PwC Named to FORTUNE's “100 Best Companies to Work For” List for Eighth Consecutive Year

NEW YORK, January 19, 2012 – For the eighth consecutive year, PwC US has been named one of FORTUNE's "100 Best Companies to Work For." PwC ranks number #48 overall and #11 among large companies on this year's list, the 15th annual installment. This represents a significant jump from #73 overall last year.

“We’re truly proud and humbled not only to be on the list, but also to have made such progress,” said Bob Moritz, PwC U.S. chairman and senior partner. “PwC made some significant changes this past year with the thinking that when people are provided with opportunities to grow professionally and personally, and are recognized and rewarded for their accomplishments, they do great things. We’re glad these changes made a difference for our people, but we know our work is not done yet. We will continue to explore new ways to enhance the experience our people have as they grow their careers at PwC.”

"Being recognized by Fortune as a great place to work is truly an honor, particularly because it is largely based on how our people feel about working here," said Dennis Finn, PwC's US and Global Human Capital Leader. "At PwC, we realize that it's not enough to offer someone a job for the next few years -- we need to offer them a professional experience that will enable them to grow and develop in ways that last a lifetime."

This past spring, PwC enhanced its approach to compensation and development, implementing several programs designed to demonstrate the longer-term value of building a career at PwC. These enhancements include:

• Increasing transparency in communications around compensation. PwC is providing its employees with greater clarity about the competitiveness of their salaries, how the firm sets pay, information about career opportunities, and guidance regarding career earning potential. PwC also communicates firm and line of service financial results on a regular basis, so employees have greater visibility into the linkage between pay and performance, and are better able to track their progress towards annual performance bonus targets.
• Career Milestone Awards. These awards are granted in recognition of employees' sustained efforts and contributions at various stages in their careers. For example:
  • For Senior Associates, the firm developed the Senior Associate Leadership Development Experience, providing participants with an opportunity to develop personal leadership skills, strengthen professional networks, and focus on their vision of a future that allows them to also achieve both professional and personal goals.
  • For PwC's Managers, the Manager Milestone Award provides an additional financial award totaling 25% of their salary in the first year following their promotion to manager.
  • For new Senior Managers and Director-level staff, PwC announced a four-week paid sabbatical comprised of three weeks given by the firm over and above PwC's standard vacation allotment (generally 15 days to start; 22 days after year two) and one week of the employee's allotted vacation time. Intended as a "gift of time," employees can use sabbaticals to improve professional skills, spend personal time with family and friends, or simply kick back and relax.

PwC also continued to invest in communities where its employees live and work through its commitment to corporate responsibility. The firm and the PwC Charitable Foundation donated a combined $42 million to organizations with a focus on youth education and developing the next generation of leaders. In addition to financial support, PwC offered employees a chance to get involved in corporate responsibility efforts, including a program that brought 200 interns, staff and partners to Belize City, Belize to teach financial literacy and entrepreneurship to over 1,200 local students.

In addition to FORTUNE, other organizations that have recognized PwC for its efforts to support partners and staff include Working Mother, DiversityInc, Training magazine, Brandon Hall Group and Universum. For a list of awards and recognition achieved by PwC, visit the "About us" section at www.pwc.com.

About the FORTUNE "100 Best Companies to Work For" List

To pick the 100 Best Companies to Work For, FORTUNE partners with the Great Place to Work Institute to conduct the most extensive employee survey in corporate America; 280 firms participated in this year’s survey. More than 246,000 employees at those companies responded to a survey created by the institute, a global research and consulting firm operating in 45 countries around the world. Two-thirds of a company’s score is based on the results of the institute’s Trust Index survey, which is sent to a random sample of employees from each company. The survey asks questions related to their attitudes about management’s credibility, job satisfaction, and camaraderie. The other third is based on responses to the institute’s Culture Audit, which includes detailed questions about pay and benefit programs and a series of open-ended questions about hiring practices, methods of internal communication, training, recognition programs, and diversity efforts. After evaluations are completed, if news about a company comes to light that may significantly damage employees’ faith in management, it may be excluded from the list. Any company that is at least five years old and has more than 1,000 U.S. employees is eligible. For information on how to apply, visit www.greatplacetowork.com.

The full list and related stories can be found at: FORTUNE.com/bestcompanies.

About the PwC Network

PwC firms help organizations and individuals create the value they’re looking for. We’re a network of firms in 158 countries with close to 169,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, tax and advisory services. Tell us what matters to you and find out more by visiting us at www.pwc.com.

© 2012 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the US member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.

PwC animation

Audit Firms KPMG, Deloitte and PwC Slapped with Overtime Lawsuits: Accounting Today

Audit Firms KPMG, Deloitte and PwC Slapped with Overtime Lawsuits: Accounting Today

Big4.com: Deloitte Reports Strong Growth in 2011, Yet Unable to Maintain Leadership Position

Big4.com: Deloitte Reports Strong Growth in 2011, Yet Unable to Maintain Leadership Position

Financial statements part II

Our turnover growth is particularly pleasing given the current UK and global economic conditions and the reduction in deal related activity. Our financial performance benefits from our strategy of continued investment and having a diverse range of strong businesses and services.

Operating costs

Our staff costs increased 4% in the year, with headcount up 9%, in part reflecting a full year impact of the Middle East. Staff bonuses across the Group increased 14% to £81m.

Profit for the financial year

Total profit for the financial year of £642m

Average profit per partner, which is stated after excluding the impact of members on overseas secondment, decreased 2%, down from £777,000 to £759,000.

Net assets and financing

Our balance sheet remains strong, with net assets of £538m (2009: £497m). Working capital management continued to remain healthy, with profit after interest, tax and working capital adjustments generating a positive operating cash flow of £681m

Total tax contribution

Our firm makes a significant contribution to the UK public purse through the taxes paid by our business and employees. In the past year this amounted to £615m.

Creditor payment policy

We seek to agree commercial payment terms with our suppliers and, provided performance is in accordance with these terms, to make payments accordingly. The number of days outstanding between receipt of invoice and date of payment, calculated by reference to the amount owed in respect of the Group’s trade payables at the year-end as a proportion of the total amounts invoiced by suppliers and overseas PwC member firms during the year, was 28 days (2009: 23 days).

Political donations

The firm does not make any cash donations to any political party or other groups with a political agenda. However, in the interests of the firm and its clients, we seek to develop and maintain constructive and balanced relationships with the main political parties.

Designated members

The designated members (as defined in the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000) of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP during the year were Ian Powell, Richard Collier-Keywood, Keith Tilson and Owen Jonathan.

Going concern

The Executive Board has a reasonable expectation that the firm has adequate financial resources to meet its operational needs for the foreseeable future and therefore the going concern basis has been adopted in preparing the financial statements.

 

Pwc Uk 2011 Annual Report[1]

Financial statements

Information on total revenue of the companies PwC network in Spain of 2010, in millions of euros, is as follows:

Auditoría y otros servicios de Assurance	176,3
Consultoría	133,2
Asesoramiento fiscal y legal	119,2
Total	428,7

Of this revenue, the society for AuditorsPricewaterhouseCoopers, SL, according to the latest approved annual accounts (closing June 30, 2010), amounted to 157.6 million Euros and its breakdown is as follows:

ngresos relativos a actividad de auditoría (1)	108,1
Ingresos por otros servicios (2)	49,5
Total ingresos	157,6

. (1) Fees for audit activity subject to the Law on Auditing
. (2) Fees for other services not subject to the Law on Auditing

Accounting news about PWC

Fresh perspectives on audit: the investors and analysts opinion

As the future of the current audit framework remains, investors and analysts clearly state that they value audit- but say they rarely read boilerplate audit opinions or bland audit committee reports.

The findings came out of PwC’s Audit today and tomorrow study. As regulators weigh up what changes may need to be applied to the current system, the study directly seeks the investment community's views on the future of audit.

Investors and analysts called for auditors to provide assurance on performance measures ,

The majority of those surveyed also wanted auditors to report on companies’ preliminary results, which they say would provide more assurance at a critical stage in the reporting cycle of a business. The challenge for the profession to address is the fact that audit of financial statements may not be finished by the time prelims are issued.

In the wake of the financial crisis, investment professionals believe audit committee reports could become more helpful if the lid was lifted off the talks between auditors and audit committees, which currently take place behind closed doors.
Ideally, there should be greater transparency around these talks, but some cautioned this transparency should not jeopardise the frankness of discussions between auditor and audit committee.


Corporate governance specialists would welcome additional going concern information, rating the adequacy of current disclosure as poor. However, there is little appetite from mainstream investors  for auditors to provide additional detail on going concern- they say enough information can be gleaned through management and other sources.

05 Jul 2011 08:32

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Ian Powell chairman and senior partner comments on EC proposals

On Wednesday 30 November, the European Commission published its proposals for audit market reform. Some of the plans have been met with opposition from business groups including the Confederation of British Industry, the Hundred Group of Finance Directors and the Institute of Directors.


Ian Powell, chairman and senior partner, PwC said:

“The European Commission’s proposals to reform the audit market are a missed opportunity to learn the lessons from the financial crisis, meet the needs of investors and help enhance audit quality across the European Union."

“In particular we support measures that will promote high quality audits and a dynamic and vibrant profession, and most importantly confidence in the financial information being reported to the markets¨

“We welcome plans to ease the mobility of auditors within the EU through the creation an ‘EU auditor passport’ ; a two way dialogue between auditors and financial services regulators.

 We also support increased dialogue between the regulators and auditors.

“The Commission’s own consultation process has indicated a lack of support across Europe for proposals such as audit only firms and mandatory audit firm rotation. Furthermore the Commission has not provided any concrete evidence for any positive impact of these proposals on audit quality or properly assessed the additional cost burdens for business."

06 Dec 2011 16:08

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Accounting plans put banking covenants under pressure for unis, charities and housing associations

Under current accounting rules, such organisations can adjust their accounts to recognise assets that have risen in value, but this will no longer be allowed under new rules being considered for not-for-profit organisations, known as Public Benefit Entities, (PBEs) and other private UK businesses.


The situation could see the organisations break their banking covenants - because the agreements are based on balance sheets showing the most up to-date value of those assets.


In future, such groups may only be allowed to hold those assets at cost as the Accounting Standards Board (ASB), the UK standard setter, works hard to make the rules governing unlisted UK companies more closely aligned to the international standards listed companies follow.


The ASB is preparing to release an exposure draft on a PBE standard, but the banking covenants issue remains on the table while the body seeks comment from businesses on its plans to harmonise UK accounting rules.

25 Feb 2011 11:10

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The effects of new accounting proposals could cause some housing associations, universities and charities to breach loan agreements with their banks, according to PwC.