Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T23:57:27.358Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 6 - Transactions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2010

Henry Balen
Affiliation:
Xenotrope Inc.
Get access

Summary

Every day we perform transactions. A transaction is an interaction that involves an exchange; this could be monetary, information, service requests or other information. In addition, all the steps in a transaction have to happen or none at all. Quite often the first thing that comes to mind when transactions are mentioned are monetary exchanges, like the transfer of funds from one account to another or the use of automatic teller machines. The one thing that all transactional systems have in common is the requirement to maintain the integrity of the information. You do not want to transfer funds from your bank account to another bank only to find that the money has been lost in the ether.

Information regarding business transactions used to be kept in written ledgers; this provided a form of indelible record which could be audited and easily (though painfully) accounted for. It also used to take some time to perform the transfer of funds—on the order of days. This was fine for relatively small volumes of transactions. Nowadays in the hectic bustle of the modern capitalist world, we can easily see millions of transactions taking place on a daily basis within just one institution. The information for these transactions is stored within databases and passed between systems electronically over networks. While this is more efficient than the written method, it is also more volatile.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×