Why do bankers use M instead of K? TheStory Behind the MM Convention

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 use of two m’s to denote millions is becoming less common.

How do you write 2 million dollars?

• Organizations like the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) emphasize the need for consistent and comparable financial statements.
• This uniformity is crucial for analysts and investors who rely on these documents to make informed decisions.
• Another driver of using MM was the need to streamline amounts in printed financial statements, reports, and documents.
• Frequently, in finance and accounting settings now, an analyst will use k to denote thousands and a capitalized M to denote millions.
• Both approaches are allowed under standard accounting rules.
• To avoid confusion, use any and all abbreviations consistently throughout all your financial records.

For example, an annual salary of $60,000 might appear as $60k instead of $60M. Later on, the rise of typewriters and early digital spreadsheets continued this practice of using M and MM abbreviations. These technologies had character limits, so accountants and bankers adopted the shorthand to save space.

Historical Context of MM in Finance

CFI is the global institution behind the financial modeling and valuation analyst FMVA® Designation. CFI is on a mission to enable anyone to be a great financial analyst and have a great career path. In order to help you advance your career, CFI has compiled many resources to assist you along the path. Below is a break down of subject weightings in the FMVA® financial analyst program. As you can see there is a heavy focus on financial modeling, finance, Excel, business valuation, budgeting/forecasting, PowerPoint presentations, accounting and business strategy. 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.

What does MM and M mean in dollars?

M means a thousand, so MM is the sum if you multiply M by M, or 1,000 multiplied by itself equals 1,000,000. Unlock your potential and accelerate your career with sought-after management and leadership skills. 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. At Old Republic Surety we seek to deliver transparency and clarity in our communications.

You have to be careful when using it or interpreting it because MM can stand for other things too. MM is the symbol used for representing the numbers in millions, whereas the symbol m is used as thousand in roman numbers and so mm is thousand multiplied by thousand, which is equal to 1 million. Large enterprises often present their financial statements and other reports with the figures in the millions, i.e., and they use ($ MM). Generally, the abbreviation with two M’s is preferred in finance. 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.

• CFI is the global institution behind the financial modeling and valuation analyst FMVA® Designation.
• Large enterprises often present their financial statements and other reports with the figures in the millions, i.e., and they use ($ MM).
• Stating at the top of the report that “all figures are in millions of dollars” should take care of it.
• In finance and accounting, MM (or lowercase “mm”) commonly denotes that the units of figures presented are in millions.
• But due to confusion between M and MM, now the alternative notations are used for representing thousands and millions.
• Analysts use it to project future revenues, expenses, and other financial metrics.

As businesses operate on a global scale, the need for standardized financial terminology becomes paramount. In financial statements, the abbreviation “MM” is commonly used to denote millions. This shorthand is particularly useful in simplifying the presentation of large figures, making financial documents more readable and less cluttered. For instance, a company reporting $5,000,000 in revenue would simply state $5MM, streamlining the data for stakeholders mm meaning who need to quickly grasp the financial health of the organization.

This exemplifies the immense resistance to https://www.bookstime.com/ abandoning shorthand like MM that has existed for centuries. This is based off the Roman numeral “M,” which stands for 1,000, and MM, which is used to indicate 1,000,000.

• 8,22,90,000 or 8.22 crores is equal to one million dollars in rupees.
• By employing “MM,” companies can present their financial data in a universally understood format, minimizing the risk of misinterpretation.
• Regretfully, until the USA goes metric there’s going to continue to be problem with this.
• 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.
• Before “k” was adopted as the colloquial way of writing a thousand (i.e. $35k to mean $35,000), it was common to use “M” instead; “M” being the Roman Numeral for 1,000.
• 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.

In finance and accounting, MM (or lowercase “mm”) commonly denotes that the units of figures presented are in millions. In this context, MM is the same as writing “M multiplied by M,” which is income summary equal to “1,000 times 1,000,” which equals 1,000,000 (one million). 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. Both approaches are allowed under standard accounting rules.