The difficulties that the trésoriers encountered in settling and presenting their accounts during the final wars of Louis XIV's reign underline the broader administrative limitations of the Louis Quatorzian state. For the trésoriers, financing the navy's expenditure and collecting the receipts and other pièces justificatives that validated remittances was a drawn-out process. However, in order to settle their accounts, the trésoriers required the approval of the naval intendants, who had to be satisfied that the navy's books were balanced, that they had fully accounted for the individuals to whom the crown owed money, and that the paymasters had fulfilled their obligations. Once these issues had been addressed, the intendant was expected to declare to the naval minister the closure of the exercice in the port and dockyards for which he was responsible, meaning that no further expenditure or costs could be undertaken or attributed to that particular year. The problem was that in order to close an exercice at the level of the ports and dockyards in a timely manner, the navy's individual administrators had to remain apprised of the local financial situation throughout the financial year, maintain pressure on the trésoriers and their commis to finance expenditure, and determine the volume of remaining unpaid expenses. This degree of financial awareness often eluded the intendants since it was an intensive task that required obtaining and sifting through large amounts of information under considerable time pressures.

The principal obstacle to gathering financial intelligence in the era of the Spanish Succession was the naval administration's chronic inability to meet the organisational challenges of war. The failure to manage the flow of information undermined proactive efforts to hold the trésoriers accountable at the local level and prevented the Chambre des comptes from exercising its authority by severely delaying the presentation of accounts. Accurate and punctual financial reporting was persistently stymied by administrative overstretch, with significant time and resources spent on resolving discrepancies in the various balance sheets produced by the intendants, commis, and trésoriers, which were usually the result of accounting delays and different methods of attributing funds.