Consolidated financial statements must be prepared if one of the combining entities obtain control over another. These reports should not be biased in favor of any group and must be based on the underlying substance of the economic events. There are some approaches or methods in preparing consolidated financial statements such as parent company theory, entity theory, proportional consolidation and contemporary theory.
Certain problems and inconsistency in accounting procedures under each method arise in case the company owns less than 100% shares of the subsidiaries. Moreover there is no concencus among theorists which approach should be applied. Eventhough the pros and cons in arguing the proper approach has been going on in dabate, this paper attempts to set forth theoretical investigation to support the argumentation that contemporary theory is more appropriate approach.