CMA Part 1: Financial Planning, Performance, and Analytics

A. External Financial Reporting Decisions (15%)

TOPICS

DETAILS

1. Financial Statements

·     Balance Sheet
·    Income Statement
·    Statement of Changes in Equity
·    Statement of Cash Flows
·    Consolidated Statements
·    Integrated Reporting

2. Recognition, Measurement, and Valuation

·    Asset Valuation
·    Valuation of Liabilities
·    Equity Transactions
·    Revenue Recognition
·    Income Measurement
·    Major Differences Between U.S. GAAP and IFRS

B. Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting (20%)

TOPICS

DETAILS

1. Strategic Planning

·    Analysis of External and Internal Factors Affecting Strategy
·    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

C. Performance Management (20%)

TOPICS

DETAILS

1. Cost and Variance Measures

·    Comparison of Actual to Planned Results
·    Use of Flexible Budgets to Analyse 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
·    Contribution Margin
·    Reporting of Organizational Segments

3. Performance Measures

·    Product profitability analysis
·    Business unit profitability analysis
·    Customer profitability analysis
·    Return on Investment (ROI)
·    Residual income
·    Investment base issues
·    Key performance indicators (KPIs)
·    Balanced scorecard

D. Cost Management (15%)

TOPICS

DETAILS

1. Measurement Concepts

·    Types of Cost and Cost Behaviour
·    Actual and Normal Costs
·    Standard Costs
·    Absorption (Full) Costing
·    Variable (Direct) Costing
·    Joint and By-Product Costing

2. Costing Systems

·    Job Order Costing
·    Activity-Based Costing
·    Life-Cycle Costing
·    Other Costing Systems

3. Overhead Costs

·    Fixed and Variable Overhead Expenses
·    Corporate vs. Departmental Overhead
·    Determination of Allocation Base
·    Allocation of Service Department Costs

4. Supply Chain Management

·    Lean Resource Management Techniques
·    Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
·    Capacity Management and Analysis

5. Business Process Improvement

·    Value Chain Analysis
·    Value-Added Concepts
·    Process Analysis, Redesign, and Standardization
·    Continuous Improvement Concepts
·    Benchmarking and Best Practice Analysis
·    Cost of Quality Analysis

E. Internal Controls (15%)

TOPICS

DETAILS

1. Governance, Risk, and Compliance

·    Internal Control Structure and Management Philosophy
·    Internal Control Policies for Safeguarding and Assurance
·    Internal Control Risk
·    Testing Methods for Internal Controls
·    Control Deficiency Remediation
·    Corporate Governance
·    External Audit Requirements

2. System Controls and Security Measures

·    General Accounting System Controls
·    Application and Transaction Controls
·    Technology Controls
·    Backup Controls
·    Business Continuity Planning

F. Technology and Analytics (15%)

TOPICS

DETAILS

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
·    Data Management
·    Controls Against Security Breaches

3. Technology-Enabled Finance Transformation

·    System Development Life Cycle
·    Process Automation
·    Innovative Applications

4. Data Analytics

·    Business Intelligence
·    Data Mining
·    Types of Data Analytics
·    Data Visualization