The distribution of tithing goods and funds was inscribed in a large commercially produced blank ledger measuring 14½ × 10¼ × 1¾–2 inches (37 × 26 × 4–5 cm). The paper was printed in ledger style with thirty-nine or forty blue horizontal lines, one red horizontal double line at the top, and seven columns demarcated by two red vertical lines on the left side of the page and two red vertical double lines and two red vertical single lines on the right side of the page. The pages measure 14 × 9¾ inches (36 × 25 cm). The text block was formed with twenty-seven gatherings of eight leaves, for a total of 216 leaves, or 432 pages. There are three flyleaves in the front of the volume and three flyleaves in the back of the volume. The leaf edges are stained green. Marbled papers with a blue body and veins of white, red, and yellow are glued to the inside covers of the pasteboards and to the exterior page of each gathering of flyleaves. The exterior endpapers are joined to the pasteboards with a strip of brown cloth. The text block is bound in a ledger style to the boards. The spine was constructed with four false raised bands demarcating five panels. The boards and spine are covered in suede with additional burgundy leather strips over the top and bottom of the book. The suede was blind tooled on the outside covers, the raised bands of the spine, and the turned-in edges on the inside cover. The additional leather strips, which also cover the first and fifth panels of the spine, are embossed with dual lines along the borders. The spine is further embossed with the word “LEDGER” in the second panel. “Temple Committee Book A” was inscribed in ink on the spine, with “Nauvoo 1841–1845” inscribed below. A red and white archival label was later affixed to the fourth panel, obscuring most of the word “Nauvoo.”

The first twelve leaves of the text block serve as an index for the volume and include pre-printed alphabetical tabs. The final front flyleaf was repurposed as the first index page; one horizontal double line, thirty-five horizontal single lines, and 3 vertical double lines were hand drawn on the recto, and forty horizontal single lines and one vertical double line were hand drawn on the verso. The verso of the flyleaf contains one entry beginning with “A,” and the page with the “AB” tab contains one entry beginning with “B.” The index pages are unpaginated. Pagination begins on the first page following the end of the index and there is consistent pagination throughout the entirety of the volume from page 1 to the final page, 408. The first section of the volume following the index comprises invoices for goods given to the Nauvoo temple committee, as well as the names of those credited with working on the Nauvoo . On pages 200 to 208, the ledger contains accounts for an unidentified store, possibly the store run by the . From page 214 to page 359, the ledger includes accounts for individuals working for the trustee-in-trust office or doing business with the . Several pages were left blank in the volume. These include pages 1–2, 4, 6, 188–189, 245, 271, 281, 283, 289, 344–345, 349–351, 356–357, 394–399, 401, 403, and 406–407. Pages 381 to 393 contain only a heading for temple committee accounts and the remainder of the page is blank, suggesting that Clayton intended to use it to inscribe accounts with the Temple Committee but finished using the volume before reaching these pages.

Several clerks inscribed information in this volume from 1842 to 1845, including , , , , and possibly an unidentified scribe. The work was apparently reviewed and revised as demonstrated by mathematical corrections, canceled content, and clerical notes about errors. Check marks were inscribed following the monetary amounts at the bottom of several pages as reviewed and corrected the values, but those have not been reproduced in the transcript. A final review and settlement of the accounts occurred on 7 August 1845, when outstanding accounts were settled with the trustee-in-trusts, at that time and .

In Nauvoo, Trustee-in-Trust Ledger A was in the possession of the trustee-in-trust’s office, which also functioned as the tithing office, and was apparently one of two tithing record books that inventoried and delivered to in 1847. It is unknown when Trustee Ledger A was transferred to the Historian’s Office. The Clayton inventory, archival labels, and archival markings suggest continuous institutional custody.