US CMA Syllabus
The Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) USA offers the CMA USA, an advanced professional program in finance.
There is a total of two exams:
- The title of the paper
- Part 1: Financial reporting, planning, performance, and control are all aspects of financial management.
- Part 2: Making Financial Decisions
- The time allotted for the exam is four hours. There are two.
- Exam window: 100 multiple-choice questions in three hours, plus two essay questions in one hour
- Achieving a passing grade of 360 out of 500 points (each paper)
- Exam months are January/February, May/June, September/October, and November/December.
- Preparation time is expected to be 200 hours.
- The exam is expected to take nine months to complete.
- Percentage of those that pass: 35%
Part 1 and 2 of the US CMA Exam Syllabus 2022 are divided into two sections. The marks weightage assigned by IMA is shown as a percentage alongside the topic. Under each case, an estimate of study time is also offered.
US CMA course schedule outline-
Part I: Financial planning, performance, and analyticsare covered in this course.
- Financial Reporting Decisions Made by Others (15 % )
- Budgeting, planning, and forecasting (20% )
- Managing Performance (20% )
- Management of Costs (15% )
- Internal Controls (15% )
- Analytics and technology (15% )
| Sl No | Topic | Marks Weightage | Est Preparation Time | Est Video Course Duration |
| 1 | External Financial Reporting Decisions | 15% | 40 hrs | 25 hrs |
| 2 | Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting | 20% | 24 hrs | 18 hrs |
| 3 | Performance Management | 20% | 16 hrs | 11 hrs |
| 4 | Cost Management | 15% | 24 hrs | 18 hrs |
| 5 | Internal Controls | 15% | 12 hrs | 8 hrs |
| 6 | Technology and Analytics | 15% | 12 hrs | 8 hrs |
Part II: Strategic Financial Management
- Examine the financial statements (20% )
- Business Finance (20% )
- Make a decision (25% )
- Risk Assessment and Management (10% )
- Investment Choices (10% )
- Professional Code of Conduct (15% )
| Sl No | Topic | Marks Weightage | Est Preparation Time | Est Video Course Duration |
| 1 | Financial Statement Analysis | 20% | 16 hrs | 11 hrs |
| 2 | Corporate Finance | 20% | 30 hrs | 22 hrs |
| 3 | Decision Analysis | 25% | 15 hrs | 10 hrs |
| 4 | Risk Management | 10% | 5 hrs | 3 hrs |
| 5 | Investment Decisions | 10% | 9 hrs | 6 hrs |
| 6 | Professional Ethics | 15% | 7 hrs | 5 hrs |
| Total | 100% | 82 hrs | 57 hrs |
US CMA Part 1 2022 timetable in detail –
- Financial Reporting Decisions Made by Others
- Balance sheet
- Financial statements
- Profit and loss statement
- Changes in equity statement
- Cash flow statement
- Reporting that is integrated
- Identifying, measuring, valuing, and disclosing
- Valuation of assets
- Liabilities valuation
- Equity exchanges
- Recognized revenue
- Calculation of earnings
- The distinctions between US GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
After you’ve gone through the financial statements and cash flows, it’s time to move on to the next. A candidate should recognize the financial statements’ requirements, their primary components and categories, their benefits and drawbacks, and their consequences. One can also show that they understand the needs of each statement, the relationship between them, and how to prepare the reports.
After you’ve gone over recognition, measurement, value, and disclosure, it’s time to move on to the next step. A candidate should distinguish between financial and operating leases, recognize capital transactions, and understand the variations between GAAP and IFRS, among other things. This is a simple portion, and most problems should be computational.
Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting
- Strategic planning
- Long-term mission and goals
- Tactics that are in line with long-term strategic objectives
- Analytical techniques and models for strategic planning
- The following are aspects of an effective strategic planning process:
- Budgeting ideas
- Objectives for operations and performance
- Features of a practical budgeting approach
- Allocation of resources
- Additional budgeting ideas
- Forecasting methods
- Analysis of Regression
- Examining the learning curve
- Estimated worth
- Methodologies for budgeting
- Business plans for the year (master budgets)
- Budgeting for projects
- Budgeting based on activities
- Budgeting on a zero-based basis
- Budgets that are updated regularly (rolling budgets)
- adaptable Budgeting
- Profit plan for the year and supporting schedules
- Budgets for operations
- Budgets for money
- Capital expenditure budgets
- Strategic planning and analysis at the highest levels
- Earnings projections
- Projection of financial statements
- Cash flow forecasts
This section is divided into two parts: budgeting and financial planning. A candidate must compute several items such as the cost of goods sold, goods manufactured, and other items in this section. There are also a few conceptual issues to consider. This section goes into greater detail than the one before it. Although the ideas are simple, some questions can be lengthy.
Management of Performance
- Cost and variance measures
- Actual and projected results comparison
- Analyzing performance with variable budgets
- Exceptional management
- Standard costing systems are used
- Examining differences between actual cost estimates
- Reporting segments and responsibility centers
- Different kinds of responsibility centers
- Charges for transfers
- Organizational segment reporting
- Metrics of success
- Profitability study of a product
- Profitability study of business units
- Profitability study of customers
- Investment return
- Earnings on a long-term basis
- Problems with the investment base
- Indicators of performance (KPIs) Key Performers indicators.
- Balanced scorecard
Applicants are evaluated based on how performance is measured in a business. The great majority of evaluation tools should be familiar to those who work in a company’s accounting department. A few components, such as legal expenses, are more commonly used in manufacturing enterprises than in service-oriented businesses.
Expense Control
- Concepts of measurement
- Costbehaviorand cost objects
- Actual and expected costs
- Costs are standard
- Full costing (absorption)
- Direct (variable) costs
- Costing of joint and by-products
- Costing methods
- Estimation of job costs
- Costing of the process
- Costing is dependent on activity
- Costing throughout a person’s life
- Overhead expenses
- Overhead expenses, both fixed and variable
- Overhead at the plant level vs. departmental overhead
- Establishing the allocation base
- Cost allocation for the service department
- Managing the supply chain
- Techniques for resource management that are lean
- Organizational resource planning (ERP)
- Constraints Theory
- Analysis and management of capacity
- Enhancement of business processes
- Analyze the value chain
- Concepts with added value
- Analyzing, redesigning, and standardizing processes
- Management based on activity
- Concepts of continuous improvement
- Analysis of best practices
- The price of a quality analysis
- Processes for accounting that are efficient
Candidates must perform a comprehensive series of computations in this portion, which incorporates multiple costing approaches.
Internal Controls
- Risk, compliance, and governance
- Management philosophy and internal control structure
- Policies for safeguarding and ensuring information.
- Risk of internal control
- Corporate management
- Mandatory external audits
- Controls and security measures for the system
- Accounting system controls in general
- Transaction and application controls
- Network management
- Controls for backups
- Continuity of operations planning
Internal control questions are nearly all applied in this field, and it’s not difficult to spot them. They can, however, be ambiguous. Picking as good as possible is difficult when a few appropriate responses appear to be partially correct. Don’t get frustrated if you finish this section quickly yet perform poorly on the training questions.
Analytics and Technology
Information systems are divided into two categories:
(1) information systems and
(2) accounting information systems.
- Enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications
- Performance management methods for businesses
- Data management
- Policies and procedures for handling data
- The data life cycle
- Anti-breach security measures
- Financial transformation aided by technology
- The life cycle of system development
- Automation of processes
- Cutting-edge applications
- Information analysis
- Intelligence for business
- Exploration of data
- Tools for analyzing data
- Visualization of data
With the growing popularity of data analytics, the IMA has updated the syllabus to make it more current. Data Analytics gives finance professionals a glimpse into the field’s potential opportunities.
Part 1 of the US CMA exam has a pass rate of 40%. A minimum passing score of 360 out of 500 is required.
USA CMA Part2 2022 schedule in detail-
Review of Financial Statements
Financial statement analysis in its most basic form
- Financial statements of standard size
- Statements of financial position for the same budgetary year
- financial ratios
- Liquidity
- Leverage
- Activity
- Profitability
- Market
- Analysis of Profitability
- An examination of revenue measurement
- Revenue forecasting
- Sales cost analysis
- Cost-benefit analysis
- Analysis of variation
- Special topics
- Foreign operations’ impact
- The impact of fluctuating prices and inflation
- Changes in accounting treatment have an impact.
- Accounting and economic principles of value and income
- High-quality earnings
This section is quite similar to Part 1’s Section A, which looks into financial accounting. On the other hand, the point of convergence relies on analysis and comparison with the use of essential financial data and ratios.
Financial Management of Corporations
- Risk and Return
- Return Calculation
- Different types of risk the link between risk and reward
- Financial planning for the long term
- Interest rate structure over time
- Different kinds of financial instruments
- Capital costs
- Financial instrument valuation
- Capital raising
- Regulation and financial markets
- Effectiveness of the market
- Financial establishments
- Initial public offers (IPOs) and secondary public offerings (IPOs)
- Share repurchases and dividend policy
- Leasing options
- Management of working capital
- Terminology for working capital
- Managing cash flow
- Managing marketable securities
- Management of accounts receivable
- Inventory control
- Different kinds of short-term credit
- Managing short-term credit
- Business reorganization
- Acquisitions and mergers
- Restructuring in other ways
- International financial services
- Exchange rates that are fixed, variable, and floating
- Dealing with transaction risk
- International trade financing
To succeed in this area, you must understand short- and long-term financial management and the benefits and drawbacks of main financial instruments. There will be a mix of conceptual and computational problems on the exam. The number of questions can be costly, but the computations are most likely relatively simple.
Analysis of Options.
- Breakeven analysis
- Cost/volume/profit analysis
- Profitability and different operation levels
- Multiple products analysis
- Analysis of the margins
- Sunk costs and opportunity costs
- Marginal revenue and marginal costs
- Pricing and special orders
- Buy vs. make
- Proceed with the sale or processing
- Replace a segment with a new one.
- Factors affecting capacity
- Pricing
- Pricing techniques
- Costing with a goal
- Demand elasticity
- Considerations for the product’s life cycle
- Considerations on market structure
This section will put you to the test on how management accountants provide information and analyze the decision-making process.
Risk Management
- Enterprise Risk
- Risk Types
- Identifying and assessing risks
- risk-reduction tactics Risk management
To achieve its goal, organizational managers must recognize, survey, and respond to risks collectively. It is mainly concerned with the ERM model. You’re on your way to answering theoretical questions in this field.
Decisions Regarding Investments
- Capital budgeting procedure
- Capital budgeting stages
- Cash Flows in Steps
- Income-tax implications
- Assessing the level of uncertainty Methods of capital investment analysis
- Present value (NPV) • Return on investment (ROI) • Payback • Methods of investment analysis comparison
This section discusses how management accountants assist in making critical decisions such as whether to continue speculating or choose amongst venture options.
Professional Ethics
- Business Ethics.
- Moral theories and values in business
- Making ethical decisions Financial professionals’ ethical considerations
- IMA’s Ethical Professional Practice Statement
- The triangle of deception
- Ethical issues are assessed and resolved.
- Organizational ethical considerations
- Ethical culture and organizational factors
- The IMA’s declaration “Values and Ethics: From Inception to Practice.”
- Moral Leadership
- Legal observance
- Accountability for ethical behavior
- Social responsibility and sustainability
The IMA Statement of Ethical Standards determines this section’s content. The criteria and gauges are brief and easy, so applicants should remember the titles of the four standards and, more importantly, how they are applied in real-world situations.
The pass rate for section 2 of the US CMA is 50%. The base passing score is 360 out of 500.
CMA Exam is a prestigious exam that is difficult to pass, but it will be advantageous if done so.
What do CMAs do?
Professionals with the CMA certificate can pursue a range of operations and decision-making-related careers. Job opportunities and CMA salaries differ depending on a candidate’s years of experience and work background.
Financial Analyst
Financial Analysts are a lower-level role for CMAs that monitor financial statements, write reports, analyze results, and make recommendations to increase corporate productivity. The CMA certification provides Financial Analysts with the confidence and expertise to complete the entire cycle, from financial report creation to making recommendations based on the gathered data.
Accountant (Cost)
Cost Accountants, as the name implies, gather, analyze, and report information on a company’s costs to identify inefficiencies that can be eliminated to save money. Cost accountants will develop the ability to do successful cost accounting and convey strategic plans to high-level executives for implementation during the CMA credentialing process. Average Wage: Cost Accountants earn an average annual pay of $62,207.
Manager of Financial Risk
Financial Risk Managers foresee future changes that could affect the company’s finances and make strategic plans based on their projections after obtaining the essential analytical and decision-making abilities through the CMA credential and relevant work experience. This position necessitates a strong foundation of analytical skills and mathematical proficiency. Financial Risk Managers earn an average salary of $99,949 per year.
Controller of finances
As one of the executives of the finance department, financial controllers work directly with Chief Financial Officers. This job mainly entails supervising other accountants and accounting managers, including transforming data into financial reports and developing a financial strategy. Because Financial Controllers are required to make strategic suggestions and oversee other accounting professionals, a CMA certificate is highly recommended for this position. Average Wage: Financial controllers earn an average annual pay of $108,651.
Managing Director of Finance
As the finance arm of the C-suite and typically reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer(CEO), the Chief Financial Officer is in charge of a company’s financial choices. Financial reporting, financial forecasting, and company investments are all responsibilities of CFOs. This position’s leadership, communication, and analytical skills are part of the CMA credentialing process. A CMA or MBA is frequently required to achieve positions at this management level.
Five Reasons to Become a CMA-
We’ll look at five reasons to become a CMA for the time being. To see the benefits of the CMA certification, it’s vital to understand why other individuals receive it. When selecting a selection for yourself, though, you must consider your career path and what would assist you in getting there.
The Certified Management Accountant (CMA) is the gold standard in management accounting. Your aunts and neighbours may not know what a CMA is, but it is a well-respected title in the corporate accounting world. It is regarded as the “gold standard,” indicating one of the most prestigious management accounting certificates available. It is also the world’s fastest-growing credential. Holding the top position in their area is a huge motivator for many people.
- It is arguably the most internationally recognized management accounting certification.
The CMA is a high-level professional certification that assesses critical accounting and financial management abilities. This is especially significant in an expert setting. You will be a top contender for job openings when you have this distinction.
The CIMA is the largest organization in this field, however. On the other hand, the CMA is growing faster than the CIMA worldwide.
CMAs are compensated more.
Let’s face it: we want to learn, but we also want to attain better-paying jobs. Thus, we need the certification. According to a comprehensive survey, CMA certification holders earn 67 percent more than non-certified colleagues.
More is always a good thing, but how much more are we talking about? The global mean and median base CMA certification income can fluctuate from year to year, so keep track of the numbers. The figures, however, remain strong and appealing to potential Certified Management Accountants, suggesting that earning your CMA is still a good idea.
As per the IMA, the worldwide mean base CMA pay in 2018 was $74,344, with a $66,000 worldwide middle base CMA pay. This will often rise year after year, so we should expect continuous gains in the years ahead.
CMA skills are more practical for many
According to various industry magazines, 80 percent of accountants end up in non-public accounting, and these professionals might benefit more from management accounting knowledge and skills. Furthermore, many dual CPA and CMA holders find the CMA’s materials more fascinating and valuable in their daily work.
Again, it all depends on your professional goals. Still, the skills you’ll master as a Certified Management Accountant are widely regarded as the best in the business for the day-to-day duties you’ll face as an accountant.
The IMA makes things simple for us.
Unlike the CPA Exam, where qualifying for the exam might be more complex than passing it, the IMA (the CMA exam administrator) maintains everything easy, transparent, and organized for applicants. The IMA warmly welcomes international candidates, which offers the exam on hundreds of sites worldwide.
Don’t get me wrong: the CMA isn’t easy to obtain due to the low entry hurdle. To qualify, applicants should have a four-year college education, finish a requesting test, and have two years of consistent administration bookkeeping experience.
On the other hand, the IMA makes becoming a CMA as painless as possible. Candidates may concentrate on passing the exam and having a good time instead of becoming bogged down in bureaucracy and conflicting requirements from several state boards, as with the CPA certification process. Many people will profit significantly from this.
The CMA sounds fantastic, but how will it help me?
All of the information may indicate that the CMA course seems appealing, but that does not imply that it is suitable for you. You are the only one who can truly determine that at the end of the day. However, I intend to provide you with various knowledge to aid in your decision-making. Let’s look at how the CMA certification can help you advance in your profession.
Simandhar Education is one of the institutes that helps in the overall development of the student for achieving their dream and gives a paved way to a student in helping with CMA.
Need more information on the US CMA course? please feel free to Contact Simandhar Education @ +91 7780273388 or mail us at info@simandhareducation.com.
