Master Data vs Transaction Data
Master data includes the information that is important to a business. And this data will be shared by many applications that make up the information system for the business. A typical ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system would include key information like customers, products, employees, etc. and these are considered as master data. In contrast, Transaction data are data that describes events that occur within the business. In a typical ERP system, transaction data are data related to sales, deliveries, etc.
What is Master Data?
Master data includes the information that is important to a business. And this data will be shared by many applications that make up the information system for the business. In general, master data are non-transactional data. A typical ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system would include key information like customers, products, employees, etc. The data that should be master data can be identified easily by the critical nouns in a business. In addition, master data is always involved with transaction data. Furthermore, if the number of elements in a set is very low, then the chance of treating that set as master data decreases. Master data is also less volatile (entities and attributes in master data changes very rarely). Most importantly, master data is shared between different applications almost all the time. This requires master data to be stored in different places. Since lot of applications use master data, an error in them could cause a large damage. Due to this reason, master data needs to be managed very carefully.
What is Transaction Data?
Transaction data are data that describes events that occur within the business. In a typical ERP system, transaction data are data related to sales, deliveries, claims and other events that may or may not involve money transactions. Transaction data can usually be described with verbs. Typically, transactions in a business fall in to three categories. They are financial, work and logistics. Financial transaction data involves orders, invoices, payments, etc and work transaction data involves plans and work records. Logistic data includes deliveries, travel records, etc. Record management is the process of keeping records of transactions. Typically, transaction data is stored in a safe place that can make sure they are not lost for a specified period of time called a retention period. After the retention period, transaction data will be either removed or archived.
What is the difference between Master Data and Transaction Data?
Master data includes the information that is important to a business that will be shared by many applications that make up the information system for the business, whereas transaction data are data that describes events that occur within the business. Typically, master data can be identified by critical nouns in a business, while transaction data can be identified by verbs. Master data is not volatile and rarely changes its attributes, while transaction data are highly volatile. But Master data are always involved with transaction data. For example, customers buy products. Customers and products will be master data, while the action of buying would generate transaction data.