The two methods for the translation of foreign subsidiary financial statements are the current rate and temporal methods

Question

Briefly, describe how each of these methods translates the foreign subsidiary financial statements into the parent company's consolidated statements. Identify when each technique should be used and the major advantage(s) of each.
What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: The current rate method translates almost all line items from the foreign subsidiary to the parent consolidated statements at the current exchange rate. This is the most commonly used method in the world today. Assets and liabilities are translated at current exchange rate and items found on the income statement are translated at the actual exchange rate on the date of transaction, or as an average over the statement period where appropriate. Equity accounts are translated at historical costs.
Any gains or losses caused by translation adjustments are typically placed into a special reserve account (such as a CTA). Thus, gains or losses do not go through the income statement and do not increase the volatility of net income. This is perhaps the biggest advantage to using the current rate method.
By contrast, the temporal method assumes that several individual financial statement items are periodically restated to reflect their market value. The temporal method translates individual line items based on monetary/nonmonetary criteria where monetary assets such as cash and marketable securities are translated at current exchange rates, but nonmonetary assets such as fixed assets are translated at historical rates. The gains or losses that result from translation remeasurement are recorded on the consolidated income statement and impact upon the volatility of net income. The temporal method of using historical costs may be more consistent with the practice of carrying domestic items at cost on the financial statements.