes can happen."
Technology has a role to play in that, but a lot of it still comes back to human action and decisions and behaviour. It's not that one way is universally better than another, but instead that each project requires assessment and striking a balance to provide the best outcomes.
Use this time to check and fix behaviours
"Culture is fundamental," says Best. "If you look at the major frauds and errors, it mostly comes down to poor behaviour, judgement and culture."
"If you remove some of the checks and balances and you encourage people to go in a certain direction, you shouldn't be surprised when they overstep the mark, and do things that are inappropriate in pursuit of profit or whatever it might be.
A culture audit can bring to the surface some of the beliefs and behaviours within the management teams that enable people to act badly and take unnecessary risks.
"Culture is not an accident. You determine the culture you want. And some drivers deliver that around strategy, leadership, people management, and the process within the business so that you hire the right people, you train them the right way, and you reward and promote them in line with the culture you want in the business."
COVID-19 is disrupting many businesses, including their working practices and the way they sell products and services. Transformative innovations – both operationally and technologically – will play a key role in recovery but business must assess whether their risk management and governance processes are still fit for purpose. Do remote teams, for example, need extra layers of governance to ensure they are not pressured into behaviours that may betray best principles? While businesses must nail down the crisis management aspects they must also retune their processes to ensure they deliver on their strategic goals.
Speak to our expert Werner Leiter to discuss any aspect of risk and governance in your operations.