Accounts for the Steamboat Nauvoo from September to December 1840 appear to have been initially inscribed in a commercially produced ledger book; however, the original boards and binding have not survived, only the interior pages. The extant record consists of six gatherings of 10 leaves each, with the second gathering containing 11 leaves, and the sixth gathering containing 9 leaves. The extant record contains a total of 60 leaves. The leaves, which measure 12 1/8 × 7 ¾ inches (31 × 20 cm), are ruled vertically with eight single red lines and three interspersed red double lines and horizontally with thirty-eight blue lines, now very faded, and one red double line at the top of the page.

The ledger begins with an Index comprising nineteen pages, but it is missing the first page of the index as well as a possible title page and end papers. The index was not paginated. Pagination starts on page 21, which is numbered as page 1. Pagination is consistent from page 1 to page 63. Pages 64–65 were paginated 54–55 by mistake, and the error was carried forward, creating two sets of pages numbered 54–63. A further mistake was made on pages 58 and 59 of the second set, with both pages being paginated as page 58. Pages 60 and 61 in the second set were paginated as 60 and 62. The first seven pages after the index are single-page ledger accounts, while pages 8–83 are double-page ledger accounts, with debits recorded on the left page and credits recorded on the right page. At some point, the ledger pages were removed from their original binding. Conservation work was done to reinforce and stabilize the gatherings and binding.

The steamboat Nauvoo ledger is listed in Historian’s Office inventories from the 1850s, suggesting it was part of JS’s office and included in materials that were brought from to the Salt Lake Valley. Subsequent inventories of church records in Salt Lake City indicate continuous institutional custody.