The reason for these preparations might be: (i) direct decision of the company, (ii) bad financial conditions of the company which may lead to bankruptcy, or (iii) obligatory company has to finish its business due to the legal requirements.
Therefore we could divide the companies onto three main groups. First group consists from companies where we can predict the going concern in the near future, however there happens some extraordinary operation (e.g. change of the legal form of business, etc.). Second group consists from companies where we cannot predict the going concern principle in the near future. These companies lapse just from the legal point of view; from the economic point of view their assets and liabilities are transferred to other entity (e.g. business combinations). The last group consists from companies where we also cannot predict the going concern in the near future and the companies will lapse from legal as well as economic point of view (e.g. bankruptcy).
All of these extraordinary situations eventuate the preparation of extraordinary or interim financial statements. Business entity therefore has to adapt its accounting methods, especially methods of measurement of assets and liabilities, to the current conditions and project them to financial statements as at the day before this extraordinary situation. From this point of view there is necessary to analyze parts of accruals and deferral, impairments and provisions. Also there is necessary to deal with the problem which measurement base is the best one for the current conditions (historical costs, fair value, liquidating price).