Accounting and Business Acronyms

Working in finance or accounting means that you will run into tons of acronyms and abbreviations that are used to facilitate day-to-day business communications. These have become so common that it’s not unusual for someone to get immediately lost in a conversation because they don’t know all the nuanced acronyms used by the veterans. Today, I’m going to share a list of acronyms that are commonly used in the accounting and finance fields (outside of specific auditing acronyms, which has its own entry here!).  

Financial Statements

  • FS - Financial Statements

  • BS - Balance Sheet

  • IS / P&L - Income Statement

  • SoCF - Statement of Cash Flows

  • SFP - Statement of Financial Position (Balance Sheet)

  • SoE - Statement of Equity

Accounting & Business Operations

  • PA - Public Accounting

  • AP / A/P - Accounts Payable

  • AR / A/R - Accounts Receivable

  • TB - Trial Balance

  • CC - Credit Card

  • ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning (System)

  • IC - Internal Control

  • ICFR - Internal Controls over Financial Reporting

  • KPI - Key Performance Indicator

  • ROI - Return on Investment

  • ROR - Rate of Return

  • IA - Internal Audit

  • HR - Human Resources

  • IT - Information Technology

Mergers & Acquisitions / Valuations

  • DD - Due Diligence

  • FDD - Financial Due Diligence

  • PPA - Purchase Price Allocation

  • PSA - Purchase and Sale Agreement

  • MIPSA - Membership Interest Purchase and Sale Agreement

  • DCF - Discounted Cash Flow (Model)

  • NPV - Net Present Value

  • IRR - Internal Rate of Return

Tax (See Audit Acronyms Here!)

  • TR - Tax Return

  • SALT - State and Local Tax

  • PPT - Personal Property Tax

  • SALY - Same As Last Year

  • MILY - Missed It Last Year

  • PTE - Pass Through Entity

  • QBI - Qualified Business Income (used for the Section 199a Qualified Business Income Deduction)

  • IRS - Internal Revenue Service

  • IRC - Internal Revenue Code

  • PBC - Provided by Client

_____ as a service

  • SaaS - Software As A Service

  • PaaS - Platform As A Service

  • IaaS - Infrastructure As A Service

C-Suite Positions

  • CEO - Chief Executive Officer

  • CFO - Chief Financial Officer

  • CIO - Chief Information Officer

  • CRO - Chief Revenue Officer

  • CPO - Chief People Officer

  • CAO - Chief Administrative Officer

  • CAE - Chief Audit Executive

Certifications & Related

  • CPA - Certified Public Accountant

  • CPE - Continuing Professional Education

  • CFA - Chartered Financial Analyst

  • CMA - Certified Management Accountant

  • CA - Chartered Accountant

  • CFE - Certified Fraud Examiner

  • CIA - Certified Internal Auditor

  • CVA - Certified Valuation Analyst

  • CFP - Certified Financial Planner

  • EA - Enrolled Agent

  • MBA - Master of Business Administration

CPA Exam Sections

  • FAR - Financial Accounting and Reporting

  • AUD - Audit and Attestation

  • BEC - Business Environment and Concepts

  • REG - Regulation

Entity Structures

  • C-Corp - Corporation

  • S-Corp - S Corporation

  • SP - Sole Proprietorship

  • P-ship - Partnership

  • LLC - Limited Liability Company

  • LLP - Limited Liability Partnership

  • LP - Limited Partner or Limited Partnership

  • GP - General Partnership or

  • PLLC - Professional Limited Liability Company

  • PC - Professional Corporation

  • JV - Joint Venture

COVID Policy Related

  • PPP - Paycheck Protection Program

  • EIDL - Economic Injury Disaster Loan

  • EIP - Economic Injury Payments

  • ERC/ERTC - Employee Retention (Tax) Credit

Industries (You may work for or with a company that identifies with one of these)

  • EBP - Employee Benefit Plans

  • NFP - Not-for-Profit or Nonprofit

  • O&G - Oil and Gas

  • Tech - Technology

  • FinTech - Financial Technology

  • RE - Real Estate

  • REIT - Real Estate Investment Trust

  • GC - Government Contracting

  • FS - Financial Services

Accounting Standards, Frameworks, Governing Bodies

  • AICPA - American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

  • NASBA - National Association of State Board of Accountancy

  • GAAP - Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

  • GAAS - Generally Accepted Auditing Standards

  • SSARS - Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services

  • FASB - Financial Accounting Standards Board

  • PCAOB – Public Company Accounting Oversight Board

  • GASB - Governmental Accounting Standards Board

  • FASAB - Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board

  • IIA - Institute of Internal Auditors

  • SEC - Securities and Exchange Commission

  • SOX - Sarbanes Oxley

  • ASU - Accounting Standards Update

Managerial Accounting

  • CM - Contribution Margin

  • GM - Gross Margin

  • ABC - Activity-Based Costing

  • MOH - Manufacturing Overhead

  • FC - Fixed Costs

  • VC - Variable Costs

  • DL - Direct Labor

  • RM - Raw Materials (Inventory)

  • WIP - Work-In-Process (Inventory)

  • FG - Finished Goods (Inventory)

  • COGM - Cost of Goods Manufactured

  • COGS - Cost of Goods Sold

  • BSC - Balanced Scorecard (Analysis)

  • SWOT - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (Analysis)

  • BE / BEP - Breakeven / Breakeven Point

  • CVP - Cost-Volume-Profit (Analysis)

  • FIFO - First-In, First-Out Inventory Costing Method

  • LIFO - Last-In, First-Out Inventory Costing Method

Your Company - Especially if you work for a public accounting firm, your company may have its own acronym that gets used when preparing internal documents or dealing with internal teams. As companies get larger, they will have different names, acronyms and abbreviations for internal teams.

Your Clients - In the same vein, client companies may be abbreviated as well. When you are working with a client or a set of clients, be sure to remember what their acronyms and abbreviations are, especially if there are multiple client entities that need to be distinguished. 

Even if you can’t remember every last one of the above acronyms, it’s important to get used to seeing them and using them in your communications because they are much more common than you might think. Do you have a common acronym you think I missed? Let me know in the comments!

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