Part of becoming a CMA requires you to acquire at least two continuous years of professional experience in either management accounting or financial management.

Unfortunately, many people are confused by what is actually considered eligible CMA work experience because the definition is a bit broad.

If you are unsure about the eligibility of your current position, here are a few handy tricks for determining if your current job is within the CMA experience requirement.

3 Tips for Determining CMA Experience Eligibility

1. Is Your Work Experience Relevant?

The CMA Candidate Handbook from 2014 states the following in regards to relevant work experience:

Qualifying experience consists of positions requiring judgments regularly made employing the principles of management accounting and financial management. Such employment includes:

• Preparation of financial statements
• Financial planning and analysis
• Monthly, quarterly and year end close
• Auditing (external or internal)
• Budget preparation and reporting
• Manage general ledger and balance sheets
• Forecasting
• Company investment decision making
• Costing analysis
• Risk evaluation

If that still sounds broad then don’t worry. Basically, as long as your work experience encompasses internal or external auditing or financial analysing within a corporation, dealing with financial statements and how they affect the company, or analysing and reporting on financial investments of a company, then your experience will be deemed eligible.

2. Does Your Experience Include Data Analysis?

Analysing data is one of the most essential aspects that your CMA work experience must have.

To put it simply, if you are only inputting data or updating journal entries, then your experience will probably not be accepted. You must actually analyse the data.

Also, if you are not in the field of accounting or finance, but something more like Human Resources or sales and marketing, then your experience will not be considered either. Practical and applicable work experience is what they are looking for.

3. Are You a Permanent Employee?

Internships and trainee programs are a fantastic way to get experience under your belt, but unfortunately in the eyes of the IMA, they are not considered the same as being a permanent hire.

For your experience to count, you must be a permanent employee for two consecutive years. However there is one small caveat here and that is your full-time vs part time status. You can make up your years experience as a part-time employee as long as you work a minimum of 20 hours per week for 4 consecutive years. The IMA will recognize two years of part time work as the equivalent of one year full time.

For those of you who have not worked in a traditional work setting, but have instead - for example - run your own business, the IMA will take this into consideration. In this case you will have to submit a proposal outlining your job description and explaining how and why your experience qualifies you.

You may also want to note that you do not have to complete your two years experience before sitting for the exam, but can complete it within 7 years of passing the exam.

Should you still be concerned about the eligibility of your work experience, download this work verification form from the IMA official website and email it to them at ima[at]imanet[dot]org. They will get back to you and let you know whether or not your experience is acceptable.