If you're looking for a ballpark estimate of what your copier lease might cost, a great place to start is a lease calculator.

The link above takes you to a calculator that will let you figure out your approximate monthly payments based on interest rate and the amounts involved. It lets you factor how many payments you want to make, what the residual amount will be, and the interest rate on your equipment lease. More importantly this lets you know the class of copier you can afford to lease.
You should always have an idea of the costs of a given copier lease because then you can budget accordingly and assess the numbers offered to you by an equipment leasing broker. It's important to be able to assess your expected revenue according to print runs in relation to your costs.

If you're considering a copier lease, please consider the Graphic Savings Group.

You have to consider cash flow when you are considering a copier lease. An equipment lease is often the best way to mitigate a tight cash flow in the startup phase of your business. There might just be even more leeway than you think in a copier lease.

Standard Lease

A standard lease typically requires the first and last payment up front, and then equal payments for the term of the lease. The lease term is likely anywhere from 2 to 5 years.

Step Up Lease

A step up lease is sometimes structured around higher priced equipment, such as digital copiers or printers. Payments begin at a very low level and then step up over the course of the lease to a higher, regular payment. The step up lease is designed to help startups receive the latest equipment without adversely impacting cash flow.

Deferred Payment Lease

A deferred payment lease usually offers the lessee a period of time, typically 90 days, before the second payment is due. Therefore, a copier lease might featured a deferred payment to allow a startup business to generate revenue.

There are a variety of options at the end of each of these leases. If you're considering an equipment lease, consider the Graphic Savings Group.

Before you sign the dotted line, ask for a break down on the numbers of your copier and copier lease. You should know exactly what you are paying and at what rate. Often, a manufacturer might knock down the price of a digital press because the interest you'll be paying on the attached lease will bring in significantly more money. Always ask for the following when negotiating a lease.

What is the Interest Rate?

How much are your paying for your copier and how much are you paying in interest? Ultimately, a lease only makes sense if the costs are appropriate for the equipment you are getting.

What's the Buyout Option?

You should know exactly what happens to your machine at the end of the lease. Many leases will return the equipment to a dealer or manufacturer by default unless you know to ask about buyout options. Decide if you'll want the equipment at the end of your lease terms and what you would be willing to pay for it. Then, negotiate accordingly.

Length and Exact Terms of the Lease

Exactly how long is your lease and what is your payment schedule. Get a breakdown in writing, and find what the penalties are for defaulting or missing a payment to prepare for the worst case scenario.

Consider alternatives

A dealer or manufacturer may not be able to offer you the best rate, in fact, it's likely in their interest to offer you a higher rate. That's why you should always get a competitve quote. You might be suprised at how much more you would have paid for equipment and how much you can save.

When looking at leasing a copier, consider Graphic Savings Group as one of your options.

When looking into leasing a copier, you have to look at when you'll need capital and the size of your equipment lease. If you're looking at staggered purchases of copiers or office equipment, then a good option for you might be a Master lease.

A Master Lease offers a line of credit that can be used by a company over the course of a year to purchase equipment. A master lease as an equipment lease is a great way to cut down on paperwork and speed up the acquisition process. It only requires one set of lease documents with a schedule set for equipment acquisitions. Having an open line of credit also allows you to act on unexpected demands and make sure that you have the capital on hand to upgrade technology.

If you're considering a copier lease, please consider the Graphic Savings Group.

You have worked hard for your money, perhaps it is time your money put in some work for you. In fact, your money might serve you best if you choose to lease equipment. Here are a few of the benefits of leasing a copier.

Improve Your Cash Flow

Your money is not married to your equipment. That means you have cash on hand for expansion & marketing opportunities, or in a pinch.

Upgrade with the Times

A lease allows you to continually upgrade your fleet or single machine. Lease the latest equipment and wait for the brand new machines to come down in price.

Hold Credit in Reserve

You will retain a line of credit for short-term financing or potential deals.

Tax Benefits

Contrary to loan payments; lease payments are completely tax deductible.

If you're considering leasing equipment, we hope you'll contact us at JJ Bender, or at our sister company, Graphic Savings Group, which specializes in cash flow management and lease consulting.

Copier leasing might be the answer for helping you manage your budget. The cost of office supplies can be a sore subject for many small business owners. While some dismiss it as just the 'cost of doing business,' the smart managers realize that frugal office management can translate into real savings that increase the bottom line.

Leasing a copier is one way to eliminate a huge portion of your office budget and potential cost liability. The key to creating a budget is having a fixed set of costs. A copier lease allows you to set monthly payments and avoid costly per-click charges. Many copier leases also offer service alternatives to the manufacturer, allowing you to determine how and when you want your equipment serviced.You can eliminate suprises in your monthly bill by eliminating spikes in copier costs.

If you're considering a copier lease, please consider the services of the Graphic Savings Group.

A copier lease can be structured in a number of ways and the key to a successful lease is arranging the contract to benefit your corporation. If you need to lease a copier, look at maintenance and the cost of supplies first. There are five major ways that a copier lease will be organized.

1. Copier Lease Payment plus the maintenance cost per copy and cost of supplies.

Here all of the costs for maintenance and supplies are in addition to the monthly or quarterly payments on your equipment.

2. All-Inclusive Equipment Lease Payment

This is a lump sum lease, which means that all of your costs are fixed- great for budgeting.

3. Copier Lease Payment plus the maintenance cost per copy (which includes supplies)

Here, your charges are directly relevant to the number of clicks, or copies, that you make with supplies being a fixed cost.

4. Equipment Lease Payment plus a flat rate for maintenance and supplies

Here your costs are fixed, even if maintenance and supplies are additional. This is a good option for someone who is doing a large volume of copies.

5. Copier Lease Payment plus a flate rate for maintenance (which includes supplies)

Each has benefits, either in the form of controlling costs or budgeting. The key is to assess your needs based on volume. All manufacturers have tables that can give you service estimates according to usage.

If you're looking to lease a copier, please consider the Graphic Savings Group.

The key to managing and understanding copier leasing costs is to break things down according to each aspect of equipment. In other words, what are the costs of the equipment? what are the costs of supplies? what are the costs of service? and what are the financing costs?

Once you have a number for each of those options, you can assess how much your digital copier is actually going to cost you per month. The key is to make sure that a copier manufacturer or equipment vendor doesn't bundle together the costs, masking the true costs of your equipment.

If you're considering a copier lease, please consider the Graphic Savings Group.

A cost per copy program can be structured exactly like a copier lease, or it can be more informal, working like a month-to-month rental.

Cost per copy programs, otherwise known as cost per print, are available for machines of all sizes. While there isn't a cost per copy program yet for the Xerox iGen3, there are cost per print options on the Xerox 2060 and Xerox DocuColor 12.

The key to determining whether a cost per copy lease is right for you is based on your expected output. If you're looking for a low-cost, supplies-inclusive contract, a cost per copy deal might be the right option. Often the cost of service and supplies are fixed as part of your cost per print arrangement; however, be sure and ask as you don't want to be stuck with a huge bill for toner or parts. You should also ask if there is a base charge for service or. Another question to consider is what happens to the machine at the end of the deal. Do you take ownership of the digital copier? Does it revert back to the vendor?

In the right situation, a cost per print program can be a low cost alternative to owning or leasing a digital copier. If you're considering cost per copy options, please consider talking to the Graphic Savings Group.

The impact of Sarbanes Oxley on copier leasing with regard to financial disclosures can be confusing. Scott Harman, a technology writer, has done a good job of outlining the basic issues in a recent article.

Please keep in mind that this article is a PR piece; however, the value lies in Harman's discussion of Sarbanes Oxley in the context of copier leasing. He notes the ways in which a lease may be closer to a sale and thus treated as such by the government. If a deal is categorized as a sale rather than a copier lease, it can reduce the potential tax benefits and force a company to recognize its assets differently.

If you're looking into copier leasing and have questions about the potential tax implications, please consider talking to the Graphic Savings Group.

If you're asking what is the copier sale leaseback, read on and find out. The copier sale leaseback is where you sell a company your copier equipment and then have it leased back to you at a pre-determined rate for a given time period.

Let's say you have a Xerox DocuColor 6060, you might sell it to a copier lessor. Your business receives a payment for the agreed upon sales price. The digital copier is then leased back to your organization. You then have three choices when the lease expires. You can renew your copier lease, ask the lessor to take back the equipment, or utilize the purchase option.

The copier sale leaseback is valuable because it frees up cash and resources for expansion. You're no longer locked into a copier, but instead can use the cash flow to pursue new products.

If you're considering a copier sale leaseback, please consider talking to Graphic Savings Group.

If you want to look at whether the IRS is going to let you deduct the cost of a copier lease, you should know the criteria which determines whether a given transaction is an equipment lease or sale.

One of the great benefits of copier leasing is that you can often deduct the lease payments on your tax returns. Consider the following, because these are the areas that the Internal Revenue Service will look at in determining if a copier lease is actually a lease for tax purposes.

--Often a dollar out equipment lease is more likely to be considered a purchase. The nominal price of $1 at the end of a copier lease is not reflective of the equipment value.

--If the digital copier has no value at the end of the lease.

--If the equipment lease payments are stacked with high costs during an intial, short period of time followed by a relatively small lease payment for the same amount of time.

--If the lessee is required to repair and assume all risk of loss on the equipment.

These are important factors to think about when looking at a copier lease. The tax benefits of a lease can only be used if the IRS believes you have entered into an equipment lease. If you have more questions or are considering leasing a copier, please talk to the Graphic Savings Group.

Even NASA leases copiers.

So if you grew up wanting to be an astronaut and that didn't work out, there's still the possibility that your copiers could be leased by NASA. Here, you can learn more about NASA's RFP process for leasing copiers and the process they have designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible.

With over 2,000 copiers leased, NASA has some purchasing power. Even if you're only leasing two copiers, you can still learn something from how they approach the process.

Their machines are used on a cost per copy basis, in which they only pay for the prints run on their equipment. In addition, they have demanded onsite technical support and a minimum of 95 percent up time on their copiers. These requirements are all delineated in the RFP that is sent to potential vendors.

Decide what matters to you as part of a cost per copy lease? Do you want supplies to be included in the cost of the lease? Do you want a service guarantee (the answer should always be yes)?

If you're considering a copier lease, please consider talking to the Graphic Savings Group.

If you haven't read the article, 'The Lease You Can Do' we penned for Quick Printing Magazine, it's available here, or you can read it below.

When trying to get you to lease copy or printing equipment, a broker or manufacturer may tell you that leasing frees up badly needed cash for marketing or development efforts. With careful planning that is true, but for an unprepared business owner a lease can be a dreaded monthly payment that is the difference between thriving and closing up shop. Always remember that leases should free up cash flow, not restrict it.

By slowing down your decision making process, you can secure a lease that makes sense for your business. Be sure to take a moment to examine all of the costs before signing. With all lease payment structures, you need to examine the maximum monthly payment you would be required to make and compare it to your expected revenue.

To start, always look at equipment leasing as two separate transactions. For example, you are negotiating for the Xerox DocuTech 6100 that you need and you are deciding how much money you're willing to pay in interest. So you should fight for both—the best gear and the lowest price. All it takes is a little advance work and knowing the right questions to ask.

Always Take an Interest in the Rate

In order to be successful in earning the best interest rate on your copier lease, you need to think big. No matter the size of your company, you need to learn to throw your weight around like a bona fide blue chip.

Most importantly that means not taking the first offer from manufacturers. Get the interest rate in writing as to the percentage and the real cost of leasing a copier directly from the manufacturer. You might be surprised to learn the rates on recently introduced equipment like the Xerox 4590 or Nexpress 9110.

Next, solicit additional offers from equipment leasing companies. Look at your company like a municipality. Send out a Request for Proposals and try to secure at least two bids from financial services corporations. Let everybody know that you're looking around. The numbers you're quoted might change in a hurry.

How's the Service at That Place?

Emergency repairs on a copy machine can be a double hit to your bottom line. With your equipment out of service you can lose valuable time and revenue from jobs that can't be finished. In addition, the cost of hiring a service technician or finding a rush replacement can add up in a hurry. Always know the value of your leased equipment.

Keeping your copier on a service package is standard in most lease agreements. However, you should always know the details of that service, i.e. what is the response time of technicians and when are they available to service your machines. That way you will be prepared to handle any equipment malfunctions without sacrificing profits.

Estimate Copy Volumes

An estimate is by its nature inexact. However, when negotiating a black-and-white copier lease a bad estimate can be very costly. If you underestimate the number of copies you produce many copier leases lock in expensive per-copy charges for overages. Moreover, you'll have added strain on a digital copier which could lead to more downtime or additional repair charges.

If you overestimate you could get whacked with a monthly copying minimum fee hidden in many equipment leases. So you will be paying a monthly fee for a copier that you don't use.
Always ask if there is a minimum copying or per-copy fee. The best alternative may be a flat rate which allows you to control the costs of service and copying.

Look at how payments are structured in order to assess which is most appropriate for the volume of business that you expect in the short and long term.

So now that you know what you want and how much you can afford to pay, how are you going to get approved?

Equipment lessors look at your ability to generate revenue and your current financial health as well as your previous credit history in assessing whether you are a risk worthy candidate. By examining your own company before you offer it up to scrutiny by a dealer you might be able to identify potential areas of weakness.

Order Up

Start with potential customers and orders. Whenever possible, show evidence of contracts that you already have which require the use of type of equipment you want to lease. Advance sales are a major bonus. This has the added benefit of making the first few months of your business a bit more predictable.

Learn From the Past

The financial institution will need to examine your individual credit history and that of your corporation. Consider having partners or a board of directors if your credit history is not as strong as you would like or if your corporation is just starting out. By adding partners with better credit, you can lower your risk rating substantially.

Money Talks

Pledging additional collateral, such as property or holdings, will make your bottom line more attractive to lessors. It shows that you have additional assets and a potential track record of success. Keep in mind that any collateral that you include in a lease is open to creditors if your business venture does fail.

Economies of Scale

If you're upgrading technology at the same time you're purchasing new office furniture, make it the same deal. You can work with an equipment value-added reseller to bundle equipment and peripheral purchases into a single lease. As the size of the deal increases you may be able to negotiate for a more favorable rate or be able to present a more attractive application.

Jonathan Bender is the director of communications for the Bender family of companies which includes JJ Bender, an equipment trader, and the Graphic Savings Group, a financial services company for the graphics industry. He can be reached at jonb@jjbender.com.

There's a new kind of copier lease in town- the cost per copy deal, also known as fleet management. In a cost per copy lease, you would pay a flat fee per click for copier service.

Some cost per copy deals are supplies inclusive and some are not. Make sure you understand exactly what the costs will be for supplies and whether they are part of the flat rate per click.

The best aspects of an equipment lease structured as a cost per copy deal is that you don't have to worry about service or stocking supplies. This is a convenient arrangement in which your costs are fixed according to the volume of copies you do under your equipment leasing payment structure.

The key to examining whether a cost per copy lease makes sense financially is to look at the volume of copies you will be doing. If you are running a large number of prints, it may make sense to lease the equipment outright.

If you're looking at a cost per copy deal or even just leasing equipment, please consider talking to the Graphic Savings Group.

The concept of copier lease consolidation is known in the leasing industry as bundling. This is where you take several different equipment leases and put them together in one single lease payment.

Often, you will be able to refinance and restructure your new bundled lease- saving effort and improving cash flow in the process. The major benefit to consolidating your copier leases is simpler cost management and administration.

You need to examine your lease paperwork carefully to see if there are any financial penalties for transferring a lease and what the buyout terms might be. This will ensure that you are not hit with any financial penalties, nullilfying the potential economic benefits of bundling a lease.
If you're looking at copier leasing or bundling your existing leases, please consider talking to the Graphic Savings Group.