Affiniax Partners - Corporate Department, Author at Affiniax

How to Use your ISO 9001 Accreditation to Grow Your Business

January 13, 2021January 13, 2021 by Affiniax Partners - Corporate Department

Why you should get your business ISO 9001-accredited

Whatever the reasons for seeking compliance and certification, many organisations fail to capitalise on the potential benefits that ISO 9001 accreditation can bring. These organisational benefits can include process improvements, reputation benefits, and cost savings, as well as ensuring consistency of product and delivering customer satisfaction.

MAKING THE MOST OF ISO 9001

The sooner an organisation realises that an ISO 9001 accreditation is actually a marketable tool, the sooner that organisation will be able to expand its business using that very accreditation as a foundation. The organisation should know that new markets are open to operate in that previously would have been closed, for example:

Ability to tender for local and national government contracts: These opportunities will increase due to most entry levels stipulating ISO 9001 accreditation. However, these contracts will not come looking for the organisation- your appropriate departments will need to investigate, register, and prepare the team for the bidding and presentation process ahead.
Ability to trade with larger businesses: Many blue-chip organisations simply refuse to trade with organisations that do not have ISO 9001 as a starting point. The organisation will now be qualified to seek associations and partnerships with larger operations showing that it cannot only provide added value to their supply chains but can use ISO 9001 accreditation as proof of its credibility and commitment to customer satisfaction.

USING ISO 9001 AS LEVERAGE IN BUSINESS

Presenting your organisation as an ambitious and capable partner can be challenging; but, using ISO 9001 principles, it is a task you can embrace. Whether on a face-to-face level or presenting at trade shows, or even recording video marketing presentations – which is a modern, but effective marketing tool – your organisation can promote the use of ISO 9001 quality management principles to advertise its qualities:

Customer Satisfaction – Your organisation can correctly claim that the desire to be accredited against ISO 9001 comes from the intrinsic company ethos, which is to provide unrivalled quality of product and service to the end user.
Customer Focus – One of the advantages your organisation can claim over larger conglomerates is better customer focus and service. A more timely and effective reaction to the customer and any problems can be seen as an excellent selling point, and utilising examples of its customer feedback and corrective action processes, your organisation can demonstrate an edge in this area.
Emphasize Your Operational Control – If you are in a service or manufacturing environment, almost nothing is more impressive than displaying operational control and consistency of product. Again, this is something that many larger organisations find more difficult to control, and whether providing non-conformity rates, displaying process documents, or offering facility visits, this is another area in which your organisation can claim advantage over the larger corporation.
Continual Improvement – The ability to improve and demonstrate to a potential customer is a valuable bargaining tool. Evidence of continual improvement can demonstrate a willingness to listen, take action, and improve – again, a quality that is often slower to be demonstrated within larger organisations where things often happen more slowly.

ADVERTISING ISO 9001 TO THE BENEFIT OF THE ORGANISATION

Your organisation should understand the rules of advertising its ISO 9001 accreditation by ensuring that the correct logo is used on your website and stationery, if desired. Look to join local trade organisations, which will allow you to network with new potential customers and partners. Consider throwing an open house to celebrate your ISO 9001 accreditation, where you can gain some new contacts, attract some media attention, and say “thanks” to everyone who has worked hard to gain accreditation (and who will need to continue to do so to maintain compliance and improve standards in the future). Use your ISO 9001 accreditation to leverage your organisation’s ability to move in higher circles, and use the elements suggested above to drive home the advantages a small organisation can have over a larger business. Use 9001 as the leverage to take you from being a smaller organisation to a bigger organisation. Nobody else will do it for you.

WHY IS ISO 9001 A GOOD IDEA FOR YOUR ORGANISATION?

The benefits of ISO 9001 are not overstated; companies large and small have gained great benefits from using this standard by discovering cost and efficiency savings. Here are the explanations of six main benefits and why they are important:

Improvement of your Credibility and Image – Because ISO 9001 is an internationally recognised standard, it has become the basis for creating a quality management system around the world, replacing many previously published requirements. When a company is looking for a supplier, it is often a requirement to have a QMS based on ISO 9001 in order to be considered. This is particularly the case if you are competing for public sector jobs in many countries. Attaining ISO 9001 certification can be a powerful marketing tool.

Improvement of Customer Satisfaction – One of the quality management principles that are the foundation of the ISO 9001 requirements is to improve customer satisfaction by planning for and striving to meet customer requirements. By improving your customer satisfaction, you will retain more repeat customers since happy and satisfied customers are the key to keeping customer loyalty. And such customers bring in additional revenues.

Better Process Integration – By looking at the overall process interactions through the process approach of ISO 9001, you will be able to more easily find improvements in efficiency and cost savings. This is done through eliminating the waste that can occur when processes are maintained without a view of the inefficiencies that can arise during process hand-off. The better process flow can also be used to drive efficiency towards fewer errors and resulting reworks, which can improve cost savings.

Improve your evidence for decision making – A second quality management principle of ISO 9001 is the need to use evidence-based decision making. By driving your decisions based on the evidence, rather than on “gut feelings,” you can be more focused on applying resources to the areas that will improve efficiency and increase cost savings with less trial and error to find the right decision. In addition, by monitoring the process you are improving, you will be able to see how much improvement has happened based on the data.

Create a continual improvement culture – Continual improvement is a third quality management principle of ISO 9001. By adopting this culture to improve your processes and organisational output, you will find efficiency and cost savings, including the use of systematic processes when problems occur in order to reduce the impact of the problem and increase the speed of recovery. By making this continual, improving year after year, the company can see continuing benefits from this.

Engagement of employees – Employees who are involved in the improvements of the processes they work with are happier and more engaged employees. Who better than the people working on the process to best identify the areas that need improvement, and to help to test and advance these improvements when they are implemented? Engaged employees are more productive and will help the company better improve and save, especially when they understand how the quality of the process depends on them.

If you want to know more about how ISO 9001 can help grow your business contact us on mail@affiniax.com or call on 04 425 6616.

How to Achieve continuous growth and improvement

January 12, 2021December 8, 2020 by Affiniax Partners - Corporate Department

Grow your company using ISO systems and checks

Within today’s Quality Management Systems, ‘Continuous Improvement’ is one of the most important principles, especially within the ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System.

It plays an important part in keeping the organisation competitive, and must be a permanent objective within the organisation.

In reality, history shows that many organisations go out of business simply because they are not able to improve as quickly as their competitors!

So, what is Continuous Improvement? It is defined as “a recurring activity to increase the ability to fulfil requirements.”

Within ISO 9001:2015, its focus is on increasing the ability to fulfil quality requirements. Improvement activities are similar to problem solving activities. The big difference is that improvement activities are planned and usually organised as part of a larger program, whereas problem solving is usually more reactive and unplanned.

WHAT DRIVES CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT?

Continual improvement is driven by the objectives set by the Senior Management Team.

As a minimum, quality objectives should address:

The improvement of internal efficiency
Individual customer requirements
The level of performance that your market sector expects

There is no requirement that the organisation should set objectives for improvement of all its processes at any one time. It would be unrealistic to expect an organisation to make progress in all potential improvements simultaneously.

Each improvement will require the commitment of resources, which should be prioritised by top management, especially if investment is required.

HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY SOURCES OF IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES?

Inputs for improvement opportunities are obtained from the following sources:

Customer satisfaction
Customer complaints and feedback
Market research and analysis
Inputs from employees, suppliers, and other interested parties
Internal and external audits of the quality system
Records of product or process non-conformances
Data from process and product characteristics and their trends

Opportunities for improvement may also be identified on a special project basis. The following are examples of such projects:

Non-value-added use of floor space
Excessive inspection/testing
Excessive handling and storage
Excessive failures and costs to quality
Machine set-up changeover times

The majority of organisations with a Quality Management System use some form of the PDCA cycle.

Where:

P – Plan

Resolve a problem: define, analyse, and identify root cause
Improve a process: change to create improvement

D – Do

Resolve a problem: devise a solution
Improve a process: encourage changes on a small scale to induce improvement

C – Check (Monitor)

Resolve a problem: confirm outcome and identify deviations and issues
Improve a process: investigate selected processes to verify if changes are working

A – Act

Resolve a problem: standardise solution, review and define next issue
Improve a process: to secure the greatest benefit from change

The PDCA cycle is a repetitive four-stage model used in business for the control and continual improvement of processes and products. The PDCA model is also known as the Deming circle/ cycle/ wheel. The Deming cycle, or PDCA Cycle consists of a logical sequence of the following four repetitive steps for continuous improvement and learning: Plan – Do – Check (Monitor) – Act.

If you want to know how to drive continual improvement in your company, please contact mail@affiniax.com or call 04 425 6616 and we will work with you to show you how!

The importance of correctly managing your team

November 25, 2020November 25, 2020 by Affiniax Partners - Corporate Department

How to manage employees effectively using ISO Management standards

Many businesses, no matter what the size, forget their most important asset. Their staff! It’s not easy when you, as a business owner, CEO or General Manager, are constantly trying to balance profit and loss, fight suppliers or chase debtors to remember that there is a team below you waiting for leadership, decisions and support.

Communication, as we all know, is key in any business. However, it is all too often overlooked when it comes to internal communications. Business leaders need information to make good, solid business decisions. So, they need accurate, timely information from their Heads of Departments (HoDs). These HoDs need to collect and collate the information required from their teams. But if the teams don’t know what information, in what format, when and why, that information will be slow, possibly incomplete or inaccurate.

A team is created by working together, towards a common objective, supporting each other, and providing clear and consistent input to the next in line’s process. This requires leadership, knowledge and support. Every member of a team is important. Every member of a team needs to know why they are important, feel important. A team needs developing, which means that each team member needs developing, not just within the business, but within the person.

The 3 main ISO management systems, all now in a new and improved format, help place the individual staff member, no matter what role, within the system. It helps business leaders to put in place those processes and procedures that will enable staff to feel part of the team, support them, develop them and, in doing so, provide consistent, high quality and safe services and products to your customers in order to meet or, better still, exceed your expectations for them.

If you want to know more about how ISO management systems can improve your company, please contact mail@affiniax.com or call 04 425 6616.

Affiniax Participates in Dubai Chamber Sustainability Week 2020

November 19, 2020November 19, 2020 by Affiniax

How to create a healthy working environment

Affiniax Partners was one of the 51 participants of the Dubai Chamber Sustainability Week 2020 Campaign from 18th October – 5th November.

We actively organized sessions to create a healthy and happy atmosphere for our employees. We organized an in-house virtual Hatha Yoga session to kick off this campaign.

Yoga session was followed by the Breast Cancer Awareness webinar organized by Zulekha Hospital and Friends of Cancer Patients. The major highlight of this webinar was Awareness on Breast Cancer and the Importance of Early Detection.

We then organized Weave the People session where we discussed issues faced due to Work from Home (WFH) by engaging leaders, managers and employees in honest discussion, and involving them in generation of practical and permanent steps to overcome those issues.

We also participated in Stretch and Stabilize webinar for a brief discussion and practice on stretching by Yoga Acharya from ‘Pratimoksha‘ and an Intense HIIT training session of 30 minutes by the Wellness Coach of Oman Insurance.

We concluded this campaign by organizing the session on the topic- Mental and Emotional Wellbeing during WFH. We witnessed the highest participation in this session. We formed groups and discussed with our group members the 3 things EVERYONE can do to manage their mental wellbeing.

We checked the happiness rate of the participants through an anonymous post campaign survey. 67% of the employees said that they were Happy with the sessions and 33% of them were Very Happy with these sessions.

LIQUIDATIONS IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (PART 1)

November 9, 2020November 8, 2020 by TAJENDRA CHUGH

INTRODUCTION

Liquidation can be defined as the winding up of a Company by selling off its assets to convert them into cash to pay off the firms unsecured creditors. The secured creditors take control of the respective pledged assets on obtaining foreclosure orders. Any remaining amount is distributed among the shareholders in proportion to their shareholdings. It is an event that usually occurs when a company is insolvent, meaning it cannot pay its obligations when they come due.

Types of Liquidations

There are two types of liquidations in the United Arab Emirates.

Voluntary Liquidation

In case of voluntary liquidation, the owners or shareholders of the firm decide that to close and wind up the Company as they do not have enough funds to pay off their creditors and other liabilities.

Mandatory Liquidation

In case of mandatory liquidation, the liquidation order is put forward by the courts. It is not in the will of an owner or shareholders to liquidate their company. This usually occurs when a company fails to pay creditors multiple times. Because of this, creditors can file a request for the liquidation of a company.

Here the assets of the Company are distributed to the creditors and contributors based on the priority of their claims.

Roles and Duties of a Liquidator

A liquidator must be appointed in order to liquidate a Company in the UAE.

Below are 7 points which describe the role of a Liquidator.

The liquidator appointed by a Company in its liquidation stage shall represent the Company in any litigation that may occur.
The assets of the Company are sold by the liquidator in order to settle the debts of the Company.
Certain debt is considered as priority and these are settled before other debt. This mainly includes the outstanding employees’ salaries.
Once all debt has been settled, the remaining funds are distributed among the shareholders or the owner.
In case the funds generated from the sale of the Company’s assets are insufficient to pay off the debts, the deficit will be adjusted against the share capital of the shareholders.
The Statement of Affairs and Liquidation Report has to be prepared by the liquidator after conducting the necessary procedures.
The liquidator would also be responsible to request for the removal of the Company from the Commercial Register.

Documents required for Liquidation of a Company in the UAE

Copy of the license
Memorandum of Association
Shareholder’s Resolution to liquidate the Company
Power of Attorney
Passport copies of all shareholders along with Emirates ID’s
Application for deregistration
Statement of Affairs and Liquidation Report
Letter from Labour and Immigration department that there are no visas.

To learn more about liquidation procedures in the United Arab Emirates, read Liquidations in the United Arab Emirates (Part 2)

For more information, Email us at mail@affiniax.com

LIQUIDATIONS IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (PART 2)

November 9, 2020November 8, 2020 by TAJENDRA CHUGH

In my previous article, titled, Liquidations in the United Arab Emirates (Part 1), we came across the roles, and duties of a Liquidator, the necessary documents required and the different types of Liquidations in the UAE.

We now take a look at the Procedures for Liquidation.

Mainland Company

In case of a mainland Company the following steps and documents are required for its liquidation:

Shareholders resolution confirming the liquidation of the Company. This would usually be in the form of the minutes of the meeting which is held by the shareholders in which they decide on liquidation of the Company and appointment of the liquidators for the same.
An acceptance letter from the liquidators accepting their appointment.
Application for cancellation of the Company from Department of Economic Development (DED)
Receive liquidation certificate from the Department of Economic Development (DED) once the above steps are completed.
Once the liquidation certificate is received from the DED, the Company has to publish a notice of liquidation in two local newspapers.
After the notice has been published, there is a notice period of 45 days for the debtors to submit their claims (if any).
Once the notice period of 45 days is over, the Company must submit the following documents:
- A declaration stating that all parties have no objection relating to the liquidation of the Company
- An approval would be required from other government agencies for the cancellation of the Company’s license.
The Company must then cancel its firm card with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation
Cancellation of the foreign partner’s visas which are sponsored by the Company.
The last step is to pay the DED fee and the company will be successfully liquidated.

Free Zone Company

In case of a free zone Company the procedure is slightly different and involves the following steps:

Every free zone in the UAE has a portal. The Company intending to liquidate must notify the free zone by applying on the member portal.
Once they have notified the respective free zone, they need to submit their application for termination of the Company.
After submission of the application, they need to publish the notice in a local newspaper.
The free zone will file a final Company termination letter and the Company will be liquidated.
Letter to be obtained from the Labor and Immigration department that there are no visas.

Bank Accounts, Employee Contracts, Utilities and Other Services on Liquidation

In all cases, the Company will need to cancel the employees’ visas and their work permits. Dubai portal explains that this requires coordination with both Department of Naturalisation and Residency and Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation.

As per the UAE’s Labor Law, employers are required to give their employees a two-month, paid notice period before terminating their contracts. In many cases, employees can keep their residency visas until the company’s trade license runs out. Then, the company needs to cancel utilities and telecommunication services and close all its bank accounts. Collect a NOC from the utilities providing company and bank closure confirmation for processing the closure.

Company liquidation can be a complicated process. However, we can assist you in case you decide to liquidate. Our procedures for preparing the required documents and completing the process shall help you liquidate your Company smoothly.

To learn more about liquidation procedures in the United Arab Emirates, read Liquidations in the United Arab Emirates (Part 1)

For more information, Email us at mail@affiniax.com

NEW UAE CABINET RESOLUTION – COMPANIES TO MAINTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP REGISTER

October 22, 2020October 21, 2020 by Affiniax

Does your company need to maintain a register of UBOs and nominee directors?

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently issued Cabinet Resolution No. 58 of 2020 on the Regulation of the Procedures of the Real Beneficiary (the Resolution), which came into effect on 28 August 2020 and replaced Cabinet Resolution No. 34 of 2020 issued earlier this year.

Over the years, certain free zones in Dubai have already implemented requirements about information to be furnished regarding an Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) during the registration process. However, many of the licensing authorities in the UAE previously did not require such information from the companies.

The new Resolution aims to introduce the requirement for a beneficial ownership register in the UAE mainland and unify the minimum disclosure requirements for corporate entities incorporated in the UAE mainland and in the non-financial free zones.

The Resolution addresses the disclosure requirements at the corporate registration stage, as well as the requirement to subsequently maintain a shareholder register, a register of beneficial owners and a register of nominee directors. Companies are now required to file the beneficial ownership information with the relevant Registrar by 27 October 2020.

Key points:

All companies in the UAE, both mainland and free zone companies, with the exception of companies incorporated in the financial free zones (Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and companies owned by the Federal Government and their subsidiaries), must now keep at their office premises:
- A shareholder register
- A register of beneficial owners
- A register of nominee directors.
Companies must file such information relating to the shareholders and beneficial owners with the relevant registrar and licensing authorities responsible for supervising the register of trade names for the various types of establishments registered in the UAE (the Registrar) by 27 October 2020.
Companies must notify the Registrar of any change or amendment to the information provided within 15 days of such change or amendment. Also, the companies need to designate an Individual who can be contacted by the regulators regarding the matters enacted in the resolution.
Companies which are listed on well-regulated stock exchanges or companies which are owned by these listed companies may rely on the disclosures made to the relevant stock exchange rather than making independent inquiries as to the beneficial ownership.

The resolution has been adopted in furtherance of Federal Law no. 20 of 2018, on Anti- Money Laundering, which placed an obligation on corporate entities to disclose any individual ownership (whether beneficial or actual) in an entity which owns twenty five percent (25%) or more of the company, to the relevant regulator.

To understand more about how the above changes can affect your business, please reach out to us on mail@affiniax.com.

Affiniax Partners’ HR Rising Star

October 21, 2020October 20, 2020 by Sheeba Mirza

Best HR practices during Covid-19 Pandemic

Beginning

I chose the Human Resources discipline for my MBA as I wanted to have a positive impact on people’s lives through the introduction of employee-friendly policies, influence future aspects of the company based on my recruitment decisions, and help organizations identify key talent.

My Ongoing HR Journey…

Oct 2017 – I began my HR career as an HR Faculty at National Academy, Dubai, where I delivered academic lectures on HR topics to working professionals. The lectures delivered were based on knowledge gained during my MBA, and I realized that I must gain practical HR working experience to enhance my knowledge regarding regional HR practices and UAE employment laws.

Dec 2017 – To further my career, I joined Affiniax Partners as an HR Executive. At Affiniax, management intended to transform the traditional operating model via fully integrated change management strategies and strategically managed HR transformation. It didn’t take me long to understand that the reasons why I chose HR as my career path were good to get started but not great to accomplish what I envisioned.

My vision was to align HR closely with Affiniax’s strategy in coordination with my colleagues and focused on enhancing the internal processes.

My first step was meetings with key employees and department heads regarding the company’s policies and processes. I presented those suggestions to the management, which resulted in decisions regarding proper SOP’s. I designed the Employee Manual with clear policies and processes in consultation with line managers and employees.

Soon after, I got selected for the Youth Leadership Program (YLP) at Affiniax in May 2018, which focused on the development of personal and professional skills. The selection was done based on interviews with the CEO and the training team.

I implemented the automation of manual tasks through migration to cloud-based services by ensuring process simplification and introduced a free HR software, Beneple (with limited features) with a pilot approach to familiarize the employees with cloud HR.

After successfully implementing Beneple, I implemented Zoho People in 2019 which consisted of more features. Again, I executed it successfully by overcoming challenges related to time taken to train the employees, altering the culture to adopt digital processes and to achieve 100% technology acceptance among the employees.

I revamped the performance management of my organization in 2018 through Robert Mosley’s “KPI & MSC model”. In 2019, I moved the same model onto the cloud for better record management, better security and multiple options of customizations in approval levels.

I chose a free software, Surveymonkey to evaluate ongoing learning programs at our workplace. I designed online forms, considering time spent by employees to evaluate the programs, ease of filling up the forms, better security and record-management.

I introduced employee surveys to measure the workplace climate and get a holistic perspective of employees.

I introduced comprehensive reports for Exit Interviews, Candidate selections, 360 Degree Reviews and Learning Evaluations.

Business Outcomes

Online L&D Evaluation and Performance Management – Data analysis and collection time reduced by 30%.
HR software – Reduction of time by 30% because of real-time attendance reports, customized online reports, better file management and digital record keeping.
Employee Surveys – 75% of the interns found the induction training session to be extremely useful and were very satisfied with our recruiting process.

Overcoming Challenges

The challenge was just around change as the employees were used to the rhythms of the old system. I strategically managed the change with the line managers by implementing phased rollouts of initiatives and training sessions.

Present Day
2020 is different now than it was a few months ago. With our workforce moving towards remote working, maintaining productivity, culture and employee engagement are extremely important. I conduct creative virtual team activities (definitely more than before), to build stronger relationships.

Moving Ahead
My CEO, after observing my passion, gave me the opportunity to showcase my skills for client assignments, which included Employee Manual and Agreements, Interview Assessment Reports, Succession Planning, Incentive structure, Organization Culture, to name a few. It was refreshing to experience this gradual shift towards consulting, where I got to enhance my knowledge with each assignment and share new perspectives that add value to my clients’ businesses.

I invest my time in reading leadership and HR books and networking at HR events to uncover the best practices of other organizations.

Principles to keep in mind while preparing a Combined Financial Statement or Consolidated Financial Statement

October 7, 2020September 29, 2020 by Mufaddal Shabbir and Sajeda Ubaidulla

How to prepare combined financial statement and consolidated financial statement

If you are an owner of multiple businesses or the majority shareholder of a Company which is part of a group and is under a parent / subsidiary relationship, it’s important to understand your options when it comes to preparation of financial statements and reporting for stakeholders. Being an owner of the Company / group, you need to know what the financial statements show about the financial health of your business and the subsidiary / associate companies. The more you know about financial statements, the more likely you’ll be an informed and discerning owner / shareholder of the business.

A Brief understanding of financial statements

Financial statements are reports that summarise important financial accounting information about your business. According to IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements, there are four main types of financial statements: the statement of financial position or ‘balance sheet’, the statement of comprehensive income or ‘income statement’, statement of changes in equity and statement of cash flow.
In layman terms, the financial statement is like a report card for a Company to measure its performance through the Statement of Comprehensive Income, and Statement of Financial Position is used to ascertain its Grade. The following Grades provide confidence to the stakeholders, who decide to what extent they have to rely on the entity.

Types of financial statements

Being an owner of multiple businesses, whether owning a Parent company or owning and holding control in various entities or groups of companies, it is required to prepare the financial statements of the entity to disclose their financial results. The commonly used financial statements are:

Single entity financial statement;
Consolidated financial statements; and
Combined financial statements.

In this article, we will further explore the above, keeping the owners’ mindset in mind and will briefly provide an understanding of the meaning of all these financial statements, their purpose, and their usefulness.

a)Single Entity Financial Statements

Single Entity financial statements, or Standalone financial statements, represent the financial position and the performance of the company as a single entity without taking into account the financial position and the performance of its subsidiaries, etc. The financial statements of the entity are written records that convey the business activities and the financial performance of a company.

b)Consolidated Financial Statements

In a consolidated financial statement, the financial results of the subsidiaries are included in a single financial statement with the parent company, as if the parent company and the subsidiaries were one entity. While the subsidiaries operate separately from the parent company, a consolidated financial statement reports on the group, with the parent company and subsidiaries together making up the financial picture of the group.

As per the guidelines from International Financial Reporting Standards on Consolidated financial statements (FRS 10), a few key factors to keep in mind are that a consolidated financial statement must be prepared, rather than a combined financial statement, when the parent has:

Power over (controlling rights) the subsidiary – rights that give the parent the ability to direct the relevant activities of the subsidiary;
Exposure/rights to (variable) return – rights to returns that aren’t fixed and may vary based on the performance of the subsidiary; and
Ability to use its power – to affect the amount of returns.

Keep in mind that there is additional application guidance in which assessment of control is difficult.

C)Combined Financial Statements

On the other end of the spectrum, combined financial statements are, simplistically, when two or more entities/segments report their finances in a combined document. Within the document, financial statements presenting the historical financial information of a circumscribed area of economic activities for which consolidated financial statements are not prepared in order to present the financial position of the combined economic activities, as well as their financial performance and cash flows.

Combined financial statements are prepared where a reporting objective exists for two or more legal entities who are all commonly owned or controlled by an individual or group of individuals who wanted to see the financial results for these subject entities as a single unit. Further, they do not by themselves meet the definition of a group under IFRS 10.

In many cases, it is not just entities that are included when preparing combined financial statements but also parts of entities. This can be the case when the parts of entities are sufficiently identifiable and, from a financial reporting perspective, separable from the entity which they are part of.

To prepare a combined financial statement, all entities/segments are under common control during the reporting period. Common control can be:

A Common Control / Management Approach – A common person or entity or part(s) of entities may be combined, if they were under common control as per the respective reporting framework. This approach reflects the control principle currently allowed for the preparation of financial statements for economic activities, which were, for the respective reporting period, part of a larger group or commonly controlled by the same individual(s).
A Common Ownership Approach – Entities or parts of entities may be combined if all combined entities or parts of entities were under common ownership. It can be a case where entities are jointly owned, but not commonly managed by the same management. It further allows the preparation of combined financial statements regardless of any changes in the Management structures and enables those preparing the statements to show the historical track record of economic activity for every period during which this economic activity is commonly managed.

A Comparison of Consolidated Financial Statements vs. Combined Financial Statements

#	Description	Key features of Combined Financial Statements	Key features of Consolidated Financial Statements
1	Ownership, relationship and its use	Combined financial statements are used where the entities are under common control but do not have parent-subsidiary relationships. One of the examples which we can use here is, combined financial statements based on Investor Interest. In addition, combined financial statements, equity of the entities which are being combined (may or may not be subsidiaries) are added.	Consolidated financial statements are presented where there is a parent-subsidiary relationship, which means one (parent) is owning and controlling the other company (subsidiary) by way of exercising control either by holding shares of the subsidiary or right to direct the profits towards the parent company.
2	Accounting Treatment of Intercompany Transactions	Accounting treatment for combined financial statements eliminates intercompany transactions and balances, but rarely emphasises, the unrealized gain or loss on inventories or assets unless identical and material in value/nature.	Accounting treatment of consolidated financial statements eliminates intercompany transactions. These are transactions that occur between the parent and subsidiary company. These transactions must be eliminated in order to avoid double-counting, once on the books of the subsidiary and again on the parent’s books. This avoids misrepresenting transactions that distort the actual results of the parent company and subsidiary.
3	Similarities on the Income Statement	Both combined and consolidated financial statements add the subsidiary companies’ income and expenses to the parent company. This creates a total income and expenses for the entire group of companies, including the parent.
4	Differences in the Reporting of Stockholders Equity	In combination, the equity for all the entities is totalled and presented accordingly, whereas in consolidation only the Parent share capital is disclosed, while the retained earnings are accumulated after necessary adjustments e.g. unrealized gain and loss and then split into parent and NCI portions. Combined financial statements add the stockholder’s equity to that of the parent. This is because the parent has a controlling interest in the subsidiary group of companies.	Consolidated financial statements simply eliminate the stockholder’s equity section of the subsidiary. Therefore, there are no changes to shareholder equity accounts, such as stock and retained earnings.
5	Non-controlling Interest	In Combined financial statements, there is no non-controlling interest separately shown and the financial results are combined based on common ownership and control.	In consolidated financial statements, accountants must keep track of the non-controlling interest relationship between the parent and subsidiary. This creates an account called non-controlling interest or minority interest, which tracks the part of the subsidiary not owned by the parent.

Which type of Financial Statement to use?

When the parent has power over the subsidiary, rights to variable return from its involvement with a subsidiary, and the ability to use its power over a subsidiary to affect the amount of return, you must file a consolidated financial statement as per IFRS 10.

Whereas a combined statement can be prepared in the situation when two or more entities are under common control, but there is no actual parent company relationship that exists. The combined statement is much easier to prepare since it simply requires a set of separate financial statements for each entity.

It is more important to be able to assess each entity on its own merits instead of as part of the unified whole, then the combined financial statement may be more suitable.

As with much of the reporting that is done specific to a business, which is the end goal, Assessing the parent and subsidiaries as a whole vs. assessing the individual components—will help you determine which financial statement structure is better for presenting your financial information.

How can we help you professionally?

With our well-diversified professional services, we can support in the preparation of different types of financial statements according to the ownership structure and set financial reporting standards and can assist you in evaluating the relationship between different entities of the Group.

In case you have any questions regarding your reporting obligations for your organization, please contact us at mail@affiniax.com or call us on +971 4 425 6616.

What Safety Measures Restaurants should take during the COVID-19 Pandemic

September 27, 2020September 27, 2020 by Yvonne Spiller

Steps restaurants can take to get more customers during pandemic

After months of being stuck at home during lockdown, even the most experienced home chef would be longing for a meal that he or she did not labour to make in their kitchen. For some, a reason to change out of their sleepwear and get out of the house—with or without the kids—is becoming more of a necessity to keep their sanity than a celebratory activity. In short, people are eager to be able to eat out again.

It is safe to say that most, if not all, in the food-service industry are also eager to welcome back the diners that they are used to serving. Business owners are eager to be able to reopen and recover lost earnings while the service staff is eager to earn again after months of being without work. There are also many who simply miss the satisfaction of serving people meals that nourish them and giving them an enjoyable dining experience; who missed the creative expression that came with their food industry jobs. Whether it is grabbing an inexpensive meal at a quick-service restaurant or an exquisite dining experience at a fancy restaurant, food safety and the assurance that a consumer will not go home with a COVID-19 infection is of paramount concern to everyone.

For the employers or business owners and their management team, the responsibility for prevention and management of outbreaks rests on their shoulders.

Take steps to ensure that staff adhere to existing and additional government regulations to keep the workplace safe while the COVID-19 threat still exists.
Conduct a COVID-19 risk assessment of the entire workplace; having a tried and tested business continuity plan in place would also be a big help.
Increase visible monitoring and enforcement of control measures including HACCP-based SOPs.
Conduct regular reviews, including seeking feedback from staff and customers to identify areas for improvement.

All employees, on the other hand, must be more vigilant, strictly following all processes put in place to ensure food safety. Although it is very unlikely COVID-19 could be transmitted through properly prepared food or food packaging that is properly handled, staff must observe good hygiene practices at all times.

Wash hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds (or sanitise), especially before and after handling food, cleaning cutlery, dishes, glasses, or other items to be used by the customer.
Staff that handle dirty or used items, collect used dishes from customer tables, and handle payments should be designated for these activities only, whenever possible.
All employees must ensure their thorough understanding of all HACCP principles and:
- identify any food handling hazard;
- identify the critical control points (CCPs) to prevent, remove or reduce a hazard;
- set limits for CCPs;
- monitor the CCPs;
- immediately correct any problem with a CCP;
- put checks in place to make sure the HACCP plan is working; and
- keep accurate and up-to-date records.

There are other resources available for business owners that could help to further reassure their customers that their establishment is a safe environment for them to be in. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has come up with a global safety stamp to recognise establishments around the world who have adopted policies and protocols that ensure the safety of consumers (for more info, click here). Certification agency Bureau Veritas has also launched a Safeguard label for shops, restaurants, and other confined spaces were people gather (for more info, click here or here).

With business owners and their employees clearly understanding how their cooperation will ensure their customers will be safe while in their premises, this will allow for a more comfortable, enjoyable, and most importantly, COVID-19 safe customer experience. If you are in need of help with regards to implementing HACCP or another food safety management system such as ISO 22000 in your establishment, contact Affiniax Partners for a free consultation.