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Introduction
What is the full form of COB? The full form of COB is Close Of Business. COB is a business acronym that refers to the end of the business day. In this article, we will further read about how the acronym COB is used and what it means?
Close Of Business
COB is commonly used while requesting the employees or stakeholders to complete a certain given task by the end of the day in Eastern Standard time (EST). The Eastern Standard Time defines the U.S (United States) business hours from Monday to Friday as 9:00 am to 5:00 p.m, and the stock market also closes by 5:00 pm. Therefore, COB sets a deadline of 5:00 pm according to the EST. But different businesses may have different times of closing. For example, a restaurant or pub may close after midnight. COB is synonymous with End of Business (EOB), Close of Play (COP), and End of Play (EOP). The end of the business day (EOB) refers to the end of a particular workday, which does not include weekends. End of play (EOP) is commonly used in the financial industry and refers to the end of a day in the stock market. Close of play (COP) is usually referred to in financial markets as well as in sports and refers to the end of time or day.
What are Business Days?
Weekdays that are not holidays are considered business days. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., are considered business days in the United States. Companies sending emails or other communications normally refer to their own time zone when stating business days or business hours, unless they use the phrase “close of business.” Business days refer to standard work days and hours. When employing COB, for example, business experts do not consider Saturday to be a business day, even though the business is open on that day.
How is EOD and COB different?
Both EOD (END Of Day) and COB are business acronyms and refer to the end of the business day.
EOD relates to the end of the business day in the sender’s time zone, whereas COB nearly commonly refers to the end of the business day in respect to Eastern Standard Time.
When do we use COB?
Using abbreviations saves time, but it’s important to understand when and how to use COB in a work environment. COB should be clarified with the specific time and date if the other person or employee is not known of your time zone. COB is used while requesting any project action from a client or setting a deadline for an employee for some work etc.
COB can be used directly with local contacts or own employees who are aware of the time zone, but for people or clients who are not from your state and country, the COB time should be mentioned.
For example, while dealing with a client out of state/ country, the message should include, “Please complete this task by COB (5:00 pm)
When should we not use acronyms?
If an essential project or assignment has a deadline, it’s probably preferable to avoid acronyms entirely and provide the colleague a precise date, time, and time zone. Transparent and clearly expressed objectives and timelines in the business reduce workplace misunderstanding and pressure. They also make certain that assignments and projects are completed on time.
COB Today and COB Tomorrow
COB, Close of Business, refers to the time when the business day ends, but it does not specify days. To complete the sense of the sentence, COB today and COB tomorrow is used now to have better clarity. COB today refers to the end of business or end of working hours on the same day. People in the business world use COB Today to tell their employees to finish their work at the end of their shift, so they don’t waste time. Workdays typically end at 5 p.m. according to US standard time, though this might vary from location to place and country to country. When your supervisor asks you to COB TODAY through the mail, you must know when your working hour ends.
COB tomorrow denotes the end of business the next day or by 24 hours. By the close of business tomorrow, or within 24 hours, we must have made a choice. In this tomorrow relates to the period when you must finish the business. Thus you must complete the work on time. Because managers expect work before deadlines, acronyms are employed to keep track of when tasks must be completed.
Conclusion
Close of business (COB) refers to the conclusion of a given time period, which can be a year, day, hour, month, or even a specific time like one day, 35 minutes, and 10 seconds. But the close of business for the day in general according to Eastern time standard refers to 5 pm of the working day when the administrative work stops. COB is used in various companies and organizations to set a deadline of the end of the day. It can be different for different organizations. Other words for COB are EOP, EOD, COP, etc. However, because the clients are in different time zones, it isn’t easy to give the exact day and time. The way you use it is also determined by your organization, your staff, and the clientele you’re dealing with.
