“I want to be doing something in 10 years that doesn’t exist today,” says Adam Coyne, a 23-year-old student at Xavier University in Ohio. He is not studying robotics or artificial intelligence, however — he is working on a masters in accountancy.
“Emerging technologies, such as blockchain and machine learning, really capture my attention,” says Mr Coyne. “I want to work with new innovations like this and find how they can relate to accounting.”
Students such as Mr Coyne, who aspire to become management accountants (those who work in-house at companies or organisations), increasingly need technology and data analytics knowledge to advance their careers.
Accountancy certifications — such as the Certified Management Accountant (CMA), which Mr Coyne studied before his masters — are also changing to keep pace with this trend.
The essential accountancy knowledge and skills — such as revenue recognition, budgeting, reporting and performance management — remain critical. But the rising tide of data and systems management that accountants use to make decisions and administer resources means they also need data and analysis skills, alongside knowledge of technology.
This is driven by demand from business and employers. “More of the transactional work done today by accountants will be automated by robotic process,” says Christian Cuzick, vice-president of finance at Johnson & Johnson Surgical Vision, a subsidiary that specialises in eye health.
“The role of the management accountant will be more focused on delivering insights from data analysis for business decisions,” he adds.
Mr Coyne studied the CMA to help him get a foot on the first rung of the management accountant ladder. The certification was launched in 1972 with the aim of standardising and testing accountancy knowledge and skills.
Students must have two years’ work experience and a bachelors degree or professional accounting certification to apply. They must then pass two exams that test 11 competencies, from internal controls to risk management, as well as writing essays.
The global pass rate is 50 per cent, according to the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), which provides the CMA certification. It says about 4,000 CMAs are granted each year and some 70,000 have been awarded to date.
From January 2020, the CMA exam will include four new sections including information systems, data governance, digital transformation (simplifying and centralising finance functions using technology) and data analytics. The move is to ensure the CMA remains relevant and reflects the changes in demand in the accountancy market.
“We’re not expecting our accountants to be data scientists, but accountants and finance professionals need to know enough that they can talk to data scientists and they can be the translators,” says Dennis Whitney, senior vice-president at the IMA.
The CMA competes with the CIMA certification, offered by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in the UK. The CIMA syllabus is split into three sections — enterprise, performance and financial — which are studied at three levels (operational, managerial and strategic). Students study a variety of topics from financial reporting to project management.
While the CIMA qualification is well recognised in the UK, Commonwealth countries, China and central and eastern Europe, it has struggled to gain as much traction in the US where the CMA is better known.
In 2012 the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants partnered with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), which administers the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam. The organisations launched a new Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) accreditation. The hope is that it will become the dominant, internationally-recognised standard for accountants.
A student can study the CGMA as part of their CIMA qualification or, in the US, through the CGMA Financial Leadership Program. There are 117,000 students in 156 countries progressing towards earning the CGMA, says Ash Noah, managing director of learning, education and development at the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, a body launched in 2017 to administer the CGMA.
He explains that the CIMA syllabus was also updated in January this year to cover new areas such as digital business models, cyber risks, data analytics and emerging technologies.
It also teaches soft skills, says Mr Noah, emphasising students’ attitudes to learning and encouraging them to keep developing. This aspect was considered important as management accountants increasingly find themselves working in “agile” environments where they need to be adaptable.
As well as testing and exams, the CIMA also assesses professional competencies and skills through real-life business case studies, Mr Noah adds. This virtual role-playing gives candidates an opportunity to demonstrate their competence and knowledge in a professional setting.
This blend of technical and technological skills attracted Mr Coyne to a job with Deloitte in Cincinnati, which he is due to start this September. “We live in a time of rapid change,” he says, “and it really excites me thinking about what the future could hold.”
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