Ever wanted to know what some of your colleagues are actually saying when they use an acronym, or business word abbreviation like ERP, CRM, EDM or B2B? Well, you’re not alone!
Most of us have probably heard of, or know what they mean. Some are common sense. Occasionally one sneaks in to the discussions that we just have no idea what it means, nor the braves to ask what it stands for?
Business language can be hard to understand, especially for beginners in the field. There are business acronyms old and new that can confuse if not correctly understood.
I generally find there are two types of users for business acronyms: Type 1 – those that try to impress, and Type 2 – those that want to take shortcuts.
I hope that I am classified as the user taking shortcuts rather than typing out the whole term every time. Usually in an email or post I’ll cover what the acronym stands for in the first instance so the reader is totally aware of what I am talking about.
For this reason I’ve put together a gathering of acronyms that you can refer to regularly so you don’t go away from a meeting wondering what the hell they were talking about.
Don’t worry, I’ve done this plenty of times. Googled the terms quite regularly.
Below is an alphabetical listing of business acronyms, and business word abbreviations that you may be Googling one day.
These abbreviations have been gathered from all areas of business: marketing, sales, finance, etc. FYI there are many more on Wikipedia if your interested!
A
- ACCT – Account
- AOV – Average Order Value
- AP – Accounts Payable
- API – Application Programming Interface
- AR – Accounts Receivable
- ASAP – “As soon as possible”
- ASP – Application Service Provider
- ASX – Australian Securities Exchange
- AWS – Amazon Web Services
B
- B2B – Business-to-Business
- B2C – Business to Consumer
- B2G – Business-to-Government
- BANT – Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline
- BD – Business Development
- BOM – Bill of Materials
- BR – Bounce Rate
- BS – Balance Sheet
C
- C2B – Consumer-to-Business
- CAC – Customer Acquisition Cost
- CAN-SPAM – Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing
- CAO – Chief Analytics Officer
- CDM – Change and Data Management
- CDO – Chief Data Officer
- CEO – Chief Executive Officer
- CFO – Chief Financial Officer
- CFP – Certified Financial Planner
- CIO – Chief Information Officer
- CLV – Customer Lifetime Value
- CMO – Chief Marketing Officer
- CMS – Content Management System
- COB – Close of Business
- COO – Chief Operating Officer
- COS – Content Optimization System
- CPA – Certified Public Accountant, Cost-per-Action
- CPC – Cost-per-Click
- CPL – Cost-per-Lead
- CPU – Central Processing Unit; Cost per Unit
- CR – Credit; Conversion Rate
- CRM – Customer Relationship Management
- CRO – Conversion Rate Optimization
- CSO – Chief Security Officer
- CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility
- CSS – Cascading Style Sheets
- CTA – Call-to-Action
- CTC – Cost to Company
- CTO – Chief Technology Officer
- CTR – Click Through Rate
- CX – Customer Experience
D
- DM – Direct Message or Direct Mail
- DNS – Domain Name System
- DOE – Depending on Experience
- DR – Debit
- DTP – Desktop Publishing
E
- EBITA – Earnings before interest and taxes and amortization
- EBITDA – Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization
- EDI – Electronic Data Interchange
- EDM – Electronic Direct Mail
- EFTPOS – Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale
- EMI – Equated Monthly Installment
- EOB – End of Business
- EOD – End of Day
- EOM – End of Message
- EOT – End of Thread
- EOW – End of Week
- EPC – Earnings Per Click
- EPS – Earnings per Share
- ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning
- ESP – Email Service Provider
- ETA – Estimated Time of Arrival
- ETD – Estimated Time of Delivery
- EXP – Export
F
- FOC – Free Of Cost
- FTE – Full-Time Employee
- FTP – File Transport Protocol
- FYI – For Your Information
- FX – Foreign Exchange Market
- FY – Fiscal Year or Financial Year
- FYA – For Your Action
- FYF – Full Year Forecast
- FYI – For Your Information
- F/U – Follow-Up
G
- GA – Google Analytics
- GC – General Counsel
- GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation
- GL – General Ledger
- GP – Gross Profit
- GRN – Goods Receipt Note
- GRNI – Goods Receipt Not Invoiced
- GSV – Gross Sales Value
- GVC – Global Value Chain
H
- HP – Hire Purchase
- HQ – Headquarters
- HR – Human Resources
- HRD – Human Resource Development
- HTML – HyperText Markup Language
- HTTP – HyperText Transfer Protocol
- HTTPS – HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure
I
- IM – Instant messaging
- Inc. – Incorporated
- IP – Internet Protocol
- IP Address – Internet Protocol Address
- IPO – Initial Public Offering
- ISP – Internet Service Provider
- ITT – Invitation to Tender
K
- K – Is used as an abbreviation for 1,000
- KISS – Keep it simple stupid
- KPI – Key Performance Indicator
- KYC – “Know Your Customer”
L
- LBO – Leveraged Buyout
- LC – Letter of Credit
- LE – Latest Estimate
- LLC – Limited Liability Company
- Ltd. – Limited Company
- LTV – Lifetime Value
- LWOP – Leave Without Pay
M
- mfg. – Manufacturing
- MGMT – Management
- MIC – Market Identifier Code
- MILE – Maximum Impact, Little Effort
- MoM – Month On Month / Month Over Month
- MOQ – Minimum Order Quantity
- MOU – Memorandum of Understanding
- MPC – Marginal Propensity to Consume
- MPR – Monthly Progress Report
- MRO – Maintenance, Repair, and Operations
- MRP – Maximum Retail Price
- MRR – Monthly Recurring Revenue
- MSOD – Monthly Statement of Select Operational Data
- MSRP – Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price
- MTD – Month-to-Date
- MWC – Managerial Working Capital
N
- NAV – Net Assets Balue
- NDA – Non-Disclosure Agreement
- NPL – Non-Performing Loan
- NPS – Net Promoter Score
- NSFW – Not Safe For Work
- NTE – Not To Exceed
O
- OCF – Operating Cash Flow
- OEM – Original Equipment Manufacturer
- OOO – Out of Office
- OS – Operating System
- OTC – Over-the-Counter (finance)
P
- PA – Performance Appraisal; Personal Assistant; Purchasing Agent; Promotional Activity
- P/E – Price to Earnings
- P&L – Profit and Loss
- PM – Project Manager
- POC – Point of Contact
- POS – Point of Sale
- PPC – Pay-Per-Click
- PPT – PowerPoint Presentation
- PR – Public Relations; Purchase Requisition
- PTD – Project to Date
- PTO – Paid Time Off
- PV – Page View
Q
- Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 – Quarters of the accounting year, calendar year or fiscal year
- QA – Quality Assurance
- QC – Quality Control or Quality Costs
- QoQ – Quarter-Over-Quarter
- QR Code – Quick Response Barcode
- QTD – Quarter-to-Date
R
- RAM – Random Access Memory
- RBA – Reserve Bank of Australia
- RC – Retail Company
- R&D – Research and Development
- Re – Referring to
- RE – Retained Earnings
- RFI – Request for Information
- RFP – Request for Proposal
- RFQ – Request for Quotation
- ROA – Return On Assets
- ROI – Return On Investment
- ROIC – Return On Invested Capital
- ROR – Ruby On Rails
- ROS – Run Of Site, Return On Sales
- RSP – Retail Selling Price
- RSS – Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication
- RT – Retweet
S
- SaaS – Software as a Service
- SCM – Supply Chain Management
- SEM – Search Engine Marketing
- SEO – Search Engine Optimisation
- SERP – Search Engine Results Page
- SKU – Stock Keeping Unit
- SLA – Service Level Agreement
- S&M – Sales & Marketing
- SM – Social Media
- SMB – Small-to-Medium Business
- SME – Small and Medium Enterprises
- SMM – Social Media Marketing
- SOHO – Small Office/Home Office
- SOP – Standard Operating Procedure
- SOW – Statement of Work
- SUA – Start Up Agreement
- SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
T
- TBC – To Be Completed
- TOS – Terms of Service
- TOTW– Time Off for Time Worked
- TQM – Total Quality Management
- TSR – Total Shareholder Return
- TTM– Trailing Twelve Months
U
- UI – User Interface
- URL – Uniform Resource Locator
- USP – Unique Selling Proposition
- UX – User Experience
- UV – Unique Visitor
V
- VAD – Value Added Distributor
- VaR – Value at Risk
- VAR – Value Added Reseller
- VAT – Value Added Tax
- VC – Venture Capital
- VOD – Video On Demand
- VP – Vice President
- VPN – Virtual Private Network
W
- WFH – Work From Home
- WHT – Withholding Tax
- wk – Week
- WOM – Word-of-Mouth
- WTD – Week-To-Date
- WW – World Wide
- WWW – World Wide Web
- WYSIWYG – What you see is what you get
X
- XML – Extensible Markup Language
Y
- YoY – Year-over-Year
- YTC – Yet-To-Confirm
- YTD – Year-to-Date
For those that I’ve missed, please add them in the comments below. I’ll try and remember to update this post regularly so they will be easy to find alphabetically.