US CMA Course 2025 - CMA stands for Certified Management Accountants. CMA is an accounting and finance certification and is given by the Association of Accountants and Financial Professionals in Business. To get the CMA 2025 certification candidates will have to first register as a member with IMA. There are two parts in CMA. Candidates will be required to appear for the CMA Part 1 and CMA Part 2 exams in any order. There are three testing windows for US CMA - January/February, May/June and September/October. It is recommended to allocate at least 3-6 months of preparation per part. Upon completion of both the exams, candidates will be required to meet the education and work requirements to get their CMA certification. Read the complete article to get detailed information about CMA certification 2025, important dates, registration for exams and more information.
Name of the certification | CMA |
Full form of CMA | Certified Management Accountants |
CMA exams | CMA Part 1, CMA Part 2 |
Testing Windows | January/February, May/June and September/October |
Candidates planning to take up the US CMA certification must check the testing schedule and exam registration dates. The US CMA exam dates 2025 has been given below:
Exam Session | Last Date for Exam Registration | First Exam Date | Last Exam Date | Result Announcement |
---|---|---|---|---|
January/February 2025 | January 31, 2025 | January 1, 2025 | February 28, 2025 | To be notified |
May/June 2025 | April 30, 2025 | May 1, 2025 | June 30, 2025 | To be notified |
September/October 2025 | August 15, 2025 | September 1, 2025 | October 31, 2025 | To be notified |
Candidates planning to take up the US CMA certification must first carefully go through the US CMA eligibility criteria 2025. Only those candidates who fulfil the eligibility requirements set by ICMA will be allowed to take up the exams and apply for US CMA certification. The detailed US CMA eligibility criteria has been given below:
US CMA Course Eligibility Criteria 2025
Membership | Candidate must have an active membership in IMA |
Educational Qualification | Candidate must have attained a bachelor degree from a recognized college or a related professional certification |
Professional Qualification | Candidates must have completed two continuous years of professional experience in management accounting and/or financial management within seven years of passing the examination. |
Passing parts 1 and 2 of the CMA exam |
The professional experience required for US CMA includes employment positions involving application of principles of management accounting and financial management. Some of the employments considered for US CMA include the following.
Preparation of financial statements
Financial planning and analysis
Budget preparation and reporting Managing general ledger and balance sheets
Forecasting
Company investment decision making
Corporate financial management
Cost accounting and analysis
Monthly, quarterly, and year-end close
Auditing (external or internal)
Forensic accounting
Risk evaluation
Management information systems analysis
Development and delivery of financial systems
Strategic planning and strategic management
Implementation and management of financial technologies
Tax accounting, analysis, and planning
Reporting to the SEC or other governmental regulators
Sustainability reporting
Teaching management accounting or financial management at the college/university level
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How to register for US CMA exam: Candidates interested in taking up the CMA certification will be required to complete the US CMA 2025 exam registration process. Interested applicants will be required to take the US CMA 2025 Part 1 exam and Part 2 in any order. Candidates can register for the US CMA exam through online mode or by calling the registered number given on the official website. Candidates looking for CMA USA registration through calling mode, candidates will be required to give their payment details like credit card numbers etc on call.
Candidates interested in taking up the US CMA exam must pay the required entrance fee in the specified deadline. The application fee payment will have to be done online to book your test at the global test centre of US CMA near you. The detailed US CMA fees structure 2025 has been given below:
US CMA 2025 Entrance Fee
Candidate Type | Fee Type | Fee |
Professional Members | CMA Entrance Fee (Nonrefundable) | $300 |
Exam Fee (per part) | $495 | |
Students/Academic Members | CMA Entrance Fee (Nonrefundable) | $225 |
Exam Fee (per part) | $370 |
US CMA Scholarships
Students are also eligible to get scholarships under US CMA scholarships. As of now around 20,000 scholarships have been given to students. Here is the eligibility criteria for US CMA scholarships:
Candidates preparing to take the entrance examination must go through the US CMA Syllabus 2025. Going through the syllabus of US CMA will help candidates in knowing the important topics that will be covered in the examination. Candidates are advised to carefully go through the US CMA syllabus and plan their preparations accordingly. The detailed syllabus of US CMA exams for both parts has been given below.
US CMA Part 1 - Financial Planning, Performance, and Analytics Syllabus
A. External Financial Reporting Decisions (15% - Levels A, B, and C) | 1. Financial statements a. Balance sheet b. Income statement c. Statement of changes in equity d. Statement of cash flows e. Integrated reporting | |
2. Recognition, measurement, valuation, and disclosure a. Asset valuation b. Valuation of liabilities c. Equity transactions d. Revenue recognition e. Income measurement f. Major differences between U.S. GAAP and IFRS | ||
B. Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting (20% - Levels A, B, and C) | 1. Strategic planning a. Analysis of external and internal factors affecting strategy b. Long-term mission and goals c. Alignment of tactics with long-term strategic goals d. Strategic planning models and analytical techniques e. Characteristics of a successful strategic planning process | |
2. Budgeting concepts a. Operations and performance goals b. Characteristics of a successful budget process c. Resource allocation d. Other budgeting concepts | ||
3. Forecasting techniques a. Regression analysis b. Learning curve analysis c. Expected value | ||
4. Budgeting methodologies a. Annual business plans (master budgets) b. Project budgeting c. Activity-based budgeting d. Zero-based budgeting e. Continuous (rolling) budgets f. Flexible budgeting | ||
5. Annual profit plan and supporting schedules a. Operational budgets b. Financial budgets c. Capital budgets | ||
6. Top-level planning and analysis a. Pro forma income b. Financial statement projections c. Cash flow projections | ||
C. Performance Management (20% - Levels A, B, and C) | 1. Cost and variance measures a. Comparison of actual to planned results b. Use of flexible budgets to analyze performance c. Management by exception d. Use of standard cost systems e. Analysis of variation from standard cost expectations | |
2. Responsibility centers and reporting segments a. Types of responsibility centers b. Transfer pricing c. Reporting of organizational segments | ||
3. Performance measures a. Product profitability analysis b. Business unit profitability analysis c. Customer profitability analysis d. Return on investment e. Residual income f. Investment base issues g. Key performance indicators (KPIs) h. Balanced scorecard | ||
D. Cost Management (15% - Levels A, B, and C) | 1. Measurement concepts a. Cost behavior and cost objects b. Actual and normal costs c. Standard costs d. Absorption (full) costing e. Variable (direct) costing f. Joint and by-product costing | |
2. Costing systems a. Job order costing b. Process costing c. Activity-based costing d. Life-cycle costing | ||
3. Overhead costs a. Fixed and variable overhead expenses b. Plant-wide vs. departmental overhead c. Determination of allocation base d. Allocation of service department costs | ||
4. Supply chain management a. Lean resource management techniques b. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) c. Theory of Constraints d. Capacity management and analysis | ||
5. Business process improvement a. Value chain analysis b. Value-added concepts c. Process analysis, redesign, and standardization d. Activity-based management e. Continuous improvement concepts f. Best practice analysis g. Cost of quality analysis h. Efficient accounting processes | ||
E. Internal Controls (15% - Levels A, B, and C) | 1. Governance, risk, and compliance a. Internal control structure and management philosophy b. Internal control policies for safeguarding and assurance c. Internal control risk d. Corporate governance e. External audit requirements | |
2. System controls and security measures a. General accounting system controls b. Application and transaction controls c. Network controls d. Backup controls e. Business continuity planning | ||
F. Technology and Analytics (15% - Levels A, B, and C) | 1. Information systems a. Accounting information systems b. Enterprise resource planning systems c. Enterprise performance management systems | |
2. Data governance a. Data policies and procedures b. Life cycle of data c. Controls against security breaches | ||
3. Technology-enabled finance transformation a. System development life cycle b. Process automation c. Innovative applications | ||
4. Data analytics a. Business intelligence b. Data mining c. Analytic tools d. Data visualization |
A. Financial Statement Analysis (20% - Levels A, B, and C) | 1. Basic financial statement analysis a. Common size financial statements b. Common base year financial statements | |
2. Financial ratios a. Liquidity b. Leverage c. Activity d. Profitability e. Market | ||
3. Profitability analysis a. Income measurement analysis b. Revenue analysis c. Cost of sales analysis d. Expense analysis e. Variation analysis | ||
4. Special issues a. Impact of foreign operations b. Effects of changing prices and inflation c. Impact of changes in accounting treatment d. Accounting and economic concepts of value and income e. Earnings quality | ||
B. Corporate Finance (20% - Levels A, B, and C) | 1. Risk and return a. Calculating return b. Types of risk c. Relationship between risk and return | |
2. Long-term financial management a. Term structure of interest rates b. Types of financial instruments c. Cost of capital d. Valuation of financial instruments | ||
3. Raising capital a. Financial markets and regulation b. Market efficiency c. Financial institutions d. Initial and secondary public offerings e. Dividend policy and share repurchases f. Lease financing | ||
4. Working capital management a. Working capital terminology b. Cash management c. Marketable securities management d. Accounts receivable management e. Inventory management f. Types of short-term credit g. Short-term credit management | ||
5. Corporate restructuring a. Mergers and acquisitions b. Other forms of restructuring | ||
6. International finance a. Fixed, flexible, and floating exchange rates b. Managing transaction exposure c. Financing international trade | ||
C. Decision Analysis (25% - Levels A, B, and C) | 1. Cost/volume/profit analysis a. Breakeven analysis b. Profit performance and alternative operating levels c. Analysis of multiple products | |
2. Marginal analysis a. Sunk costs, opportunity costs, and other related concepts b. Marginal costs and marginal revenue c. Special orders and pricing d. Make vs. buy e. Sell or process further f. Add or drop a segment g. Capacity considerations | ||
3. Pricing a. Pricing methodologies b. Target costing c. Elasticity of demand d. Product life-cycle considerations e. Market structure considerations | ||
D. Risk Management (10% - Levels A, B, and C) | 1. Enterprise risk a. Types of risk b. Risk identification and assessment c. Risk mitigation strategies d. Managing risk | |
E. Investment Decisions (10% - Levels A, B, and C) | 1. Capital budgeting process a. Stages of capital budgeting b. Incremental cash flows c. Income tax considerations d. Evaluating uncertainty | |
2. Capital investment analysis methods a. Net present value b. Internal rate of return c. Payback d. Comparison of investment analysis methods | ||
F. Professional Ethics (15% - Levels A, B, and C) | 1. Business ethics a. Moral philosophies and values b. Ethical decision making |
It is advised that candidates carefully understand the US CMA exam pattern 2025 before starting their preparation. Going through the CMA exam pattern will give candidates a clear idea about how the exam will be conducted, duration of the exam, total number of marks etc. Knowing all this information will help candidates in preparing for the exam in a better manner. The detailed exam pattern of US CMA 2025 has been given below:
Number of Subjects in US CMA 2025 | |
Name of Subjects | Part 1: Financial Planning, Performance, and Analytics Syllabus Part 2: Strategic Financial Management |
Duration of the exam | 4 Hours |
Number of Questions | 102 |
Type of Questions | 100 MCQs 2 essays |
Candidates will have to complete their US CMA exam appointment 2025 in order to schedule their US CMA exam 2025. It is solely the candidate's responsibility to schedule their US CMA exam appointment 2025. To schedule their exam appointment for US CMA exams, candidates will be required to log on to prometric.com/ICMA and book their exam schedule according to their convenience. Candidates can schedule, confirm, reschedule or cancel their appointment from the same portal itself. Candidates will be given a confirmation number upon successful booking of their exam appointment. It is advised that candidates note down this number for future reference.
There is a slight variance in the type of test forms and the difficulty level varies slightly. So, in order to balance this, ICMA uses an equating methodology to determine the passing marks for US CMA exams. ICMA using techniques of statistical equating determines the standard equivalency of the exam. The same standard is applied for all the applicants and test forms.\
In order to maintain consistency, ICMA announces US CMA exam scores as scaled scores ranging from 0 to 500. The pass rate on the CMA differs by geographic region, but averages about 50% on both parts 1 and 2. The authorities transform the raw scores of the candidates who appeared for the exam to this scale to maintain uniformity regardless of the exam a candidate is taking.
After the conclusion of a particular US CMA exam taken by a candidate, ICMA shares a detailed performance report with the candidates through email. The performance report of US CMA rates candidate’s performance in the exam as satisfactory, marginal, or unsatisfactory for each of the key topic areas.
The full form of US CMA is Certified Management Accountants.
The US CMA testing window opens three times in a year in January/February, May/June and September/October.
US CMA are equated using statistical techniques and denoted between a range of 0 to 500.
ICMA is the conducting body of US CMA exams.
Interested applicants can book their exam appointment online through prometric.com/ICMA
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