Each volume comprises individual loose orders and receipts bound into volumes by J. G. Nichols, and arranged by date of the receipt. The orders are directions to Sir William Herrick as a Teller to make payments from the Exchequer of Receipt. Orders were grounded on Letters of Privy Seal, and the document is usually signed by the Lord High Treasurer and the Under Treasurer, and subscribed with a direction to Herrick to pay the sums described signed by the Auditor of the Receipt. In exceptional cases the Lord Chancellor and the Secretary of State appear to have been required to sign the document also. The receipt, bound with the order where both survive, is signed by the recipient of the money. Both the order and the receipt state the purpose for which the money is being paid. The whole range of Crown expenditure is represented, including pensions for courtiers; expenses for diplomatic missions, foreign agents and ambassadors, particularly relating to Spain, Germany and France; naval expenditure; work on royal buildings and parks; royal household expenses; payments to jewellers and goldsmiths, and for royal progresses.

The calendar MS. Eng. hist. c. 1308 has subject and name indexes which refer to the volume numbers.