CBA-FPA · Finance
Certification scheme
The complete specification for CBA Certified FP&A Professional: what is assessed, how the paper is built, what the credential requires, and how it is maintained.
Scheme version 7.4. Every credential records the scheme version in force on the day it was awarded, so a holder remains traceable to the standard they met after this document changes.
1. The credential
- Title
- CBA Certified FP&A Professional
- Code
- CBA-FPA
- Field
- Finance
- Level
- Practitioner. Written examination and assessed applied work.
- Validity
- 3 years from the date of award, then renewal against evidenced continuing professional development. See CPD and renewal.
2. What is assessed
The blueprint fixes each domain’s share of the paper. Weightings are published and every paper is assembled to them, so the composition of the examination is known to a candidate in advance and is the same for everyone.
| Domain | Weighting | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| FP&A Foundations and the Planning Cycle | 15% | 9 |
| Budgeting and Annual Planning | 20% | 12 |
| Forecasting and Driver-Based Modelling | 25% | 15 |
| Variance Analysis and Performance Insight | 20% | 12 |
| Management Reporting and Business Partnering | 20% | 12 |
| Total | 100% | 60 |
3. The examination
- Questions
- 60
- Duration
- 100 minutes
- Format
- Single best answer from four options. Every question carries equal weight.
- Delivery
- Online. Unanswered questions score zero.
- Pass mark
- Set by standard setting
- Assembly
- Each paper is drawn at random from the live item bank to the weightings above, so two candidates sitting the same certification do not receive the same paper.
- Attempts
- 1 attempt per voucher. There is no limit on the number of vouchers and no waiting period between attempts.
- Voucher validity
- 12 months from purchase.
4. Requirements beyond the examination
- Assessed applied work
- 4 workbooks completed to the published tolerance. Each is a spreadsheet built from a case organisation’s data, and the figures submitted are checked automatically.
5. Quality assurance
- Every examination item is reviewed and signed off by a named subject-matter expert before it can appear in a live paper. An item with no recorded reviewer cannot be activated.
- The items in each domain are audited for answer cueing before use.
- Cut scores are set by a documented standard-setting panel working from the items themselves, and the method is recorded with the result. See how cut scores are set.
- Where an item is later found to be defective, every candidate whose result it affected is re-marked without it. See complaints and appeals.
6. Changes to this scheme
A change that alters what the credential means raises the scheme version. A candidate is assessed against the version in force on the day they sit, and a credential already awarded is never retrospectively altered by a later version. Where a change is substantial, it is published before it takes effect and existing candidates are given notice.