Photocopier hire, rental, lease and finance on the Sunshine Coast

Photocopier hire Sunshine Coast: short jobs

Hire is the one for a job with an end date. A building site office that runs for eight months. A tourism business getting ready for school holidays. A conference that needs a copier for three days. A tenant whose permanent machine has not arrived yet.

The machine is delivered, set up on your network if you need that, and collected afterwards with the hard drive wiped. You are not left with a copier you did not want, and nobody has to find a buyer for it.

Tell us the dates, the site and roughly how many pages. That is enough to say what we can do.

Photocopier rental Sunshine Coast: the steady monthly one

Rental is a regular payment over two or three years. A lot of small businesses like it because the cost lands in the same place every month and they are not left holding an ageing machine at the end. Service is often wrapped into the payment, and you can renew, swap for something newer or hand it back.

The trap is the page charge. Most rental agreements include a number of pages and then charge for each one beyond it. If the office has a busy season, find out what a busy month costs before it happens, not after.

Photocopier lease Sunshine Coast: bigger machines, longer terms

A lease usually runs three to five years, often through a finance company, and it is how most larger colour copiers get into offices without a big payment up front. The machine belongs to the lessor until the term finishes.

That matters in two ways. You cannot simply sell it if the office closes or moves. And a lease can run well beyond the point where the machine is a good fit. We have met offices still paying for a copier they stopped using two years ago.

Leases may or may not include service. Read what is written, not what the salesperson said.

Photocopier finance Sunshine Coast: owning it

Finance is the plainest of the four. You buy the machine, you pay for it over time, and it is yours. It suits a business that wants an asset on the books and does not want to hand over the whole amount at once.

How each of these sits in your accounts is a question for your accountant, and we would rather they answer it than us. We are happy to join a call to explain how the machine works.

Questions to ask before you sign

• Is service included, and are toner, drums and parts included as well?
• How many pages are covered, and what is charged for each page above that? How are pages counted, and are colour pages counted differently?
• How long is the term, and what happens on the last day? Does it roll over by itself?
• If the machine turns out to be the wrong size, can it be swapped midway?
• What does it cost to leave early?
• Who owns it, and what happens to the stored data on the drive when it goes back?
• Who do I ring when it jams, and is that the same person who sold it?

A good arrangement answers all seven on one page. If the answers are in three documents and a phone call, that tells you something.

Service inside the payment, or separate

An all in payment gives you one number to ring and a monthly figure that does not move much. Separate service gives you more control and sometimes a lower total, but you also carry the risk of a big repair.

Which is better depends on how much you print. A light office usually does well with service by the visit. A heavy one often does better with everything included, because it is the heavy ones that need the parts.

New, second hand or refurbished

Any of the four arrangements can run on a new or a second hand commercial machine. A second hand copier on a shorter term is often the lowest outlay way to get a proper A3 multifunction into a small office.

The machines we sell are warranted. We explain what is covered on the phone, before you decide.

Reading the end of term clause

The last paragraph of an agreement is the one people skip. It says what happens on the final day: whether the arrangement rolls over by itself, how much notice is needed to end it, and who collects the machine and when.

Put the end date in the diary on the day you sign. Offices that do this get to choose a newer machine on their own timing, instead of finding out they renewed by default.

What we need to know to quote a hire

• The start date and roughly when it ends, even if the end moves.
• Where it is going: a site shed, an upstairs suite, a shopfront, a marquee.
• Whether power and a network point are already there, or the machine will sit on its own.
• Colour or black and white, A4 or A3, print only or copy and scan as well.
• How many pages you expect in a normal week, and in the busiest one.

From that we can say what is suitable and what we would put in. If the job turns out longer than planned, the arrangement can usually be extended instead of starting again.

The page charge, in words

Suppose an agreement includes a set number of pages each month and charges per page beyond that. A quiet office never meets the charge. A busy one meets it every month and the bill creeps up without anyone deciding to spend more.

Ask for the included volume to be set from what you actually print, not from a round number someone liked. If there is a strong season, ask how it is handled. Some agreements average the year, some do not.

Seasonal business on the Coast

Tourism and hospitality here swing with school holidays, Christmas and Easter. Holiday managers print more at changeover weekends. A cafe prints more rosters in peak weeks. Short term hire fits that pattern better than a long contract written around the busiest month.

Tell us when the peaks are. It affects the machine we suggest, the paper trays it needs and how we set up service.

Printers as well as copiers

Printer hire Sunshine Coast offices use is the same idea at a smaller scale. A temporary team, a new site that is still being fitted, a project that will end in a few weeks. Printer rental and printer lease work like their copier cousins, month by month for a defined term.

Tell us how many people will use it, how many pages a month, whether you need colour and whether it must scan. We talk through options on the phone and nothing is locked in by that first call.

When an arrangement stops fitting

Businesses change. A rental that suited a team of six does not suit a team of twenty. A lease that began with a floor standing colour machine may now be mostly used for black and white.

We tell you honestly what the options are and what to ask of whoever holds the arrangement. If you own a machine outright and want to move it on, see sell your photocopier, and if the whole office is relocating, see photocopier relocation and removal.

More for Sunshine Coast offices

Photocopier salesHow a sale goes with us, from the first call to a working machine.→Printer and copier salesNew and second hand commercial copiers, printers and plotters, with our own technicians behind them.→New and A3 photocopiersNew A3 copiers, delivered, set up and serviced by us.→Used photocopiersUsed photocopiers and office printers, tested and looked after.→Refurbished photocopiersWhat refurbished should mean, and what we do to a machine.→How to choose a photocopierWhat to ask before you spend a cent on a copier.→Installation and setupDelivered, networked, scan tested and shown to staff.→We buy your copierSelling a commercial copier or printer? Ring us first.→Relocation and removalCopiers moved, reconnected and tested, or taken out and wiped.→