The Certified Management Accountant (CMA) designation, offered in collaboration with the British Council UK, is a globally recognized certification designed to enhance financial expertise and strategic management skills. It provides finance and accounting professionals with the knowledge and tools to excel in business leadership roles.
Click here to download ICMA’s 20th Anniversary Yearbook.
The ICMA’s Vision and Objectives
ICMA was established with a vision to attain the status of the premier body of professionals practising the science of management accounting. Now, over 25 years later, ICMA(ANZ) is the premier body of management accountants globally with representation in over 50 countries.
The Institute aims:
- Promoting the science of management accounting and fostering research into best practices in financial and business decision-making
- Providing a globally recognized professional certification that validates expertise in financial planning, analysis, control, and decision support.
- To further the development of management accounting education in these disciplines in the universities and schools in Australia and internationally.
- To encourage research into the application of management accounting theory in practice;
- Hosting conferences, seminars, and publishing journals to facilitate knowledge exchange in the finance and accounting profession.
Responsibilities of Management Accountants?
Management accountants are highly skilled strategic management professionals active in virtually every aspect of business operation. As experts in the field, they apply their professional knowledge and skill in the preparation and presentation of financial and other decision-oriented information in such a way as to assist management in the formulation of policies and in the planning and control of the operation of the undertaking.
Management Accountants therefore are seen as the “value-creators” amongst the accountants. They are much more interested in forward looking and taking decisions that will affect the future of the organization, than in the historical recording and compliance (scorekeeping) aspects of the profession. Management accounting knowledge and experience can therefore be obtained from varied fields and functions within an organisation, such as information management, treasury, efficiency auditing, marketing, valuation, pricing, logistics, etc., and increasingly in decisions impacting the environment, society and governance issues.
Management accounting today is a blended profession and can be easily distinguished from the skills required by other types of professional accountants. Management accounting combines the bodies of knowledge developed in strategic management, marketing, supply chain management, financial statement analysis, risk management, finance, IT, sustainability, data analytics and enterprise governance, and strategic auditing.
Increasingly, management accountants are being seen as ‘sustainable value creators’; ensuring that the economic growth of the organisation can be sustained without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Grades of Membership
There are seven levels of membership in ICMA with differing educational and experience requirements:
- Post-Graduate Level: Certified Management Accountant (CMA)
- Graduate Level: Associate Management Accountant (AMA) and Graduate Management Accountant (GMA)
- Technical level: Registered Cost Accountant (RCA); Registered Business Administrator (RBA) and Certified Accounting Technician (CAT)
- Affiliate Level: Management Accounting Affiliate (MAA)
Membership Benefits
Details of membership benefits and services are available in the membership page. The Institute’s newsletter, On Target, and its research journal the Management Accounting Frontiers (MAF) (formerly, JAMAP) are available in electronic format on this website. The Institute has a wide range of activities, in Australia and in its international branches.
The Institute offers a number of education programs that have received accreditation from many Australian and overseas universities. Being a CMA means a commitment to a continuous professional development, and the Institute offers seminars, training and other development activities to assist members achieve this objective. For the industry and employer perspective, the ICMA Registered Training Sponsor program offers industry-based certification for best practice in decision information and control systems.
The Institute is also an examining body, and members are required to pass examinations and other assessments and have relevant work experience prior to describing themselves as ‘Certified Management Accountants’. Business organizations are also accredited by the Institute as Private Providers – providing suitable training programs for prospective members to obtain their education requirements for membership.
Recorded Webinnars
- Prof Janek Ratnatunga on “Future Proofing Indonesian Companies”
- Adele Ferguson on the “Travails of an Investigative Journalist”
- Prof Rod Sims on the “Reminisces of a Competition Regulator”
- Don Rankin on “Professional Advice and Business Start-Ups”
- Simon Griffiths on “Who Gives a Crap about a Social Purpose”
