The use of two m’s to denote millions is becoming less common. Frequently, in finance and accounting, an analyst will use k to denote thousands and a capitalized M to denote millions. Frequently, in finance and accounting settings now, an analyst will use k to denote thousands and a capitalized M to denote millions. Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. While obscure outside banking circles, MM enjoys near universal usage within finance and accounting as the standard abbreviation for “millions”.
M vs. MM – What Is The Correct Abbreviation for “Million”?
- One thing to consider is that when writing about large amounts of money, the words “million” or “billion” are often left out altogether, as are superfluous zeroes.
- Another option is to use the “M” for 1,000 and represent $4 million as $4,000M.
- Therefore, discretion must be applied within every situation to accurately implement the acceptable abbreviation or comprehend the abbreviation you are reviewing.
- In my experience analyzing data from top financial institutions, I estimate 90% or more use MM based on samples of hundreds of documents and reports.
- When plural, as in “millions,” it refers to multiples of 1,000,000.
- If 1,000 multiplied by 1,000 equals 1,000,000, and 1,000 equals M, then we can use the abbreviations to create calculations.
It differs from the standard “k” and “M” abbreviations used in the metric system and most other sectors. I decided to take a deep dive into the origins and rationale behind “MM” to better understand this unique element of finance culture. We often find the abbreviation (mm) on financial statements, which stands for millions. Unfortunately, this practice can occasionally cause confusion within the financial industry as multiple numerical abbreviations are used interchangeably within society.
Flexing Your Financial Know-How
It’s also common to see K used for 1,000 and B for a billion. To avoid confusion, use any and all abbreviations consistently throughout all your financial records. what does mm stand for money While you can make MM stand for millions of anything, it’s important that the reader knows whether you’re talking about dollars, euros, units shipped, etc.
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Understanding the financial implications of your decisions and clearly communicating those decisions to key stakeholders can help advance your career. For non-finance professionals, the thought of talking data, forecasts, and valuations can seem daunting. But developing your financial skills so that you have financial fluency can help you excel professionally and make a greater impact on your company. Your sentences come from this report from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, who is a financial firm, so it is understandable that they would use MM to refer to millions. If you’re looking to avoid the word million altogether, you won’t have much luck. The only other option is to write your entire number numerically or even convert it to scientific notation.
How Do You Abbreviate Million Dollars?
As a result, “M” simply became shorthand for adding three zeros and thus “MM” became the shorthand for adding six zeros. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. You can see it on ancient French and British ledgers from the 18th and 19th centuries where “M₤” represents £1000 and “MM₤” is £1million. So the convention of using M for thousands and MM for millions originated in Roman numeral-based accounting. To understand MM, we have to go back to the early days of accounting when Roman numerals were used to record ledgers. In this era, M already signified 1,000, while MM denoted 1 million.
What Does “MM” Mean?
For example, 1MM equals 1 million, $34MM equals $34 million and so on. After enrolling in a program, you may request a withdrawal with refund (minus a $100 nonrefundable enrollment fee) up until 24 hours after the start of your program. Please review the Program Policies page for more details on refunds and deferrals. Updates to your enrollment status will be shown on your account page. HBS Online does not use race, gender, ethnicity, or any protected class as criteria for enrollment for any HBS Online program.
When preparing financial statements, accountants will typically write a note at the top of the income statement or the balance sheet saying, “All figures are expressed in millions of U.S. dollars,” for example. If a financial statement has a lot of large figures, the accountant may simply dispense with abbreviations. Stating at the top of the report that “all figures are in millions of dollars” should take care of it. What matters is that readers look at the figures and understand the amounts. In finance and accounting, MM (or lowercase “mm”) commonly denotes that the units of figures presented are in millions.
What Does M and MM Mean in Accounting?
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Regardless of why you are trying to abbreviate the word “million,” you have come to the right place. In this article, we will teach you how to abbreviate the word and how to use the abbreviation for “million.” Let’s first understand what million means. I have worked in equity markets for 20 years and poor abbreviations drive me crazy. Regretfully, until the USA goes metric there’s going to continue to be problem with this. I can’t find in Google any list of the money abbreviations used by English people. These examples underscore the need for abbreviations like MM to avoid ambiguity with large figures.
Million Abbreviation: How to Abbreviate Million (MM, M, mm, or m)?
He is the sole author of all the materials on AccountingCoach.com. For the past 52 years, Harold Averkamp (CPA, MBA) has worked as an accounting supervisor, manager, consultant, university instructor, and innovator in teaching accounting online. Rather than use the barred M, however, accounting went with MM as an abbreviation for a million.
