Cost and Management Accountant

Who is a Cost and Management Accountant (CMA)?

Cost and Management Accountants or CMA is an individual who offers services concerning costing, pricing of assets and services, confirmation or certification of cost account and taxation especially Secondary Taxation.

What does a Cost and Management Accountant do?

A CMA is required for various roles across all organizations. In the marketing department:

• A CMA is responsible for preparing quotations

• In the production department, one is responsible for the right product mix

• In the purchasing department, they are responsible for budgeting

• In the financial department, they are responsible for maintaining accounts and financial statements

Who is eligible for CMA?

Any stream in class 12 makes you eligible for the Foundation Course of the Institute of Cost Accountant of India. You will need a degree in any stream except Fine Arts.

What are the skills required?

The role of a cost and management accountant requires a lot of calculation and book-keeping. To become a successful CMA a candidate needs to possess the following skills:

• Good oral and written communication skills

• Ability to work in a team

• Business acumen

• Mathematics skill

• Eye for detail

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What is the Career Scope for CMA professionals in India?

Multinational Companies have multi-product investments taking place and every company needs to understand the specific cost of every commodity and service at different stages to reduce the expense incurred on them and to ensure effective optimization of supplies.

This is where cost accountant comes and as a result of which the demand for CMAs has increased drastically. Many students are choosing Cost and management accounting as their preferred option because of the ample opportunities and demand for CMAs.

In the job market, both CA and CMA have equal job opportunities. You should ideally take guidance before pursuing a field and we have covered CMAs as a field of study extensively so that you can make an informed decision. A CMAs role is important as they are in charge of a company's financial asset. The hierarchy of a cost and management accountant is as follows:

• Management Accountant: You will be responsible to plan and strategize all financial activities.

• Financial Analyst: You will be in charge of predicting marketing trends and the microeconomic aspect of finance.

• Cost Accountant: Cost Accountant is responsible for recording and analyzing each cost that is incurred by the business.

• Accounting Manager: You will be responsible to develop and maintain accounting systems.

• Senior Accountant: Responsible to report cost margins, productivity and expenditure of a business.

How much does a cost and management accountant make in India?

(Salaries are per annum)

• Average Salary for a Cost Accountant in India is Rs 510,959/yr

• Average salary of Cost Accountant with 1-4 years of experience is Rs 490,723/yr

• At Senior level (5-9 years of experience) Cost Accountant in India makes Rs 612,380/yr

• And with 10-19 years of experience, a Cost Accountant in India makes Rs 956,592

Major Recruiters

The recruitment for the position of cost and management accountant is taken by many state authorities as well as private companies. Major recruiters for CMAs are:

• Central Regulatory Electricity Commission (CERC)

• National Security Depository Limited (NSDL)

• Reserve Bank of India

• Kotak Mahindra Bank

• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

• Security Exchange Board of India (SEBI)

Where to study?

Earlier only public sector companies used to employ CMAs but the scenario has since changed. Now, almost all enterprises hire CMAs for their expertise, such as ITC, ICICI Bank, IDBI, etc.

CAT stands for Certificate Accounting Technician, a course offered for one year for 12th pass and undergraduates. This course is offered after Consultation with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. One should ideally have the right guidance before pursuing the course, to understand the benefits as well as the challenges involved.

The top colleges offering a course in Cost and Management Accounting in India are:

• Lovely Professional University, Punjab

• Chandigarh University, Chandigarh

• Indira Gandhi Open National University-IGNOU, Delhi

• Nagpur University, Nagpur

• Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar

Unlike Professional Accountants, the demand for CMA is equal across all organizations. University Grants Commission(UGC) has been notified, CMA with the first-class graduation can be appointed as Assistant professor in Universities and colleges with the area of Management/Business Administration.

Various Universities have recognized cost and management qualifications for admission in PhD in commerce. This gives many CMAs to pursue a PhD without any master's degree.CMA is difficult and you need to have a strong commerce and accountancy base.

What are the books and study materials available?

To become a Cost and Management Accountant, you will need to prepare for major exams like CAT beforehand. Here are some books that will help you with preparation:

• A textbook of cost accountancy, Vikas Arora

• Cost Accounting method and problems, BK Bhar

• Fundamental Managerial Accounting Concepts, Edmonds and Tsay

• Cost Accounting, Bhabatosh Banerjee

• Studies in Cost Management, S.N Maheswari

Interesting facts

Cost and management accountants not only have expertise in cost-related accounting but also taxation, credit accounts, and financial sheets. Many CMAs like Chandra Kocchar, P.K Mukherjee and J Ramachandran are some notable examples who hold the top positions in various industries.