A financial transaction is an agreement, communication, or movement carried out between a buyer and a seller to exchange an asset for payment. It involves a change in the status of the finances of two or more businesses or individuals. The buyer and seller are separate entities or objects, often involving the exchange of items of value, such as information, goods, services, and money. It is still a transaction if you exchange the goods at one time, and the money at another. This is known as a two part transaction, part one is giving the money, part two is receiving the goods.

Als Transaktion bezeichnet man in der Volkswirtschaftslehre eine gegenseitige Übertragung von Verfügungsrechten an Gütern (Waren oder Dienstleistungen). Hierbei fallen üblicherweise Transaktionskosten an.