Major In the EI and EMIX documents and schemas we use the following three terms somewhat interchangeably:
1: Transaction
2: Contract
3: Agreement
All three terms are overloaded terms in various domains. It will be helpful to select our terms and define our usage of the three terms clearly.
Below are definitions of the three terms from http://dictionary.reference.com/ (various dictionaries have varying definitions).
trans•ac•tion
/trænˈsæk ʃən, ˈzæk/ Show Spelled[tran-sak-shuh n, -zak-]
-noun
1.
the act of transacting or the fact of being transacted.
2.
an instance or process of transacting something.
3.
something that is transacted, esp. a business agreement.
4.
Psychology . an interaction of an individual with one or more other persons, esp. as influenced by their assumed relational roles of parent, child, or adult.
5.
transactions, the published records of the proceedings, as papers read, addresses delivered, or discussions, at the meetings of a learned society or the like.
con•tract
/n., adj., and usually for v. 15-17, 21, 22 ˈkɒn trækt; otherwise v. kənˈtrækt/
-noun
1.
an agreement between two or more parties for the doing or not doing of something specified.
2.
an agreement enforceable by law.
3.
the written form of such an agreement.
4.
the division of law dealing with contracts.
5.
Also called contract bridge . a variety of bridge in which the side that wins the bid can earn toward game only that number of tricks named in the contract, additional points being credited above the line. Compare auction bridge.
6.
(in auction or contract bridge)
a.
a commitment by the declarer and his or her partner to take six tricks plus the number specified by the final bid made.
b.
the final bid itself.
c.
the number of tricks so specified, plus six.
7.
the formal agreement of marriage; betrothal.
8.
Slang . an arrangement for a hired assassin to kill a specific person.
a•gree•ment
/əˈgri mənt/ Show Spelled[uh-gree-muh nt]
-noun
1.
the act of agreeing or of coming to a mutual arrangement.
2.
the state of being in accord.
3.
an arrangement that is accepted by all parties to a transaction.
4.
a contract or other document delineating such an arrangement.
5.
unanimity of opinion; harmony in feeling: agreement among the members of the faculty.
6.
Grammar . correspondence in number, case, gender, person, or some other formal category between syntactically connected words, esp. between one or more subordinate words and the word or words upon which they depend; selection by one word of the matching formal subclass, or category, in another word syntactically construed with the first.
7.
collective agreement.
8.
Law .
a.
an expression of assent by two or more parties to the same object.
b.
the phraseology, written or oral, of an exchange of promises.
The term transaction is also used in database terminology to assure that multiple changes to a database are done as a unit or not at all in case one of the changes fail.
Transactions as business transactions are used in e-business specifications.
EMIX and TeMIX use the term 'transaction" throughout".
EI currently uses both "transaction" and "contract" and now "agreement" is proposed.
The terms "contract" and "agreement" seem in the above definitions to define something more of a legal document or more general agreement. In power, most transactions take place under the terms of an enabling contract or agreement. For example, a market participant in an ISO signs a participant agreement that determines the obligations of the participant and ISO in processing bids, making awards (transactions) and settlement. Electricity trading counterparties typically have enabling agreements and contracts that facilitate telephone and electronic bilateral trading so that each offer and transaction is contractually defined.
My vote is to use the term "transaction" and clearly define it as a business transaction term and not a database transaction term. This follows transaction definition 3 above: "something that is transacted, esp. a business agreement"