Content Specification Outlines
Certified Management Accountant (CMA) Examinations
Part 1 – Financial Reporting, Planning, Performance, and Control

External Financial Reporting Decisions (15%)

1. Financial statements
   1. Balance sheet
   2. Income statement
   3. Statement of changes in equity
   4. Statement of cash flows
2. Recognition, measurement, valuation, and disclosure
   1. Asset valuation
   2. Valuation of liabilities
   3. Equity transactions
   4. Revenue recognition
   5. Income measurement
   6. Major differences between U.S. GAAP and IFRS

Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting (30%)

1. Strategic planning
   1. Analysis of external and internal factors affecting strategy
   2. Long-term mission and goals
   3. Alignment of tactics with long-term strategic goals
   4. Strategic planning models and analytical techniques
   5. Characteristics of successful strategic planning process
2. Budgeting concepts
   1. Operations and performance goals
   2. Characteristics of a successful budget process
   3. Resource allocation
   4. Other budgeting concepts
3. Forecasting techniques
   1. Regression analysis
   2. Learning curve analysis
   3. Expected value
4. Budgeting methodologies
   1. Annual business plans (master budgets)
   2. Project budgeting
   3. Activity-based budgeting
   4. Zero-based budgeting
   5. Continuous (rolling) budgets
   6. Flexible budgeting
5. Annual profit plan and supporting schedules
   1. Operational budgets
   2. Financial budgets
   3. Capital budgets
6. Top-level planning and analysis
   1. Pro forma income
   2. Financial statement projections
   3. Cash flow projections

Performance Management (20%)

1. Cost and variance measures
   1. Comparison of actual to planned results
   2. Use of flexible budgets to analyze performance
   3. Management by exception
   4. Use of standard cost systems
   5. Analysis of variation from standard cost expectations
2. Responsibility centers and reporting segments
   1. Types of responsibility centers
   2. Transfer pricing models
   3. Reporting of organizational segments
3. Performance measures
   1. Product profitability analysis
   2. Business unit profitability analysis
   3. Customer profitability analysis
   4. Return on investment
   5. Residual income
   6. Investment base issues
   7. Key performance indicators (KPIs)
   8. Balanced scorecard

Cost Management (20%)

1. Measurement concepts
   1. Cost behavior and cost objects
   2. Actual and normal costs
   3. Standard costs
   4. Absorption (full) costing
   5. Variable (direct) costing
   6. Joint and by-product costing
2. Costing systems
   1. Job order costing
   2. Process costing
   3. Activity-based costing
   4. Life-cycle costing
3. Overhead costs
   1. Fixed and variable overhead expenses
   2. Plant-wide versus departmental overhead
   3. Determination of allocation base
   4. Allocation of service department costs
4. Supply Chain Management
   1. Lean manufacturing
   2. Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
   3. Theory of constraints and throughput costing
   4. Capacity management and analysis
5. Business process improvement
   1. Value chain analysis
   2. Value-added concepts
   3. Process analysis
   4. Activity-based management
   5. Continuous improvement concepts
   6. Best practice analysis
   7. Cost of quality analysis
   8. Efficient accounting processes

Internal Controls (15%)

1. Governance, risk, and compliance
   1. Internal control structure and management philosophy
   2. Internal control policies for safeguarding and assurance
   3. Internal control risk
   4. Corporate governance
   5. External audit requirements
2. Internal auditing
   1. Responsibility and authority of the internal audit function
   2. Types of audits conducted by internal auditors
3. Systems controls and security measures
   1. General accounting system controls
   2. Application and transaction controls
   3. Network controls
   4. Backup controls
   5. Business continuity planning

Content Specification Outlines
Certified Management Accountant (CMA) Examinations
Part 2 – Financial Decision Making

Financial Statement Analysis (25%)

1. Basic Financial Statement Analysis
   1. Common size financial statements
   2. Common base year financial statements
2. Financial Ratios
   1. Liquidity
   2. Leverage
   3. Activity
   4. Profitability
   5. Market
3. Profitability analysis
   1. Income measurement analysis
   2. Revenue analysis
   3. Cost of sales analysis
   4. Expense analysis
   5. Variation analysis
4. Special issues
   1. Impact of foreign operations
   2. Effects of changing prices and inflation
   3. Off-balance sheet financing
   4. Impact of changes in accounting treatment
   5. Accounting and economic concepts of value and income
   6. Earnings quality

Corporate Finance (20%)

1. Risk and return
   1. Calculating return
   2. Types of risk
   3. Relationship between risk and return
2. Long-term financial management
   1. Term structure of interest rates
   2. Types of financial instruments
   3. Cost of capital
   4. Valuation of financial instruments
3. Raising capital
   1. Financial markets and regulation
   2. Market efficiency
   3. Financial institutions
   4. Initial and secondary public offerings
   5. Dividend policy and share repurchases
   6. Lease financing
4. Working capital management
   1. Working capital terminology
   2. Cash management
   3. Marketable securities management
   4. Accounts receivable management
   5. Inventory management
   6. Types of short-term credit
   7. Short-term credit management
5. Corporate restructuring
   1. Mergers and acquisitions
   2. Bankruptcy
   3. Other forms of restructuring
6. International finance
   1. Fixed, flexible, and floating exchange rates
   2. Managing transaction exposure
   3. Financing international trade
   4. Tax implications of transfer pricing

Decision Analysis (20%)

1. Cost/volume/profit analysis
   1. Breakeven analysis
   2. Profit performance and alternative operating levels
   3. Analysis of multiple products
2. Marginal analysis
   1. Sunk costs, opportunity costs and other related concepts
   2. Marginal costs and marginal revenue
   3. Special orders and pricing
   4. Make versus buy
   5. Sell or process further
   6. Add or drop a segment
   7. Capacity considerations
3. Pricing
   1. Pricing methodologies
   2. Target costing
   3. Elasticity of demand
   4. Product life cycle considerations
   5. Market structure considerations

Risk Management (10%)

1. Enterprise risk
   1. Types of risk
   2. Risk identification and assessment
   3. Risk mitigation strategies
   4. Managing risk

Investment Decisions (15%)

1. Capital budgeting process
   1. Stages of capital budgeting
   2. Incremental cash flows
   3. Income tax considerations
2. Discounted cash flow analysis
   1. Net present value
   2. Internal rate of return
   3. Comparison of NPV and IRR
3. Payback and discounted payback
   1. Uses of payback method
   2. Limitations of payback method
   3. Discounted payback
4. Risk analysis in capital investment
   1. Sensitivity and scenario analysis
   2. Real options

Professional Ethics (10%)

1. Ethical considerations for management accounting and financial management professionals
   1. IMA’s “Statement of Ethical Professional Practice”
   2. Fraud triangle
   3. Evaluation and resolution of ethical issues
2. Ethical considerations for the organization
   1. IMA’s Statement on Management Accounting, “Values and Ethics: From Inception to Practice”
   2. S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
   3. Corporate responsibility for ethical conduct