Career as Cost Accountant

People pursuing Cost Accounting as a career reach their definitive goals after a period of 3-5 years, depending on the type, of course, they chose to pursue. Factors such as overall performance, perseverance and duration of the course tend to affect the growth prospect of the individual.  

Pros

• People who have a tendency to follow business ethics, management, analysis benefit a lot by becoming a Cost Accountant.

• Cost Accounting is a prominent and beneficial aspect of almost every field and industry and therefore, people taking it up as a career get to choose from various fields and industries to work in.

Cons

• People who are not used to heavy workload and meeting dead-lines might find the role of a cost accountant tough due to its requirement of substantial input.

There are numerous ways and courses available to pursue the career of becoming a Cost Accountant. Students can either start pursuing their careers after completing 10th std or even take up Diploma and postgraduate courses. ICMAI (Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of India) which was previously known as ICWAI (Institute of Cost and Work Accountants of India) is the premier institute and platform in India for students who want to pursue Cost and Management Accounting as a career. ICMAI provides numerous courses for students after 10th and 12th standard.

Courses:

• Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) in Accounting and Finance

• Master of Commerce (M.Com) in Accounting and Finance

• PhD in Finance and Accounts
  
  

List of courses offered by ICMAI:

• ICMAI Foundation

• ICMAI Intermediate

• ICMAI Final
  
  

List of Advanced courses offered by ICMAI:

• SAP FICO Power User Course

• Certificate Course on Data Analytics

• Diploma in Management Accountancy

• Executive Diploma in Business Evaluation

• Executive Diploma in Cost and Management Accounting for Engineers 

ICMAI, being the prime platform for Cost and Management accounting related carriers in India, provides the students with a varied list of courses to choose from. The general courses offered by ICMAI are Foundation, Intermediate and Final. These courses lay out a path for the students to take up Cost and Management Accounting as a career.

The advance courses offered by ICMAI are based around leading organizations in the cost and management accounting field. SAP is a global leader when it comes to business applications and analytics software. The SAP FICO Power User Course provides the students with a basic understanding of SAP and its financial and management accounting processes. The other advanced courses help students gain understanding in the fields of data Analytics, Management Accountancy, Business Evaluation and Cost and Management Accounting.

Syllabus:

Students pursuing various degrees and courses under Cost Accounting learned the following subjects corresponding to their respective courses:

• B.Com in Accounting: Financial Accounting, Business Economics, Business Organization, Business Law, Cost Accounting, Advanced Corporate Accounting, Income Tax Law and Practice, Financial Management, MIS- Management Reporting System, Advanced Taxation.

• M.Com in Accounting and Finance: Accounting Business Decisions, Theory and Standards of Accounting, Cost Control Techniques, Direct Taxes, Enterprise Resource Planning, Human Resource Management, Indirect Taxation, Insurance and Risk Management, Managerial Finance.

• PhD in Finance and Accounts: Research Methodology, Fundamentals of Accountancy, Advanced Cost Accountancy, Accountancy in Global Trade and Finance.

• ICMAI Foundation: Fundamentals of Economics and Management, Fundamentals of Accounting, Fundamentals of Laws and Ethics, Fundamentals of Business Mathematics and Statistics.

• ICMAI Intermediate: Financial Accounting, Laws and Ethics, Cost Accounting.

• ICMAI Final: Corporate Laws and Compliance, Strategic Financial Management, Cost and Management Audit

• SAP FICO Power Course: Overview of SAP and ERP, SAP ERP Navigation, SAP FI Integration, HR Process, Plan to Produce Process

• CCDA: Certificate Course on Data Analytics: Introduction to Data Science, Statistical Analysis, Data Analytics- I and II.

• Diploma in Management Accountancy: Advanced Management Techniques, Industrial Relations and Personnel Management, Marketing Organization and methods, Economic Planning and Development.

• Executive Diploma in Business Evaluation: Principles of Valuation, Valuation Tools and Techniques, Compliance with Legal and Regulatory Provisions, Income Tax Provisions.

• Executive Diploma in Cost and Management Accounting for Engineers: Costing Principles and Practices, Contract Management and industrial Laws, Indirect Taxation, Treasury and Financial Services, Advanced Cost and Financial Management.

Listed below are some of the essential books and study material useful for Cost Accounting:

1. Management Accounting by Dr N.S. Malik

2. Financial Accounting- 1 by Dr Chandra Shekhar

3. Accounting Principles- A Business Perspective by Hermanson, Edwards and Maher

4. Study Guide for Use with Managerial Accounting by Ronald Hilton

5. Cost and Management Accounting- 1 by M. Hanif