A system and method for implementing a common transaction manager interface. A system may implement an application server with a transaction manager module configured to provide a common application interface to a local transaction manager and a global transaction manager. The transaction manager module may be configured to determine if a transaction initiated by an application component should be managed by the local transaction manager or the global transaction manager. The local transaction manger may be configured to create a local transaction object for each transaction managed by the local transaction manager, and the global transaction manger may be configured to create a global transaction object for each transaction managed by the global transaction manager. The local transaction objects and the global transaction objects may provide a common application interface for implementing their respective transactions.