Introduction
With its origin at the time of the World War-II with the purpose of monitoring the cost - plus profit contracts of defence establishments, the occupation has acquired the place of an organized profession providing an yeoman' service to business houses in particular and the society in general.
This write - up intends to give some light to the prospective students beginning to business enterprise into the field of Cost and Management Accounting profession.
Definition of cost management
The classification, recording & appropriate allocation of expenditure in order to determine the total cost of products or services.
Costing is the ascertaining of the account of expenditure incurred on a single item or group of items or activity.
The function of cost accounting is to collect data concerning costs.

What is cost and management accounting?
Cost and management accounting is a tool which is used for, the dual purpose of assisting the management in arriving at optimal decisions on the one hand and evaluating its performance in meeting the desired objectives on the other hand.
The professionals in this field use the secondary data generated by the accounting systems and makes analysis of these with the aid of advanced management accounting tools to present information of specific importance to the senior management of different levels.
Role of cost accounting:
Identify profitable & unprofitable activities
Identify waste & inefficiency
Support cost reduction programmes
Analyse movements in profit
Estimate & fix selling price
Value stocks
Develop budgets & standards to assist planning & control
Evaluate the cost effects of policy decisions
Entry requirements in the profession
The profession of the Cost & Management Accountants is regulated by the Costs & Works Accountants Act, 1959 and the Rules and Regulations framed thereunder.
To regulate and facilitate the development of the profession in India the Institute of Costs & Works Accountants of India was set up by the Government of India as a statutory body under the administrative control of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. The management of the Institute is vested in the Central Council consisted of duly elected Members of the Institute.
Four Regional Councils have been in. operation at the Eastern, Southern, Northern and Southern India to make a contact point between the Institute and the Students & Members.
The Institute conducts the Cost Accountancy course for the potential candidates to enter into the profession. This is the only recognized qualification in India to practice as a Cost & Management Accountant.
The course is modeled to have three steps:
- Foundation Course.
- Intermediate Course and lastly the Final Course.
There is appropriate blend of theory in different fields of corporate finance & corporate laws and case studies in the whole curriculum. The practical aspects of the course have been provided by way of internship under a senior practising Member or an industrial concern. The brief description of the three steps is as follows:
Foundation Course
This is the entry level course and the minimum qualification is pass in 10 +2 level exam. This course is meant to orient the student into the basic of this profession. The curriculum includes the following papers:
- Organisation & Management Fundamentals;
- Accounting;
- Economics & Business Fundamentals;
- Business Mathematics & Statistics Fundamentals.
The course is meant to introduce the fundamentals which a Cost and Management Accountant has to deal in his professional capacity. The whole panorama is placed to the students to incite a curiosity to know more and the increasing quest for the knowledge will be satisfied one step by another in the coming steps.
The course is designed into definite structures. For a student it is obligatory to register either for Postal Coaching or Oral Coaching.
Oral Coaching facility is available only in the Regional Councils located in Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi and also the selected Chapters. The Postal Coaching is preferred by most of the students.
In this mode assignments are attached to each course materials. After completely studying the course materials the assignments are to be completed and sent to the Regional Council for evaluation.
Once all the assignments are evaluated and passed as per the norms evolved by the Institute, the student is granted the Coaching Completion Certificate (CCC).
On the strength of the CCC, student can appear in the examination conducted twice in the month of June and December. Passing of the examination will render him / her eligible to register for the Intermediate Course.