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  • Getting started

    • Getting started

  • Invoicing

    • Managing your clients
    • Quotes
    • Creating and managing invoices
    • Invoice numbering templates
    • Marking invoices paid

  • Tax

    • GST in Coffer
    • Income tax and ringfencing
    • The KiwiSaver set-aside
    • Withholding tax (contracting via an agency)
    • Reports
    • The detailed tax breakdown
    • ACC levies

  • Expenses

    • Recording expenses
    • The home office deduction

  • Bank

    • Recording your bank balance
    • Running Coffer with a revolving credit account
    • Pots

  • Settings

    • Setting up your business profile
    • Inviting your accountant
Browse articles

  • Getting started

    • Getting started

  • Invoicing

    • Managing your clients
    • Quotes
    • Creating and managing invoices
    • Invoice numbering templates
    • Marking invoices paid

  • Tax

    • GST in Coffer
    • Income tax and ringfencing
    • The KiwiSaver set-aside
    • Withholding tax (contracting via an agency)
    • Reports
    • The detailed tax breakdown
    • ACC levies

  • Expenses

    • Recording expenses
    • The home office deduction

  • Bank

    • Recording your bank balance
    • Running Coffer with a revolving credit account
    • Pots

  • Settings

    • Setting up your business profile
    • Inviting your accountant

Bank

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.

Coffer doesn't connect to your bank. Bank connectivity via open banking is something Coffer is working towards. For now, the Bank page captures a single number so the dashboard knows how much cash is actually sitting in the account behind your ringfences.

What “balance” means here

Type in whatever your bank's app shows as the current balance of your operating account. If you run a revolving credit or overdraft (ANZ Flexi, BNZ TotalMoney) and you're currently using the facility, that's a negative number. Coffer treats it the same way: a snapshot of where you are right now.

What the latest snapshot drives

Only the most recent snapshot affects the dashboard. Specifically, your “Available to spend” calculation is:

  • Latest balance
  • Minus your ringfenced GST
  • Minus your ringfenced income tax
  • Minus anything you've stashed in pots

Older snapshots stay around for your records, but they don't change today's numbers.

Yours to spend

$5,730.00

From $15,000.00 Available ($5,000.00 overdraft plus $10,000.00 in credit).

  • Yours to spend$5,730.00
  • Ringfenced for IRD$4,700.00
    • GST$1,250.00
    • Income tax$3,450.00
  • Ringfenced for ACC$900.00
    • FY 2026-27$620.00
    • FY 2025-26$280.00
  • Emergency fund$2,500.00
  • Equipment$1,170.00

Plus $11,500.00 pending across 2unpaid invoices. Counts toward Yours only once it's marked paid.

Upcoming IRD due dates

  • GST return (Apr-May)

    $2,348.00 owed · Due 28 / 06 / 2026

    in 12 days

  • Provisional tax P1

    $5,834.00 owed · Due 28 / 08 / 2026

    in 73 days
Recent activity

  • Brand identity refresh

    12 / 06 / 2026 · Acme Studios

    $5,750.00

    paid

  • Balance recorded

    12 / 06 / 2026

    $10,000.00

  • GST return

    07 / 05 / 2026 · GST Q4 2025-26

    $4,500.00

Your latest snapshot is the spending-room input on the dashboard. Ringfences and pots are deducted from it to produce the headline 'Yours to spend' number.

How often should I update it?

Weekly is plenty for most people. You might update it daily if you're actively watching your cash over a big quarter. If you tend to spend against fresh cash as soon as it arrives, it's a good habit to update it after every large invoice payment lands.

Negative balances

Coffer handles a negative number without any trouble. If your Flexi is at −$2,000, meaning you're $2,000 into the overdraft, and you have $5,000 of ringfenced GST owing, your “Available to spend” is −$7,000 with no overdraft limit set. This is accurate: the money to pay IRD isn't there yet, and the dashboard shows you how much you are short by.

A note on overdraft headroom

An unused overdraft can look like available cash on paper. By default Coffer treats it as headroom you may not want to draw down on, not as money you have. If you run your business through a revolving credit facility and want the undrawn limit counted as spending room, there's a setting for that: Running Coffer with a revolving credit account covers the trade-off.

Current balance

$5,750.00since 05 / 06 / 2026

$10,000.00

as of 12 / 06 / 2026 · after Acme paid

Overdraft
$5,000.00
Total available
$15,000.00
DateBalanceNotes
12 / 06 / 2026latest$10,000.00after Acme paid
05 / 06 / 2026$4,250.00-
01 / 06 / 2026$5,800.00post rent + ACC
24 / 05 / 2026-$1,200.00in overdraft
15 / 05 / 2026$8,900.00-
The Bank page's snapshot history. The most recent entry is tagged 'latest' and is the one driving the dashboard. Negative balances render in crimson so an overdrawn account is unmissable.

Editing and deleting snapshots

Every snapshot has an Edit and a Delete affordance. Editing the latest immediately updates the dashboard. Deleting the latest falls back to the next-most-recent snapshot, with a confirm dialog spelling out exactly what your “Available” will revert to. You can edit or delete older snapshots freely, because they're kept as records and don't feed into today's numbers.

On this page

  • What "balance" means
  • What the latest snapshot drives
  • Negative balances
  • Editing and deleting snapshots

Coffer

Calm invoicing and tax tracking for independent contractors in New Zealand.

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Coffer keeps the numbers behind your contracting straight through the year: what you have invoiced, what you have spent, and what you owe. It works out the figures and keeps the records, but it is not tax advice and does not stand in for your accountant or IRD. Its job is to make sure the numbers you take to them are right.

© 2026 Coffer. Made in New Zealand.