Recording expenses

An expensein Coffer is a deductible business cost: the software you pay for, the laptop you bought, the share of your phone bill that's for work. Recording it makes your ringfenced total reflect what you actually owe, because a business purchase does two things for you. The GST on it is money you can claim back, and the cost itself lowers the income you're taxed on.

Coffer tracks both of those for every expense you log. Whether they also reduce your ringfenced total as you go is your choice: by default Coffer keeps holding the full set-aside (the savings are only realised when you file), and a setting turns on netting them off immediately - see how it changes your ringfence below.

Adding an expense

Open the Expenses tab and choose Add expense. The dialog has these fields:

• Receipts. First in the dialog, so you can attach a photo or PDF straight away. Optional; covered in its own section below.
• Description. What the purchase was (“Adobe Creative Cloud”, “New monitor”).
• Date. When you paid. Coffer values the deduction against that tax year, so the date matters if a purchase falls near the year boundary.
• Category. One of ten: Home office, Vehicle, Equipment, Software & subscriptions, Phone & internet, Travel, Professional services, Insurance, Supplies, or Other.
• Total paid (incl GST). The full amount that left your account.
• GST included. Shown when you're registered for GST. Coffer auto-fills the GST portion at your GST rate; edit it if your receipt shows a different amount.
• Business use %. The share used for business. Only that portion is deductible, so a laptop used 80% for work is entered as 80.
• Claim the GST. Shown when you're registered for GST. Leave it on for a valid tax invoice from a GST-registered supplier; see below for when to turn it off.
• Capital asset. For larger purchases that are spread over several years instead of deducted in one go. Coffer turns this on for you when the cost is over $1,000 excluding GST; the section below explains what it does.
• Notes. Optional, for anything you want to remember about the purchase.

How it changes your ringfence

As soon as you save, Coffer works out two numbers:

• GST claimed back. The business-use share of the GST you paid - the part that comes off your next GST return.
• Income tax saved. The ex-GST cost, apportioned by business use, is a deduction; Coffer multiplies it by your income tax rate for that tax year.

Whether those two numbers are SUBTRACTED from your ringfenced total is controlled by Deduct expenses from ringfencein Settings. It's off by default, deliberately: a deduction only reduces what you actually owe when the year is filed, so Coffer conservatively holds the full set-aside and shows the savings as information - the Expenses tab says so whenever that's the state you're in. Turn the setting on and every confirmed expense nets off immediately: the ringfenced total falls and “Yours to spend” rises by what the expense is worth to you. Either way, the detailed tax breakdown lists every deduction and reconciles to the dashboard.

Business use and the GST claim

Two controls decide how much of a purchase counts, and it's worth understanding the difference:

• Business use % apportions boththe deduction and the GST credit. Set it to 60 and Coffer counts 60% of the ex-GST cost as deductible and 60% of the GST as claimable. The private share simply doesn't count.
• Claim the GSTis a yes/no on the GST portion only. Leave it on when you hold a valid tax invoice from a GST-registered supplier. Turn it off when there's no claimable GST, for example a supplier who isn't registered, or a purchase with no GST on it. The cost still counts as an income-tax deduction; you just don't claim a GST credit on it.

If you're not registered for GST, Coffer hides the GST field and the claim toggle entirely. The whole business-use share of the total becomes your deduction, and there's no GST to claim.

Capital assets and depreciation

A purchase over $1,000 excluding GST(a laptop, a tool, a vehicle) usually can't be deducted in full in the year you buy it. Instead its cost is spread over several years as depreciation, and only each year's share lowers that year's taxable income. Coffer handles this for you: when the amounts you enter put a purchase over the threshold, the Capital asset switch turns on automatically (you can turn it off if your accountant has confirmed an exception).

A capital asset needs two extra facts, and Coffer pre-fills both where it can:

• Asset type and rate. Pick from common presets (computer or laptop, phone, tools, vehicle, furniture, purchased software) and Coffer fills in the standard rate. For anything else, enter the rate for the asset class from IRD's rate finder. Some categories fill this in for you: choose the Vehicle category, for example, and the vehicle rate is already set.
• Method. Diminishing value takes a percentage of the remaining value each year (bigger deductions early); straight line deducts the same amount each year. Diminishing value is the usual choice and the default.

There's also a New or unused asset switch for the Investment Boost: a brand-new (or new to New Zealand) asset bought on or after 22 May 2025 can have 20% of its cost deducted up front, with normal depreciation on the rest. Coffer applies the split for you.

Two things don't change for a capital asset: the GST is still claimed in full in the period you bought it, and the purchase still shows in your expenses list, badged Capital asset · depreciated.

The Assets view

Every capital asset appears in the Assets section of the Expenses tab for as long as it's writing down, whichever year you bought it. For each asset you can see this year's depreciation, what's been claimed so far, and the value still to write down; select an asset to expand its full year-by-year schedule. The yearly figures feed the deductions tracker's Depreciation line (and, when the deduct-expenses setting is on, your ringfenced total), so an asset bought two years ago still shows up in this year's numbers.

The home office deduction

If you work from home, part of your rent (or mortgage interest and rates) and running costs is deductible, and Coffer computes the claim for you: choose Home officeon the Expenses tab, enter your floor areas and the year's costs, and the result is saved as a Home office expense with the full working in its notes. Each year's details carry forward as next year's pre-fill. The full walkthrough - including the square-metre rate versus actual costs choice and what not to double-claim - is in The home office deduction.

Attaching receipts

Receipts are the first thing in the dialog, so you can start with a photo or PDF, or start with the details; whichever you have to hand. Coffer accepts PNG, JPEG, WebP, and PDF files, up to 10 MB each, and up to five per expense (room for a multi-page receipt or a supporting document).

A receipt you add is queuedand uploaded when you save the expense; until then you can remove any of them. Once saved, Coffer stores them privately. You can view or download them any time, from the paperclip on the expense's row in the list, or by opening the expense.

If a receipt doesn't upload when you save (the connection drops, say), Coffer keeps it queued and tells you, so you can save again to retry. The expense itself is saved either way.

Reading the vendor, date, amount, and GST off a photo or PDF and pre-filling the form for you is coming soon. For now you enter the details and attach the file yourself.

The deductions tracker

At the top of the Expenses tab, Coffer shows a running summary for the tax year you're viewing:

• Tax saved so far: the headline, the GST you've claimed back plus the income tax your deductions have saved across that year's expenses.
• Deductible (ex GST): the total deductible cost, apportioned by business use, including that year's depreciation.
• GST claimed back and Income tax saved: the two halves of the headline, split out.
• A breakdown by category, each with a count and its deductible total, plus a Depreciation line covering every capital asset still writing down that year, whichever year it was bought.

The tracker shows one tax year at a time; use the year picker at the top of the tab to look back at an earlier year (the expense list and the Assets view follow the same picker). When the deduct-expenses setting is on, these are the same numbers folded into your dashboard ringfence; the tracker lays out where the saving comes from either way.

Exporting for your accountant

The Exportbutton on the Expenses tab downloads a date range of your expenses as a single file: a spreadsheet summary - one row per expense with the deductible amount and GST claimed, and capital assets valued at their purchase-year depreciation so nothing is overstated - plus every attached receipt. Pick the range (a tax year, or up to five years at once) and it's the year-end pack an accountant asks for.

Editing and deleting

Edit an expense from its row in the list; the dialog opens pre-filled, and saving updates the tracker (and the ringfence, when deductions are applied) immediately. You can delete an expense from its row, or from the Delete button inside the dialog. Deleting stops its deduction and GST credit counting toward your ringfenced total, and removes any receipts attached to it.