USA CMA Part 1 2021 Syllabus in Detail

USA CMA Part 1 2021 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.

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USA CMA Part 1 2021 syllabus in detail

A. External Financial Reporting Decisions

B. Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting

F. Technology and Analytics

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