CMA vs CS

CMA stands for Certified Management Accountant, and this course is duly sponsored and offered by the Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA). In contrast, 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. And this course focuses on cost and management accounting.

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

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

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Suppose you want to pursue a course with professional documentation that can earn you good value in advanced management accounting and financial management areas. CMA is a certification that gives you and your profession international or global recognition. It will confirm your knowledge in financial planning, decision support, analysis, control, and professional ethics, and these skills and knowledge are extremely important in the finance industry across the globe. This certification is globally recognized and offered by the Institute of Management Accountants, a US-based institute. More than 75,000 CMAs have been certified as of Jun 30, 2019, with around 40,000 active members. To become a CMA, you must meet several criteria, especially a commitment to continuous learning through continuing professional education.

You can look at this Nuts & Bolts of CMA Exam for more details.

This job is not typically clerical or secretarial; in fact, none of these. 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. 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 company's administration is efficiently handled, ensuring that the regulations and statutory requirements are met, and ensuring that the board of directors' decisions are implemented. Meeting regular legislation and regulations laid down by the government, the company secretary also ensures that the board of directors is reminded and follows their legal responsibilities. A CS is also a company named representative on legal papers who ensure that the company and its board of directors operate its functions within the set laws.

CMA

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

CS

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

Working towards one of the rarest courses like CMA is a pleasure, and this pleasure comes to you with actual hard work. There are more than 75,000 CMA members as of Jun 30, 2019, with around 40,000 active members. Besides maintaining your membership, you have to be committed to CPE. This certificate gives you the certification of US-based institutes, international recognition in financial management fields, and advanced management accounting. CMA certification signifies the knowledge you possess in various domains of the industry. After being certified, you can easily work for various domains in the finance industry for either a public or a private sector company.

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, so you do not need to attend any class to crack it. Studying at home and by yourself is the way you do it. Although the registration is valid for five years, you can complete the course in a span of 2 to 3 years. As of Sept 15, 2020, there are more than 62,000 registered CS professionals across four regional offices and 72 chapters of the institute.

This has been a guide to CMA vs. CS. Here we discuss the difference between CMA and CS, infographics, and a comparative table. You can learn more from the following articles –

• CMA vs. CIMA - Compare
• CMA vs. ACCA Differences
• Difference Between CPA vs. CMA
• CFA vs CMA - Compare
• CMA Exam Dates and Registration Process