Leasing a Copier (also called an MFP, for Multi-Function Peripheral) is an extended payment option for businesses or private parties who need to upgrade or replace their current equipment with flexible payment terms. Leasing allows you to pick a payment term (anywhere from 12-64 months in most cases) and lease type (FMV or $1 out). The difference is, FMV leases are simple and are the most common leases executed within the copying and printing industry. FMV stands for Fair Market Value, which means at the end of lease term, the customer or buyer (the Lessee) has the option to purchase the machine for sole ownership at that time for its Fair Market Value. This is an appraised value that is determined by the bank issuing the lease (the lessor). A $1.00 out Lease, or “buck out” is even easier. It is identical to a FMV lease, but the only difference is what happens at the end of the leasing term. Once your lease comes to fruition, instead of the option to buy your machine for the fair market value, the bank states the value of the machine at the beginning of your lease term (instead of the end), which of course is $1.00. So, you own your machine for a buck when your lease is over. Of course there is a catch here- your payments are higher than that of an FMV lease.

Below are answers to more frequently asked questions about MFP/Copier Leasing & Purchasing

•Should I lease, rent or buy a copier?

•How much does it cost to lease a copier?

•What is the difference between leasing and renting a copier?

•What is the average length of a copier lease?

•What speed copier should I buy or lease?

•Should I buy or lease an inkjet, laser copier, or digital copier?

•How do I get out of a copier lease?

Should I lease, rent or buy a copier?

This is often the most difficult question asked when making this decision. Here is some advice. Typically It makes sense to lease a machine if you are confident that you are capable of paying your monthly payment, each month on time, for the entire duration of that lease term. It also makes sense to do this if you are trying to conserve capital for other expenditures. Leasing (and renting) also qualify differently for deductions; under most standard accounting practices leasing and renting a copier can be written off entirely each month whereas a direct purchase must be depreciated over time. However, Election 179 counters this measure; consult with a CPA or tax attorney for specific details.

Renting a copier is great if you are sure you only need a machine for short duration and will not have a need for its use again over a long duration. Renting is very popular with trade shows, accounting practices during tax season or law firms who take a large case and need additional resources quickly. Typically Renting involves a monthly rental fee that is fully inclusive of a pre-determined page / copy volume, toner, parts, labor, service etc. There are is also a delivery and pick up fee that apply as well.

Buying a copier is in most cases the most uncommon practice because you immediately own the machine from the minute you pay for it.

Service agreements are the second largest decision to make when purchasing a copier. Service agreement are basically a warranty for the equipment that you pay for monthly, that includes a certain page volume and all toner, parts, labor and consumables. In most cases it includes everything with the exception of paper and staples. Many buyers get easily misled here with service contracts; you do not need to lease a machine just to get a service contract. You can still get a service contract if you purchase a machine as well. Many dealers will bundle a service contract into the copier lease but this is NOT a good practice. Here is why-

Advantages to bundling a service or maintenance agreement into a copier lease:

You get 1 invoice every month instead of two. That’s it.

Disadvantages to bundling a service or maintenance agreement into a copier lease:

1. The page volume is set in stone at the time of lease inception (so, if you “think” your volume will be 5,000 black and white pages per month and 1,000 color) then you sign your life away when you sign your lease. If you are wrong, and your true volume turns out to be 3,000 b&w and 100 color, tuff cookies! You signed up for 5000 and 1000 so that is what the bank will bill you for. This is often discovered after a few months into a lease, where a desire is expressed for change but, tuff cookies. The banks do not care, and you signed a contract which means you must pay it.

2.  You get 2 invoices every month instead of 1.

At Automated Business Products, we believe in the most ethical approach, which is NOT bundling your service contract into your lease.

When does leasing a copier not make any sense?

If you are the owner of a new business, and are concerned about long term survival it may not make sense, A copier lease is almost always impossible to break, so if long term commitment is not in your future, than leasing is not a good idea. Additionally, most new businesses can have difficulty getting approval from a bank for a lease; expect to sign a personal guarantee if you have been in business under 2 years and are trying to get approval for a lease. just like any other leasing contract. Also, if your business makes fewer than 700 copies a month, it may not make sense to enter a leasing contract for a business-level or multifunction copier. You might consider buying an all-in-one copier, which is a smaller, usually desktop copy machine that can print, copy, scan, and fax just like a multifunction copier but at a slower speed. Make sure to look for a laser all-in-one copier rather than an inkjet copier, because inkjet ink is more expensive than laser toner. Inkjet printers have a price per page of around 20 cents, compared to laser printer pages which cost about 6 cents a page.

How much does it cost to lease a copier?

Most businesses pay anywhere between $100 and $650 a month to lease a multifunction copy machine. However, we can lease color copiers starting at $49.00 per month.

What is the average length of a copier lease?

Most leases conform to 12, 24, 36, 39, 48, 60, & 63 month terms. The most common lease chosen in the industry is 36 months FMV.

What speed copier should I buy or lease?

This is where people find themselves in “analysis paralysis”. What speed, what features, paper size, etc. This can be confusing and overwhelming at the same time. Most machines come standard with all of the bells and whistles (Duplexing, collating, stapling, scanning, faxing, etc.). If this will be your office’s first copy machine, and your volume is around 3-5k per month (for color & b/w) then you should be fine with a machine that prints between 20-30ppm (pages per minute). Keep in mind that 30 pages per minute means you get 1 page every 2 seconds. What you need to do is really ask yourself and your staff what is most important to them when printing or copying, what they do with that job after it is printed or copied and how can this machine make you or your staff more efficient? Our line of machines allows you scan right to email from the machine, scan to a thumb drive, scan to your iPhone, print from your iPhone and more.

If you own a law firm or a high-demand need for copies or prints, with several users on staff who use the machine frequently then you should get a faster machine; at least 40 pages per minute and as high as 70ppm.

Should I lease an inkjet, laser copier, or digital copier? What is the difference??

Inkjet copiers or printers are never a good idea for any size of business because they are the most expensive and have the worst visual output. Inkjet devices have a cost per page of about 20-32 cents, per color page, while printers from a laser device costs about 6-9 cents per color page (b/w is approx. 9 cents on an inkjet and 1 cent or less on laser). Inkjet devices are also a lower capacity output, meaning that you’ll have to replace paper and ink two to three times more than a laser. Inkjet cartridges can also dry up if not used, which can lead to a repair of the ink head and a replacement of the costly cartridge. Last but not lease, inkjets are SLOW! They only real use inkjet devices have are for home or consumer use that is very infrequent. To sum it up, they don’t make any sense for a business whatsoever.

Laser copiers: A laser copier or printer is the most popular choice among businesses because they print / copy at a faster speed and require toner (which costs less per page than inkjet devices). Not to mention, laser printer copiers produce much higher-quality documents (which should be important to you if you’re often printing presentations or contracts). Also, toner is dry- so unlink inkjets, it will never dry up!

Digital Copiers: Most of today’s business or laser copiers are also called digital copiers. By “digital,” this means the device includes an internal scanner or fax, meaning the machine can scan and store documents. Scanning is very common these days as faxing is almost obsolete. This is very useful for most offices because devices can scan a document and then either store it immediately, fax it immediately or email it right from the copier. Once a document has been converted to digital, it can then be archived on your computer or server instead of a paper filing cabinet. What is even more important about this element is the retrieval process of that document when it is needed. It can be found with a simple keyword within that document instead of digging through paper files. Think about that- what if someone misplaces an important contract in your filing cabinet? It could take you hours or days to find it. Digital never has that problem because a simple word will retrieve the document for you.

Analog Copiers: At the time of this article being written (March of 2012) I am quite confident that no one is producing analog copiers any longer. The difference between analog copiers and digital copiers is the technology. Analog copiers would have to scan a document ten times, in order to make 10 copies of it. A digital copier can remember the scanned document and make 10 copies of it after scanning it only once. Additionally, analog copiers could not print, scan or store documents.

How to get out of a copier lease (or how do I terminate, cancel or end my current copier lease?)

Since we are in the business of leasing office equipment, we have very detailed knowledge in this area. There are several things you can do, or look for that may allow you to exercise the termination of your lease. We will absolutely need to review your current lease, which you can email to us at endlease@abpcopy.com. Be sure to include your information so we can respond with our instructions.

If you need to write a termination letter at the end of your lease, we have a lease termination template letter that is already written and covers everything you need to state to legally end your lease that you can download here.  Or, email us and we will send it to you immediately at endlease@abpcopy.com

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More about our story-

Automated Business Products (ABP) has been locally owned and operated since 2005, at which time, we purchased the 23 year old Panasonic Digital Document Company branch in Denver.  ABP provides three key components to our customers.  First, transparency in your selection, leasing, and contracting that you will not find with any of our competitors.  Second, we are fanatical about customer service.  If you are not happy, we are not happy.  Third, we back it up with the strongest customer satisfaction guarantees in this industry.

Our experienced team makes the selection process easy for you, and because we set the bar so high for ourselves, you’ll love doing business with US. When you buy or lease equipment from Automated Business Products, and cover it with a service and supply agreement – ABP has you covered!

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If you have older copy machines or equipment in Denver that needs a tune-up, or you want to look at upgrading, we have several options for you to consider.  Give us a call!  303-407-3250

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***Today Only Pricing $1,899.00*** (+ tax in CO)

To order call 303-407-3275.  ORDER NOW BEFORE THEY ARE GONE!  You can use the Election 179 tax deduction for a full write off if you order before 2012!
 

This unit does it all- print, copy, scan & fax AND has a USB thumb drive port on the front!

Features- 

• Capture2go App allows printing from iPhone, iPad, scan documents to these devices and more
• 28 beautiful Color or B&W pages per minute
• Print, Scan, Copy & Fax Functions
• USB / Flash Drive Port
• Collate, Duplex Printing & Scanning
• Scan to Email, FTP, Desktop, Server and More
• Full 30 day money back guarantee

Order NOW before they are gone!

FULL LIST OF FEATURES CLICK BELOW:

http://www.abpcopy.com/download_prod/kyocera/FS-C2126MFP_lores.pdf

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Why should I care about this if I own a business?
Section 179 within the IRS tax code simply allows businesses to deduct the full purchase price of (qualifying) equipment and/or software purchased or financed during the tax year.  What that means is, if you buy (or lease) a piece of qualifying equipment, you can deduct the FULL PURCHASE PRICE from your gross revenue.  This is an incentive created by the U.S. Government to encourage businesses to buy equipment and invest in themselves.  Sound familiar?  I knew it did.  This has also been referred to as the “SUV Tax Loop hole” or the “Hummer Deduction” years ago  when many businesses used this same tax code to write-off the purchase of qualifying vehicles at the time that were over a certain weight (like SUV’s and Hummers).  That program has been drastically reduced. 

Now, while it’s true that this is better than no write off at all, most business owners would really prefer to write off the entire equipment purchase price for the year they buy it.  In fact, if a business could write off the entire amount, they might add more equipment this year instead of waiting. That’s the whole purpose behind Section 179… to motivate the American economy (and your business) to move in a positive direction. For most small businesses (adding total equipment, software, and vehicles totaling less than $500,000 in 2011), the entire cost can be written-off on the 2011 tax return.
 
Who Qualifies for Section 179?
All businesses that purchase, finance, and/or lease less than $2 million in new, used, refurbished or reconditioned business equipment during tax year 2011 qualify. 

What Equipment Qualifies? 
Most tangible goods including ”off-the-shelf” software as well as business-use vehicles (restrictions apply) qualify for the Section 179 Deduction.  Also, to qualify for the Section 179 Deduction, the equipment and/or software purchased must be placed into service between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011. 

What Should I Do Now?

If you have any remaining budget funds or the needs to replace any equipment, spend it before December 31^st to take advantage of this deduction for the 2011 tax year.

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Color printing has become easier than ever with our line of MFP’s from Kyocera, Lanier OKI and Panasonic.  For those of  you who outsource your color printing jobs, consider bringing this service inhouse with an MFP that can match the quality of your current provider.  And, you give yourself the added convenience of a back-up copier that can do printing, copying, scanning and faxing!  Call and compare for yourself, and then call us for details!  303-407-3265

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Alas!  There is a cure.  Document Management Solutions!   You start with one document, which is emailed to party one.  It has a timer on it and constantly reminds that user what they need to do (electronically approve a document or add a digital signature, etc).  Once they approve it, it is routed to user 2, with the same reminders, and repeats itself until your request is finalized and approved!  All of the routing is electronic via email and fully customizable, with time-lines and expirations that you can set per request.   Set it and forget it!  Before you know it, you will get a notification stating your request has been approved!  Even better, everything can automatically be archived with one mouse click!

Now, wasn’t that easy?  Call us for details!  303-407-3250

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