Understanding the CMA USA CPE Policy of IMA

Understanding the CMA USA CPE Policy of IMA:-

US CMA demonstrates your professional expertise in financial planning, analysis, control, decision support, and professional ethics – making you the preferred choice of the potential employers. CMA certification is widely accepted in India and in the job markets of US, Canada, Europe, Middle East and China.

There are certain requirements that most professional finance qualification holders need to fulfill in order to maintain their professional competence and to enhance their ability to perform well in the ever changing business scenarios. This holds true for the Certified Management Accountants (CMA) certified professionals as well. They need to fulfill the CMA CPE (Continuing Professional Education) requirements specified by IMA on a yearly basis.

Understanding the CMA USA CPE Policy of IMA

About US CMA Course:-

The US CMA® Course is globally recognised, advanced-level credential appropriate for accountants and financial professionals in business. Achieving the US CMA demonstrates your professional expertise in financial planning, analysis, control, decision support, and professional
ethics – skills that are in demand by organisations around the world. The US CMA is offered by the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) USA and the content is regularly reviewed by the Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA).

It’s offered since 1972 and has certified 40,000 professionals. US CMA® enhances the value that you bring to your current position, or expand your career potential, it will help you set the standard for professional excellence.

The CMA Exam has a unique scoring system that can sometimes be confusing for candidates. Here’s everything you need to know to correctly interpret your CMA Exam score.

Understanding the CMA USA CPE Policy of IMA

CMA CPE Requirements: An Overview

• 30 hours per year
• Minimum 2 hours in ethics
• If accumulated more than 30 hours, up to 10 hours can be carried forward to the following year. If more than 2 hours of ethics are earned, the additional hours can be carried forward to the following year.

Understanding the CMA USA CPE Policy of IMA

Acceptable Courses

IMA general allows courses in the following topics:

• Accounting
• Financial management
• Business applications of mathematics and statistics
• Computer science
• Economics
• Management
• Production
• Marketing
• Business law
• Organisation behaviour

Understanding the CMA USA CPE Policy of IMA

Ethics Course

The ethics education for the purpose of CMA CPE should focus on the area of management accounting and financial management. Topics include:

• Ethical consideration in the area of decision support, planning, and control for accounting and finance professionals working inside organizations
• Coverage of ethics within the general business environment

Understanding the CMA USA CPE Policy of IMA

Format

There is much flexibility in this aspect. You can take the course as regular college courses, seminars, webinars, workshops, technical meetings under the direction of speakers, instructors or discussion leaders. You can also take home study courses, speeches, publication of technical articles, as well as examinations.

Understanding the CMA USA CPE Policy of IMA

Reporting

CMAs are required to report the CPE hours but do not need to submit supporting documents. You can use the member profile section in the IMA website to organize and record your CPE hours. All courses done through IMA will be automatically recorded in that section.

IMA does perform CPE audit, in other words, there are chances that you got picked and have to submit the CPA certificates as proof. IMA advises to keep the supporting documents for 2 years.

The cycle is based on calendar year. If you pass the CMA exam in the middle of the year, you don’t need to fulfill any CPE requirements immediately — that is, IMA offers a grace period for the rest of that year.

If you have the time, you are welcome to start taking the classes. Up to 10 CPE hours can be carried over to the next reporting year.

Understanding the CMA USA CPE Policy of IMA

Courses:

IMA recommends that the courses that the candidate must choose for CPE must pertain to finance management and Management Accounting. Ideally, the topics should pertain to ethics and how to make ethical decisions. Understanding of these concerts will be useful for the CMS certificate holders When they will be required to make Financial and accounting decisions and plans regarding how to drive their organization forward. This knowledge will also be beneficial for identifying frauds and compromise of internal controls in their organizations. The programs important to ethics in the general business scenario also.

Understanding the CMA USA CPE Policy of IMA

Calculation of CPE Hours:-

College courses

• 1 semester = 15 CPE hours
• 1 quarter = 10 CPE hours

Other classes

• 50 minutes of session time = 1 hour
• At least 6.5 hours of session time (as in a full-day course) = 8 hours

Professional examination

• Counted as 10 hours for each part of an exam

Service as college teacher

• Course credit hour x number of weeks of the course
• Can be counted once only

Service as a speaker / discussion leader

• Twice the time of the presentation (i.e. counting the preparation time)
• Can be counted once only

Authorship

• Books: maximum 20 hours
• Technical publication: maximum 6 hours
• Unpublished technical publication: 50% of hours you can get if it were published; no further credit if the article is published at a later date