Roman numerals are often used in accounting to help abbreviate and designate numbers. For example, the Roman numeral MM is frequently used to designate that the units used in presenting information (financial and non-financial) in millions. The Roman numeral M is used to indicate units in thousands. For example, an annual salary of $60,000 might appear as $60k instead of $60M. Another what does mm mean money driver of using MM was the need to streamline amounts in printed financial statements, reports, and documents. Whether etched by hand or printed, space was at a premium on these pages.
M vs. MM – What Is The Correct Abbreviation for “Million”?
Today, MM remains the standard abbreviation for millions throughout the banking and accounting professions. 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. In accounting speak, a written “MM” means a million, whether the accountant is referring to units, dollars, euros or shares. Rather than writing $400,000,000 or $400 million, the accountant can use the MM abbreviation and write $400MM instead.
How do you abbreviate 1 million dollars?
If the company sells 26,000 units, the accountant can record that as 26M units. If net income runs to $6,500,000, it goes on the books as $6.5MM. The MM abbreviation works whether the entry is in dollars, some other currency or millions of items or customers.
The Pros of MM for Banking
- I have worked in equity markets for 20 years and poor abbreviations drive me crazy.
- CFI is on a mission to enable anyone to be a great financial analyst and have a great career path.
- The “MM” is just stylistics and is not meant to be “doubled.” Therefore, “10 MM USD” is simply US$10 million, or US$10,000,000.
- After analyzing its history and modern use, I have a new appreciation for how deeply rooted MM is within finance culture, likely to endure for the foreseeable future.
- Roman numerals are often used in accounting to help abbreviate and designate numbers.
- You’ll find that a lot of UK native speakers won’t even know what “mm” stands for (outside of the “millimeter” measurement that is abbreviated to “mm”).
- In my experience analyzing data from top financial institutions, I estimate 90% or more use MM based on samples of hundreds of documents and reports.
If, say, you use it for both units and dollars in the same document, separate the different categories so your readers don’t get confused. It’s also common to see K used for 1,000 and B for a billion. Unfortunately, there isn’t a consistent approach to labeling units. The least ambiguous approach is to simply write them out in words, such as “$ thousands.” This is Corporate Finance Institute’s recommended method, to avoid any potential confusion.
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. While you can make normal balance MM stand for millions of anything, it’s important that the reader knows whether you’re talking about dollars, euros, units shipped, etc.
- You’ll find that it’s mainly used in the energy sector, but it otherwise doesn’t get recognized.
- The least ambiguous approach is to simply write them out in words, such as “$ thousands.” This is CFI’s recommended method, to avoid any potential confusion.
- To understand MM, we have to go back to the early days of accounting when Roman numerals were used to record ledgers.
- Rather than use the barred M, however, accounting went with MM as an abbreviation for a million.
- When an analyst must present various different types of units, it is recommended to add a “units” column so that each item contains a label for easy reference.
What Does M and MM Mean in Accounting?
Another option is to use the “M” for 1,000 and represent $4 million as $4,000M. The least ambiguous approach is to simply write them out in words, such as “$ thousands.” This is CFI’s recommended method, to avoid any potential confusion. I have seen one million represented by mn and also by m (both lower case). Hence, you might see $1,400,000 expressed as $1.4 million or $1.4MM or $1.4mn or $1.4m.