The CAP and ACAP programs have been standardized nationwide. To achieve this goal, minimum standards have been established for each course in both programs. Minimum requirements must be followed in order for any course to qualify as a CAP or ACAP course.

The minimum requirements for each course are listed herein. Please save this information for future reference and please communicate this information to all CAP and ACAP instructors.

As these programs were restructured, much time was spent looking at what courses were being offered nationwide. We studied local course offerings, talked with Affiliated Association education directors and with instructors. Once the information was gathered, it was presented to the NACM-National Accreditation Committee for review and approval.

The consensus was that these programs should be college-equivalent, professional-track programs. In essence, the courses that make up the CAP and ACAP programs are college courses. After completing this program, a participant has gained broad knowledge, preparing him or her for a professional career in credit. These courses are not designed to serve as on-the-job training courses.

While the Accounting course must be offered as a prerequisite to the Financial Statement Analysis I course, you can elect to offer the Business Credit Principles at any point in the program. The Business Credit Principles course has been designed to teach basic business credit concepts. Many NIC Chapters have expressed concern that, unless the first course offered in the program relates directly to credit, participants may tend to pass on the program. If this is the case for your location, offer the Business Credit Principles course(s) first.

The ACAP course, Business Law, is a prerequisite to the Credit Law course. Because Business Law includes the law of contracts, it forms the foundation for studying the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) in Credit Law.

If a student has already completed the accounting course requirement at a college and earned a grade of C or higher, it may be accepted in fulfillment of that course requirement. Students would not be required to retake a course he or she has successfully completed at a college. That student will need to submit a college grade transcript to document completion of the requirement when applying for the CBA or the CCRA designation.

In some cases, students completed a course many years ago. Should the student want to retake a course, it is permissible. However, the student may only claim credit for taking the course ONE time on the NACM Career Roadmap. And, college equivalency will only be accepted for the same course one time.

A “test-out” exam has been developed for the accounting course. If a participant completed a college level accounting course many years ago or if the participant has many years of experience and wants equivalency, he/she will have to take an equivalency exam. A copy of the accounting course equivalency exam to administer may be requested at any time. Please check with the Education Department for the cost of the test-out exam.

The accounting test-out exam must be administered in a proctored environment and returned to the NACM-Education Services Department for grading. The accounting requirement will be waived for anyone who attains a passing grade of 70 percent or higher. The exam is very comprehensive—the questions have been drawn from the accounting text used in the CAP program.

A study outline has been developed for the CBA, CBF and CCE exams. Because the content of the exams change and some candidates delay taking exams, these outlines were developed to ensure that exam candidates are aware of the general content. New in 2024, the CCRA designation exam will be offered starting in June and an outline will be provided in the first quarter of 2024.

Study outlines are available on NACM’s web page (www.nacm.org) under the Education/Instructor Access link. Members are encouraged to obtain the most recent copy of a study outline. If you conduct exam review sessions, we also encourage you to ask your teachers/speakers to follow these outlines.

NACM also provides Exam Review modules for the CBA, CBF, and CCE designations on for purchase in the Credit Learning Center.

The professional designation exams are online exams administered four times a year. Three of these national test dates have traditionally and still are proctored by NACM affiliates, but the most common method today has been having a qualified supervisor or HR rep proctor the exam at the student’s place of employment. The fourth option is for students to test once a year at NACM’s Credit Congress. The exam dates are posted on the NACM National website.

Prior to each test date, the Education Department will forward a list of approved candidates for the upcoming test date. We appreciate you taking the time to review the list carefully.

We ask members to make appointments with you to take the exam on the national test date they have chosen. However, if a candidate contacts us with special circumstances, such as living a great distance from their Affiliate or being unable to leave the office, they may request to take their designation exam at an approved, alternate location. Approved alternate locations include their company’s human resources office, a college testing center or their CAP/ACAP instructor’s company with the instructor acting as proctor.

Exams are online and must be proctored. Candidates may not leave the test platform for any reason; it is against test protocols for candidates to first type answers into Word and copy and paste them into the exam platform. Candidates may not use or open any program other than the exam platform. Candidates may not use browsers to search for information. You should receive your proctor instructions by email the Thursday before the exam date.

The testing candidates should be monitored. No cell phones, textbooks, notes or reference materials are allowed into the test room. Candidates may use pens, pencils and hand-held calculators only. We recommend that the testing candidates be given a quiet place in which to take the exam. Candidates may not speak to anyone other than the proctor during the exam. Candidates may not leave the testing room for any purpose other than to use the restroom or get a drink of water; only a reasonable absence from the testing room is allowed, i.e. five to 10 minutes; no exam materials may be taken from the room at any time.

The content of all designation exams is subject to change. Sometimes, only some questions are rotated off while at other times, the entire exam is changed. This is done to maintain the integrity of the exams.

The CBA test questions are taken from the following textbooks:

• Accounting by Warren, Reeves and Duchac
• Understanding Financial Statements by Fraser and Ormiston
• Principles of Business Credit, Eighth Edition

The format of the test is a mix of true/false and multiple-choice questions and may include accounting or ratio problems.

The CBF exam questions are drawn from Business Law Today by Miller. 

Although not part of CAP or ACAP, we will begin accepting applications for the CCRA exam in 2024. The questions for the CCRA designation exam will be a mix of true/false, multiple-choice questions, and short answers. Materials for the Financial Statement Analysis 2 course are not provided as part our CAP/ACAP program. We will offer the CCRA exam on a nationwide basis; the exam questions and the key concepts for the CCRA will be drawn from the required chapters of the course textbook, Financial Reporting and Analysis – Custom Edition, by Charles H. Gibson.

The CCE exam is a broad-based application exam. It consists of short-answer essay style responses and a Case Study. The best way to prepare for this exam is to thoroughly review the Principles of Business Credit book or the Credit Management: Principles and Practices book by Dr. Charles Gahala, CCE. Students should also be very familiar with financial statement analysis and recommendations based on trends found in a company’s financial statements. Due to this, it is highly suggested that students be CCRA holders or take Financial Statements Analysis II. CCE reviews provided by Affiliated Associations or found on the Credit Learning Center are also great resources for preparation.

• Updating texts because the publishers release new editions.
• All instructors must complete an application to be approved. Applications must be sent to the Education Department for approval.
• We must use standardized course evaluation forms. The students must complete a standard course evaluation form (See Appendix) and the instructor must complete a standard course evaluation form. All forms must be sent to the Education Department to be maintained on file.
• End of course grade rosters must be sent to the Education Department.
• We must use standardized course syllabi.
• We must offer standardized exams for each course.
• We must have a formal agreement with each Affiliated Association for the program.

All new instructors brought on to teach either the CAP or ACAP program must complete the new “Instructor Application” included at the end of these guidelines. An electronic version of this application is available under the instructor access page on nacm.org. The application must be returned to the Education Department for review. All incoming instructors must have (at a minimum) a bachelor’s degree, significant industry experience, and 2-3 years teaching experience. A CCE designation is preferred. Instructors who do not meet these minimum requirements will have to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Please be sure to submit an instructor application to the Education Department at least 30 days prior to admitting a new instructor to your program.

If you are offering CAP and ACAP courses in-house, you must use the textbooks listed in each course syllabus. Course participants must purchase copies of the books. You can either include the price of books in your course fee or have the participants purchase the books in addition to the course fee. If your course is offered through a community college, other similar textbooks may be acceptable. Please check with us before using an alternate textbook. Exam questions are drawn from the textbooks listed.

While pricing is a matter left to each Affiliated Association course sponsor, the average rate charged per course is around $300, plus the cost of books. We recommend that you investigate the cost of community college courses, which are priced per credit hour.

Textbooks may be purchased through the NACM Bookstore. Because the prices are subject to change by the publisher, please contact the NACM Bookstore for current prices on all books.

Textbooks can be returned within 30 days of purchase provided that they are in mint condition. The return policy should assist you in preparing for your CAP and ACAP programs; you can order an approximate quantity of books and return the unused copies to us for credit once your classes begin. We recommend that you place your book orders early. That way, if our inventory is low, we will be able to order additional books and fill your order prior to the start of your classes.

As a general rule, an annotated instructor’s edition is a regular textbook with notes printed in the margins, designed to assist the instructor. The instructor needs only the annotated version of the textbook. Instructor’s editions are not always available for every edition. Please check with the publisher to inquire about instructor editions of the text. In any case, NACM provides supplemental materials to assist each teacher with the course content.

An instructor’s manual is a supplement to a text; the instructor needs the textbook to accompany the manual.

Also, as a general rule, publishing companies issue a new edition of a textbook every two years. Remember, we must update all of the NACM-created material that accompanies a book each time a new edition is released.