EARNING A US CMA Certification along with US CPA – Know the Benefits

If you've earned the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) designation, you know that the process is both difficult and rewarding. With this license, you will be able to enjoy CPA benefits such as higher income, more vocational opportunities, increased job security, increased industry esteem, and more. As a result, with the CPA, you could be set for the rest of your career. But what if you knew you could improve your career even more by maximizing the benefits of the CPA? Would you go through with it??

To understand why the CMA designation is valuable, you must first understand what it is.?

The CMA, according to the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), is a globally recognized certification that demonstrates mastery of the most critical practice areas of management accounting. Planning, analysis, technology, analytics, risk management, internal controls, and performance management are examples of these areas.?

?Accounting for management entails providing financial information about a company's operations to its internal managers. As a result, CMAs concentrate on developing relevant and timely information that assists internal managers in problem solving. CMAs also assist managers in making day-to-day decisions.?

Well, by becoming a CMA after earning your CPA, you can benefit from the following career advancements:?

??1. Additional Job Openings:?

A CPA is an excellent resource for obtaining a position in public accounting. And if your first job is in public accounting, you'll be off to a good start in your career.?

However, you may not want public accounting to be more than just a stepping stone in your career. In that case, the CMA can assist you in making the transition to a new vertical of accounting, such as private or management accounting.?

A person with both the CPA and the CMA has a reputation that is roughly twice as good as someone with only one of these certifications.?

Employers will value your dual certification in particular because it demonstrates your depth of accounting knowledge. So, you can use the CPA + CMA combination to really stand out from the crowd of your peers vying for the same job opportunities.?

You can also work for a variety of businesses, governments, or agencies. You can also advance through the ranks to positions such as CFO, CEO, VP of Finance, or Financial Controller.?

As a result, doubling your number of certifications expands your employment options exponentially.?

2. Salary Upgradation:?

As a CPA, you've most likely already begun to benefit from the additional compensation that your certification can provide. Remember that CPA-certified accountants can earn 10-15% more than non-certified accountants.?

The CMA certification offers the same financial benefit. CMAs, according to the IMA, earn 55% more in median total compensation than non-CMAs.?

So, with these additional earnings, both the CPA and the CMA can pay for themselves and allow you to live more comfortably.?

As a result, you shouldn't be surprised to learn that when you combine these certifications, your salary will increase exponentially every year.?

3. Increased Expertise:?

As you may recall, the US CPA exam requires you to significantly improve your general accounting knowledge. You had to learn everything there was to know about auditing and attestation, business environments and concepts, financial accounting and reporting, and regulation.?

As a result, the CPA now attests to your accounting mastery, making you more confident in yourself and better at your job.?

Similarly, meeting the IMA's CMA certification requirements will hone your specific management accounting skills. Once you've overcome all of the impediments between you and the CMA, you'll be able to make business decisions, conduct analysis, and perform financial planning.?

By adding CMA to your CPA, you will improve the skills required to succeed in the modern world of accounting and finance.?

?4. Enhanced Distinction and Reputation:?

The CPA and CMA are two of America's oldest and most prominent accounting certifications. However, the CPA is most likely the most widely used.?

The CPA is well-known outside of the accounting industry, and accountants, in particular, hold the CPA in high regard.?

The CMA is admired in a similar way, but to a lesser extent. Non-accountants may be unaware of the CMA, but accountants are well aware of it, and they regard it almost as highly as the CPA.?

Employers will value the evidence of your extensive accounting knowledge if you have dual certification.?

?5. Overlapping of Content:?

The CMA certification, like the CPA certification, requires passing an exam. Fortunately, there is a lot of overlap between the CPA Exam and the CMA Exam.?

Part 1 of the CMA exam, similar to FAR and REG of CPA exam, includes external financial reporting. Part 1 and BEC also share planning, budgeting, and forecasting, performance management, and cost management. Internal controls are addressed in both the CMA exam Part 1 and the AUD.?

CMA examination Part 2 covers nearly the same amount of CPA Exam material as Part 1. Part 2, for example, analyses financial statements in a manner similar to FAR and AUD. Part 2 evaluates professional ethics in the same way that AUD does. Finally, Part 2 focuses on corporate issues.?

Because of this, the fact that you already have the CPA will make earning the CMA much easier.?

??For a CPA professional, CMA training can lead to widening careers in a variety of sectors, including corporate, government, and non-profit, and in roles ranging from financial analyst to treasurer, all the way up to CFO.?

Earning both the CPA and CMA credentials can benefit accountants in the long run by broadening their career scope, distinguishing them from peers, and fast-tracking their careers.?