Manuscript volumes recording receipts and expenditures of the municipality. The journals, cashbooks, and day books record receipts and expenditures on a daily basis, with indications of the accounts to be credited or debited as appropriate. In most cases there is enough detail provided to indicate the particulars of each transaction. The ledgers record the same receipts and expenditures in summary form (usually without detail) arranged by accounts. In at least some of the volumes there are cross references from one set of books to another.

The 1852 cashbook also includes records of various salary amounts that were not paid. These salaries cover the period 1858-1862 and are listed by chronologically by agency, with the name of the payee and amount due indicated. Additional notations, apparently relating to the settlement of these amounts, are also included. This portion of the record book was probably maintained by the Bureau of Finance that operated during the Federal occupation of the city.

The register of payments made by insurance companies stems from a series of acts passed by the state legislature in the mid-1830s amending the charters of Louisiana insurance companies to require, among other things, annual payments of $750 to be divided up among the three municipalities. Those payments were to be used toward the expenses of the municipality fire departments. Only one page of this volume actually records these payments. The remainder of the book was used to record ground rents collected for lots in the municipality. Properties represented include lots within the limits of the city commons and lots within the area formerly occupied by the old St. Peter Street Cemetery. For each property the name of the proprietor, date of sale (with reference to the notary public who handled the act of sale), the amount of the sale, the amount of each payment due, and observations (usually recording the fact that payment was actually made).