Broadly speaking, it is a transaction that involves the exchange of goods or services without the use of a medium of exchange. Nonmonetary transactions are mainly in-kind or barter exchanges, where no money changes hands. Such exchanges might be commutative/ reciprocal (the goods/ services are paid for in monetary form) or noncommutative/ unidirectional (no compensation or countervalue is given in return).

In a specific context (under accounting principles), it refers to any transaction that constitutes the exchange of nonmonetary assets or liabilities. In general, nonmonetary transactions refer to any exchanges and non-reciprocal transfers that involves no money/ cash, accounts receivables, notes receivable, accounts payable and notes payable. Other examples of these transactions include dividends-in-kind, nonmonetary assets exchanged for common stock, charitable donations of economic resources, contributions of land by a state or local government, exchanges of inventory for other items of inventory or finished products.