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. 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 https://www.bookstime.com/ abbreviation works whether the entry is in dollars, some other currency or millions of items or customers. This article was reviewed by Anyah Le Gilmore-Jones and by wikiHow staff writer, Janice Tieperman. Anyah Gilmore-Jones is a Social Media Marketing Expert based in Nashville, Tennessee.
The numerical transformation post 13th century in Europe is largely credited to Leonardo of Pisa, also known as Fibonacci. In 1202, he wrote a book called “The Book of Calculation,” in which he advocated for conducting mathematical equations with the Hindu-Arabic numeral system as opposed to the Roman numeral system. While the concept can seem confusing at first, it helps if you can understand that M is supposed to equal 1,000.
Yet, often in finance and accounting, we find that this abbreviation deviates from the cultural norm that permeates most industries. To avoid confusion, use any and all abbreviations consistently throughout all your financial what does mm mean records. “mm” is often left uncapitalized (though there are no specific rules that state which way it should be written). It is Latin for multiplying one “thousand” by itself to create the “million” number.
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” This abbreviation works for both spoken and written dialogue, and is easily recognizable. To add to the potential for misunderstanding, MM is not the Roman numeral for million. Readers could easily interpret this as a $12 million loss, though the financial professional might mean $12,000. There are a few different ways to abbreviate billion, most are similar to the million abbreviations.
Martin has been featured as an expert in communication and teaching on Forbes and Shopify. Because we have multiple options to choose from when selecting an abbreviation, it is important to use context to make the proper selection. To summarize, our modern numerical system is the same as the Hindu-Arabic numerical system. However, our abbreviations are a concoction of multiple cultural legacies ranging from Rome, Greece, India, China, and Arabia. Prior to accepting a position as the Director of Operations Strategy at DJO Global, Manu was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in Houston. He served clients, including presenting directly to C-level executives, in digital, strategy, M&A, and operations projects.