Why do bankers use M instead of K? TheStory Behind the MM Convention
However, there are official abbreviations out there that you might come across, and it would help to know about them. We’ll explain the correct abbreviation for “million” in this article. 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. Territory includes Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Hawaii, Alaska, California, and Utah. Darrel has over 30 years of proven success and is skilled in developing relationships with internal and external stakeholders to drive superior business results.
Alternative Notations for MM (Million)
Another 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. MM enabled fitting large monetary values concisely into tables and ledgers. Yes, MM is recognized globally in the world of finance and accounting to represent one million. What is bookkeeping However, it’s important to note that it may be less known in areas where the use of Roman numerals is not common and in non-English speaking countries who may use other abbreviations. The term MM is used in the finance world to denote one million and is a standard nomenclature used across the globe.
Alternative notations to MM
Take your abilities to the next level and become a more effective leader and team player. Rather than use the barred M, however, accounting went with MM as an abbreviation for a million. For example, 1MM equals 1 million, $34MM equals $34 million and so on. The barred M was necessary because the Romans didn’t use zero, and they didn’t like using more than three identical letters in a row. If you can’t go above three M’s in a row, you can’t get to 4,000, which would be MMMM. We don’t know for sure why the Romans used letters or why they chose the letters they did.
What does MM stand for in finance?
This usage is prevalent in various industries and contexts, particularly in the United States, where it simplifies the representation of large numbers without overwhelming the reader with zeros. Unfortunately, there isn’t a consistent approach to labeling units. The least ambiguous approach is to simply write them out in words, such as “$ thousands.” does mm mean million This is Corporate Finance Institute’s recommended method, to avoid any potential confusion. When plural, as in “millions,” it refers to multiples of 1,000,000. The word “million” is most often used in reference to money, but is also frequently used in exaggeration.
I have seen million, billion, and trillion abbreviated as M, B, and T Food Truck Accounting respectively. However, I would not bet that that is a standard abbreviation. 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.
- The example below shows how figures can be portrayed in millions.
- To understand MM, we have to go back to the early days of accounting when Roman numerals were used to record ledgers.
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- For instance, a company reporting $5,000,000 in revenue would simply state $5MM, streamlining the data for stakeholders who need to quickly grasp the financial health of the organization.
- For example, the Roman numeral MM is frequently used to designate that the units used in presenting information (financial and non-financial) in millions.
- Abbreviating one million dollars is done using the above abbreviations.
The Financial Modeling Certification
- In finance and accounting, MM (or lowercase “mm”) commonly denotes that the units of figures presented are in millions.
- Frequently, in finance and accounting, an analyst will use k to denote thousands and a capitalized M to denote millions.
- Later on, the rise of typewriters and early digital spreadsheets continued this practice of using M and MM abbreviations.
- If you’re looking to avoid the word million altogether, you won’t have much luck.
- Organizations like the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) emphasize the need for consistent and comparable financial statements.
One theory says the use of M was because Romans measured a mile as a thousand paces. Another theory is that it is a misprinting of the Greek letter phi. However, millions range from 1,000,000 to 999,999,999 so there can be a maximum of eight zeros if you are referencing a 100 million (100,000,000). You can also use the abbreviation “mil” in casual conversation. You might hear something along the lines of “He dropped a couple mil on a new car,” or perhaps “How many mils is that house?