Included, not an add-on

The CMA Comes With It.

Parts 1 and 2, including essay-scenario practice, inside the same $199/mo subscription as the CPA Exam. AccelaStudy® AI Accounting does not sell the second credential back to you.

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$199/mo covers CPA and CMA together · Launching October 2026

What’s covered

Two Parts, Two Different Kinds of Difficulty

Part 1 is largely computational and rewards fluency. Part 2 is largely judgemental and rewards being able to argue a position in writing. Studying them the same way is the classic mistake.

PART 1

Financial Planning, Performance and Analytics

External financial reporting decisions
Planning, budgeting and forecasting
Performance management
Cost management
Internal controls
Technology and analytics

Heavy on calculation and variance work. This is where the journal-entry builder and computation-verified practice earn their keep — you find out immediately whether the number is right, rather than at the end of a set.

PART 2

Strategic Financial Management

Financial statement analysis
Corporate finance
Decision analysis
Risk management
Investment decisions
Professional ethics

More judgement, more argument, more “it depends — and here is why.” The essay scenarios lean hardest on this part, which is why they are practised from the start rather than in the final fortnight.

Written work

The Essay Scenarios Are Not Optional

Both parts finish with written scenarios, and they are the section candidates most often leave until last — partly because writing is uncomfortable, and mostly because practising it usually means waiting days for someone to mark it.

Scenario practice from week one, not week nine. Written answers are a skill built by repetition, and the only reason to postpone them is a grading queue — which this does not have.
Feedback you can act on the same evening. The point of writing an answer is finding out what was missing from it while you still remember what you were trying to say.
The calculation and the argument, together. Essay scenarios routinely want a number and then a recommendation resting on it. Getting the number right and stopping there is the most common way to lose half the marks.
Misses become work. A concept you fumbled in a written answer goes back onto the plan as targeted practice before the next scenario that depends on it.

The honest reason

Partly principle, mostly mechanics: an engine that already knows what you understand does not need to be paid twice to point that knowledge at a second exam.

The ground is genuinely shared

Cost behaviour, variance analysis, financial statement analysis, internal controls, ethics — a large amount of what the CMA tests overlaps material you are covering for the CPA Exam anyway. Charging separately for the second pass over it would be charging for the same hours twice.

Your profile does not reset

Concepts you have proven while working through FAR or BAR — Business Analysis and Reporting — carry into the CMA parts that rest on them. You start the second credential with credit, not from zero.

Whichever order suits you

Some candidates take the CMA first because its two parts are a shorter commitment than four CPA sections. Some pick it up after licensure. Autopilot plans around the dates you actually book, in whatever sequence you book them.

It costs you nothing extra to try

If you are CPA-bound and merely curious about the CMA, open it. There is no second purchase to justify and nothing to cancel if you decide against it.

Before you book

Eligibility Is the IMA’s Call, Not Ours

We prepare you for the exam. Everything about who may sit it, and what you must complete to be certified afterwards, is set by the Institute of Management Accountants.

What to check at imanet.org: IMA membership and CMA programme entry, the education requirement, the professional-experience requirement and how long you have to complete it, current exam windows, and fees. These change, and they are the sort of detail that is expensive to get wrong after you have already paid for a part.

CMA Questions

Is the CMA genuinely included, or is it a bundle upsell?

Included. Parts 1 and 2, with essay-scenario practice, inside the $199/mo subscription. There is nothing extra to buy and no CMA tier.

Can I do the CMA without touching the CPA Exam?

Yes. Plenty of candidates will — management accountants, controllers, and analysts who have no interest in public practice. The subscription does not require you to open anything you do not want.

Am I eligible?

The IMA decides that, and it publishes the current requirements at imanet.org — membership, education, and professional experience, with a window in which the experience can be completed. Read it before you register rather than after.

Do I need to pass Part 1 before Part 2?

The IMA sets the ordering rules and the testing windows. What we can say is that the course does not impose an order of its own — study them in whatever sequence your booked dates require.

How much of my CPA study counts toward the CMA?

More than most people expect, and the engine tracks it concept by concept rather than by guesswork. Where the two credentials cover the same ground, what you have already proven carries across and you spend your time on what is genuinely new.

Is there essay grading like the bar product has?

The CMA course includes essay-scenario practice as part of the subscription. What that means in practice: you write the scenario answers rather than reading model ones, and the concepts you fumble come back as targeted work.

Two Credentials, One Subscription

CMA Parts 1 and 2 alongside the full CPA Exam, at $199/mo. Launching October 2026.