Rising above the rest
R.S. Bernaldo & Associates celebrates 25th anniversary
R.S. BERNALDO & Associates (RSBA) became a member firm of PKF International just a month after it was organized on Jan. 14, 1994. Since then, the accounting profession has evolved throughout the 25 years. Before, auditors are expected not only to have knowledge in the accounting standards, but also in taxation and reportorial requirements. As businesses grew and technology developed, it equated to additional business risks. Hence, nowadays, auditors should not only be able to advise on accounting issues, but also recommend best practices for internal controls, including the client’s I.T. environment, and also business and management decisions.
Furthermore, regulatory bodies are stricter and require the auditors to report material findings. They have implemented stricter rules in monitoring and accrediting the auditors. All of these are expected from an auditor, while maintaining his independence.
RSBA anticipated several changes in the accounting industry. Anticipation and innovation, the firm believes, make any auditing firm rise above the rest; adapting would only prove to be surviving.
When RSBA started, Atty. Rosario S. Bernaldo envisioned it to be a multidisciplinary firm. She wanted to establish a firm that is a one-stop shop, wherein a client can ask for professional advice on accounting, tax, legal, and compliance. Hence, in 1998 and in 2000, Atty. Bernaldo, along with several partners, established Bernaldo Directo & Mirador (now, Bernaldo Directo & Po) Law Offices and Center for Training and Development, Inc. (CTDI), respectively.
On Jan. 14, 1994, R.S. Bernaldo & Associates (RSBA) opened as a full-pledged accounting, auditing, law and tax consultancy at Unit 1810 Cityland Condominium 10, Tower 1 along H.V. dela Costa Street near the corner of Ayala Avenue, Makati City.
Initially established as a sole proprietorship, RSBA was founded by Atty. Rosario S. Bernaldo after 22 years of professional experience from the two leading accounting firms and two investment houses in the Philippines. Among her friends and in the business community, she is known as “Atty. Cherry” or simply “Cherry”. She was joined by three of her former staff, namely Romeo de Jesus Jr., Atty. Perfecto Mirador, Jr., and Atty. Mariano Miguel Trinidad, whom she mentored while working in another accounting firm. Consequently, they all became partners at RSBA.
TWIST OF FATE
Starting her own practice was not at all in the mind of Atty. Cherry especially when she bade goodbye after six years to an accounting firm she helped put up in 1988. All she wanted was to engage in pursuits that she has long wanted to do but has never found the time because of the demands of her work as a partner and head of the Tax Division. Among her plans were to do flower arrangements and to study painting.
So, Atty. Cherry set her mind to establish a flower shop to be named “Cherry Blossoms” and started looking for a space around Makati Central Business District (MCBD) after she left the public accounting practice. She even interviewed possible florists and consulted one of her neighbors for the design of her business card for the Cherry Blossoms.
When the word got out that she was leaving the firm, offers of senior executive positions from three conglomerates were at her doorstep inviting her to go back to the corporate world. But as fate would have it, when she announced that she was leaving the practice, three of her senior staff confided to her that they, too, will resign if she leaves.
Touched by the sincerity of her staff, Atty. Cherry then had second thoughts, because they were her best staff — she was aware of their career potentials having worked with them closely for quite some time. Besides, two of them were bent in pursuing law studies as they did, in fact, enrolled as freshmen at the San Beda College of Law, while the third one took up a Master’s Degree in Business Administration at the University of the Philippines.
She believed that the dreams of these three young CPAs could easily be achieved if she could provide them a venue in which they could continue building their careers as CPAs and at the same time studying to fulfill their noble ambitions. Atty. Cherry believed that anything can be done and achieved as she herself took up the challenge, underwent similar path and the rest is history.
Looking back, she had no regrets. One thing she really was grateful about was the full trust that the three young CPAs reposed in her because they believed in her vision and ideals. Like innocent children, they completely left the fate of their careers on her hands which they knew could be risky. Just like any startup, one decision or action can either succeed or fail. But Atty. Cherry’s track record had proven that firm determination coupled with hard work and unwavering dedication are the main ingredients of success.
Just like in any human endeavor, Atty. Cherry would only plunge into a project after a thorough study, not as formal as a business plan, but as a rough calculation of overhead and cash flows. The accountant in her and a great deal of business sense enabled her to foresee positive results. True enough, the RSBA posted a steady growth since its inception. From a small group of seven, RSBA has now 130 strong, young and dedicated professionals. With one loyal client at the start, it now services over 700 corporations, some of which are publicly-listed companies, others are in the top 1,000 corporations, while many are family-owned corporations or groups of companies, and branches of foreign firms.
In addition, Atty. Bernaldo is one of the original founders of ASEAN Accounting Firms (ASNAF) in 2002.
Later on, this will prove helpful as ASEAN countries move to mutual recognition agreement (MRA) wherein qualified professional accountants can practice in other countries.
But as of today, RSBA acknowledges that the most significant change in the profession is the accumulation of data and the need for an updated technology to process it. Ever since the advent of technology, there has always been a presumption and an unfounded fear that the jobs of accountants will become obsolete. However, for RSBA, this should not be the case if you continue to improve yourself while maintaining the fundamentals of hard work and excellence.
INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATION
Destined to succeed from the beginning, only a month later after opening for business, RSBA was invited to join an international network of accounting firms based in London known as Pannell Kerr Forster International (now PKF International). While the primary focus at first was on local businesses, Atty. Cherry fully knew that an international tie-up is a “must” if she wanted to grow the practice quickly. Besides, in the early 1990’s, “globalization” was already the buzz word. Several other international networks of accounting firms knocked at her door, but she remained loyal to PKF. PKF International is a global network of accountancy firms. It consists of over 400 offices, operating in 150 countries.
FOUNDER’S FORESIGHT
Atty. Cherry has already anticipated the growing and complex needs of businesses 25 years ago. The world of business is expanding rapidly with technology and innovations being able to produce results at an instance. Accordingly, the accounting professionals should keep pace with the fast advancement in the way of doing business. Businessmen look for quick yet dependable solutions to their concerns. That is why, from the start, Atty. Cherry envisioned a pool of talents in the major disciplines such as law, accounting, taxation and finance. Her dream is to be “the firm to go to” who can give prompt, reliable and workable solutions to clients considering all legal, accounting, tax and financial aspects of a transaction.
When a client walks in to consult, he gets that comfort level that first, once he discloses and bares his situation, everything will be kept confidential. Second, he doesn’t have to talk to another firm repeating the same thing to look at it from, say, a legal or tax perspective. In short, he gets a holistic solution to his problem in just one go. The result: he saves time and money.
In recent years, Atty. Cherry’s prediction that firms will aspire to have a multi-disciplinary practice has been taking place. Some of the Big 4 firms either bought law practices abroad, set up business outsourcing companies or brought them in as affiliates. Others put up corporate finance groups and even engage in investment banking.
Another thing that Atty. Cherry has foreseen as early as the turn of the millennium was the possibility of allowing cross-border practice within the region. Thus, in 2002, together with the friends from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei and Indonesia, Atty. Cherry co-founded Asean Federation of Accounting (ASNAF) aimed at forming a strong alliance way ahead of the Asean Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA).
ASNAF has now become bigger, covering countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan and Taipei or a total of 15 countries. The firms composing ASNAF are totally independent of each other but they observe mutual respect and cooperation. Born out of friendship and not on business consideration, ASNAF stands on a solid foundation to last for more decades as many of the member firms which are, one may call, “family” firms have sons and daughters who are lined up as successors to the practice. True enough, more than a decade later, ASEAN integration was finally forged among membercountries.
To date, RSBA is probably the only firm which has an affiliation membership in more than one network or association of firms. As mentioned earlier, RSBA’s primary focus is on local businesses. It assists entrepreneurs in starting their businesses with the right footing, guides them to comply with the rules and regulations, and helps them to achieve growth and profitability. It has seen in other accounting firms that too much reliance on international referrals is not good because these multinational companies rotate external auditors every now and then.
"Thus, from the beginning, our strategy is to develop a solid client based locally and maintain a strong relationship with the owners and officers as well as their next generation successors who might have been identified already. We value relationship first and foremost and we try our very best to make it last forever. To us, it is not just business, but service to our clients," Atty. Cherry said.
Since last year, RSBA acquired computer assisted audit techniques (CAATs), CaseWare to provide a more efficient and effective audit when processing large volume of data. Data analytics would soon be included as a valueadded service, if not an expected part of the usual audit.
RSBA Auditors are also encouraged to take other courses or studies that complement their accounting foundation. Some take MBA, law, and/or certifications in fraud audit, information systems, financial analyst and alike to increase one’s knowledge in different fields.
RSBA continues to be successful because it sees the changes in the accounting profession as an opportunity, rather than as a threat. Its management is not afraid to learn new service lines, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, business valuation, and the like.