US CMA Part 1 Syllabus 2026 - Exam Pattern, Topic-wise Syllabus

US CMA 2026 Exam Pattern

Candidates preparing for the US CMA 2026 should also familiarise themselves with the exam pattern. The in-depth exam pattern of the US CMA is provided below.

US CMA Exam Pattern 2026

US CMA Part 1 Syllabus 2026

The detailed Part 1 CMA USA Syllabus Part 1 has been given below:

A. External Financial Reporting Decisions (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 (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 (Levels A, B, and C)

1. Cost and variance measures

a. Comparison of actual to planned results

b. Use of flexible budgets to analyse 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 (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 (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

F. Technology and Analytics (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

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