CMA vs CS - How Do They Differ?

Difference Between CMA and CS

CMA stands for Certified Management Accountant and this course is duly sponsored and offered by the Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA) and this course focuses on cost and management accounting whereas CS stands for Company Secretary and it is offered by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) and this course focuses on corporate law.

Yes, I agree, it is important to compare two different courses if you have confusion about what needs to be done. And two major financial courses are definitely not easy to decide between. Notes given below can help you with your confusion as the comparison below will make it easy for you to decide about your future.

Below is the flow of the article –

CMA vs CS Infographics
What is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA)?
What is Company Secretary (CS)?
CMA vs CS Exam Requirements
Why pursue CMA?
Why pursue CS?

Recommended Courses

CMA vs CS Infographics

Reading time: 90 seconds

Let’s understand the difference between these two streams with the help of this CMA vs CS Infographics.

CMA vs CS Summary

Section	CMA	CS
Certificate organized by	CMA is approved and sponsored by Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA).	CS is organized by different institutes in different countries for example The Institute of Company Secretary of India, The Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretary, Chartered Secretaries Canada, etc.
Number of levels	CMA has only one level to clear. The level has two parts. Part one is about Financial Reporting, Planning, Performance, and Control and Part two is all about Financial Decision Making.	CS has three levels. First you need to clear the Foundation course, then Intermediate and then you can sit for the Final course.
Duration of examination	In CMA, you need to sit for two exams. Each exam will consist of 4 hours duration and each exam will contain 100 multiple choice questions and two 30 minute essay questions.	Each exam in each level has two papers and each paper is of 1.5 hours duration. As a whole each exam in each level takes about 4 hours with 1 hour break in between.
Exam Window	CMA Exam Dates 2017 Jan – Feb Jan 1 to Feb 28 May – Jun May 1 to Jun 30 Sep – Oct Sep 1 to Oct 31	CS Exam 2017 Date:- CS Foundation Course Last Date for Seeking Admission:- 31st March for appearing in December Examination in the same year. 30th September for appearing in June Examination in the next year.
Subjects	CMA covers Financial Reporting, Planning, Performance, and Control, Financial Decision Making	CS covers Advanced Company Law and Practice, Secretarial Audit, Compliance Management and Due Diligence, Corporate Restructuring, Valuation and Insolvency, Information Technology and Systems Audit, Financial, Treasury and Forex Management, Ethics, Governance and Sustainability, Advanced Tax Laws and Practice, Drafting, Appearances and Pleadings, Banking Law and Practice, Capital, Commodity and Money Market, Insurance Law and Practice, Intellectual Property Rights - Law and Practice, International Business-Laws and Practices.
Pass percentage	As per the result of June, 2015, the pass percentage of CMA Part One (Inter) is 14% and pass percentage of CMA Part Two (Final) is 17%. Passing Percentage of December 2016 exam: CMA Intermediate- 9.09% CMA Final- 12.71%	CS Executive pass percentage of both modules 4.96 %, CS Professional pass percentage of all modules old syllabus 2.45% and CS Professional pass percentage of all modules new syllabus 3.61%.
Fees	After the price increase in July 2015, the registration fee of the exam is now $415 per part, which means you’ll have to pay $830 altogether.	CS Examination Fee:- Foundation Programme -Rs. 1200/- Executive Programme - Rs. 1200/- per Module Professional Programme -Rs. 1200/- per Module.
Job opportunities	The top jobs for CMA are Management & Cost Accountant, Financial Accountant, Financial Risk Manager, Management Consulting & Performance Management etc. People also hire CMA for their overall financial decision making functions	CSs can work as legal experts, corporate planner and strategic manager, chief advisor to the board of directors and as executive secretary to MD or CEO of any reputed company.

What is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA)?

If you want to pursue a course with professional documentation that can earn you good value in the fields of advanced management accounting and for financial management areas. CMA is a certification that gives you and your profession international or global recognition. It will confirm your knowledge in the domains of financial planning, decision support, analysis, control, and professional ethics these skills and knowledge are extremely important in the finance industry across the globe. This certification globally recognized course and is offered by the institution called the Institute of Management Accountants which is a US-based institute. CMA is offered in more than 100 countries and more than 45000 CMAs have been certified to date. To become a CMA you have to meet a number of criteria, especially a commitment to learning continuously through continuing professional education.

Popular Course in this category

All in One Financial Analyst Bundle (250+ Courses, 40+ Projects)4.9 (1,067 ratings) 250+ Courses | 40+ Projects | 1000+ Hours | Full Lifetime Access | Certificate of Completion

View Course

For more details, you can look at this Nuts & Bolts of CMA Exam

What is Company Secretary (CS)?

This job is not typically a clerical or a secretarial job; in fact, it is none of these. A company secretary position is one of the senior management positions in any company be it a private sector company or a public sector one. A company secretary makes sure that the administration of the company is efficiently handled making sure that the compliance the regulations and the statutory requirements are met and also making sure that the decisions of the board of directors are implemented. It is just the name that sounds clerical however there is a huge difference in the designation and the job role of a company secretary. Meeting regular legislations and regulations laid down by the government the company secretary also makes sure that the board of directors is reminded and does follow their legal responsibilities. A CS is also called a company named representative on legal papers who make sure that the company and its board of directors operate its functions within the set laws.

CMA VS CS Exam Requirements

CMA

You need to first have a bachelor’s degree of 3 to 4 years maximum from an accredited college or an accredited university.
You then need to have two full and continuous experiences of applying the principals of management accounting and financial management in domains such as preparing financial statements, financial planning and analysis, monthly closure, quarterly closure and also annual closure, auditing, budgeting, etc.
Even after becoming a certified CMA you need to still have 30 hrs of CPE credits along with 2 hours of ethics to maintain the annual IMA membership with an active status.

CS

To become a CS you need to be a 10+2.
After you complete your high school you need to pursue a 3 stage course which includes the foundation, executive and professional program.
In case you are joining the course after clearing your graduation you can start directly with the executive and professional program.

Why Pursue CMA?

To work towards one of the rarest courses like CMA is defiantly a pleasure and this pleasure comes to you with definite hard work. This certificate gives you the certification of US-based institutes which is international recognition in financial management fields and in advanced management accounting besides maintaining your membership you have to be committed to CPE. After being certified you can easily work for various domains in the finance industry for either a public or a private sector company. CMA certification signifies the knowledge you possess in various domains of the industry. The certification can be pursued in more than 100 countries and as of now, more than 45000 members are registered as a CMA worldwide.

Why pursue CS?

Being a CS gives you an amazingly rewarding career both professionally and financially for you can work as an independent professional as well as with a company. This course is a correspondence course which means you do not need to attend any sort of classes to crack it, studying at home and by yourself is the way you do it. You can crack this course in a time span of 3 1/2 years however once you register your registration is valid for 5 years. There are more than 35000 registered CS out of which 6500 are independent professionals the others have been employed by companies at good packages to start with.