Transaktionspost

Transaktionspost is a term used in German-speaking accounting and ERP systems to denote a single ledger entry that records the financial effect of a business transaction. It represents the smallest indivisible unit of posting in double-entry bookkeeping. Each Transaktionspost specifies the accounts affected, whether they are debited (Soll) or credited (Haben), the monetary amount, the document reference, date, currency, and often additional attributes such as cost center, project, tax code, and posting key.

While a business event can generate multiple postings, all postings from the same event together form the complete accounting entry for that event. In standard practice, at least two postings occur for every transaction to maintain the balance of the general ledger.

The lifecycle: a source document (invoice, payment advice, receipt) is created; the system validates and transforms it into one or more Transaktionsposts; these are posted to the general ledger, where they become part of the financial statements. Reversals and adjustment postings can modify or negate previous postings.

Purposes: Transaktionsposts enable traceability, auditing, and reporting. They support reconciliation between subledgers and the general ledger and are essential for statutory accounting and internal management reporting.

Examples: A customer invoice might create a posting that debits Accounts Receivable and credits Revenue; a payment receipt might debit Cash and credit Accounts Receivable.

Optional note: In some systems the term may also be used more broadly to mean any transactional record in a ledger or database that records an economic event.