100 Q&A covering the topic based on *US CMA Part 1 Section A + ACCA MA/FMA. Short, exam-focused
*A. Basic Financial Accounting Concepts - Q1 to Q15*
1. *Q*: What is the accounting equation? *A*: Assets = Liabilities + Equity. Foundation of double entry.
2. *Q*: What is accrual basis vs cash basis? *A*: Accrual records revenue/expense when earned/incurred. Cash when cash moves.
3. *Q*: What is matching principle? *A*: Expenses matched to revenues of same period.
4. *Q*: What is conservatism principle? *A*: Recognize losses early, gains only when realized.
5. *Q*: What are 4 financial statements? *A*: Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, Statement of Equity.
6. *Q*: Debit vs Credit rule for assets? *A*: Assets increase with Debit, decrease with Credit.
7. *Q*: What is contra account? *A*: Account with opposite normal balance. E.g. Accumulated Depreciation.
8. *Q*: What is revenue recognition 5-step model? *A*: Identify contract → performance obligations → price → allocate → recognize.
9. *Q*: What is materiality concept? *A*: Ignore immaterial items if it won’t affect decisions.
10. *Q*: What is going concern assumption? *A*: Business will continue operations, not liquidate soon.
11. *Q*: What is consistency principle? *A*: Use same accounting methods period to period.
12. *Q*: What is entity concept? *A*: Business separate from owner.
13. *Q*: What is historical cost principle? *A*: Record assets at original cost, not market value.
14. *Q*: What is trial balance purpose? *A*: Check arithmetic accuracy of ledger postings.
15. *Q*: What is adjusting entry for prepaid rent? *A*: Dr Rent Expense, Cr Prepaid Rent.
*B. Basic Cost Concepts - Q16 to Q30*
16. *Q*: Direct vs Indirect cost? *A*: Direct traceable to product. Indirect needs allocation.
17. *Q*: Variable vs Fixed cost behavior? *A*: VC total changes with output. FC total constant.
18. *Q*: What is semi-variable cost? *A*: Has fixed + variable component. E.g. electricity.
19. *Q*: Prime cost formula? *A*: Direct Material + Direct Labor.
20. *Q*: Conversion cost formula? *A*: Direct Labor + Factory Overhead.
21. *Q*: Product vs Period cost? *A*: Product cost goes to inventory. Period cost expensed now.
22. *Q*: What is sunk cost? *A*: Already incurred, irrelevant for decisions.
23. *Q*: Engineered vs Discretionary cost? *A*: Engineered has cause-effect, e.g. DM. Discretionary set by budget, e.g. ads.
24. *Q*: What is step cost? *A*: Fixed over range, jumps at new level. E.g. supervisor salary.
25. *Q*: What is relevant range? *A*: Output range where cost behavior assumptions hold true.
26. *Q*: What is opportunity cost? *A*: Benefit lost by choosing one option over next best.
27. *Q*: Inventoriable cost? *A*: All manufacturing costs: DM + DL + FOH.
28. *Q*: COGS formula? *A*: Opening FG + COGM - Closing FG.
29. *Q*: COGM formula? *A*: Opening WIP + Total mfg cost - Closing WIP.
30. *Q*: What is cost object? *A*: Anything for which cost is measured: product, dept, customer.
*C. Basic Business Acumen - Q31 to Q40*
31. *Q*: What are 4 Ps of marketing? *A*: Product, Price, Place, Promotion.
32. *Q*: What is SWOT? *A*: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats for strategy.
33. *Q*: What is value chain? *A*: Activities that add value from supplier to customer.
34. *Q*: What is competitive advantage? *A*: Ability to outperform rivals via cost or differentiation.
35. *Q*: What is economies of scale? *A*: Cost per unit falls as output increases.
36. *Q*: What are diseconomies of scale? *A*: Cost per unit rises after optimal size due to inefficiency.
37. *Q*: What is break-even point? *A*: Sales where total revenue = total cost. Profit = 0.
38. *Q*: BEP in units formula? *A*: Fixed Cost / Contribution per unit.
39. *Q*: What is margin of safety? *A*: Sales above BEP. MOS = Actual sales - BEP sales.
40. *Q*: What is operating leverage? *A*: % change in profit / % change in sales. Higher FC = higher leverage.
*D. Accounting Information System - Q41 to Q50*
41. *Q*: 3 components of AIS? *A*: People, Procedures + instructions, Data + software.
42. *Q*: What is audit trail? *A*: Record of all transactions + changes for tracking.
43. *Q*: Input control example? *A*: Range check, limit check to prevent wrong data entry.
44. *Q*: Processing control example? *A*: Run-to-run totals to check all data processed.
45. *Q*: Output control example? *A*: Review output for reasonableness before distribution.
46. *Q*: What is ERP? *A*: Integrated system for all business functions: finance, HR, inventory.
47. *Q*: Source document in purchase cycle? *A*: Purchase Order, Goods Received Note, Vendor Invoice.
48. *Q*: What is segregation of duties in AIS? *A*: Different person for authorization, recording, custody.
49. *Q*: Cloud vs On-premise AIS risk? *A*: Cloud = data security risk. On-premise = maintenance cost risk.
50. *Q*: What is master file? *A*: Permanent data file like customer/vendor master in AIS.
*E. Basic Economics - Q51 to Q60*
51. *Q*: Law of demand? *A*: Price ↑, Quantity demanded ↓, other things equal.
52. *Q*: Law of supply? *A*: Price ↑, Quantity supplied ↑, other things equal.
53. *Q*: What is elasticity? *A*: % change in Q demanded / % change in price.
54. *Q*: What are factors of production? *A*: Land, Labor, Capital, Entrepreneurship.
55. *Q*: Short run vs Long run? *A*: Short run: at least 1 factor fixed. Long run: all factors variable.
56. *Q*: What is diminishing marginal returns? *A*: Adding more of variable input yields smaller output increase.
57. *Q*: GDP vs GNP? *A*: GDP = output in country. GNP = output by country’s citizens.
58. *Q*: Inflation effect on accounting? *A*: Historical cost understates asset value, overstates profit.
59. *Q*: What is opportunity cost in economics? *A*: Value of next best alternative foregone.
60. *Q*: Perfect competition feature? *A*: Many buyers/sellers, identical product, price taker.
*F. Corporate Governance - Q61 to Q70*
61. *Q*: 3 main parties in governance? *A*: Board of Directors, Management, Shareholders.
62. *Q*: Role of Audit Committee? *A*: Oversee financial reporting, IA, external audit, risk.
63. *Q*: What is agency problem? *A*: Conflict between owners and managers due to different interests.
64. *Q*: Board independence importance? *A*: Prevents management override, protects shareholders.
65. *Q*: What is tone at top? *A*: Ethical culture set by senior management/board.
66. *Q*: What is whistleblower policy? *A*: Channel for employees to report misconduct without retaliation.
67. *Q*: CEO/Chair duality risk? *A*: Reduces board independence, weakens oversight.
68. *Q*: Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404? *A*: Management must assess internal controls over financial reporting.
69. *Q*: Stakeholder theory vs Shareholder theory? *A*: Stakeholder: serve all groups. Shareholder: maximize owner wealth.
70. *Q*: What is fiduciary duty of directors? *A*: Duty of care + duty of loyalty to company.
*G. Basic Data Analytics - Q71 to Q80*
71. *Q*: 4 types of data analytics? *A*: Descriptive, Diagnostic, Predictive, Prescriptive.
72. *Q*: Descriptive analytics example? *A*: Sales report, dashboard showing past performance.
73. *Q*: Predictive analytics example? *A*: Forecast next month sales using past data.
74. *Q*: What is data mining? *A*: Finding patterns in large data sets.
75. *Q*: Big Data 3 Vs? *A*: Volume, Velocity, Variety.
76. *Q*: Benford’s Law use in audit? *A*: Detect fraud by checking digit frequency in data.
77. *Q*: What is visualization in analytics? *A*: Charts/graphs to make data insights clear.
78. *Q*: Structured vs Unstructured data? *A*: Structured = rows/columns. Unstructured = emails, images.
79. *Q*: What is KPI? *A*: Key Performance Indicator to measure success.
80. *Q*: Data analytics benefit for MA? *A*: Better budgeting, variance analysis, fraud detection.
*H. Stakeholders + Production + Costing Methods - Q81 to Q100*
81. *Q*: Who are internal stakeholders? *A*: Employees, managers, owners.
82. *Q*: Who are external stakeholders? *A*: Customers, suppliers, govt, creditors, community.
83. *Q*: Customer interest from company? *A*: Quality product at fair price, timely delivery.
84. *Q*: Govt interest from company? *A*: Taxes, legal compliance, employment.
85. *Q*: Creditor interest? *A*: Timely repayment + interest, financial stability.
86. *Q*: High-Low method purpose? *A*: Separate fixed + variable part of mixed cost.
87. *Q*: High-Low VC rate formula? *A*: (Cost at high - Cost at low) / (Activity at high - Activity at low).
88. *Q*: What is overcosting? *A*: Product charged more OH than actual resources used.
89. *Q*: What is undercosting? *A*: Product charged less OH than actual resources used.
90. *Q*: Overapplied overhead meaning? *A*: Applied OH > Actual OH. Dr OH Control, Cr COGS.
91. *Q*: Underapplied overhead meaning? *A*: Actual OH > Applied OH. Dr COGS, Cr OH Control.
92. *Q*: How to dispose underapplied OH? *A*: Write off to COGS, or prorate to WIP, FG, COGS.
93. *Q*: Diseconomies of scale cause? *A*: Bureaucracy, communication gap, coordination loss in large firm.
94. *Q*: Short run production decision? *A*: Can change variable input only. FC remains.
95. *Q*: Long run production decision? *A*: Can change all inputs including plant size.
96. *Q*: What is joint cost? *A*: Common cost before split-off point for multiple products.
97. *Q*: Joint cost allocation method? *A*: Physical units method or Net Realizable Value method.
98. *Q*: What is cost tracing? *A*: Direct assignment of cost to cost object.
99. *Q*: What is cost allocation? *A*: Assign indirect cost using allocation base.
100. *Q*: What is reapportionment? *A*: Secondary allocation of service dept cost to production depts.
*Exam Tip*: For CMA + ACCA MA, focus on definitions + formulas + “why it matters”. They test application, not theory essays.




