As the role of professional accountants evolves, so do the competencies they need to successfully pursue their careers. All accountants, including entry-level ones, need to develop deeper skillsets, encompassing an expanded set of competencies.

Despite vast changes in business and technology over the past 50 years, the managerial costing practices used by most companies today have failed to evolve. Cost information used to support critical management decisions continues to be based on minimalist cost models deemed acceptable for financial accounting—cost models that fail to consider the complexities of operating in today’s environment. The focus of this Statement on Management Accounting (SMA) is on cost modeling, which is foundational to having a managerial costing system...

Despite vast changes in business and technology over the past 50 years, the managerial costing practices used by most companies today have failed to evolve.

This report, drafted in partnership with ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), asks the question, “What are the key influences shaping the future role of the CFO and tomorrow’s finance enterprise?"

"I’m grateful for the opportunity to explore areas that are important to me and to keep growing and creating positive impacts. IMA has given me all the ingredients I need to succeed."

In this paper by Raef Lawson, Ph.D., CMA, CSCA, CPA, CFA, IMA vice president Research & Policy and Professor-in-Residence, and the Association for Supply Chain Management (APICS), upper management supply chain professionals were canvassed about ways of improving costing systems. IMA’s Strategic Cost Management Task Force, whose mission is to educate professionals on the benefits of improved costing systems, developed the questionnaire.

This Statement on Management Accounting provides an essential foundation for understanding revenue management and how management accountants can work effectively with their organizations to design systems that capture and analyze revenue drivers in order to improve their organizations’ profitability.

This report emphasizes the role of accountants in the integrated reporting (IR) framework. It includes the benefits of IR, sustainability challenges, and a stakeholder approach to IR. The corporate reporting landscape has evolved in the last 20 years from financial reporting to sustainability reporting to “integrated reporting.” Since 2010, the IIRC (International Integrated Reporting Council) has led the work on building the first Integrated Reporting (IR) framework, published in December 2013.

As more organizations take a data-centric approach to managing their business, they are increasingly exploiting the potential of Big Data. The number of companies deploying Big Data will double in the near future, with the potential to significantly improve their organizational performance. Based on a survey of IMA members, this report explores how organizations are using Big Data, key aspects of getting Big Data implementation “right”, and the impact of Big Data on the role of accounting and finance professionals.

In this paper Raef Lawson, Ph.D., CMA, CSCA, CPA, CFA, IMA vice president of Research & Policy and Professor-in-Residence, answers the question, “Are today’s management accounting competencies fit for purpose to assume a new role in the digital age?”

This report – drafted in partnership with ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) – suggests ways the finance function can improve current approaches to business partnering. It proposes nine pragmatic actions to improve partnering practices anchored in three core component parts: creating the mandate, fixing the information, and deploying the talent.

This report, drafted in partnership with ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), presents Asia-Pacific’s key drivers of change in the short, medium, and long term for a variety of businesses. “Drivers of change in Asia-Pacific” outlines the Asia-Pacific-relevant findings from a global survey conducted in 2012 by IMA and ACCA across their membership on drivers of change for the accountancy profession.