Browse articles
Getting started
Invoicing
Tax
Expenses
Bank
Settings
Coffer help
Coffer, explained.
Short articles explaining the bits of Coffer that don't explain themselves: NZ tax mechanics, ringfencing, invoice templates, and how each page in the app maps to a real number on your dashboard.
See what's new in CofferGetting started
First-run guides for new Coffer accounts.
Invoicing
Sending tax invoices, templates, payment terms.
Managing your clients
The Clients page workflow: adding, editing, deleting, the inline-create from the invoice dialog, per-client invoice numbering, and what happens when you try to delete a client with invoices on file.
About 5 min read
Quotes
Preparing a priced proposal before the work starts: turning quotes on, creating and sending one as a PDF, quoting one-off prospects, tracking its status, and converting an accepted quote into an invoice without retyping the line items.
About 5 min read
Creating and managing invoices
The whole invoice workflow: creating, line items, editing, sending by email, downloading the PDF, and what every row-level action does.
About 6 min read
Invoice numbering templates
The token syntax, year-reset behaviour, global vs per-client modes, counter integrity, and what Coffer does when you type a custom number.
About 5 min read
Marking invoices paid
What changes on the dashboard the instant an invoice is marked paid, how the payment date is used, and how to undo or edit a paid status.
About 4 min read
Tax
GST, income tax, provisional dates, ringfencing.
GST in Coffer
When to register, how the 15% mechanic plays out on an invoice, how ringfencing works on payment, how to log a GST return, and what to do with overseas clients.
About 5 min read
Income tax and ringfencing
How Coffer's income tax ringfence works, the NZ brackets used in bracket-aware mode, paying provisional and terminal tax, and how ACC fits in.
About 6 min read
The detailed tax breakdown
The line-by-line worksheet behind the dashboard's ringfenced total: every paid invoice with the rate it was set aside at, expense deductions, IRD payments, unpaid invoices, and a downloadable copy for your accountant.
About 3 min read
ACC levies
The third thing a NZ contractor sets aside for, after GST and income tax. How the levy is worked out (work, earners', and Working Safer levies plus GST), setting up your ACC classification, how Coffer estimates and sets money aside as you get paid, why the bill arrives in arrears around September, entering your actual ACC invoice to correct a year (including a bill from before Coffer), and the first-year timing trap.
About 6 min read
Expenses
Recording deductible costs, receipts, and what they save.
Recording expenses
Logging deductible business costs so the ringfence reflects what you actually owe: the add-expense dialog field by field, how the GST credit and income-tax deduction net into your ringfence, business use and the GST claim, capital assets, attaching receipts, and the deductions tracker.
About 6 min read
The home office deduction
Claiming the work-from-home share of your rent or mortgage interest and running costs: how the two-part deduction works, the guided helper on the Expenses tab, square-metre rate versus actual costs, and the once-a-year entry that carries forward.
About 5 min read
Bank
Recording balances and how they drive the dashboard.
Recording your bank balance
Why Coffer asks you to enter the balance manually, how the latest snapshot drives the dashboard, and how often you should update it.
About 3 min read
Running Coffer with a revolving credit account
Why parking everything in a revolving credit account pairs naturally with ringfencing, what the overdraft limit setting changes about Yours to spend, and how paying the IRD bill from the facility plays out.
About 4 min read
Pots
Named manual set-asides for things that aren't IRD: emergency funds, equipment, holidays, repeat bills. Covers what pots are, how to add and edit them, locking, and how they interact with Available to spend.
About 4 min read
Settings
Business profile, rates, numbering schemes.
New to contracting, or after the tax rules themselves? The guides library covers NZ contractor tax from the ground up.