A properly specified office multifunction device is not a cheap purchase, and the decision on how to pay for it usually gets made in about five minutes at the end of a sales conversation. It is worth a bit more thought than that, because the difference over five years is real money.
Here is a straight comparison. We do both, so we have no barrow to push.
The cash flow question
Buying outright means a single payment. Depending on specification, an A4 multifunction device might be a few thousand dollars, and a larger A3 machine with finishing options considerably more.
Leasing spreads that across fixed monthly payments over a term, typically three to five years. The total paid over the term is higher than the purchase price – that is the cost of the finance – but the money stays in the business in the meantime.
For most small businesses that is the whole argument. Capital sitting in a photocopier is capital not sitting in stock, a vehicle, a hire, or the buffer that gets you through a slow quarter. A machine does not earn a return the way those things do; it just needs to work.
Tax treatment
Generally speaking, lease payments on equipment used in the business are treated as an operating expense and claimed in the year they are paid, while an outright purchase is usually depreciated over the effective life of the asset (subject to whatever instant write-off provisions apply at the time).
Which is better depends on your profit position, your structure and the rules in force that year – so this is a conversation for your accountant, not your equipment supplier. What we can say is that it is worth asking the question before you sign, not after.
Staying current
Office devices last a long time mechanically, but the software around them ages faster. Scanning to cloud storage, secure print release, mobile printing, security patches, integration with your document management – the machine you buy today will be behind on all of that by year six.
A lease has an upgrade point built in. At the end of the term you move to current equipment. Owners tend to hang onto machines well past the point where service costs and downtime have made them expensive, precisely because the machine is "already paid for".
Maintenance is usually the deciding factor
This is the part people underestimate. Copiers need servicing: drums, fusers, rollers, toner, and the occasional technician call-out.
Lease agreements are normally bundled with a service agreement covering parts, labour and consumables, priced per page. You get a predictable cost per month with no surprises, and a response commitment when something breaks.
Buy outright and you either take a separate service agreement anyway (in which case you are back to a monthly cost) or you pay for each repair as it happens. That second option is fine right up until the fuser fails in the middle of end-of-financial-year.
Whichever way you go, check what the service agreement covers and what the cost per page is for mono and colour. That number, multiplied by your monthly volume, is the real ongoing cost of the machine – the sticker price is a smaller part of the picture than most people assume.
When buying outright makes sense
- Very low volume. If the office prints a few hundred pages a month, an inexpensive machine bought outright is the sensible answer. Financing a small device is not worth the paperwork.
- Cash sitting idle and no better use for it. If capital is genuinely spare, buying avoids the finance cost.
- A short, defined need. A project office winding up in eighteen months does not want a five-year term.
- You have an in-house technician. Rare, but it changes the maintenance argument.
What to check before you sign a lease
- The full term and total amount payable, not just the monthly figure.
- What happens at the end – return, upgrade, or continue.
- Whether service and consumables are included, and the cost per page.
- What the minimum monthly volume commitment is, if any.
- Whether the agreement automatically rolls over, and the notice period.
Any reputable supplier will answer all of those without hesitation.
How we handle it
Bold Media Group supplies A3 and A4 multifunction devices and printers from a wide range of leading brands, with servicing, consumables and technical support. We offer outright purchase, and equipment financing through Grenke for businesses that would rather keep the cash in the business and have the maintenance wrapped into one predictable monthly figure.
The most useful starting point is your current page counts and what you are paying now. Send those through and we will come back with both options costed, so you can compare them properly.