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    • Getting started

  • Invoicing

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

  • Tax

    • GST in Coffer
    • Income tax and ringfencing
    • 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
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 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

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. Daily if you're actively watching the runway on a big quarter. After every large invoice payment lands is a good habit if you tend to spend impulsively against fresh cash.

Negative balances

Coffer doesn't flinch at a negative number. If your Flexi is at −$2,000 (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. That's the truth: the money to pay IRD isn't there yet, and the dashboard tells you the size of the hole.

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.

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. Historical snapshots can be edited or deleted freely; they're records, not computational inputs.

On this page

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

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