English Business Abbreviations: Essential Guide for Teams

If you work across finance, sales, product, or HR, this guide to English Business Abbreviations will help you read reports faster, write clearer emails, and collaborate smoothly.

Rather than dumping a giant dictionary on you, I’ve grouped the most useful terms by department, added one-line definitions, and included quick examples you can steal for your next message.

Use this list of English Business Abbreviations to align how your team speaks about targets, budgets, projects, and performance—without slowing work down.

100 Business Abbreviations and Professional Acronyms To Know

Why English Business Abbreviations matter

• Speed. Short forms keep meetings and emails tight.

• Clarity. Shared shorthand reduces misunderstandings between teams.

• Reporting. Dashboards, invoices, and board packs rely on consistent terms.

• Onboarding. New hires get productive faster when common abbreviations are spelled out.

How to use English Business Abbreviations clearly

• Write the full term the first time, then the abbreviation in brackets: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).

• Avoid alphabet soup. If a message contains more than five abbreviations, rewrite or add a short glossary.

• Match your audience. Senior leadership might expect EBITDA; frontline teams may prefer “operating profit.”

• Stay consistent. Pick one form (e.g., YoY, not Y/Y) across decks and docs.

New English Abbreviations in Tech and the Online World

Finance & Accounting: core English Business Abbreviations

• P&L — Profit and Loss. “Please review the Q3 P&L before Friday.”

• EBITDA — Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization. “Our EBITDA margin improved to 18%.”

• COGS — Cost of Goods Sold. “COGS rose due to freight increases.”

• GM — Gross Margin. “Target GM is 62% for the new line.”

• AR / AP — Accounts Receivable / Accounts Payable. “AR days are trending up—collections plan needed.”

• MRR / ARR — Monthly / Annual Recurring Revenue. “ARR crossed $4.2M this quarter.”

• YoY / QoQ / MoM — Year-over-Year / Quarter-over-Quarter / Month-over-Month. “Revenue is +22% YoY, flat QoQ.”

• GAAP / IFRS — Accounting standards. “We report under IFRS; US entity follows GAAP.”

• CAPEX / OPEX — Capital vs Operating Expenditure. “Shift more budget from CAPEX to OPEX this year.”

• FCF — Free Cash Flow. “Positive FCF gives us room to invest.”

Tip: Finance decks often compress titles. A small legend of English Business Abbreviations on slide 2 saves questions later.

Sales & Marketing: practical English Business Abbreviations

• KPI — Key Performance Indicator. “Top KPI: qualified demos booked.”

• OKR — Objectives and Key Results. “Q2 OKR: lift win-rate from 24% → 30%.”

• MQL / SQL — Marketing / Sales Qualified Lead. “MQL-to-SQL conversion improved to 41%.”

• CAC — Customer Acquisition Cost. “Paid social increased CAC by $12.”

• LTV — Customer Lifetime Value. “New onboarding flow raised LTV 9%.”

• ABM — Account-Based Marketing. “Run ABM for top 50 enterprise prospects.”

• CRM — Customer Relationship Management (tool). “Log the call notes in the CRM.”

• CTA — Call to Action. “Primary CTA: ‘Start free trial.’”

• CTR / CPC / CPA / CPM — Click-Through Rate, Cost per Click, Cost per Acquisition, Cost per Mille (thousand impressions).

• NPS — Net Promoter Score. “NPS moved from 34 to 46 after release.”

80-plus common business abbreviations to know

Operations & Projects: everyday English Business Abbreviations

• SLA — Service Level Agreement. “Ticket response SLA is 2 hours.”

• SOP — Standard Operating Procedure. “Update the warehouse SOP for returns.”

• ETA / ETD / EDD — Estimated Time/Date/Delivery. “ETA to client: 16:30.”

• EOD / EOW / COB — End of Day / Week / Close of Business. “Send the brief by EOD.”

• SOW — Statement of Work. “Legal approved the SOW—kickoff Monday.”

• RACI — Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed. “Add RACI to the migration plan.”

• RFP / RFI / RFQ — Request for Proposal / Information / Quotation. “Issue an RFP for the new vendor.”

• TAT — Turnaround Time. “Current TAT is 24 hours—target 12.”

• FTE — Full-Time Equivalent. “Headcount is 38 FTE.”

• PTO / OOO — Paid Time Off / Out of Office. “I’m OOO Thursday–Friday.”

Project Update Emails: Clear, Short, Actionable

People & HR (talent acronyms you’ll see often)

The people team uses fewer finance terms, but these English Business Abbreviations appear in handbooks and dashboards:

• C&B — Compensation & Benefits.

• CPI / CPIx — Cost-Per-Interview / extended variants.

• D&I / DEI — Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

• ESOP — Employee Stock Ownership Plan.

• OKR / KPI — shared with other teams for performance.

Legal & Compliance (keep your contracts tidy)

Expect these English Business Abbreviations any time contracts or risk are discussed:

• NDA — Non-Disclosure Agreement.

• MSA / SOW — Master Services Agreement / Statement of Work.

• DPA — Data Processing Addendum.

• KYC / AML — Know Your Customer / Anti-Money Laundering.

• GDPR / CCPA — Privacy regulations (EU / California).

• LOI / MOU — Letter of Intent / Memorandum of Understanding.

Tech & Product: must-know English Business Abbreviations

• MVP — Minimum Viable Product. “Ship an MVP in six weeks.”

• PoC — Proof of Concept. “Run a PoC with the payments API.”

• API / SDK — Application Programming Interface / Software Development Kit.

• SaaS / PaaS / IaaS — Cloud service models.

• UAT / QA / QC — User Acceptance Testing / Quality Assurance / Quality Control.

• SRE — Site Reliability Engineering.

• SLA / SLI / SLO — Agreement / Indicator / Objective.

• WFH / Hybrid — Work From Home / mixed model.

Quick email lines you can copy

• “Please confirm ETA for the shipment—SLA is 48h.”

• “Marketing’s CAC rose; we’ll shift spend to raise LTV.”

• “Attaching Q2 P&L and updated ARR forecast.”

• “New SOW signed; kickoff deck with OKRs is attached.”

• “Target NPS is 50; set the KPI review for EOW.”

Bookmark these English Business Abbreviations and add a one-page legend to your onboarding pack so new joiners speak the same language on day one.

Final thoughts

Mastering English Business Abbreviations won’t turn you into a finance analyst or a product manager overnight—but it will make your emails tighter, your meetings shorter, and your decisions faster.
Share this guide with your team, keep the shorthand consistent across docs, and you’ll remove friction from day-to-day work. Most importantly, keep refining your glossary of English Business Abbreviations as your business evolves.