Business abbreviations and business acronyms, also known as buzzwords, fill the workplace. You find them in marketing, technology, finance, and more. Business acronyms and abbreviations serve as shorthand for terms that busy professionals and marketing teams use often.
Business abbreviations help you write concise reports and effective email and text messages — unless overused. Our simple plain English list includes the most common business acronyms in the business world.
Learn These Common Business Acronyms and Abbreviations
Many of the business acronyms on this list are ones you see in communications every day, as CEO. Others aren’t so familiar, like CMO. But learning them will help put you “in the know.”
Office and Management Terminology
CEO
Chief Executive Officer. The highest-ranking executive of a company. The board and shareholders select the CEO.
CFO
Chief Financial Officer. The senior executive is responsible for managing the finances.
CIO
Chief Information Officer. This executive is responsible for the information and computer technologies of a company by managing, implementing, and addressing their usability.
CMO
Chief Marketing Officer. The executive is responsible for marketing activities.
COBRA
Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. Refers to the legal requirement to allow workers to remain on a group health plan after leaving the company. See insurance acronyms.
COO
Chief Operating Officer. The second in command and oversees the day-to-day administration and operations.
CSO
Chief Security Officer. Responsible for both digital and physical forms of security, the CSO is responsible for the security of personnel, premises and electronic systems.
CTO
Chief Technology Officer. An executive in charge of the technological needs of an organization as well as research and development (R&D).
EOW
End of Week.
FTE
Full-Time Equivalent. The work hours or people in a business, based on full-time employees and part-time employees whose hours taken together equate to full-time employment.
FYI
For Your Information. Indicates something is being shared in the message, but the receiver needs not take action on it.
HR
Human Resources. One of the best-known department abbreviations. The collective of people who make up the workforce of an organization, sector, industry, or economy.
HQ
Headquarters. The center of control of an organization or company.
Leave Without Pay. A temporary non-pay status and absence from duty, requested by the employee or supervisory discretion, without pay.
MGR
MGR is the abbreviation for a manager.
PTO
Paid Time Off. When employers pay employees for days or hours not worked, such as paid vacation and sick leave.
R&D
Research and Development. The process an organization works to gain new knowledge and create new technology, products, services, or systems.
SMB
Small to Medium Business. This is one of those abbreviations some people use interchangeably with the definition of small business but is different because it includes medium-sized entities, too.
SME
Subject matter expert: someone who knows a subject well.
QA
Quality Assurance. A way to prevent mistakes and defects in the manufacturing process as well as determining if a product meets quality standards.
QC
Quality Control. A process for ensuring product quality is maintained or improved.
WAHM
Work-at-home Mom. Mothers who work at a business or job from their homes.
WFH
Work From Home. Anyone who works from their residence all or some of the time.
YTD
Year to Date. The period starting the first day of the current calendar year or fiscal year up to the current date.
Marketing Abbreviations
AIDA
Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. The steps or stages from when a consumer becomes aware of a product or brand to the moment it is purchased.
BANT
Budget, authority, need, and timeline. A framework used to figure out how qualified a sales lead is and determine which lead your company should prioritize.
B2B
Business to Business. Refers to businesses that sell to other businesses. Also, the commercial transactions between two businesses.
B2C
Business to Consumer. Refers to businesses that sell directly to consumers, or to transactions between a business and a consumer.
BR
Bounce Rate. The percentage of visitors who enter the site and leave without viewing other pages.
CLV
Customer Lifetime Value. The total amount of money a customer is expected to spend on your products and services, as long as they are your customer.
CPA
Cost Per Acquisition/Action. An online advertising pricing model for making payments based on the completion of pre-determined actions.
CPC
Cost Per Click. A paid advertising term where an advertiser pays a cost to a publisher for every click on an ad. CPC is also called pay per click (PPC).
CR
Conversion Rate. The number of conversions (completed sales, subscriptions, or whatever you are measuring) divided by the total number of leads or website visitors.
CRM
Customer Relationship Management. Practices, strategies, and software for managing and analyzing customer interactions and data through the customer lifecycle.
CTA
Call to Action. A method for prompting an immediate response or encouraging an immediate sale.
CX
Customer Experience. The engagement of customers throughout their buying journey, from marketing to sales to customer support.
MLM
Multi-Level Marketing. Marketing where one recruits other marketers and earns from them.
POEM
Paid, Owned, Earned Media. Used in social media marketing, this is a way of thinking about content and other marketing assets depending on whether you paid for it (an ad), created and own it in-house (your own blog posts, etc.), or earned it (from users sharing it or mentioning it).
PPC
Pay per Click. Digital advertising where the advertiser pays only when a user clicks on an ad. Read PPC advertising.
POC
Point of Contact. A person or a department serving as the coordinator or focal point of an activity or program.
PR
Public relations. A promotion that involves good media relations and getting publicity aside from paid ads. Public Relations can also be the name of a department in a corporation.
SEM
Search Engine Marketing. Online marketing involving the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engines, often through ads.
SEO
Search Engine Optimization. The practice of optimizing web pages to be found in search engines organically, i.e., without paying for ads.
SERP
Search Engine Results Page. The results returned in Google, Bing, and other search engines, for a specific query or search. Also called SERPS, plural.
SWOT
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. This is a method of analyzing a company’s market position in strategic planning.
UV
Unique Visitor. Used in Web analytics to refer to a person who visits a site at least once within the reporting period.
WOM Marketing
Word of Mouth Marketing. When a consumer’s interest in a company’s product or service is displayed in their daily conversations.
Email Communications and Social Slang
ASAP
As Soon as Possible. Indicating something’s urgent.
COB
Close of Business. Refers to the end of the business day, which in most office settings is 5 pm.
DM
Direct Message. Personal or private message communication between users on any platform.
EOD
End of Day. Alternative: end of business day, the abbreviation for which is EOB.
EOT
End of Thread. Used in social media and text messaging to indicate when it’s the end of a long related message often bifurcated into multiple smaller threads.
ETA
Estimated Time of Arrival. The time remaining for a certain transport to reach its destination.
IM
Instant Messaging. A type of online chat that offers real-time text transmission.
IMO
In My Opinion.
LMK
Let Me Know.
NVM
Never Mind.
NSFW
Not Safe for Work. A texting acronym used when sharing a video, image, or something else not appropriate for work.
NWR
Not Work-Related. Activities not related to the workplace.
ROFL
Rolling on Floor Laughing.
RT
Retweet. The repost or forward of a message posted by another user on Twitter.
TL;DR
Too Long; Didn’t Read. A message, article, or anything that appears too long to invest the time to read it all. Alternative: TLTR, meaning Too Long to Read.
Finance and Legal Abbreviations
AOV
Average Order Value. Tracks the average dollar amount spent each time a customer places an order.
AP
Accounts Payable. The amount due for goods or services received that have not yet been paid to vendors or suppliers.
AR
Accounts Receivable. The balance of money due that the customer still hasn’t paid.
BS
Balance Sheet. A statement of the financial position of a company reporting assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity at a particular time.
CPI
Consumer Price Index. Measures the average change over time in the prices paid by consumers of a basket of consumer goods and services, such as transportation and food.
GP
Gross profit. The profit after deducting the costs of making and selling products, or with providing services.
IPO
Initial Public Offering. The offering of shares of a private company to the public in a new stock issuance.
KPI
Key Performance Indicator. Measures the performance of how an organization is doing in achieving key objectives.
MTD
Month to Date. The period starting at the beginning of the current calendar month and ending at the current date.
BLS
Bureau of Labor Statistics. The government agency collects and disseminates a range of economic and employment data in the US economy. This includes the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI).
CAGR
Compound Annual Growth Rate. A way of measuring the growth of sales or profit over a period of years, taking into account the preceding year(s) of growth and compounding it.
CPA
Certified Public Accountant. An accounting professional who has achieved a professional designation as a “CPA – certified public accountant” – more than an educational degree.
DBA
Doing Business As. A special operating name you legally adopt to run your business under, versus your company’s legal name.
DOL
Department of Labor. A federal agency fostering and promoting the welfare of job seekers, wage earners, and retirees in the U.S.
EIDL
Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL). A program created by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to assist businesses, renters, and homeowners located in regions affected by declared disasters.
EPS
Earnings Per Share. Indicates how much money a company makes for each share of its stock
FIFO
First In, First Out. Items produced or acquired first are sold, used, or disposed of first.
GAAP
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Refers to a standard of accounting rules and practices needed for acceptable financial reporting.
Last in, First Out. The last items produced or purchased are sold first.
LLC
Limited Liability Company. A business structure that offers limited personal liability. Read about: LLC formation.
MoM
Month on Month. Compares financial results, sales, and other activities for one month with those in previous months.
PE
Price to Earnings. The ratio for valuing a company that measures its current share price relative to its per-share earnings.
P&L or PL
Profit and Loss. A financial statement summarizing the revenues and expenses of a specific period, such as quarterly or annually.
PPP
Paycheck Protection Program. A special loan program designed to aid small businesses hurt in the 2020 pandemic. See more: Loan Terminology.
QBID
Qualified Business Income Deduction. A valuable deduction for small businesses enacted under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
ROA
Return on Assets. Indicates how profitable a company is relative to its total assets.
ROE
Return on Equity. Measures the financial performance of a business.
ROI
Return on Investment. ROI is one of the most common acronyms in business, measuring the value you get over and above your investment of capital or time. Helps you assess whether an investment is worth it.
OSHA
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. A regulatory agency within the US Department of Labor ensuring safe and healthful working conditions.
SBA
Small Business Administration. A government agency that provides support to entrepreneurs and small businesses.
SBDC
Small Business Development Center. A national network of centers providing entrepreneurship and small business help.
MSA
Metropolitan Statistical Area. An area having a minimum population of 50,000 consisting of a city and surrounding communities.
Technology Acronyms
API
Application Programming Interface (Or Application Program Interface). A set of functions that allows your software to communicate with other software.
CMS
Content Management System. Software used to create, maintain and modify digital content.
CPU
Central Processing Unit. The unit inside a computer that performs most of the processing consisting of four core functions or steps: fetch, decode, execute, and store.
CSS
Cascading Style Sheet. It describes how HTML elements are displayed. Developers use it to add style including fonts, colors and spacing to web documents.
CTR
Click-Through Rate. It measures the number of clicks advertisers receive on their ads per number of impressions.
DNS
Domain Name System. A naming database where website domain names are located and translated into internet protocol (IP) addresses.
ESP
Email Service Provider. A service provider for email hosting.
FTP
File Transport Protocol. A standard network protocol used to communicate and transfer files between computers on a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) network or the internet.
HTML
HyperText Markup Language. The primary markup language used for creating pages and applications on the web.
IP
Internet Protocol. The method or protocol data is transmitted from one computer to another on the Internet.
ISP
Internet Service Provider. A company or organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating on the Internet.
PV
Page View.
OEM
Original equipment manufacturer. A company whose goods are used as parts in the products of another company.
QR Code
Quick Response Code. A type of barcode anyone can scan with a smartphone. Read: How to Create a QR Code.
RFID
Radio Frequency Identification. Uses radio waves to passively identify a tagged object.
RSS
Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a feed of the latest content updates from a blog or website, in a machine-readable format, displayable elsewhere on the web.
SaaS
Software as a Service. Also referred to as ‘on-demand software’ is a software licensing and delivery model. It is centrally hosted, and software is licensed on a subscription basis.
SLA
The SLA acronym stands for Service Level Agreement. This is a contract between a service provider and its customers establishing a set of deliverables.
TOS
Terms of Service. A legal agreement between a service provider and a user who wants to use that service.
UI
User Interface. Refers to what the user sees and uses in a product (usually a software app or website).
URL
Uniform Resource Locator. Also known as a web address it is an identifier to locate a resource on the internet and a mechanism for retrieving it.
UX
User Experience. It is everything encompassing the end user’s interaction with a website, a web application, or desktop software.
VPN
Virtual Private Network. An encrypted connection over the Internet from a device to a network that gives you online privacy and anonymity.
What is the Acronym for Business?
Biz is shorthand for business and is becoming a common way of writing the abbreviation. Biz is informal and often refers to a small business, such as “small biz”. The term “biz” may be used where space is limited, such as on vehicle license plates or in newspaper headlines.
What is the Abbreviation for Company?
Co. is the abbreviated term for company.
What Does Inc Mean in Business Communications?
Inc is a short phrase for a corporation — specifically a business that is incorporated. Many U.S. states require a corporation to be designated as such in its name. They will accept a name that has abbreviations like “inc” at the end, as well as “co” which is short for company.
What is the Abbreviation for Industry?
Ind is a short version of the word industry. It might be used in note-taking or on a building directory. For example, someone might informally abbreviate the name of Myers Industries to Myers Ind. This also can be used generally to refer to an industry, such as the mining industry.
What are the Benefits of Business Abbreviations?
The benefits of business abbreviations and acronyms are:
- fast to write;
- messages stay brief;
- easy to remember.
However, make sure not to overuse business acronyms, abbreviations or industry lingo when you communicate in memos, letters, text, and presentations. Otherwise, your email and communications may become unintelligible. Remember, no one wants to have to unscramble jargon and read sentences like this:
IMO, your OS lacks QC and is enough to make me SMH and LOL. Until then, TTYL.
(Translation of the above two sentences in plain English: In my opinion, your operating system lacks quality control and is enough to make me shake my head and laugh out loud. Until then, talk to you later. )
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