Finance Qualifications - CIMA

Last week, I looked at the ACCA qualification and said that it was useful if you wanted to start your career on the financial side of the finance department. I would recommend studying for a CIMA qualification if you are interested in working on the other side of the finance department or in a manufacturing company. 

The other side of the finance department is the management accounting side. Roles within this are nowadays increasingly called Finance Business Partnering roles. These jobs will involve looking forward to try and establish where the business is going, unlike the financial roles which we looked at last week, which look backwards at how the business has done. You can expect to do things like analysing trends, looking at month on month or year on year variances, costing new products or services, looking at how to reduce wastage and producing budgets and forecasts. 

The kind of people who enjoy these aspects of accountancy tend to be highly analytical and enjoy using spreadsheets.

If this kind of work appeals to you, you can find out a lot more information at www.cimaglobal.com.

Next week, I shall look at tax qualifications. Until then, have a great week.

Jeanette Robinson FREC (Hon)