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What Is a CMA?
The acronym "CMA" stands for Certified Management Accountant. But, what is a CMA?

A Certified Management Accountant (CMA) is an accounting professional to whom the Institute

of Management Accountants (IMA) has awarded the CMA certification. The IMA developed the
CMA designation in 1972 to supply an objective measure of an accountant’s knowledge and
competence in management accounting.

The IMA grants the designation to candidates who have met specific requirements, such as
passing the CMA exam. The Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA), which
creates the CMA exam, regularly assesses the CMA exam content to confirm that its current
topics are up to date and relevant for modern business. The CMA exam content represents the
knowledge, skills, and abilities that a contemporary accounting or finance professional employs
on the job. Such skills include financial planning, analysis, control, and decision support.

What Does a Certified Management Accountant Do?

Certified Management Accountants are uniquely equipped not only to play a critical role in the
financial department of a company but also to hold a high position of leadership in the
management side of the company. CMAs have the financial understanding to make wise money
decisions. Furthermore, CMAs also possess the business acumen to help the company operate
efficiently and effectively. For this reason, Certified Management Accountants can fit into a
wide range of positions and lead interesting and varied CMA careers.
So, what jobs can a Certified Management Accountant get? CMAs can hold these titles and
more:

 Budget analyst

 Chief Executive Officer

 Chief Financial Officer

 Cost accountant

 Controller

 Financial analyst
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 Financial manager

 Internal auditor

 Senior accountant

 Staff accountant

 Treasurer

Within these positions, a CMA’s job description includes analyzing and parsing data from
multiple sources to inform steps toward performance improvement. CMAs also contribute
insight into the company’s financial condition in order to influence strategic business decisions.

In addition, CMAs identify opportunities for investment management, supervise and mentor
lower level accountants, prepare financial statements, create strategies to address internal and
external risks, arrange funding and financing options, and more. Basically, CMAs have a lot of
important duties and obligations and are therefore essential to the workforce.

Why Become a Certified Management Accountant?

When you earn the CMA, you’ll experience many major career benefits, including:

 Higher Income
The CMA certification elevates your earning potential. Consequently, CMAs earn more than
non-CMAs. In fact, in the U.S., you can make about 47% more than professionals without the
CMA or CPA. Additionally, the IMA reports that a 22-year old CMA can enjoy more than
$500,000 in additional lifetime earnings. Finally, the global median total compensation is 67%
higher for CMAs than non-CMAs. So, with these 3 letters behind your name, you can charge
more for your service and command a higher salary no matter where you go.

 More Job Opportunities

As the list of positions CMAs can hold proves, you’ll have an array of highly desirable job
opportunities available to you as soon as you secure the CMA. CMAs can work in an assortment
of industries, such as:

 Manufacturing
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 Finance

 Business services

 Trading

 Education

 Transportation and utilities

 Construction, mining, and agriculture

 Government

 Healthcare

 Non-profit

 High tech

 Insurance

 Pharmaceuticals and biotech

 Real estate

 Media and entertainment

And within these industries, CMAs can work in many different departments, like:

 General accounting

 Finance

 Corporate management

 Budgeting and planning

 Cost accounting

 General management

 Education

 Internal auditing
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 Information systems

 Governmental accounting

 Taxation

Undoubtedly, the CMA is a source of extensive career variety. Therefore, as a CMA, you won’t
ever have to be bored with your job, and you qualify for a host of different positions.

 Increased Skills and Abilities

To earn the CMA certification, candidates must meet a series of requirements. These
requirements demonstrate your knowledge and skills in management accounting, financial
accounting, internal controls, audit, decision-making, budgeting, and more. Furthermore, one of
the CMA requirements involves passing an examination known to be fairly difficult. Therefore,
once you’ve earned the CMA, you’ve solidified your expertise in these areas. And as an expert,
you’re ready to do more, perform better, and take on more responsibility, all of which improves
your career trajectory.

 Greater Job Security

The CMA opens up plenty of doors in the job market. Then, once you enter a new position, the
CMA closes the door behind you. Again, in the process of becoming CMA certified, you hone
your understanding and sharpen your skills in management accounting. Then, you keep these
abilities in peak condition by completing continuing education to maintain the CMA
certification. For this reason, the CMA makes you attractive to future employers and keeps you
valuable to current employers. With so much information about business and accounting in your
mind, no boss is ever going to want to lose you. So, you can count on your position being yours
for a very long time.

 Heightened Respect and Admiration

Once you’ve earned the CMA, you’ll also have earned an enviable reputation as an authority in
accounting. With the CMA, you’ll understand the “why” behind the numbers, not just the
“what”. Therefore, you’ll know all about accounting and all about business. And with such
information, others will know you as the one with the answers. Consequently, your peers will
come to you for insight and advice, and your superiors will trust you improve performance and
deliver results. With the CMA, you can excel in both the business and financial sides of the
company and receive all the attention and accolades that come with such competence.
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What Are the Requirements to Become a Certified

Management Accountant?
The IMA holds high standards for CMA candidates. And they enforce these standards in the
form of the CMA requirements. The IMA lists 6 requirements in total:

 Hold active membership with the IMA

 Pay the CMA entrance fee

 Fulfill the CMA education requirement
 Fulfill the CMA experience requirement
 Pass Part 1 and Part 2 of the CMA exam
 Comply with the IMA Statement of Ethical Professional Practice

 Complete the annual CMA CPE requirements

As you can see, these requirements involve time commitments of varying lengths. For example,
you must maintain your IMA membership and complete the annual CPE requirements for the
rest of your career. But, paying the CMA entrance fee and complying with the statement are one-
time actions. Therefore, most CMA candidates focus most on the remaining requirements, all of
which start with an E.

 Education: candidates must satisfy 1 of the following education requirements and submit proof of
their education to the ICMA within 7 years of finishing the CMA exam.
o Earn a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university

 You’ll find a partial list of accredited U.S. and international institutions here:
http://univ.cc/world.php.

 If you received your degree from a non-accredited institution, an independent agency must
evaluate your education. You’ll find a list of such agencies at www.aice-eval.org or
http://www.naces.org/members.htm.

o Have a professional certification


The IMA has a list of approved professional certifications.
 Experience: CMA candidates have to acquire 2 continuous years of professional experience in
management accounting and/or financial management.
o You can complete this requirement before or within 7 years of passing the CMA exam.

o Teaching full-time counts as professional experience so long as at least 60% of your course load
involves teaching accounting or finance above the principles level over a 2-year period.
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o The IMA expects full-time employment. But, they do accept continuous part-time positions of 20
hours per week that meet the definition of qualified experience. You can count part-time work
toward the experience requirement at a rate of 1 year of experience for every 2 years of part-time
employment.

o Whether your position is part-time or full-time, it must consist of regularly making judgments by
using the principles of management accounting and financial management. Tasks in which you
would employ these principles include:

 Auditing (external or internal)

 Budget preparation and reporting

 Company investment decision making

 Completing monthly, quarterly, and year end close

 Costing analysis

 Financial planning and analysis

 Forecasting

 Managing general ledger and balance sheets

 Preparation of financial statements

 Risk evaluation

 Examination: candidates must pass all parts of the CMA exam. The CMA exam has 2 parts:
o Part 1: Financial Planning, Performance, and Analytics

o Part 2: Strategic Financial Management

How Long Does It Take to Become a Certified Management

Accountant?
A few of the CMA requirements take several years to finish. Therefore, the process of becoming
a CMA can last for a while. However, once you pass the CMA exam, you only have 7 years to
fulfill the education and experience requirements.

Usually, earning a bachelor’s degree takes 4 years. To satisfy the 2-year experience requirement,
you can work full-time for 2 years or part-time for 4 years. So, these 2 requirements can take 6-8
years of your life.
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How long does it take to pass the CMA exam? That depends on how much time you have to
study for it. The IMA reports that candidates take an average of 12-18 months.

However, the IMA also recommends 150-170 study hours per part. The exam has 2 parts, so
that’s 300-340 hours in total. If you study for 20 hours a week, you can pass both exam parts in
approximately 4 months. If you study for 10 hours a week, you’ll have both exam parts done in 8
months.

Clearly, finishing the exam in a year is very possible. And, you could pass the exam while
working on the experience requirement. Therefore, you could have the CMA in hand after about
6-9 years.

When you consider the lifetime benefits of the CMA, that’s not such a long time to wait. But if
you need more incentive to put the time in, consider the fact that you’ll get $1,696 or more in
returned lifetime earnings for every hour you spend studying for the CMA exam, according to
the IMA.

How Do I Become a Certified Management Accountant

(CMA)?
If you’re interested in the CMA certification, you must follow these steps to becoming a CMA:

 Learn everything you need to know about the CMA journey

 Become a member of the IMA

 Prepare for the CMA exam

 Pay the CMA entrance fee

 Pass both parts of the CMA exam

 Earn your bachelor’s degree

 Work for 2 years in a financial management or management accounting position

 Submit verification of your education and experience to the IMA

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 Receive a CMA certificate number and later, CMA certificate

 Uphold the Statement of Ethical Professional Practice

 Maintain the CMA certification by meeting the annual CPE requirements

What Is the CMA Exam?

The CMA Exam is an exam all candidates must pass in order to earn the CMA certification. The
ICMA creates the exam, and Prometric testing centers administer it.

How many parts does the CMA exam have? The CMA exam has 2 parts covering a wide range
of accounting topics.

The exam evaluates candidates’ knowledge of this information via 2 types of questions:
multiple-choice and essay. Each exam part has 100 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and 2
essay scenarios.

To move on to the essay section of the exam, you must answer at least 50% of the MCQs
correctly. If you do so, the exam will present the essays to you after you’ve answered all of the
MCQs or 3 hours have elapsed, whichever comes first.

Once you enter the essay section, you can’t go back to the MCQs. The essay section contains 8-
10 written response or calculation questions that you must respond to using 2 scenarios, each of
which describes a typical business situation.

What Does the CMA Exam Cover?

The CMA exam’s content specifications outline (CSOs) and learning outcome statements
(LOSs) delineate all of the topics the exam addresses. The content areas and coverage
percentages of each exam part are as follows:

 Part 1: Financial Planning, Performance, and Analytics

o A. External Financial Reporting Decisions: 15%

o B. Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting: 20%

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o C. Performance Management: 20%

o D. Cost Management: 15%

o E. Internal Controls: 15%

o F. Technology and Analytics: 15%

 Part 2: Strategic Financial Management

o A. Financial Statement Analysis: 20%

o B. Corporate Finance: 20%

o C. Decision Analysis: 25%

o D. Risk Management: 10%

o E. Investment Decisions: 15%

o F. Professional Ethics: 10%

How Long Is the CMA Exam?

You’ll have 4 hours of total testing time for each CMA exam part. You can use the first 3 hours
for the MCQs and have at least 1 hour for the essays. However, if you finish the MCQs in less
than 3 hours, your remaining time will carry over to the essay section.

Once you enter the CMA program, you have 3 years to pass both exam parts. Your 3 years starts
on your date of entry into the program. If you don’t pass both parts within those 3 years, the
credit you earned for any passed parts will expire. You will then have to pay the CMA entrance
fee again and retake the CMA exam parts.

Because passing both CMA exam parts in a year or less is very possible, 3 years is more than
enough time. However, finishing the exam in this time is a little trickier than it seems because
the CMA exam parts are only available during 3 annual testing windows:

 January/February

 May/June

 September/October
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How Hard Is the CMA Exam?

The CMA exam is passable, but it is also not easy. A few different factors indicate the difficulty
of the CMA exam.
The first factor is the CMA exam pass rates. What is the pass rate for the CMA exam? For the
last few years, the average CMA exam pass rate has been about 43%. But specifically, the most
recent Part 1 CMA pass rate was 40%, and the latest Part 2 CMA pass rate was 50%. These low
pass rates prove that this exam isn’t a walk in the park. Instead, it’s a challenging test for which
you must thoroughly prepare. Based on the pass rates alone, you can’t take the CMA exam
lightly.
Another indication of CMA exam difficulty is the depth of knowledge the exam expects
candidates to possess. The CSOs identify and define 6 cognitive skills candidates must have in
order to pass the exam.

 Knowledge: ability to remember previously learned material such as specific facts, criteria,
techniques, principles, and procedures (i.e., identify, define, list).
 Comprehension: ability to grasp and interpret the meaning of material (i.e., classify, explain,
distinguish between).
 Application: ability to use learned material in new and concrete situations (i.e., demonstrate, predict,
solve, modify, relate).
 Analysis: ability to break down material into its component parts so that its organizational structure
can be understood; ability to recognize causal relationships, discriminate between behaviors, and
identify elements that are relevant to the validation of a judgment (i.e., differentiate, estimate, order).
 Synthesis: ability to put parts together to form a new whole or proposed set of operations; ability to
relate ideas and formulate hypotheses (i.e. combine, formulate, revise).
 Evaluation: Ability to judge the value of material for a given purpose on the basis of consistency,
logical accuracy, and comparison to standards; ability to appraise judgments involved in the selection
of a course of action (i.e., criticize, justify, conclude).
The CSOs then defines 3 levels of coverage for these cognitive skills:

 Level A: Requiring the skill levels of knowledge and comprehension.

 Level B: Requiring the skill levels of knowledge, comprehension, application, and analysis.
 Level C: Requiring all six skill levels, knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis,
and evaluation.
The coverage levels build upon each other, so Level C includes Levels A and B.

Finally, the CSOs assign a coverage level to each of the major topics each part of the exam
addresses.