Operations management and strategic management, financial management and business data analytics, corporate and economic laws, Strategic cost management, direct tax laws and international taxation are the new subjects added to the CMA syllabus. The new topics are added with the CMA foundation, intermediate and final levels. Let us shed light on the three-level syllabus and get a preview of the revamped CMA course. CMA final has more changes than foundation and intermediate level.
CMA foundation and intermediate:
At the foundation level, the foundation of business laws and business communication has replaced ethics and business as business communication. In fundamentals of business economics and management, the new topic added to the syllabus is the economic and business environment. In business laws and ethics, the new topic is business ethics and emotional intelligence.
In the direct tax, students learn about Income tax. In operations management and strategic management, digital management is a new subject added. In corporate accounting and auditing, the topic added to the old syllabus is the auditing of different types of undertakings. Financial management and business data analytics are new subjects to the students. Marginal costing and transfer pricing are the updated topics in management accounting.
CMA final
On the subject of corporate and economic law, the new syllabus has attributed the insolvency and bankruptcy code, 2016, the foreign exchange management act, 1999, and specific legal provisions related to the MSME sector, cyber security and data privacy and anti-money laundering. In strategic financial management, the new topics are international financial management and digital finance. The GAAR-General anti-avoidance rule is a new topic added to international taxation. In strategic cost management for decision making the new topics added are the business application of maxima and minima, time series and regression analysis and introduction to tools for data analytics. In cost and management audit, Overview of cost accounting standards and GACAP, and forensic audit, anti-money laundering are the new topics added to this subject. In corporate financial reporting, the new topics are the valuation of shares, NBFC’s accounting, reporting and provisioning norms, and accounting of financial instruments. E-waybills under GST are the new topic in indirect tax laws and practice.
New topics in the foundation and intermediate level:
Business communication, economic and business environment, business ethics and emotional intelligence, digital management, auditing of different types of undertakings, financial management and business data analytics, transfer pricing and marginal costing are the new topics added. The following points propel the importance of these new topics.
• Students learn about the dos and don’ts of social media writing, graphics usage with business communication, letter writing, memorandum writing, business proposal writing, and report writing. These topics are essential for understanding the global audience and branding.
• Economic and business environment teach about PESTLE analysis and VUCAFU dimensions. PESTLE analysis helps the business to understand the environment with changing external factors. The six external factors create an impact on long term, short term, and positive, negative, critical, unknown, unchanged, increasing, decreasing, and unimportant implications. The PESTLE analysis starts with political views, social influences, legal impacts, and technological factors, and elaborates on the environmental changes.
• VUCA was first used by US Army War College. This analysis is suitable for quantifying risks. VUCAFU stands for volatility, uncertainty, ambiguity, complexity, fear and unprecedentedness. “FU” was added to VUCA as a sign of post-covid dimension analysis.
• Ethics and emotional intelligence teach the students the seven principles of professional accountants. Professional accountants need to understand public life and business dealings. Selflessness, integrity, accountability, objectivity, openness, leadership and honesty are the seven principles of public life.
• Students learn about digital strategies to understand competitive advantages, innovations, social marketing, and disruptive business models. The impact of innovation, competition, regular customers, and global customer is related to cost, profit and digital strategies. So, to manage competition and different business models cost accountants need to understand the end customers. Digital management educates the end customers.
• Students learn about business data analytics for decision making as a 20 per cent share under the financial management and business data analytics subject. Data-driven decision-making is the new stream in which data model building, graphical representation, and visualisation help for decision making. Model building is training the system with artificial intelligence for data collection, and predictions. Graphical representation is visuals that help to understand the best price or sale strategy for the product. The type of information decides the action plans.
• In the transfer pricing topic, students learn about inter-departmental, inter-company, and international transfer pricing models.
• Students learn about marginal costing in detail to understand the break-even analysis and cost analysis.
New topics in the CMA final:
The following points illuminate the new topics added to the CMA final level.
• In insolvency and bankruptcy code, 2016 Students learn about insolvency and liquidation. Insolvency is the monetary state of an individual or corporate person. Liquidation is changing assets into cash and winding up the business.
• In economic laws and regulations, students learn about the FEMA act. It educates the cost accountant about investment and global operations.
• Specific legal provisions related to the MSME sector are the new subject that comes under economic laws and regulations. Students learn about MSMED Act, 2006. It helps the students to promote the MSME industry.
• For MNC companies involved in digital marketing, knowledge about the information technology act, of 2000 helps to understand the personal sensitive data rules.
• By learning the international finance environment, cost accountants understand the sources of foreign currency. Digital transactions and their benefits promote business activities. Digital finance educates students about digital infrastructure, digital assets, digital money and digital financial services.
• GAAR is a simple set of rules to understand tax avoidance and evasion. It helps the cost accountants to understand the tax system of different countries.
• Business applications and business forecast models educate the learners about strategic cost management with quantitative techniques.
• In a forensic audit, students learn about code of conduct, risk management, financial forensic audit and techniques. Knowledge about forensic audit enlarges the professional opportunities of the learner.
• E-way bills help the cost accountant to understand inter and intra-state movement of goods. The tax related to the movement of goods and sale of goods educates the cost accountant about the GST system.
• Under the topic of valuation of shares, students learn about goodwill and post valuation of tangible and intangible assets. Valuation of shares, goodwill and assets helps the cost accountants to understand the business strategies and tax planning. Business value has a long-term effect on cost and tax.
Final Words:
The updated syllabus portrays the modern challenges in a detailed view. The students from this syllabus will understand the competitive market and product strategies efficiently.
