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Armanino Content Style GuideQuick InfoA-CD-FG-IM-OP-RS-UV-Z

Armanino Content Style Guide

Quick Info

•  If your question isn’t answered in the guide below, use Associated Press (AP) style.
• Our preferred dictionary is Merriam-Webster.com. 
• Don’t use the serial (Oxford) comma unless it’s needed for clarity. 
• Use “%” rather than “percent” in all copy. 
• Spell out “zero” through “nine.” Use digits for 10 and above and for all numbers in headings, subheads and subject/preview lines. (See numbers entry for more details.) 
• To form the plural of an acronym, add an “s” to the end, no apostrophe (CFOs).

Key

•  🗴      Red = Incorrect Style
   
•  🗸     Green  = Correct Style

 Have questions or suggestions? Contact [email protected] 

A-C

Academic degrees

In general, write academic degrees with periods.

🗴 Amy Kasaan, PhD, will be giving the lecture. 

🗸 Amy Kasaan, Ph.D., will be giving the lecture. 

🗸 She holds two Ph.D.s now. 

“MBA” is an exception — it is written without periods. 

🗸 He earned his MBA in 2016. 

In general, it’s preferable to use abbreviations for degrees rather than spelling them out. 

🗴 He has a bachelor’s degree in literature. 

🗸 He has a B.A. in literature. 

Degree majors or subjects,such as “literature” in the examples above, are lower case (unless they are proper nouns, such as “English”). 

Acronyms

If your audience may not be familiar with an acronym,spell it out on first use. 

Sometimes an acronym is used only once in the text. If so, you can simply spell it out and not add the acronym in parentheses, but you may give the acronym if it helps with clarity. 

Do not put quotation marks around an acronym in parentheses. 

🗴 They had questions about the alternative minimum tax (“AMT”). 

🗸 They had questions about the alternative minimum tax (AMT). 

To form the plural of an acronym, simply add an “s” to the end, no apostrophe. 

🗴 The firm employed several CPA’s. 

🗸 The firm employed several CPAs. 

Advisor

Not adviser. 

Ampersands (&)

In general, use “and” rather than ampersands in ordinary text. Ampersands are more commonly used in abbreviations and in charts and tables. 

🗴 He was assigned to research & development. 

🗸 He was assigned to research and development (R&D). 

The serial (Oxford) comma is not used before an ampersand. 

Apostrophes (’)

Use apostrophes for possession. Do not use apostrophes to make plurals. 

🗴 What are the pro’s and con’s of that decision? 

🗸 What are the pros and cons of that decision? 

🗴 CFO’s often face difficult choices. 

🗸 CFOs often face difficult choices. 

AI 

Short for “artificial intelligence.” 

AO

Short for "accounting outsourcing."

APP or PAP 

Partner Action Plan, Partner Goals and Accountability 

Armanino News

Internal Teams channel with Armanino news

B Corp

Certification of companies’ social and environmental performance

BI 

Short for “business intelligence.” 

BI/Power BI/DoBI

Data analytics tool we use and sell

Big 4

Top 4 largest accounting firms in the world (KPMG, EY, Deloitte, PwC)

Billion 

Can abbreviate as “B” in charts and tables. 

🗸 $50B 

Bitcoin, bitcoin

 A kind of cryptocurrency. Uses the blockchain technology. 

Lowercase when referring to the currency itself. Capitalize when referring to the system that allows the currency to function. 

🗸 I bought three bitcoins the other day. 

🗸 How does Bitcoin compare to other digital currency platforms? 

Bizman/Bus. Man.

Short for "business management."

Black 

Capitalize when describing people and cultures of African origin. 

Blockchain 

A type of decentralized digital ledger used in cryptocurrency, among other things. Lowercase. 

BOB

Short for "back office bundle."

BOS

Short for "business outsourcing service."

Bridge

Formerly WAN / Women’s Advancement Network

Bullets 

If a bullet item is a full sentence, use a period. Otherwise, don’t. 

🗸 We will review: 

• Taxes 
• Financial statements 

🗸 Consider the following: 

• The guidance is sometimes unclear. 
• We will be expected to make a decision. 

If you’re stuck with a mix of sentences and nonsentences, use periods on every item. But if possible, use parallel construction — that is, all items should be sentences, or else all nonsentences; all should be statements, or else all questions, suggestions, actions, etc. 

In general, don’t use commas, semicolons, or the word “and” between bullets. (Our content from Checkpoint/Reuters is an exception, since their style is different.) 

🗴 Their team handles: 

• customer service, 
• public relations, and 
• internal communications. 

🗸 Their team handles: 

• Customer service 
• Public relations 
• Internal communications 

Be clear in the introductory sentence about whether the bulleted items represent a choice. 

🗴 The audit report suggests that we: 

🗸 The audit report suggests that we do one of the following: 

🗸 The audit report suggests that we do all the following: 

Capitalization

 titles/headings

 For the title of an article, blog post, etc., follow these rules: 

• Always capitalize the first word, the last word, and the first word after a colon. 
• Capitalize all other words, except: 
  • The words “a,” “an,” “the,” “to” 
  • Prepositions and conjunctions of three or fewer letters 

🗸 Learning to Move With Purpose and Growing Into a Strategy 

🗸 Lease Accounting: The Old Rules and the New Rules 

🗸 At Last, a Solution at an Affordable Price 

For second-level headings (i.e., the first subheadings), follow the same rules as for the title. 

For third-level headings, capitalize only the first word. 

At all levels, do not put periods after headings. 

Practices 

Capitalize the name of the practice but not the word “practice.” 

🗴 That is the CFO Advisory Practice. 

🗸 That is the CFO Advisory practice. 

Do not use the redundant “practice group.” For a group within a practice, say (for example), “That is the Tax practice’s International Tax group.” 

Job titles 

In general, capitalize job titles before a name, but not after. 

🗴 Let’s hear some insights from Marcus Ernmeyer, who is a Vice President at Arc Corporation. 

🗸 Let’s hear some insights from Marcus Ernmeyer, who is a vice president at Arc Corporation. 

🗸 Let’s hear some insights from Vice President Marcus Ernmeyer of Arc Corporation. 

Miscellaneous 

Don’t capitalize terms merely because they are accounting terms or have a specialized meaning. When in doubt, lowercase. 

🗴 The valuation of Intangible Assets will affect your Balance Sheet. 

🗸 The valuation of intangible assets will affect your balance sheet. 

Cash flow

Two words. Cash flow, not cashflow. 

CE

Short for "customer engagement." 

CFOA 

Short for "CFO consulting & advisory."

CFR 

Short for "corporate finance and restructuring."

Cloud, the cloud

Lowercase. 

CMS 

Short for "content management system."

CoE 

Short for "center of excellence."

Commas 

Do not use the serial (Oxford) comma unless necessary for clarity. 

🗴 The three employees were John, Sue, and Tom. 

🗸 The three employees were John, Sue and Tom. 

🗸 Breakfast included orange juice, ham and eggs, and oatmeal. 

Computing terminology

In general, the names of menus, buttons and other items in a software interface should be in title case (see the guidelines for Titles/Headings in the Capitalization section). 

🗴 Click the Place order button, then click CONFIRM. 

🗸 Click the Place Order button, then click Confirm. 

When describing how to navigate a menu tree, you can use right angle brackets (>) with spaces to separate menu items. 

🗸 Navigate to File > Save As > Other, select an option, and click OK. 

For keyboard shortcuts, use a plus sign (+) without spaces to show a combination of keys. 

🗸 Press the Q key to bring up the option box,select the text you want, and hit Ctrl+C to copy it. 

Countries 

Use periods with “U.S.” and “U.K.,” but not “EU” or “USA.” 

In headlines, however, use no periods in “US” or “UK.” 

CPE 

Short for "continuing professional education."

CRM 

Short for “customer relationship management.” 

Crypto

Armanino style recommends: 

• crypto asset 
• cryptocurrency 
• cryptoeconomics 
• cryptonative 

For other words and phrases beginning with “crypto,” check the dictionary. If it’s not there, use your own judgment, but be consistent. 

Cryptocurrency 

A decentralized digital currency such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Litecoin. In general, lowercase the name of a cryptocurrency when referring to the currency itself, and capitalize when referring to the system that allows the currency to function. 

🗸 She decided to purchase 4.5 litecoins. 

🗸 We are investigating whether Litecoin will meet our needs. 

Cyber

Armanino style recommends: 

• cyber assets 
• cyberattack 
• cybersecurity 
• cyberspace 

For other words and phrases beginning with “cyber,” check the dictionary. If it’s not there, use your own judgment, but be consistent. 

D-F

D&A

Short for "data and analytics."

Dates 

When referring to a date or other time period, include the year — don’t assume the audience is reading the article or white paper in the same year as it was published. 

🗴 The committee made its choice in May. 

🗸 The committee made its choice in May 2018. 

🗴 We concluded the project earlier this year. 

🗸 We concluded the project in early 2019. 

When giving a month, date and year, set off the year with commas. When giving just a month and year, don’t use commas. 

🗸 On June 2, 2018, he went to India. 

🗸 In June 2018 he went to India. 

Spell out months in running text. In tables and other places where space is tight, you can use the following abbreviations: Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. (March, April, May, June and July are not abbreviated.) 

DAM

Short for "digital asset management."

DBA 

Short for "doing business as."

Dollars 

A number of different countries use dollars as currency. When you need to distinguish between them, use the following: 

• US$ — United States dollars 
• AU$ — Australian dollars 
• CA$ — Canadian dollars 
• NZ$ — New Zealand dollars 
• HK$ — Hong Kong dollars 

🗸 Their company will invest US$3.8 million, which is about AU$5.4 million. 

But when context makes it clear which currency is meant, you can simply use a dollar sign. 

e-book

 hyphenate and use lower case.

email style 

This is the preferred style for Armanino email addresses: 

🗸 [email protected] 

🗴 [email protected] 

🗴 [email protected] 

Em dashes (—) 

Use spaces before and after em dashes. 

🗴 Their team found that planning—not implementation—was the most challenging part. 

🗸 Their team found that planning — not implementation — was the most challenging part. 

En dashes (–) 

Do not use. En dashes can generally be replaced with hyphens. 

🗴 The process can take 12–24 months. 

🗸 The process can take 12-24 months. 

ERP 

Short for “enterprise resource planning.” 

ESG 

Short for "environmental, social, governance."

Ethereum, ether 

A kind of cryptocurrency. Ethereum (capitalized) is the technology platform, whereas ether (lowercase) is the currency itself. 

🗸 We decided to sell 5.2 ether. 

🗸 The Ethereum system can be used in a variety of applications. 

G-I

Gender 

There may be times when you need a gender-neutral pronoun. “He or she” and “he/she” are awkward. When appropriate, rewrite using a plural noun. 

🗴 A new employee should know that he or she has important responsibilities. 

🗸 New employees should know that they have important responsibilities. 

If that isn’t possible, it’s acceptable to use the singular “they.” 

🗴 Our next CFO should do whatever he or she can to make a change. 

🗸 Our next CFO should do whatever they can to make a change. 

GA

Short for "Google Analytics."

Headings 

See capitalization. 

Health tech 

Two words, short for health technology. 

🗸 Health tech is a rapidly growing sector. 

High tech, high-tech

 No hyphen when used as a noun, hyphenate when used as an adjective. 

🗸 He works in high tech. 

🗸 It’s a high-tech solution. 

HRO

Short for "human resource outsourcing."

HRIS

Short for "human resource Information System."

Hyphens 

For noun phrases such as “decision maker,” if you’re unsure whether to hyphenate, check the dictionary. If the word isn’t in the dictionary, use your best judgment (and be consistent), but the preference is generally not to hyphenate. 

For compound modifiers, use a hyphen only when it’s needed for clarity. 

🗴 She joined the balance-sheet discussion. [no ambiguity, no hyphen needed] 

🗸 She joined the balance sheet discussion. 

🗴 He is a small business leader. [hyphen needed for clarity] 

🗸 He is a small-business leader. 

Don’t hyphenate compounds formed by an adverb ending in “ly.” 

🗴 He sent them a strongly-worded letter. 

🗸 He sent them a strongly worded letter. 

For hyphenation of prefixes, see prefixes. 

IDEAL

Short for "Inclusion & diversity board."

IFC

Short for "industry focus center."

Internet 

Lowercase. 

IoT 

Short for “internet of things.” 

IPO 

Short for “initial public offering.” 

KKM 

External inside sales calling resource

L&D 

Short for "learning and development" (now Elevate Learn).

Lattice

Performance management tool.

M-O

M&A

Short for "merger and acquisitions."

MAB 

Short for "management advisory board."

MarComm

Short for "marketing communications."

MarTech

Short for "marketing technology."

MDM 

Short for "master data management."

Million 

Can abbreviate as “M” in charts and tables. 

🗸 $50M 

NEO 

Short for "new employee orientation."

Nonprofit 

Do not use “non-profit.” 

Do not use “not-for-profit” unless it’s part of a formal title, such as “Accounting Standards Update 2013- 06, Not-for-Profit Entities (Topic 958).” 

Northern California 

Capitalize this region. 

NOW 

Stands for "national tax Office."

Numbers 

Write out zero through nine. Use numerals for 10 and above. 

But always use numerals for: 

• Headings and subheadings 
• Email subject and preview lines 
• Charts, tables, infographics and other design elements 
• Percentages 
• Ages 

🗸 They gave us a list of 27 changes. 

🗸 We have five contractors working on that project. 

🗸 That facility is 5 years old. 

🗸 They saw a 5% increase compared to last month. 

For numbers over 1 million, you can use numerals (and decimals, if needed) together with words. 

🗸 They processed nearly 3 billion data points from 12.9 million transactions last month alone. 

You can also use words for larger numbers that are imprecise and informal. 

🗸 That nonprofit’s CEO hopes to someday have over a thousand members. 

Write out a number if it’s the first word in a sentence, unless it’s a year. 

🗴 12 employees had questions. 

🗸 Twelve employees had questions. 

🗸 2019 is off to a great start. If writing out is awkward, consider rephrasing the sentence so the number isn’t first. 

🗴 2,704 pledges in one week is a remarkable achievement. 

🗸 Two thousand seven hundred four pledges in one week is a remarkable achievement. [acceptable but awkward] 

🗸 They got 2,704 pledges in one week — a remarkable achievement. 

OFA 

Short for “outsourced finance and accounting.” Capitalize when referring to the practice. 

P-R

PC

Short for "performance coach."

PPC

Short for "pay per click."

PandaDoc

Sales proposal tool

Percent, percentage points 

Use the % sign rather than “percent.” There is no space before the %. Always use numerals. 

🗴 Average hourly pay rose three percent from a year ago. 

🗴 Average hourly pay rose 3 percent from a year ago. 

🗸 Average hourly pay rose 3% from a year ago. 

Exception: When the meaning is casual rather than precise, use words. 

🗸 She said he has a zero percent chance of winning. 

For amounts less than 1%, a zero precedes the decimal point. 

🗴 The cost of living rose .6%. 

🗸 The cost of living rose 0.6%. 

Percent vs. percentage point 

These mean different things. If market share increases from 15% to 20%, it’s an increase of 5 percentage points, not 5%. An increase of 5 percentage points refers to 5% of the overall amount (the market), whereas an increase of 5% would refer to 5% of the amount we’re discussing (the market share). 

Prefixes 

For common prefixes such as non-, un-, pre-, semi-, extra- and anti-, if you’re unsure whether to hyphenate, check the dictionary. If the word isn’t in the dictionary, use your best judgment (and be consistent), but the preference is generally not to hyphenate. 

🗸 These are nonessential documents. 

But use a hyphen if there’s a danger of mispronunciation (e.g., pre-escalation) or confusion (e.g., recreation to mean “creating again”), or if the original word is capitalized (e.g., un-American). 

Proposals

Sales proposals as the final stage of a sales.

QBR

Short for "Quarterly Business Review."

Quotation marks 

Periods and commas go inside quotation marks. 

🗴 He described their service as “best in class”, but he admitted they have a “perception problem”. 

🗸 He described their service as “best in class,” but he admitted they have a “perception problem.” 

Other punctuation goes outside quotation marks unless it belongs to the quoted material. 

🗸 What exactly does he mean by “best in class”? 

🗸 She often asks, “How can we improve?” 

Real time 

Hyphenate when used as an adjective: He wants real-time data. 

No hyphen when used as a noun in an adverbial phrase: We provided it in real time. 

RPA 

Short for "robotic process automation."

S-U

SOC 

Acronym for “System and Organization Controls.” 

SaaS 

Acronym for “software as a service.” Hyphenate when used as an adjective. 

🗸 The company focuses on software as a service (SaaS). 

🗸 It’s a software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm. 

SEC filings

Hyphenate SEC filings. 

🗸 The guidance refers to Forms 10-K, 8-K and 8-Q. 

Southern California 

Capitalize this region. 

Startup 

One word, no hyphen, when used as a noun or adjective. 

States 

The names of the 50 U.S. states should be spelled out when used in the body of a story. In charts, tables, infographics and lists, use two-letter postal abbreviations: 

S&T

Short for "strategy and transformation."

SAB

Short for "staff advisory board."

SEO

Short for "search engine optimization."

SFO

Short for "strategic finance outsourcing."

SME 

Short for "subject matter expert."

SDR 

Short for "sales development rep" (previously called inside sales).

SPP

Short for "strategic people partner."

Subvertical & subniche 

Subsections of higher-level industries.

TC

Short for "tech consulting." 

Times 

Use “a.m.” and “p.m.” or else “AM” and “PM” — either is fine, just be consistent within a document. 

🗴 The conference will last from 10:00 AM to 3:00 p.m. 

🗸 The conference will last from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Put a space between the numbers and the letters. 

🗴 The event starts at 5:00PM. 

🗸 The event starts at 5:00 PM. 

Titles of publications 

Italicize the titles of books, white papers and other longer works, as well as journals, magazines and TV series. 

Use quotation marks for the titles of blog posts, articles and other shorter works, as well as TV episodes. 

🗸 See Mackerson’s new book, Navigating the Cryptocurrency River. 

🗸 Take a look at her article, “Where Do the Tech Giants Go From Here?” 

V-Z

VUCA 

Spell out “volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity” before giving the acronym in parentheses. Include the acronym even when it is not mentioned again in text. 

VBP

Short for "value based pricing."

Water Cooler

Internal fun Teams firm channel.

White paper

Two words.

WF

Short for "Workfront."