New US CMA Syllabus for 2020

US CMA Syllabus comprises of two parts Part 1 & Part 2. The percentage shown along with the topic are marks weightage assigned by IMA. Estimated study time is also provided under each topic. USA CMA course syllabus pdf can be downloaded. 

US CMA course syllabus overview

Part-1 Syllabus: Financial planning, Performance and Analytics

1. External Financial Reporting Decisions (15%) 
2. Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting (20%)
3. Performance Management (20%) 
4. Cost Management (15%) 
5. Internal Controls (15%)
6. Technology and Analytics (15%)

You're probably thinking.

'Can I manage with my existing schedule? How difficult it would be.'

And your brain says, Oh God! can I complete these topics?

But wait.

Hang on

Don't run away

Because we have given tentative study time next for each topic, this way, you can understand of how much effort you will have to put in.

Part-2 Syllabus: Strategic Financial Management

1. Financial Statement Analysis (20%) 
2. Corporate Finance (20%)
3. Decision Analysis (25%) 
4. Risk Management (10%)
5. Investment Decisions (10%)
6. Professional Ethics (15%)

USA CMA Part 1 syllabus in detail 

A. External Financial Reporting Decisions

1. Financial statements

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

2. Recognition, measurement, valuation, and disclosure 

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

 After covering financial statements and cash flows. A candidate should identify the needs of the financial statements, major components and classifications of each of the same, merits and demerits of them along with their effects. One can also demonstrate an understanding of the requirements of each of the statement, the relationship between the statements and the preparation of the same.

After covering recognition, measurement, valuation and disclosure. A candidate should identify the related issues to the valuation, distinguish between finance leases and operating, identify transactions affecting capital, differences between GAAP and IFRS and many more.

This is a straightforward section, and maximum questions in this section should be computational.

B. Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting

1. Strategic planning 

   • Understanding the factors affecting strategy both external and internal factors 
   • Long-term mission and goals 
   • Alignment of tactics with long-term strategic goals
   • Strategic planning models and analytical techniques 
   • Characteristics of a 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

Budgeting is the broader part of this section. A candidate is expected to calculate different items like the cost of goods sold, cost of goods manufactured, and other items here. There are a few conceptual questions, as well. This section is more in-depth than the previous one. The concepts are easy, but questions can consume length in some cases.

C. Performance Management

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 
   • 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

In this section, applicants are analyzed on the manners in which performance is assessed in an enterprise. The vast majority of the assessment tools ought to be well-known to the individuals who work in the accounting branch of a company. There are few components, for example, standard costs, that are utilized for the most part in manufacturing companies rather than service-oriented organizations.

D. Cost Management

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 vs. departmental overhead 
   • Determination of allocation base 
   • Allocation of service department costs

4. Supply chain management 

   • Lean resource management techniques 
   • Enterprise resource planning (ERP) 
   • Theory of Constraints 
   • Capacity management and analysis

5. Business process improvement 

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

This section includes several costing methodologies, and candidates are expected to be able to complete an entire set of calculations.

E. Internal Controls

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. System controls and security measures 

   • General accounting system controls
   • Application and transaction controls 
   • Network controls 
   • Backup controls 
   • Business continuity planning

The internal control questions in this area are practically all applied. They are not hard to see. However, they can be vague. Picking as well as can be expected is quite hard when a couple of the appropriate responses appear to be to some degree right. Try not to' get frustrated on the off chance that you quickly finish this area yet find that you do ineffectively on the training questions.

F. Technology and Analytics

1. Information systems 

   • Accounting information systems 
   • Enterprise resource planning systems 
   • Enterprise performance management systems

2. Data governance 

   • Data policies and procedures 
   • Life cycle of data 
   • Controls against security breaches

3. Technology-enabled finance transformation 

   • System development life cycle 
   • Process automation 
   • Innovative applications

4. Data analytics 

   • Business intelligence 
   • Data mining 
   • Analytic tools 
   • Data visualization

With the rise in popularity of data analytics, IMA has taken a step to make the syllabus relevant to today’s time. Data Analytics gives finance professional a peek into possible opportunities in Data Analytics field.

US CMA Pass percentage for part 1 is 40%. Passing marks is 360 out of 500.

USA CMA Part 2 syllabus in detail

A. Financial Statement Analysis

1. Basic financial statement analysis

   • Common size financial statements
   • Common base year financial statements

2. Financial ratios

   • Liquidity
   • Leverage
   • Activity
   • Profitability
   • Market

3. Profitability analysis

   • Income measurement analysis
   • Revenue analysis
   • Cost of sales analysis
   • Expense analysis
   • Variation analysis

4. Special issues

   • Impact of foreign operations
   • Effects of changing prices and inflation
   • Impact of changes in accounting treatment
   • Value and Income - Accounting and economic concepts
   • Earnings quality

This section is very like that of Section A in Part 1, which examines financial accounting. However, the point of convergence is more on analysis and comparison with the utilization of key financial data and ratios.

B.Corporate Finance

1. Risk and return

   • Calculating return
   • Types of risk Relationship between risk and return

2. Long-term financial management

   • Term structure of interest rates
   • Types of financial instruments
   • Cost of capital
   • Valuation of financial instruments

3. Raising capital

   • Financial markets and regulation
   • Market efficiency
   • Financial institutions
   • Initial and secondary public offerings
   • Dividend policy and share repurchases
   • Lease financing

4. Working capital management

   • Working capital terminology
   • Cash management
   • Marketable securities management
   • Accounts receivable management
   • Inventory management
   • Types of short-term credit
   • Short-term credit management

5. Corporate restructuring

   • Mergers and acquisitions
   • Other forms of restructuring

6. International finance

   • Fixed, flexible, and floating exchange rates
   • Managing transaction exposure
   • Financing international trade

To perform well with this section, you should see short term and long term financial management just as the advantages and impediments of major financial instruments. You will see a blend of conceptual and computational questions. The assortment of questions can be expensive; however, the calculations are likely very fundamental.

C.Decision Analysis

1. Cost/volume/profit analysis

   • Breakeven analysis
   • Profit performance and alternative operating levels
   • Analysis of multiple products

2. Marginal analysis 

   • Opportunity costs, Sunk costs 
   • Marginal costs and marginal revenue
   • Special orders and pricing
   • Make vs. buy
   • Sell or process further
   • Add or drop a segment
   • Capacity considerations

3. Pricing

   • Pricing methodologies
   • Target costing
   • Elasticity of demand
   • Product life-cycle considerations
   • Market structure considerations

This section will test you on how the management accountants give information and perform analysis of the decision making the process.

D.Risk Management

1. Enterprise Risk

   • Types of risk
   • Risk identification and assessment
   • Risk mitigation strategies Managing risk

Organizational managers need to recognize, survey, and react to risks all together for the organization to accomplish its objective. It focuses on the ERM model. You are well on the way to get theoretical questions in this area.

E.Investment Decisions

1. Capital budgeting process

   • Stages of capital budgeting
   • Incremental cash flows
   • Income tax considerations
   • Evaluating uncertainty

2. Capital investment analysis methods

   • Net present value
   • Internal rate of return
   • Payback
   • Comparison of investment analysis methods

This section covers how the management accountants help settles on important decisions about whether to continue with speculation or pick between venture options.

F. Professional Ethics

1. Business ethics

   • Moral philosophies and values
   • Ethical decision making

2. Ethical considerations for finance professionals

   • IMA’s Statement of Ethical Professional Practice
   • Fraud triangle
   • Evaluation and resolution of ethical issues

3. Ethical considerations for the organization

   • Organizational factors and ethical culture
   • IMA’s Statement, “Values and Ethics: From Inception to Practice”
   • Ethical leadership
   • Legal compliance
   • Responsibility for ethical conduct
   • Sustainability and social responsibility

The content of this section depends on the IMA Statement of Ethical Standards. The standards and gauges are succinct and straightforward candidates ought to retain the names of the four standards, and all the more critically, know how they are applied in real business circumstances.

US CMA Pass percentage for part 2 is 50%. Passing marks is 360 out of 500.

CMA is a highly honoured examination which is difficult to crack, but if achieved, it would be beneficial. Thinking of having preparation for CMA? We are here to guide. We would honour your single knock on our door.

Download US CMA Part1 Syllabus -PDF

Download US CMA Part2 Syllabus -PDF

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