The CIMA difference
What's the difference between CIMA and other accounting bodies?
CIMA’s qualification is driven by the needs of business to produce financially qualified business leaders.
The syllabus and examinations are distinguished by their relevance to business and their dedicated focus on developing the financial, non financial and management skills needed to sustain organisational success.
CIMA Business Success Wheel™ illustrates the characteristics CIMA believes are required for this success. The integrity of this model was reinforced through testing with CIMA employers internationally, to ensure they accepted and agreed with the value of the success criteria.
In every area of the CIMA Business Success Wheel™, CIMA’s syllabus delivers more relevant competencies.
The results of the comparison study were summarised as far as possible in relation to the competencies depicted in the CIMA Business Success Wheel™.
This enables conclusions on qualification requirements to be linked directly to their likely contribution to sustainable business success, and provides a basis to explain how CIMA’s qualification equips its members for business.
The comparison from the report compares CIMA’s syllabus and examinations to those of:
- other UK accountancy bodies: ACCA, CIPFA, ICAEW, ICAS
- International accountancy bodies: AICPA (US), CPA (Australia) and ICAA (Australia)
- Institute of Financial Analysts: CFA
See our comparison table for a summary of comparisons between CIMA and other accounting bodies.
The University of Bath School of Management, one of the top 50 European Business Schools, was chosen to undertake the comparisons. The summaries from this process are included in the individual comparisons in a simplified form with a single broad categorisation of the position for each element.