A compensating resource manager provides a mechanism for more easily integrating non-transactional durable resources to participate in transactions within a component-based on-line transaction processing system, a well as resources having transaction processing support not conforming to the transaction processing system. The durable resource is integrated using the compensating resource manager by developing two simple components, a worker component that implements a normal action on the resource and a compensator component that implements a compensating action that reverses the normal action on the resource. The worker component uses system-provided services to register its respective compensator component and to log information, such as on a write-ahead basis, to allow the compensator component to reverse its normal action. The system-provided service enlists in a transaction in which the worker component performs its normal action to receive two phase commit notifications, for the transaction, and responsive thereto creates the compensator component to perform appropriate clean-up or compensating action according to the logged information depending on whether the transaction commits or aborts.