Certified Management Accountant – IMA USA

 

CMA is the advanced professional certification measures the advanced accounting and financial management skills that drive business performance in today’s complex and challenging business environment. CMA is the credential that focuses specifically on financial planning, analysis, control and decision support, as well as professional ethics; critical skills for today’s complex and changing business environment. The CMA is tailor-made for finance professionals at all levels to enhance their value to current employers or expand their career potential.  For more details http://www.imanet.org/cma_certification.aspx

 

CMA Content Specification Overview

 

Part 1 - Financial Planning, Performance and Control

(4 hours – 100 questions and 2 essay questions)

 

Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting                      30%               Level C

Performance Management                                     25%               Level C

Cost Management                                                 25%               Level C

Internal Controls                                                  15%               Level C

Professional Ethics                                                  5%               Level C

 

Part 2 - Financial Decision Making

(4 hours – 100 questions and 2 essay questions)

 

Financial Statement Analysis                                  25%               Level C

Corporate Finance                                                25%               Level C

Decision Analysis and Risk Management                 25%               Level C

Investment Decisions                                            20%               Level C

Professional Ethics                                                  5%               Level C

 

Part 1 - Financial Planning, Performance and Control

 

A. Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting (30% - Levels A, B, and C)

 


1  Budgeting concepts

Operations and performance goals

Characteristics of successful budget process

Resource allocation

Other budgeting concepts

 

2.  Forecasting techniques

Regression analysis

Learning curve analysis

Exponential smoothing

Time series analysis

Expected value

 

3  Budgeting methodologies

Annual business plans (master budgets)

Project budgeting

Activity-based budgeting

Zero-based budgeting

Continuous (rolling) budgets

Flexible budgeting

 

4  Annual profit plan and supporting schedules

Operational budgets

Financial budgets

Capital budgets

 

5. Top-level planning and analysis

Pro forma income

Financial statement projections

Cash flow projections


 

B. Performance Management (25% - Levels A, B, and C)

 


1  Cost and variance measures

Comparison of actual to planned results

Use of flexible budgets to analyze performance

Management by exception

Use of standard cost systems

Analysis of variation from standard cost expectations

 

2  Responsibility centers and reporting segments

Types of responsibility centers

Transfer pricing models

Reporting of organizational segments

 

3  Performance measures

Product profitability analysis

Business unit profitability analysis

Customer profitability analysis

Return on investment

Residual income

Investment base issues

Effect of international operations

Critical success factors

Balanced scorecard


 

C.  Cost Management (25% - Levels A, B, and C)

 


1   Measurement concepts

Cost behavior and cost objects

Actual and normal costs

Standard costs

Absorption (full) costing

Variable (direct) costing

Joint and by-product costing

 

2  Costing systems

Job order costing

Process costing

Activity-based costing

Life-cycle costing

3.   Overhead costs

Fixed and variable overhead expenses

Plant-wide versus departmental overhead

Determination of allocation base

Allocation of service department costs

           

4.  Operational Efficiency

Just-in time manufacturing

Material requirements planning (MRP)

Theory of constraints and throughput costing

Capacity management and analysis

 

5  Business process performance

Value chain analysis

Value-added concepts

Process analysis

Benchmarking

Activity-based management

Continuous improvement concepts

Best practice analysis

Cost of quality analysis


 

D. Internal Controls (15% - Levels A, B, and C) 

           


1  Risk assessment, controls, and risk management

Internal control structure and management philosophy

Internal control policies for safeguarding and assurance

Internal control risk

Implications of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act internal control requirements

COSO Internal Control Framework

 

2  Internal auditing

Responsibility and authority of the internal audit function

Types of audits conducted by internal auditors

3   Systems controls and security measures

General accounting system controls

Application and transaction controls

Network controls

Flowcharting to assess controls

Backup controls

Disaster recovery procedures




E. Professional Ethics (5% - Levels A, B, and C) 

 

Ethical considerations for management accounting and financial management professionals

a.          Provisions of IMA’s  “Statement of Ethical Professional Practice”

b.          Evaluation and resolution of ethical issues such as:

§         Fraudulent reporting

§         Manipulation of analyses and results

§         Unethical behavior in developing budgets and standards

§         Manipulation of decision factors


 

 

Part 2- Financial Decision Making

 

A.  Financial Statement Analysis (25% - Levels A, B, and C)

 


1.  Basic Financial Statement Analysis

Common size financial statements

Common base year financial statements

Growth analysis

Purposes and components of financial statements

 

2 Financial Performance Metrics – Financial Ratios

Liquidity

Leverage

Activity

Profitability

Market

 

3 Profitability analysis

DuPont analysis

Income measurement analysis

Revenue analysis

Cost of sales analysis

Expense analysis

Variation analysis

 

4  Analytical Issues in Financial Accounting

Impact of foreign operations

Effects of changing prices and inflation

Off-balance sheet financing

Cash Flow Statement reconciliation to Income Statement

Impact of changes in accounting treatment

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)

Fair value accounting

Differences in accounting and economic concepts of value and income

Earnings quality


 

B. Corporate Finance (25% - Levels A, B, and C)

 


1  Risk and return

Calculating return

Types of risk

Relationship between risk and return

Risk and return in portfolio context

Diversification

Asset pricing models

 

2  Managing financial risk

Portfolio management

Hedging

Financial risk management

 

3  Financial instruments

Term structure of interest rates

Bonds

Debt management

Common stock

Preferred stock

Options and other derivatives

Valuation of financial instruments

 

4  Cost of capital

Weighted average cost of capital

Cost of individual capital components

Calculating the cost of capital

Marginal cost of capital

 

5  Managing current assets

Working capital terminology

Cash management

Marketable securities management

Accounts receivable management

Inventory management

Types of short-term credit

Minimizing the cost of short-term credit

 

6  Raising capital

Financial markets and regulation

Market efficiency

Financial institutions

Initial public offerings

Secondary offerings

Dividend policy and share repurchases

Private placements

Lease financing

 

7  Corporate restructuring

Mergers and acquisitions

Divestitures

Bankruptcy

 

8.  International finance

Fixed, flexible and floating exchange rates

Managing transaction exposure

Financing international trade

Transfer pricing tax implications

Political risk


 

C. Decision Analysis and Risk Management (25% - Levels A, B, and C)

 


1  Cost/volume/profit analysis

Breakeven analysis

Profit performance and alternative operating levels

Analysis of multiple products

2  Marginal analysis

Sunk costs, opportunity costs and other related concepts  

Marginal costs and marginal revenue      

Special orders and pricing

Make versus buy

Sell or process further

Add or drop segment

Capacity considerations

3 Pricing

Market comparables

Setting prices

Target costing

Elasticity

Product life cycle considerations

Market structure considerations

 

4  Risk assessment

Risk identification and exposure

Definition and scope of operational risk, hazard risk, financial risk and strategic risk

Risk mitigation strategies

Enterprise Risk Management


 

D. Investment Decisions (20% - Levels A, B, and C)

 


1. Capital budgeting process

Stages of capital budgeting

Incremental cash flows

ncome tax considerations

 

2. Discounted cash flow analysis

Net present value

Internal rate of return

Comparison of NPV and IRR

 

3. Payback and discounted payback

Uses of payback method

Limitations of payback method

Discounted payback

 

4. Ranking investment projects

Ranking methods

Capital rationing

Mutually exclusive projects

 

5. Risk analysis in capital investment

Sensitivity analysis

Certainty equivalents

Real options

 

6. Valuation

Discounted cash flow models

Multiples models

Valuation for acquisitions and divestitures

Discount rates


 

E. Professional Ethics (5% - Levels A, B, and C) 

 

1 Ethical consideration for the organization

Anti-bribery provisions of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

            Provisions of IMA’s Statement on Management Accounting, “Values and Ethics: From Inception to Practice”

            Corporate responsibility for ethical conduct

Course Delivery and Fees

 

Our CMA trainers are expert in the field of Accounting & Finance having acedemic credentials like Doctrate in Finance, Chater Accountacts (CA-ICAI)), Cost Accountancy-Inter (ICWAI), Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA-US), Associate Company Secretary (ACA), MBA (Finance) and B.Com (Finaical Accounting, Auditing and Taxation) with reach Industry exposure in the field of Finance and Accounting.

 

Lectures covering the course content are held for period of 4 hours during weekend. Extra classes may be held for practice exam

 

Tuition Duration:

Three and half months or approximate 55 hours for each part

Eligibility Requirement:

1. Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university

2. Foundational knowledge of economics, basic statistics, and financial accounting

3. Two continuous years of professional experience in management accounting or financial management.

4. Membership in IMA

 

Exams in a computer-based format are offered in three testing windows each year, student can sit for an exam part at time and place convenient.

 

Windows

Months

Last date for registration

1

January and February

February 15th

2

May and June

June 15th

3

September and October

October 15th

 

For latest updates contact the institute.