CMA

Certified Management Accountant

Institute of Management Accountants (IMA^®) is the world’s leading organization dedicated to empowering management accounting and finance professionals to drive business performance.

Management Accounting is the internal business building role of accounting and finance professionals who work inside organizations. These professionals are involved in designing and evaluating business processes, budgeting and forecasting, implementing and monitoring internal controls, and analyzing, and aggregating information—to help drive economic value.

What does a management accountant do?

The role of management accounting differs from that of public accounting, since management accountants work at the “beginning” of the value chain, supporting decision making, planning and control, while audit and tax functions involve checking the work after the fact. Management accountants are valued business partners, directly supporting an organization’s strategic goals.

Part: Financial Reporting, Planning, Performance and Control

A. Financial statements (15% of Exam Questions)

1. Financial statements

• Balance sheet
• Income statement
• Statement of changes in equity
• Statement of cash flows

2. Recognition, measurement, valuation, and disclosure

• Asset valuation
• Valuation of liabilities
• Equity transactions
• Revenue recognition
• Income measurement
• Major differences between U.S. GAAP and IFRS

B. Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting (30% of Exam Questions)

1. Strategic planning

• Analysis of external and internal factors affecting strategy.
• Long-term mission and goals.
• Alignment of tactics with long-term strategic goals.
• Strategic planning models and analytical techniques.
• Characteristics of successful strategic planning process.

2. Budgeting concepts

• Operations and performance goals.
• Characteristics of a successful budget process.
• Resource allocation.
• Other budgeting concepts.

3. Forecasting techniques

• Regression analysis.
• Learning curve analysis.
• Expected value.

4. Budgeting methodologies

• Annual business plans (master budgets).
• Project budgeting.
• Activity-based budgeting.
• Zero-based budgeting.
• Continuous (rolling) budgets.
• Flexible budgeting.

5. Annual profit plan and supporting schedules

• Operational budgets.
• Financial budgets.
• Capital budgets.

6. Top-level planning and analysis

• Pro forma income.
• Financial statement projections.
• Cash flow projections.

C. Performance Management (20% of Exam Questions)

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
• Key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Balanced scorecard

D. Cost Management (20% of Exam Questions)

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. Supply Chain Management

• Lean manufacturing
• Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
• Theory of constraints and throughput costing
• Capacity management and analysis

5. Business process improvement

• Value chain analysis
• Value-added concepts
• Process analysis
• Activity-based management
• Continuous improvement concepts
• Best practice analysis
• Cost of quality analysis
• Efficient accounting processes

E. Internal Controls (15% of Exam Questions)

1. Governance, risk, and compliance.

• Internal control structure and management philosophy
• Internal control policies for safeguarding and assurance
• Internal control risk
• Corporate governance
• External audit requirements

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
• Backup controls
• Business continuity planning

                                                                                                           

Certificate Exam

On each part of the exam, there will be:

1. 100 Multiple-Choice Questions. (Three Hours)
2. Two 30-minute Essay Questions. (One Hour)

Notes

• The essays will be presented after you have completed the multiple-choice section of the exam or after 3 hours, whichever comes first.
• Once you complete the multiple choice section, you cannot go back. You must stay in the essay section to complete the exam.
• You MUST score at least a 50% on the multiple-choice section of the exam to be eligible to take the essay section.
• Membership and entrance fees are $450 = KD130.
• Renew Fees is $250 = KD71.