BONUS | Dennis Whitney - CMA Exam and Certification

IMA: https://www.imanet.org/
CMA: https://www.imanet.org/cma-certification

Exam
Changes: https://www.imanet.org/cma-certification/getting-started/cma-2020-exam-changes


FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Mitch: (00:05)


Welcome back for another bonus episode here on Count Me In, IMA's
podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance
world. A major consideration for accounting and finance
professionals today is certification and continuing education
related to their jobs and responsibilities. And this installment
of our IMA focused mini-series within Count Me In, we are going
to hear Adam speak with Dennis Whitney. I am a senior vice
president of certifications about the CMA, the exam, it's
upcoming changes in 2020 and how the certification compliments
different job roles. Let's listen now and hear how Dennis and the
CMA are preparing our accountants for the future of the
profession. 


 


Adam: (00:43)


Well to start off, can you please explain your role here at
IMA? 


 


Dennis: (00:51)


Yeah, sure. Well I've been here now for 25 years. I love IMA. And
my role as a senior vice president of certifications is the
manage the CMA program and the CSCA program, both the development
of the program, the administration of the program, and also the
business development, the growth of the program, strategic
planning, and related subjects. So a lot of, there's a lot of
talk in the industry about certifications. And the first question
that probably comes to people's mind is what's the difference
between a CMA and a CPA? That's a great question and I get it all
the time. And both the CMA and the CPA of course are great
certifications and they have a very specific purpose. In my mind,
the CPA is geared towards orders and tax specialists. So if you
want to go into public accounting, by all means I recommend that
you get a CPA. But if you want to work inside an organization,
for example, as a CFO, as a controller, as a senior financial
accountant or senior management accountant, then by all means I
recommend the CMA. And in fact, what a lot of people do is they
have dual certification. So they get a certified in both the CPA
and the CMA. But again, the CPA is geared toward the auditor's,
the professional accountants who are looking, there are outside
the organization and they're attesting to the accuracy of the
financial statements and also those who are tax specialists doing
tax returns. Whereas the CMA's work inside the organizations
creating value for the organization through planning, budgeting,
preparing the financial statements, decision analysis and
related. 


 


Adam: (02:37)


So you've covered a bit, you know, about what type of roles are
the type of people and the jobs that people cover who are get
CMAs, but what's included in the CMA exam? 


 


Dennis: (02:48)


Well, the CMA exam is a two part exam. Each part is four hours
long with a hundred multiple choice questions and two essays. The
content, for part one is a external financial reporting,
planning, budgeting and forecasting is the second domain, cost
management, performance management and internal controls. And
then beginning in 2020, we're going to have a new section, a new
content domain called technology and analytics. So that's part
one. And part two we cover more of the financial management. So
we have financial statement analysis, corporate financial
management, decision analysis, risk management, investment
decisions, and professional ethics. 


 


Adam: (03:39)


So, you know, those are great topics that are valuable to any
accountant, you know, who's in the industry. But what's the
overall value that the CMA credential brings to an
individual? 


 


Dennis: (03:49)


Well, it's interesting that when I talk to people about,
accounting, careers in general and certifications and degrees
from those who have a CMA, I always hear very interesting
comment. They say, you know, my degree was great, my CPA was
great, but what I use every day on the job is what I learned on
the CMA exam, studying for the CMA exam, planning, analysis,
decision support, risk management. Those are the things that
accountants do every day when you work inside an organization.
So, the focus is again, having that critical thinking, analytical
mindset. And as I said, with the new exam, we're going to get
into data analytics more in technology. So, the focus on the CMA
exam is exactly what accountants and finance teams need to do in
order to help their companies grow. 


 


Adam: (04:48)


So you've mentioned this 2020 exam. How are you adapting to the
changing role of the management accountant? 


 


Dennis: (04:54)


Yeah, so what we do is every four to six years, we do a job
analysis study. So we survey all the management accountants, well
as many as we can anyway in the world. And we asked them what do
they do on the job, what are their tasks? And then we say, what
do you need to know in order to do your job efficiently and
effectively? So this is a pretty long survey. It's almost takes
an hour, almost an hour to complete. So, we really appreciate
everyone who completes these surveys. It's really showing a
commitment to the profession. So based on that survey, we look at
the content of our exam and we say, what are we testing now that
really we should not emphasize as much or what are some, what's
some new material that we should be emphasizing more? So, in the
recent survey, the two subjects that came up is needing more of a
focus on the CMA exam is technology and data analytics. Now we do
test stat analytics to a certain extent on the exam now, but with
the new change, we're going to have a much bigger focus on data
analytics. The other change, which is interesting is we're going
to be testing ethics more than we're testing now. We do test that
takes quite a bit now, but we figured, based on the feedback that
we got that we really should be even more general in how we test
business ethics. So instead of just focusing on IMA statement of
ethical professional practice, we're going to be testing on
business ethics in general, including moral philosophies and the
fraud triangle and other subject items like that.


 


Adam: (06:40)


So are there any common misconceptions that you hear about the
CMA exam? 


 


Dennis: (06:45)


Yeah, I think the most frequent one I hear is that the CMA is all
about cost accounting and that definitely is a misconception. Now
we do, we did have our Genesis in the cost accounting profession
back in 1919 when they met up in Buffalo and created what's the
IMA now it was really about cost accounting and cost management,
but the profession has changed so much and it's broadened.
Management accountant has broadened, broadened so much that
really the focus now is on cost accounting. Yes, that's, but
that's a small part of the exam. It's really about planning. Risk
management analysis analysis I think is probably the biggest key.
And having that analytical mind is something that CFOs want to
have. They want to have people like that on their team. So it's
not just, you know, counting the numbers, doing the bookkeeping,
so to speak. But it's helping companie...