Managed print contract terms, and the five that decide what it costs
- 5.0 on Google from 150+ reviews
- Trading since 2010
For whoever has to read the agreement before several offices are committed to it.
- The five terms that move the number
- What Australian law changed in 2023
- The wording to ask for before you sign
A managed print contract is priced by five terms, and the monthly figure is only one of them.
The other four are the length, the renewal clause, the overage rate and the cost of leaving early.
Those four rarely appear in a proposal, and all four survive for the whole term.
This page names each one and gives you the wording to ask for.
See what a managed print agreement covers before you price one
Send your sites and your renewal dates
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- Since 2010 Australian owned and Queensland based
- 500+ Australian businesses on an agreement with us
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Trading year and client count: published by Global Document Solutions, who operate this service, and read from their site on 5 September 2026.
Rating and review count: from the Google Business Profile for Global Document Solutions, read the same day.
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Read the exit clause first and the monthly figure second.
The exit figure is usually the largest number in the agreement.
It is also the one number no proposal puts on the front page.
Ask for it as a formula rather than as a reassurance.
Last updated 5 September 2026.
Which five terms in a managed print contract decide the cost
Each one is a question with a number behind it.
A supplier who will not answer any of them in writing has told you something useful.
| The term | The question it answers | Where it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Length | How many years, from which date | A device chosen badly is chosen badly for every month of it |
| Renewal | What happens on the end date if nobody writes | A missed notice window can start a fresh term |
| Committed volume | How many pages the rate assumes | Set too high and you pay for pages nobody printed |
| Overage | What a page costs once you pass that band | Charged at a different rate to the one you were quoted |
| Exit | What ending it early costs, as a formula | Routinely the largest single figure in the document |
Why the monthly figure hides four of them
Four of those five are invisible in a headline monthly price.
That is why two quotes at the same monthly figure are rarely the same deal.
Somebody has to count the sites before any of the five can be answered.
In practice that count runs on four numbers you already have.
The rate band itself is set by your pooled volume, which is covered on the page about what a multi site print fleet costs each month.
How does a managed print contract renew
Most agreements do not simply stop.
The date that decides it is not the end date
Most Australian equipment agreements run three to five years, and a great many of them renew without anybody doing anything.
The renewal turns on a notice window that opens and closes before the end date arrives.
Give notice inside that window and the agreement ends when you expected it to.
Miss it and the term extends on the supplier's wording rather than on yours.
Ours carries no automatic renewal clause at all.
When the agreed term ends the agreement runs month to month until you hand the device back or move up to a newer one.
There is no notice window to miss, because there is nothing to give notice against.
So the date worth diarising is the one the window opens.
Buyers diarise the end date instead, because that is the date on the front.
On a three to five year term there are only two or three moments where this matters at all.
Missing one of them costs another full term, at the same rate.
What the clause looks like drawn out
One window per site, on its own date
One site has one window and one date to remember, which is manageable.
Five offices bought separately have five, and they rarely fall in the same quarter.
That is how a single missed window becomes three sites locked for another term while two move.
The organisation then holds two arrangements at once, which is the position it was trying to leave.
The fix is unglamorous and it works.
Put the notice date for every site in one calendar, set 60 days ahead of the window opening.
Record the supplier, the site and the notice address on the same row, because a notice sent to the wrong entity is not notice.
Do it the day you sign, not the month it falls due.
That sequencing is covered by the page about moving sites across as each existing contract ends.
Do you know the notice window on each of your sites
Send the renewal dates you have, even rough ones, and we map the rest.
What Australian law says about unfair terms in a print contract
This part changed recently and most print buyers have not been told.
What changed on 9 November 2023
According to the ACCC, changes to the unfair contract terms law came into effect on 9 November 2023.
From that date, proposing, using or relying on an unfair term in a standard form contract is banned, and penalties apply.
The protection covers a business with fewer than 100 employees, or under $10 million in annual turnover.
Most organisations running 5 to 10 offices sit inside at least one of those two thresholds.
Per the ACCC guidance, the changes apply to a standard form contract made or renewed on or after that date.
The word renewed is the one that matters to a print buyer, because a quiet rollover is a renewal.
There is also a presumption that a contract is a standard form contract, and the party that wrote it has to prove otherwise.
Source: ACCC, Contracts, accc.gov.au, read 7 September 2026.
What counts as unfair, and what does not
The law sets out its own examples of terms that may be unfair.
One of them lands squarely on print agreements.
It is a term that penalises “one party (but not the other) for breaching or ending the contract”.
An exit charge running one way only is worth reading twice against that sentence.
The ACCC also names four conditions that make an automatic renewal clause concerning.
- The clause is not adequately disclosed.
- No notice is given that the contract is about to renew.
- The cut off date for cancelling can be changed.
- Large early termination charges apply once it has renewed.
Three of those four describe a printer contract almost exactly.
The regulator has taken such clauses to the Federal Court three times.
Chrisco Hampers, Servcorp and JJ Richards, and all three were found unfair.
Source: ACCC guidance as set out by Clayton Utz, Unfair contract terms 02, claytonutz.com, read 7 September 2026.
Two limits are just as important to state plainly.
The law does not apply to a term that sets the upfront price to be paid.
And only a court can decide that.
So this is not a way out of an agreement already signed.
It is a reason to read the exit clause and the renewal clause properly before you sign the next one.
The full guidance sits on the ACCC page on contracts and unfair terms.
From $160 + GST a month per device.
Volume is pooled across every site, so a larger fleet prices into a lower band.
Paper, staples and pages above your agreed volume sit outside that figure.
Want these five terms answered against your own sites
Send the addresses and the renewal dates and we come back in writing.
What to ask a print supplier for in writing before signing
Six requests, each answerable in a sentence.
- The term length, and the date it starts from.
- The renewal clause in full, with the notice window in days.
- The committed volume the quoted rate assumes.
- The overage rate, and the page count where it starts.
- The early exit figure as a formula, not as a number.
- What happens to the agreement if one site closes.
Send that list to every supplier you are comparing.
The replies will differ more than the monthly figures do.
Two suppliers can quote the same figure and sit two rate bands apart.
Data from the published CopierChoice lease bands puts entry level and high volume $65 to $95 a month apart.
Across 8 sites on a five year term that gap is real money.
Our own written scope sets out the term, the exit terms and the overage rate.
Our answers to the first three are fixed and published.
The term is 36, 48 or 60 months.
There is no automatic renewal clause.
The early exit figure is anything outstanding, the remaining payments and reasonable recovery costs.
That last one is a formula rather than a number, which is what we tell buyers to demand from anybody.
Source: Global Document Solutions, printer leasing page, read 7 September 2026.
What happens at the end of a managed print contract
Three things, and only one of them is usually discussed.
The devices go back, because on a managed agreement you were never buying them.
On ours the agreement runs month to month from the end date until they do.
That is the difference from a lease, which is set out on the page comparing an agreement that owns the devices against one that does not.
The data on each machine has to be dealt with before it leaves the building.
A multifunction device holds a hard drive, an address book and stored jobs, and all three walk out with it.
Ask who wipes it, to what standard, and whether you get a certificate.
Our own end of term wipe, the monitoring and the meter reads sit inside the agreement rather than beside it.
One honest limit belongs here rather than in the small print.
A 36 to 60 month term does not suit an office that might close or halve in size.
A short term rental fits that better.
We will say so rather than sell the term.
Where release at the device matters, that mechanism is explained under holding a job until the person is standing at the machine.
The contract questions buyers send us
What is a managed print contract?
A managed print contract puts the devices, the servicing and the consumables with one supplier, across every site you run.
You are billed for pages printed rather than buying machines and cartridges separately from several suppliers.
The part that decides the cost is not the device list, and it is not the monthly figure on the front page.
It is the five terms behind that figure: length, renewal, committed volume, overage and the cost of leaving early.
Four of those five are invisible in a headline price, and all five survive for the whole term.
Most Australian agreements of this kind run three to five years, so a term agreed in a hurry is lived with for 36 to 60 months.
That is why two proposals quoting the same amount per device per month are very often not the same deal at all.
Ask for all five in writing before comparing any two of them.
What term length is normal for a managed print agreement?
Most Australian equipment agreements run three to five years, which is 36 to 60 monthly invoices.
Toshiba Australia puts the common terms at 36, 48 or 60 months, and ours are the same three.
The length matters more than it first appears, because every other decision is locked alongside it.
A device chosen badly at signing is chosen badly for every month of the term.
The published CopierChoice lease bands put one band at $65 to $95 a month per site.
Across 8 sites on a five year term that single decision runs into five figures.
Ask for the term length and the date it starts from, because those are two different things.
A term often starts at installation rather than at signature, and on a multi site rollout those dates can be months apart.
Does a managed print contract renew automatically?
Many do, through a notice window that opens and closes before the end date arrives.
Miss it and the term can extend on the supplier's wording rather than on yours.
Ours carries no automatic renewal clause at all, so there is no window to miss.
That is a deliberate stance rather than something you negotiate for.
When the agreed term ends the agreement runs month to month until the device goes back or you move up to a newer one.
One of the ACCC's four warning conditions is a large exit charge after a renewal.
The regulator has taken such clauses to the Federal Court three times and all three were found unfair.
Across 5 offices bought separately there are five windows on five dates.
Ask any supplier for the renewal clause in full, with the notice window stated in days.
Then diarise the window, not the end date.
What is an overage charge on a print contract?
An overage charge is the rate applied to pages printed above the volume your quoted rate assumes.
Every per page rate is quoted against a committed band, and the headline figure only holds while you print inside it.
Past that band the pages bill at the overage rate, which is usually a different and higher number.
This is the single most common reason an invoice arrives larger than the proposal suggested.
It also works in the other direction, because a band set too high means paying for pages nobody printed.
A committed band set from one unrepresentative quarter can be 30 or 40 per cent out in either direction.
Ask for the overage rate and the exact page count where it starts, for each site and for the pooled total.
A supplier who quotes a rate without naming the band it applies to has quoted you half a price.
Can you get out of a managed print contract early?
Usually yes, and usually at a cost that is the largest single figure in the whole agreement.
That figure is rarely printed anywhere in a proposal, which is why most buyers meet it when they want to leave.
Ask for the early exit cost as a formula rather than as a number.
Ours is anything outstanding, the remaining payments and reasonable recovery costs.
It is written in plain English before you sign.
A formula can be checked against any month of the term, and a number quoted today tells you nothing about month 40.
On a 5 year term signed across 8 sites it is routinely the largest single number in the agreement.
We will not tell you to break a contract early, because the payout normally outweighs the saving.
The sequence that does work is to move each site as its own agreement falls due.
Do Australian unfair contract terms laws apply to a print agreement?
The ACCC says the strengthened unfair contract terms rules commenced on 9 November 2023.
From that date, proposing, using or relying on an unfair term in a standard form contract is banned and penalties apply.
They reach a business with fewer than 100 employees, or one under $10 million in annual turnover.
An organisation running 5 to 10 offices will usually meet at least one of those two tests.
Per the ACCC guidance the changes apply to a standard form contract made or renewed on or after that date, so a quiet rollover is a renewal.
The law's own examples of terms that may be unfair include a term that penalises one party but not the other for ending the contract.
Two limits matter as much: the law does not cover a term setting the upfront price, and only a court decides that a term is unfair.
So it is not a way out of an agreement you signed.
What happens if one of our offices closes mid term?
Ask this before signing, because the answer differs sharply between suppliers.
A fleet agreement is still a commitment for the term.
Closing one address does not by itself end it.
What can usually be done is to move the device rather than to cancel it, into another of your own sites that needs the capacity.
That keeps the pooled volume intact, which matters because the pooled total is what sets your rate band.
Where no other site needs it, the early exit figure applies to that device on the same formula as any other early exit.
We will also say plainly when the term is the wrong tool.
A term that long is the wrong tool for an address whose future is uncertain.
A short term rental fits that better.
Tell us which addresses are uncertain and we will scope those separately rather than fold them into the term.
Get the five terms answered for your fleet
Tell us the sites and the renewal dates and we come back with a written scope.
What their customers write on Google
Managed Printer Services is new. Global Document Solutions, who run it, is not.
When something breaks
We have had a great experience with this team.
They are always prompt, helpful and really easy to deal with.
Any issues are sorted quickly and the whole printer leasing process has been seamless.
On price, and on being told things
I highly recommend Cyrus at Global Document Solutions.
The service was brilliant from start to finish, with clear communication and attention to detail.
Pricing was extremely competitive and offered value for money.
Replacing a machine already on contract
We replaced our existing machine (also through GDS) and, as always, the process was seamless.
We had our machine up and running with minimal downtime.
These are reviews of Global Document Solutions, who operate this service, and not of this site.
Each one is copied word for word from their Google Business Profile, under the name Google shows, read on 7 September 2026.