Loans were a short term expedient. To repay them it was necessary to increase the amount of cash available from the abbey’s own resources.

It is noteworthy that the earliest account rolls and court rolls which survive from some of the abbey’s manors date from Simon’s abbacy. This suggests that vigorous reform of estate management, in the interests of efficiency and so of profitability, was put in hand. The earliest of all known court rolls to survive is the court roll of the chamberlain’s manor of Hinderclay for 1257–9; Hinderclay’s earliest account roll is for 1262, from which date an unbroken series continues until the early fifteenth century. The earliest court roll for the cellarer’s three manors of Fornham (Fornham All Saints, Fornham St Genevieve and Fornham St Martin) is for 1261–2 (with a separate reeve’s account for livestock, 1271), and the last is for 1440–1. The earliest court roll for the cellarer’s manor of Great Barton is for 1277–1301, and the last for 1513–14, and a tithe barn account for Great Barton survives for 1279–80, ending 1305–6; an account roll for the cellarer’s manor of Risby is for 1279–80 and the last for 1414–15. The earliest account roll for the abbot’s manor of Chevington is for 1277–8, and the last is for 1453–4. A few rolls overlap into John of Northwold’s abbacy and under him the number of court rolls and account rolls increases at an accelerating rate.

Abbot Simon himself took active steps to improve the abbey’s economic administration. There is strong evidence suggesting that within a few years of his succession he demanded statements of the recent expenses and receipts of each obedientiary. Simon’s predecessor, Edmund of Walpole, had probably demanded this kind of information from the obedientiaries when he became abbot, and Samson and Hugh of Northwold are known to have had surveys made of the abbey’s estates and assets on their successions. By such means the abbot gained a general view of the abbey’s finances. It enabled him to discover which sources of revenue could be made more profitable and what economies were possible.