ACHIEVE

CONNECT

Working together to

CIMA, the Chartered Institute of Management

Accountants, is acknowledged by employers as the

global quality standard in management accounting

with 183,000 members and students operating at

the heart of business in 168 countries.

GROWTH

You can be great at doing the numbers

and financial accounts but if you can’t

link them to the rest of the business

then it’s not going to be of any use.

Choosing CIMA was a fairly easy

decision, considering the types of roles

I was interested in CIMA’s business

relevance was a great match...it

offered a broader spread of business

knowledge than other accounting

qualifications and enables you to

make a valuable contribution.

Finance managerMartin Stockley30 employees

CIMA Certificate in Business AccountingThe CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting is the

entry route into CIMA and is a qualification in its

own right, allowing students to acquire a broad range

of knowledge across financial and management

accounting. This stand alone qualification will

enhance the knowledge and skills of existing and new

employees, providing the foundations for developing

commercially astute individuals that understand and

contribute to future business success.

The CIMA Professional QualificationThe CIMA Professional Qualification is updated

regularly to reflect the fast changing pace of

growing businesses. We consult with frontline

managers and directors of growing businesses on the

skills they need, in order to ensure that what your

staff learn is relevant to increasing organisational and

individual performance. The key features include:

• The CIMA qualification framework is

progressive, enabling your staff to obtain

formal recognition after successful completion

at each level.

• The CIMA Diploma in Management Accounting

requires students to demonstrate comprehension

and application, leading to an assessment of

analysis required by the CIMA Advanced Diploma

in Management Accounting.

• As you progress through the qualification, the

focus shifts from knowledge based learning,

to application and analysis which equips staff

with consultative business skills.

• A combination of three years’ practical

experience, successful completion of the exams

and a business case study will ensure your

staff have the skills needed to achieve

the goal of growing your business profitably.

FORECASTING

‘The qualification is great for

entrepreneurs because you study so

many different aspects of business

life and it gives you the tools to

run a business effectively....CIMA

people look forwards rather than

backwards, so you can become

more of a business advisor than

someone who just does the self-

assessment and accounts. You have

the skills to add value.

Founder

Affordable Accounts

10 employees

Chartered Management Accountants have broad

ranging business and management skills to

complement their financial training. They are able

to offer you strategic and practical advice; make

and support key decisions; and manage risk. That’s

why many of the world’s largest employers believe

CIMA members are best qualified to drive business

performance, not just measure it.

How is CIMA relevant to growing business?Chartered Management Accountants increase

profitability

In the demanding world of small and medium-sized

businesses, profitable business growth is essential but

difficult. Chartered Management Accountants are

experts in helping businesses increase profitability,

reduce costs, increase sales and improve cash flow.

Applying leading edge accounting techniques including

ratio and margin analysis across product or service lines,

business units and customers, Chartered Management

Accountants inform and make decisions for short,

medium and long-term profitability.

CIMA members can help to:Reduce costs

With their broad business knowledge, CIMA members

are experts in managing costs across a range of areas

including labour, materials, suppliers, operations,

marketing, IT, utilities etc.

Improve cash flow

They are experts in credit control systems and managing

cash flow. Using their future focus and forecasting skills

and techniques they are best equipped to manage cash

flow and take corrective action to ensure long-term

sustainable business growth.

Increase salesThey can use their understanding of markets, commercial awareness and analytical skills to determine a range of issues including analysis of cross-selling, design of reward systems for salespeople, contribution analysis, contract/bid pricing and negotiation, applying leading edge sales forecasting techniques and analysis etc.

SUCCESS

DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT

With CIMA, I was able to go into a

business, fully understand it and get

the most out of it.

Commercial accountant

Innocent Soft Drinks

200 employees

CIMA Professional Qualification pillarsAll three pillars of the CIMA Professional Qualification

contain content relevant to developing management

accountancy capability within growing businesses:

Enterprise pillar

The CIMA qualification has more focus on management

and strategy than any other accountancy qualification:

• Marketing and assessing competitors

• Project management

• Operations management

• Managing people and teams

• I.T. systems

• Change management

• Assessing and implementing strategic options

Performance pillar

The CIMA qualification has a greater emphasis on risk

management than any other accountancy qualification:

• Managing cash flow

• Credit control

• Budgeting techniques

• Forecasting techniques

• Pricing decisions

• Cost management and control

• Project appraisal

• Risk management

Financial pillar

One third of our syllabus is dedicated to financial

accounting and reporting:

• Financial records

• Ratio analysis

• Financial reporting

• Investment decisions

• Accessing finance

• Tax principles

• Compliance and regulation

Next step?For more information about CIMA visit the following

links or call us.

Case studieswww.cimaandme.com

Growing Business Knowledge Hub

www.cimaglobal.com/growingbusiness

Online learning

www.cimastudy.com

Register as a CIMA student

www.cimaglobal.com/registration

Registration and exam fees

www.cimaglobal.com/fees

AAT fast-track

www.cimaglobal.com/aat

Chartered Institute ofManagement Accountants26 Chapter StreetLondon SW1P 4NP

T. +44 (0)20 8849 2251

E. cima.contact@cimaglobal.com

www.cimaglobal.com/growingbusiness

Plan for the futureThey work within businesses and enable business growth through their knowledge and use of appropriate tools, techniques and skills. External practice accountants fulfill an essential role of creating reports on historic business performance within set reporting standards while a Chartered Management Accountant will focus on where your business is heading in the future.

Improve relationships with banksChartered Management Accountants are experts in communicating complex financial issues. Their thorough understanding of business performance measures and ratios means they are best positioned to provide the increasingly detailed information banks are seeking before releasing credit. A combination of this and understanding where the business is heading in the future will result in a bank valuing your custom even more.

Reduce the burden of red-tape (regulation)They adhere to a rigorous framework of professional standards which ensures the highest ethical standards. They comply with regulations but their commercial mindset helps them to minimise the costs of compliance and could even turn a regulatory threat or barrier into a profitable opportunity.

The importance of small businessesGrowing small and medium sized businesses are crucial to successful economies. The very largest of organisations succeed or fail based on the quality of the decisions they make. Growing businesses are no different but have to make these crucial decisions with no margin for error due to more limited resources. Growing businesses can benefit from investing in developing the business skills of new and existing staff to increase their commercial awareness and decision making capability in order to drive profitability and business growth – all skills developed by the various CIMA awards.

CIMA has consulted with thousands of small and medium-sized businesses to develop the most relevant qualification for growing businesses. The qualification balances a broad spread of business and finance skills with a focus on future business performance and rigorous professional integrity. CIMA is the only professional body that delivers an employer driven qualification for management accountants working in business. We consult regularly with employers to meet the changing demands of business.

Growing businesses have always taken competitive advantage from being able to make very quick decisions and react to market changes and customer demand. While speed is important, the quality of those decisions is very often the difference between success and failure. CIMA members are experts in applying the most relevant and appropriate business tools, ratios and techniques to aid decision making. They can make these decisions quickly but also base them upon robust analysis and understanding of broad ranging business issues, not just financial issues. It follows therefore that the people making these decisions not only need to be technically and ethically compliant but also focus on issues that enable growth and profit maximisation. These are issues beyond traditional accountancy and require

the skills to provide meaningful analysis, decision

support and risk management.

PROFIT

SUPPORT

MANAGEMENT

It gives you much more commercial

awareness and there’s much

more opportunity to move into

commercial roles or operational

management roles because if you

have a financial understanding of

how a business runs and operates

in order to be profitable, that’s

the name of the game in making

businesses successful.

Management accountant

Symmetry Medical

350 employees

‘The CIMA syllabus provides a

training that enables students

to work across a wide variety of

departments and gives them the

knowledge to discuss financial issues

with non-financial managers,” ...“In

a medium-sized business, these skills

are essential as we work very closely

with the different departments in the

organisation.’

Financial controller

Global Travel Group

280 employees

Part AInitial Professional

Development – Work Based Practical Experience.

Award - Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants

Man

agem

ent

leve

lPr

ofes

sion

alco

mpe

tenc

e le

vel

Stra

tegi

c le

vel

Ope

rati

onal

leve

l

Paper E3

EnterpriseStrategy

PerformanceStrategy

Financial Strategy

Paper P2

PerformanceManagement

Paper F2

Financial Management

EnterpriseOperations

EnterpriseManagement

PerformanceOperations

FinancialOperations

Award - CIMA Advanced Diploma in Management Accounting

Award - CIMA Diploma in Management Accounting

Paper E1 Paper P1 Paper F1

Paper P3 Paper F3

Paper E2

Pre-requisite entry requirements (e.g. CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting, degrees in business or accounting or AAT Technician/Diploma level).

Award - CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting

Paper C01

Fundamentals of Management

Accounting

Paper C02

Fundamentalsof FinancialAccounting

Paper C03

Fundamentalsof Business

Mathematics

Paper C04

Fundamentalsof Business Economics

Paper C05

Fundamentals ofEthics, Corporate Governance and

Business Law

Part B Case Study

Examination based on pre-seen and unseen material.

Enterprise pillar

Performance pillar

Financialpillar

T4Test of Professional Competence in Management Accounting

The CIMA syllabus structure

PROFITABILITYChartered Institute ofManagement Accountants26 Chapter StreetLondon SW1P 4NP

T. +44 (0)20 7663 5441F. +44 (0)20 7663 5442E. cima.contact@cimaglobal.comwww.cimaglobal.com

UKEM001V0311