CIMA

This article refers to a professional accountancy association, for the article on the wrestler please see Nobuhiko_Oshima

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) is one of a number of professional associations for accountants in the UK and Ireland (others include the ACCA, the ICAEW, the ICAI, the ICAS and CIPFA). Its particular emphasis is on developing the management accounting profession within the UK and worldwide.

History

CIMA was founded in its current form in 1919 under the Title "The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants" (ICWA). It specialised in the development of accounting technique for use in the internal control of manufacturing, service and public sector operations. It developed a position as the leading professional body in the areas of product costing, budgeting, management accounting, investment appraisal and business decision making.

Th Institute changed its name from ICWA to the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants (ICMA) in 1972 then to the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in 1986 after the granting of a Royal Charter. Although based in the UK, it is active worldwide, particularly in current and former Commonwealth countries. Its membership has grown from 15,000 in 1970 to 65,000 in 2005. It has played a role in founding fraternal professional bodies such as the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India and the Institute of Management Accounting (USA).

Activities

CIMA operates a degree standard scheme of qualifying examinations, which all prospective members have to pass. It is also active in promoting local education, training and management development operations, the promotion of new techniques through its research foundation and the dissemination of management accounting practices through publications and other media related activities. CIMA has been active in recent educational and vocational initiatives in former Eastern bloc countries. CIMA publishes a monthly journal (supplied free to all members and registered students) titled 'Financial Management'. This last journal was titled 'Management Accounting' until 1998. CIMA also publishes a quarterly journal titled 'Management Accounting Research', mainly for an academic readership.

CIMA is recognised as a professional accounting body for various statutory purposes by UK and various overseas governments. The Institute regulates the activities of its members through various institutional means including a code of practice, a discipline committee and a continuing education scheme. The latter is a recent innovation intended to ensure that members do not become unfamiliar with latest theory and technique.

CIMA's governing body is its Council, comprised of members elected from its regional branches. Each of the branches has its own committee and is responsible for much of the 'grass roots' activity. Activity such as qualification development is undertaken from the London head office.

Membership

CIMA has two grades of full membership :

(1) Associate - designated by the letters ACMA

(2) Fellow - designated by the letters FCMA

To be admitted as an ACMA, a candidate must have completed a period of qualifying practice (which must be documented), have passed the Institute's qualifying examinations and be nominated for membership by existing members in good standing.

To have membership upgraded to FCMA, a candidate ACMA must have appropriate experience of management accounting at a senior level.

Examinations apart, rules are not enforced rigidly, and each candidate for admission to the different grades of membership is considered on his/her own merits. In the past, CIMA has offered forms of association which do not amount to full membership - eg the "Affiliate" status which was promoted in the 1970s.

Development

In recent years, CIMA has been party to merger talks with other professional accounting bodies, most notably with the ICAEW in 1995. These talks have never produced an outcome, largely because of the reluctance of individual members to accept the possible change in their professional status that might be involved.

In its early years, CIMA was known as the "blue collar" accounting body and was always a little more radical than the other bodies. For example, it was the first accounting body to introduce marketing, business strategy and computing systems into its suite of examinations.