Getting started

Welcome to Coffer. This article walks you through what happens the first time you sign in, what the welcome wizard asks for, and how to send your first invoice and see the dashboard light up with real numbers. Each step links to a more detailed article if you want to go deeper.

Signing in for the first time

Signing in for the first time creates your account - there's no separate registration form. There are two ways in, and no separate password for either: continue with your Google account, or enter your email address and Coffer sends you a 6-digit code to type in. (At times Coffer limits new sign-ups; when that's the case, the sign-in page offers a request-access form instead, and you sign in once your invitation arrives.)

On your very first sign-in, Coffer drops you into a welcome wizard rather than an empty dashboard. The wizard captures the handful of details Coffer needs to put real information on the invoices you send and to ringfence your tax correctly. It takes about five minutes.

Early access and pricing

Coffer is free while in early access. When paid plans launch, accounts created during early access keep free access for an extended period before choosing a plan. You'll get advance notice by email before anything changes, and whatever you decide, you always keep the ability to view and export your data.

The welcome wizard (5 steps)

Each step has the fields you'd expect, with helpful defaults and explanations alongside. You can always come back and change any of these in Settings later.

1. Business. Your business name, trading name (if different), and address. The address is what appears in the “From” block on every invoice PDF you send.
2. Tax setup. GST registration status and GST number (if registered), filing frequency, whether you pay provisional tax, and an estimate of your expected annual income (used for bracket-aware income tax projections). The fields here drive the ringfence math; the deep-dives are in GST in Coffer and Income tax and ringfencing.
3. Invoicing. Your invoice number prefix (defaults to INV), the template Coffer uses to generate numbers, default payment terms in days, and any per-invoice column label tweaks. The template syntax is covered in Invoice numbering templates.
4. Bank. Your operating account number (printed on the invoice for clients to pay into), account-holder name (often different from your business name for sole traders), and your current bank balance. This first balance is what Coffer uses as the starting point for the dashboard's “Available to spend”. Detail in Recording your bank balance.
5. First client. Optional. If you'd like to add a client straight away, the wizard lets you type a name and email (and address, if you have it). Leave it blank and you can add clients later from the Clients page. Detail in Managing your clients.

Creating your first invoice

Once the wizard saves, you land on the Dashboard. With no invoices yet, it'll show the bank balance you just entered as your full “Available to spend”, with the IRD ringfence sitting at zero. Time to add some movement.

From the left navigation, go to Invoices and hit Add invoice. The dialog walks you through:

• Pick the client (or add one inline if you skipped the wizard's client step)
• Confirm the issued date and payment terms; the due date calculates automatically
• Add line items with their descriptions, quantities, and unit prices; Coffer adds GST on top at 15%
• Hit Preview to see what the PDF will look like; Back returns you to the form with your fields preserved
• Hit Add invoice to save

The full walk-through is in Creating and managing invoices.

Sending the invoice

From the new invoice's row, click the mail icon. The Send dialog pre-fills the To address from the client, plus a subject and body using Coffer's default email template (you can edit either before sending). The PDF attaches automatically; you don't need to download and re-attach it.

Marking it paid

Once the money lands in your account, mark the invoice paid. From the invoice row, click the checkmark icon. Coffer asks for a payment date (defaults to today; edit if the money arrived earlier or later).

The instant you save, the dashboard math re-runs: GST and income tax both ringfence the right portion of the payment, and your “Available to spend” updates. Detail in Marking invoices paid.

Your dashboard, with real numbers

From here on, the Dashboard is the page you'll spend the most time on. Three pieces of math drive it:

• Spending room: your latest bank balance plus any arranged overdraft
• Ringfenced for IRD: the GST and income tax owed on your paid invoices, less anything you've already paid to IRD
• Yours to spend: spending room minus the IRD ringfence minus any manual pots

Hiding your numbers on a shared screen

If you share your screen a lot, the eye button (bottom of the sidebar, or in the top bar on your phone) turns on privacy mode: every dollar amount across Coffer is masked while the charts keep their shape, so you can load or walk through the app without exposing your figures. Pressing P anywhere toggles it too. The choice sticks per device, and it applies from the moment the page loads - so the laptop you present from can stay masked permanently while your phone shows real numbers.

Where to go from here

The first invoice is the proof-of-concept; from here on it's about repetition and trusting the dashboard. Three things worth setting up as you go:

• Log a tax event when you pay IRD. When you file your GST return or pay provisional tax, log it on the Tax events page so the ringfence shrinks by the amount you paid. Otherwise Coffer thinks you still owe that money.
• Update your bank balance regularly. The dashboard's “Available” only reflects the last balance you recorded. Weekly is plenty for most contractors; see Recording your bank balance.
• Set up pots for things that aren't IRD. Emergency fund, equipment, holiday, ACC invoices; anything you want carved out of your spendable cash. See Pots.