Outputting large dollar amounts - how can I reduce ?

It's all right to append the M, if that's what you like. You could even implement it as a function, as follows

<cfscript>
function formatAmount(amount) {
    if (amount gt 1000000) {
        amountInMillions = amount/1000000;
        amountFormatted = dollarFormat(amountInMillions) & "M";
    } else {
        amountFormatted = dollarFormat(amount);
    }
    return amountFormatted;
}
</cfscript>

<cfoutput>
    #formatAmount(123450)#<br>
    #formatAmount(1234560)#<br>
    #formatAmount(12345670)#
</cfoutput>

Hope this helps...

<!--- Set amount to make it easier to manipulate --->
<cfset myAmount = "$6,961,692.85" />

<!--- Remove non numeric characters --->

<cfset myAmount = REReplace(myAmount, "\$|\.|,", "", "ALL") />

<!--- Divide amount by one million --->
<cfset myAmount = myAmount / 100000000 />

<!--- Output amount in whole million/s and/or percentage of million --->
<cfoutput>#DollarFormat(myAmount)# M</cfoutput>