Copier Rental in Singapore

Copier Rental in Singapore

If you are looking for a copier machine for your office in Singapore, there are actually plenty of options available. If given the luxury of a big procurement budget, one will be introduced to a wide array of ultra modern and high technology machines from top brands like Canon and Fuji Xerox. In this case, paying more than $10,000 on a high-end colour copier with plenty of add-ons is considered normal. On the other hand, if you think that splurging hard business cash on just a copy machine alone is downright unnecessary, renting a copier may just be the answer to your equation.

As we all know, a new startup business will need to make a thousand purchases and even though getting a copier is imperative, it is most likely not going to be found anywhere near the top of the entrepreneur’s expenditure list in terms of priority. On the other hand, a company with a prudent finance chief will know too well that spending big money on a photocopier today will not mean much in about four to five years’ time, because the machine will be considered outdated by then and an upgrade to a new model will be deemed necessary – and the cycle continues.

Copier rental is ideal for companies and businesses that need a simple and direct solution to their document printing at the office without the high upfront costs. In Singapore, many copier suppliers need only a few hundred dollars as a security deposit for the machine, as well as an upfront payment equivalent to one month’s rent – about $100 to $150 for a good quality colour copier model which is quite recent and with almost full options included – good bargaining skills will work wonders at this point. At any rate, with such low capital outlay, renting is really an attractive proposition compared to buying an expensive copier.

Rental Contract

Once the order is confirmed, a formal agreement will need to be signed by you and this is typically for a one-year contract period, which is considered quite reasonable and manageable for most businesses. Even so, the rental period is still negotiable and six months is definitely possible. However do spend a little more time to read the fine print on the agreement before you sign on the dotted line. Many of these agreement documents tend to contain a special ‘auto-renewal’ clause that will render the contract automatically renewed if you do not notify the rental company in writing at least 90 days before the expiry date. Fine, if you are completely certain that you will still remember this after nine months, but what if? Anyway, if you don’t feel comfortable with this clause hanging around, you can try asking for it to be removed entirely from the contract document or otherwise, you may consider taking your business elsewhere – there must still be many other good and reliable copier rental companies in Singapore to choose from.

It is also worth taking a note of the ‘pre-termination’ charge in the event of a premature rental termination before the expiry date. This is usually termed as the balance of unused months multiplied by the rental rate in most rental contracts. For a 1-year contract at $100 monthly rental rate, returning the copier after four months of use will incurr an early termination charge of $800.00 (8 months x $100). So do plan well in order to avoid being stuck in a sticky situation such as this.

Copy Charge

Next item to take note is the copy charge which bills you for every copy printed on paper. It is also known as the meter charge and it is a standard industry practice which is common around the world. Do note that printing on two sides of one piece of copy paper will mean two counts of meter run. The charge for each monochrome copy is usually around one cent, and for colour it is 15 cents. Haggle a little and you may even get a sweeter deal. Copiers from the older generations have a counter physically attached to the motherboard of the machine by electrical wires and you can actually see the meter run as you print. But copiers have since evolved and now you get on-board electronic counters instead. Still, you can easily review your usage anytime by simply pressing a button on the control panel. Colour copies usage are recorded separately from monochrome copies. Likewise, printing the largest A3 size will also be separated from the smaller A4 size. Logically the wear and tear is higher and more toner is consumed while printing A3 documents, but it is common that most copier suppliers in Singapore do not impose any extra charge for it – do make sure that you are not being charged more. You might be wondering why you still need to pay a copy charge when you are already paying rent. Well, this additional usage expense will cover all the costs of maintenance including unlimited on-site service, toner supply, drum cartridges and replacement parts.

Choosing the Right Copier

First of all, you need to estimate your monthly printing volume in order to get the right-size copier that is able to suit your needs. An overkill mistake to avoid is getting a high capacity and bulky machine to print just 500 copies per month, only because of its fast copy speed. Many small businesses print around 1,000 copies or less per month, and getting a 20ppm (pages per minute) machine would be an ideal selection – the first copy output time for this is still considered quite fast at 5 seconds or less, if you are just printing one copy from a black and white original document. However if you are venturing into a new business arena and have absolutely no idea what your usage will be like, renting a machine with a capacity of 20ppm to 25ppm is probably where you should start, and upgrade along the way as your business grows. On the other hand,  if you know that your usage is going to exceed 10,000 copies a month, you will need a heavy duty machine that is at least 50ppm and above. For large and busy offices with more than 20 users, decentralising workstations by renting two or more copiers is a good alternative. This will allow your staff to work simultaneously in order to increase productivity.

Next will be your choice of the add-on features. These include facsimile, email, printer and scanner functions, all of which are useful essential features for the office. The additional rental charge will not be a huge difference even if you opt for all four extras, but you will save time and money by not having to buy each individual equipment separately.

Another selection criteria will be colour printing capability – a luxury for most. If colour printing is really necessary for your business, you will need to take note of the unit copy cost of around $0.15 against $0.01 for a monochrome copy. For 10,000 copies made, that will be $1,500 for colour compared to $100 for monochrome. Thus it would be wise to implement some form of usage control in order to reduce wastage and misuse by staff members printing personal documents. Fortunately, all colour copiers will come with integrated  accounting systems that can track, restrict and control usage to help you manage your printing costs. Otherwise having a ‘free-flow-printing’ mentality at the office will be detrimental to your business expenditure.

You can save some money by renting a slightly older model, or pay more to have the most recent machine, but either way you will most likely get a good quality refurbished copier supplied by local companies. Going through a so-called re-manufacturing process, these machines would have been cleaned thoroughly inside out, and all critical components replaced in order to restore it to a perfect working condition. In fact, some really do look as good as new.

Discuss your needs in detail with your supplier. Most copier companies are experts in their field and they will likely do a good job in their recommendations according to your intended usage.

Benefits of Copier Rental

Low capital outlay has to be the most welcome benefit. This is where you make an upfront payment of a security deposit and one month’s rent. Besides being low-cost, renting a copier also allows the flexibility of upgrading your machine anytime whenever there is a need. One such copier company that allows an upgrade anytime without any restrictions is G1 Copier. For example, you may need a machine upgrade from monochrome to colour, from medium capacity to heavy duty, from old to new model, or from a basic copier to a multi-functional device with printer and scanner. This will ensure your printing needs are well-managed at all times without having to bear high machine depreciation costs and then forking out another substantial amount to upgrade.

In addition, the rental payments are all fully tax-deductible as expenses. Without having to meddle with asset depreciation costing and such, accounting is made clean and simple. For a small business entrepreneur who needs the energy to focus on building his business, this could mean so much more.

It’s not commonly said but one green benefit can actually come out of renting a copier because it supports reusing a machine instead of buying. Somehow it helps to promote corporate social responsibility (CSR) awareness among companies and businesses. Ultimately, buying less means wasting less.