CMA Inter Cost Accounting: Answer Presentation That Scores

CMA Inter Cost Accounting answers score when the format is right: a cost sheet in the standard order, numbered working notes, and the Cost Accounting Standard named where it decides the treatment. Paper 8, Cost Accounting, is the last Group I paper in the December 2026 term, on 16 December from 2 pm to 5 pm. Most marks in this paper go to practical questions, and a correct figure in a messy layout loses marks it did not need to.

In Cost Accounting the examiner marks the steps. If the step is not on the page, it cannot earn the mark, even when your final cost is right.

TL;DR

• Paper 8, Group I, Wednesday 16 December 2026, 2 pm to 5 pm.
• To pass Group I: 40 in each paper and 200 out of 400 across the group.
• Follow the cost sheet order: prime cost, works cost, cost of production, cost of goods sold, cost of sales.
• Number every working note and refer to it in the main answer.
• Name the CAS when it decides the answer, for example normal capacity for fixed overheads.

When is the CMA Inter Cost Accounting paper?

ICMAI's December 2026 schedule puts Paper 8 on 16 December, after Business Laws on 10 December, Financial Accounting on 12 December and Taxation on 14 December. Management Accounting, Paper 12, follows on 17 December for students writing both groups. Our CMA December 2026 timetable post lists all sixteen papers.

The syllabus and study material are on ICMAI's Syllabus 2022 student page. Past papers are on its question paper page, and they are the best guide to how questions are framed.

Paper 8 is on 16 December, and the ICMAI study material and past papers set the standard for your format.

What should a cost sheet look like?

Here is a worked cost sheet with the stock adjustments placed where they belong.

• Materials: opening stock Rs 40,000 plus purchases Rs 3,60,000 less closing stock Rs 50,000 gives materials consumed of Rs 3,50,000.
• Prime cost: Rs 3,50,000 plus direct wages Rs 1,50,000 plus direct expenses Rs 20,000 = Rs 5,20,000.
• Works cost: add factory overheads Rs 1,30,000 for Rs 6,50,000, then add opening WIP Rs 30,000 and deduct closing WIP Rs 20,000. Works cost is Rs 6,60,000.
• Cost of production: add production-related administration overheads of Rs 25,000 for Rs 6,85,000.
• Cost of goods sold: add opening finished goods Rs 45,000 and deduct closing finished goods Rs 55,000 for Rs 6,75,000.
• Cost of sales: add selling and distribution overheads Rs 40,000 for Rs 7,15,000. With sales of Rs 8,00,000, profit is Rs 85,000.

The mistake I see most often is WIP adjusted after cost of production, or finished goods adjusted at works cost. Both give a wrong cost of production even when every figure is right. WIP belongs with works cost; finished goods belong with cost of goods sold.

Put WIP in works cost and finished goods in cost of goods sold, and the rest of the sheet falls into place.

How should you write working notes?

Write the main statement first, with each figure that needs a calculation marked 'WN 1', 'WN 2' and so on. Put the working notes after it, numbered in the same order. Each note shows the formula, the figures put into it, and the result with its unit.

State any assumption you make in one line, as a note: for example, that the normal loss has no scrap value when the question is silent. An examiner can give credit for a reasonable stated assumption. An unstated one just looks like an error.

Numbered notes, linked to the statement, with formula, substitution and unit in each.

How do you show the CAS treatment in an answer?

Worked example: normal capacity

A factory has a normal capacity of 10,000 units and fixed production overheads of Rs 5,00,000, so the absorption rate is Rs 50 a unit. Actual production is 8,000 units. Rs 4,00,000 is absorbed into the cost of production. The other Rs 1,00,000 is the cost of abnormal idle capacity. Under CAS-2 and CAS-3, it is not added to the cost of the 8,000 units; it goes to the costing profit and loss account.

A student who divides Rs 5,00,000 by 8,000 units gets Rs 62.50 a unit and overstates the cost of each unit by Rs 12.50. Write one line naming the standard, then show the split.

Absorb fixed overheads at normal capacity and send the unabsorbed amount to costing profit and loss.

How should you present formula questions?

Worked example: EOQ

Annual demand is 12,000 units, the cost of placing an order is Rs 150, and the carrying cost is 10% of the purchase price of Rs 40 a unit. First work out the carrying cost per unit: 10% of Rs 40 is Rs 4. Then EOQ is the square root of (2 × 12,000 × 150) ÷ 4, which is the square root of 9,00,000, or 948.68. Round to 949 units and write the unit.

The marks are in the three lines: formula, substitution, answer. A student who writes only '949 units' gets the last mark at best.

Formula, substitution and answer with unit, in that order, for every formula question.

What should the last seven weeks look like?

• Weeks 1 and 2: one chapter a day from the study material, with every illustration solved in full format.
• Weeks 3 to 5: past ICMAI papers, one question set a day, timed.
• Weeks 6 and 7: two full papers in three hours each, then only your list of formats and formulas.

Remember the group rule. One paper under 40 fails Group I whatever the total, so a weak Cost paper cannot be rescued by the other three. Our post on CMA Inter passing marks explains exemption and carry forward.

If you want your practice answers checked, Gradehunt's CMA Inter test series lets you write by hand and upload, and an ex-examiner returns each paper within 48 hours with step-wise marks and comments. The first paper is checked free.