Setting up your business profile

Coffer uses your Settings to put real details on the invoice PDFs you send, work out the right tax ringfences, and time IRD reminders to your filing cadence. The welcome wizard captures most of this on first run; this article is for understanding what each field does and changing it later.

Business identity

Three fields make up your invoice header:

• Business name. The legal name you trade under. Goes at the top of every invoice PDF. For sole traders this is usually your own name; for companies it's the registered company name (which must end with “Limited” or “Ltd” on the invoice itself per the Companies Act).
• Trading name. Optional. If you trade under a brand different from your legal name (e.g. legal name “Jane Smith”, trading as “Cobalt Consulting”), put the trading name here. It appears on the invoice alongside the legal name where appropriate.
• Business address. Required on a tax invoice in New Zealand. Coffer prints this in the invoice header so the PDF is IRD-compliant out of the box.

IRD and GST registration

Two related fields:

• GST registered. Toggle this on if you're registered for GST with IRD. Coffer treats unregistered contractors differently: invoices show “Invoice” instead of “Tax Invoice”, no GST line, and the dashboard skips the GST ringfence entirely.
• GST number. Your IRD-issued GST number in the NNN-NNN-NNN format. Required on a tax invoice if you're registered.

Filing cadence and due dates

Coffer needs to know when you file so it can show you the right countdown on the dashboard and ringfence the right amount in time. Two fields:

• GST filing frequency. Monthly, two-monthly, or six-monthly. Most contractors file two-monthly. Coffer derives your GST due dates from this and pre-fills the schedule; you can fine-tune individual dates if you have a special balance date or your accountant uses a different cadence.
• Provisional tax dates. Three dates per year by default (28 August, 15 January, 7 May for standard-balance-date taxpayers). Coffer pre-fills the standard schedule for new accounts. Pays-provisional-tax can be toggled off entirely if you're in your first year of self-employment and haven't crossed into the regime yet.

Tax rates

Two tax settings sit here, and they work differently:

• Income tax. You don't set an income tax rate directly. Instead you tell Coffer your expected annual income (in the welcome wizard, or the Income tax section of Settings), and Coffer walks the NZ income tax brackets to work out your effective rate. Settings shows the rate it's currently using: your expected income blended with what you've actually billed so far this year, so it can shift as the year goes on. That blended rate is what applies to each new invoice. Until you enter an expected income, Coffer falls back to a flat 33.7%.
• GST rate. Defaults to 15%. You won't need to change it. The field is here so that if the GST rate ever changes in a Budget, you can update it without waiting for Coffer to catch up.

Invoice numbering

Coffer assigns a new invoice number every time you create an invoice. Three settings shape the format:

• Mode. Global uses a single counter across all your clients (INV-2026-001, INV-2026-002, INV-2026-003 in the order you raise them). Per client gives each client their own counter and (optionally) their own prefix, so Client A sees ACME-001, ACME-002 while Client B sees BETA-001.
• Prefix. The text in front of the number. Defaults to INV.
• Template. The format string. Defaults to {prefix}-{year}-{counter:3}, which produces INV-2026-001. The {counter:3} pads to three digits. Year-reset behaviour is automatic when {year} is in the template; drop it and the counter runs continuously instead. There's a dedicated article (“Invoice numbering templates”) covering the syntax in detail.

Payment defaults

These two settings drive the payment information block on every invoice you send:

• Default payment terms. Number of days from issue date to due date. Defaults to 14. Each invoice can override this individually if a particular client has agreed longer or shorter terms.
• Bank account and account holder name. The account your clients pay into, printed on the invoice. Account holder name is split out because it's often different from your business name (e.g. you invoice as “Jane Smith Consulting” but the bank account is held as “Jane Smith”).

Overdraft limit

If you have an arranged overdraft on your operating account (e.g. ANZ Flexi revolving credit), enter the limit here. Coffer uses it on the dashboard as headroom on the “Available to spend” calculation, not as money you have. The number is for context only; the actual balance you record on the Bank page is what drives the ringfence math.

Email sending

Coffer handles the actual sending for you. Invoices go out with your business name as the visible sender, and replies land wherever you tell Coffer to route them. Two pieces shape what your client sees and where their replies go:

• From name. The visible name on the From line in your client's inbox. Defaults to your business name. Override only if you want a different display name on the email envelope (the PDF header still uses your business name regardless, for IRD compliance).
• Reply-to email. Where client replies land when they hit Reply. Usually your normal inbox so client questions come straight to you. If you leave it blank, Coffer falls back to your business email.

This is what an invoice email looks like once it lands in your client's inbox: