# Photocopier lease terms explained for organisations with printers at five or more offices Source: https://managedprinterservices.com/photocopier-lease-terms/ Last updated: 2026-10-24 Operated by Global Document Solutions, ABN 89 567 852 183, Unit 1/8 Glasson Dr, Bethania QLD 4205. Phone 1300 873 460. ## Photocopier lease terms in plain English, office by office 61 words from a copier lease, each in a sentence or two, for groups with 5 or more offices. - Who owns the copier, and who is paid each month. - Printer and page words have their own glossary - Operated by Global Document Solutions. ### Lease words to clear up on the call Pick the range of offices. The clauses you are unsure of can wait for the call. Global Document Solutions explains copier lease words for groups of offices, then quotes each office onto one managed print agreement. ### Who is on a photocopier lease? Usually 3 companies, and only 1 of them is in your office. - Who is on the lease - Lease, rental or loan - Payments and buyouts - Service and page charges - How a lease ends - Registration and fairness law - The same words on one agreement A photocopier lease is a finance agreement for a copier, paid monthly over a fixed term. #### What do lessor, lessee and funder mean? Lessor The company that owns the copier and is owed every payment. On most copier leases that is a finance company. Lessee Your business, the user and the payer. Funder or financier Another name for the lessor, often a bank or a finance company tied to a copier maker. #### Who else can a copier lease name? Dealer The business that sells the copier, services it and arranges the finance. Get any promise a dealer makes written into the finance agreement itself. Broker or introducer A go between who finds the funder. Guarantor A director who promises to pay personally if the business cannot. Check whether a lease asks for one before anybody commits. Assignment The funder passing the lease to another company, sometimes without asking you. Your business usually needs the funder's written consent to do the same. Servicing usually comes under a second agreement, with the dealer. - The funder, a finance company, owns the copier, not the dealer who sold it. - Most leases bring two invoices, one for finance and one for service. - The end date and the notice window decide what leaving costs. - Every office with its own lease carries its own set of these terms. Last updated 24 October 2026. ### Is it a lease, a rental or something else? 5 agreements wear similar names, and they end differently. Who owns the copier, and what happens at the end | Agreement | Owner during the term | At the end | | --- | --- | --- | | Finance lease | The funder | Buy it, often at a residual | | Operating lease or rental | The funder or dealer | It goes back | | Hire purchase | The funder, until the last payment | Your business owns it | | Chattel mortgage | Your business, from day one | The loan is cleared | | Managed print agreement | The supplier | Upgraded or collected | #### Is a copier lease a finance lease or an operating lease? Lease As copier dealers use the word, a finance agreement over a fixed term, with service billed apart. Rental Often the same finance underneath, with service folded into one payment. The word does not mean short, or easy to cancel. Finance lease The funder owns the copier for most of its working life, usually with an option to buy at the end. Operating lease The funder keeps the risks of owning the copier, and it goes back when the term ends. #### Which agreements end with your business owning the copier? Hire purchase The funder buys the copier, and your business owns it after the final payment. Chattel mortgage A loan to buy the copier, owned by your business from day one. No property is involved, despite the name. Rent to own A rental with a path to buying the copier at a price the agreement sets. Managed print agreement One agreement for a supplied printer at each office, priced per printer each month. Each of the three plans here covers toner and parts, plus labour and servicing, so no second service contract runs beside it. Which of these suits a group is argued on a lease set against one managed agreement, office by office. ### Which money words set the monthly payment? The quote shows one monthly figure, and these words decide it. #### Which words set the payments and the last one? Monthly rental The fixed payment to the funder each month, for the copier alone on most leases. Rate factor A multiplier a dealer applies to the copier's price to get the monthly payment. It does not convert neatly to an interest rate. Implicit interest rate The rate built into the payments, defined by the accounting standard AASB 16 and rarely printed on a quote. Total amount payable Every payment over the full term, added together. Compare offices on this figure, never the monthly one. Residual value An amount fixed at the start for what the copier will be worth at the end. You pay it if you keep the copier. Balloon payment A large final payment that keeps each monthly figure lower. Fair market value buyout A price to keep the copier, set by the funder when the term ends. Get the figure in writing before the end date. One dollar buyout A lease priced so the copier is yours for a token sum at the end. Each payment is higher to cover it. #### Which fees and tax words come with the payments? Document fee A charge for preparing the paperwork, which Axia Office says to look for on the first invoice. GST on rentals According to the ATO, the GST credit on a lease is one eleventh of each payment, claimed as it falls due. Tax deduction According to the ATO's own example, a photocopier lease is an operating expense, claimed in the year it is paid. The lessor owns the copier, so a lease is not a capital expense. Instant asset write off A deduction for equipment your business holds, such as on hire purchase, and never for a leased copier. Ask the funder for the total amount payable and the price to keep the copier, in writing, before anybody commits. The plans here are priced per printer, and the three published plans show what each monthly figure covers. From $160 + GST a month per printer. Standard plans, tailored to your fleet. Excess page rates are stated in your quote and are normally the same at every location. Paper, staples and pages above your agreed volume sit outside that figure. ### Which service words come with a copier lease? Where the monthly bill moves. #### How are pages charged under a service agreement? Service agreement A second contract, usually with the dealer, for maintenance and often toner. Its end date can differ from the finance. Two invoices One bill from the funder for the copier, one from the dealer for service and pages. Click charge A charge for every printed side, counted from the copier's meter. According to CopierChoice, a double sided page counts as 2 clicks. Minimum monthly volume Pages billed every month, printed or not. Axia Office says it is the likeliest clause to cost a one or two copier office money. Base charge A fixed monthly service fee charged before any pages are counted. Estimated read A bill worked out from past use when no meter reading arrives. #### What makes the service bill rise? Annual increase or CPI clause A clause that raises the service charge every year, commonly in line with CPI. Check whether a cap applies. Toner freight A delivery charge some dealers add to each toner order, even where toner is included. Excess page rate The charge per page above an allowance, set as 2 rates for mono pages and colour pages. On our agreement the quote states it, and it normally matches across locations. Response time How long until a technician arrives. Fix time is when the copier works again. Meter reads, toner yield and duty cycle are defined in the page and plan words of the print glossary. ### Which clauses decide how a copier lease ends? Leaving costs are set here, years ahead. #### How long does a copier lease run, and does it renew? Minimum term The months every payment is owed, commonly 36 to 60, according to Axia Office. Non cancellable Payments run for the full term, even once the copier is no longer wanted. Hell or high water clause Payment continues even if the copier is lost or broken. In effect, a non cancellable lease by another name. Automatic renewal The lease rolls on for another period unless written notice arrives in time. Terms like this were among those in the ACCC's case against Fujifilm. Evergreen clause Another name for automatic renewal. Notice window The dates between which notice must arrive, often well before the end date. Holdover Payments that keep running after the end date until the copier goes back. #### What does leaving a copier lease involve? Early termination Leaving before the end date, usually by paying out the remaining payments. Payout figure The sum to leave on a given date, quoted by the funder alone. Rolled in payout An upgrade that settles the old lease inside a new one. Axia Office warns it can mean a new 60 month term. Coterminous A copier added part way through, set to end on the same date as the rest. Change of control A merger or sale of the business, which some funders treat as a default without their consent. Default A breach that lets the funder end the lease and demand money, wider than a missed payment. Acceleration clause On default, every future payment falls due at once. Return condition The state the copier must be in when it goes back, often judged against fair wear and tear. Removal fee The charge to pack and collect the copier at the end, which the return clause may leave to the lessee. Data wipe Clearing the scanned images stored inside the copier before it leaves. Ask the funder when the notice window opens, for every office. For a new agreement, read which managed print clauses finance should check first. Bring your leases, and we price each office onto one agreement. ### Which legal terms appear on a copier lease? Registration and fairness law apply over the paperwork. PPSR The Personal Property Securities Register, where a funder records its interest in a leased copier. A clear search does not prove who owns it. PPS lease Since a 2017 amendment, a lease that runs for more than two years, according to Bartier Perry. Purchase money security interest A funder's interest in the very copier it financed, which ranks first when registered before delivery. Standard form contract A contract offered on the supplier's terms, with little room to change them. Unfair contract term A term in a standard form contract that a court can declare void, so it has no effect. Since 9 November 2023, using one can bring a penalty. Small business test Fewer than 100 staff, or turnover under $10 million, for the unfair terms law. A large group can fall outside it. The Fujifilm case In a ruling of 12 August 2022, the Federal Court found 38 terms across 11 kinds of Fujifilm small business contract unfair and void. “…automatic renewal, excessive exit fees and unilateral price increases.” The unfair Fujifilm terms, in ACCC media release 108/22 of 12 August 2022. Ask the funder which entity the PPSR registration names. This page gives no legal or tax advice, so take each lease to an adviser. ### How do these words play out across several offices? Three patterns a group holding many leases meets. A notice window missed at one branch With 5 offices, that can mean 5 notice windows in 5 different months. Miss one, and that office can roll on for another period while the rest move. An upgrade that hides a payout A new copier offered part way through can fold the old payout into a fresh term. Ask for the payout as its own line before anybody agrees. A merger that touches every lease Two groups combining can trip a change of control clause at every office. Ask each funder for consent first, in writing. Where several leases end on different dates, see how a group leaves them one office at a time. ### How do the same words read on one managed print agreement? Fewer words to watch, and each office joins as its lease ends. Lease words, and what one managed print agreement says instead | Lease word | On one agreement | | --- | --- | | Two invoices | A single group invoice, plus a report per office | | Service agreement | Toner and parts, with labour and servicing, in every plan | | Click charge | A monthly figure per printer, plus any excess pages | | Excess page rate | Stated in the quote, normally the same everywhere | | Coterminous | An added office joins, with the end date kept or extended | | Payout figure | No office pays one to join, unless it chooses to | | Removal fee | GDS covers collection on an upgrade with GDS | | Data wipe | A paid option | A printer your group owns stays off the agreement, and each office gets one supplied. A technician generally arrives within 4 hours in a capital city, and the next business day in a regional town. The visit comes from an authorised dealer or the manufacturer, at any address in Australia. Bring any lease to the call, and we go through its words together. Put each lease end date into the free fleet planner, which emails the plan back. The agreement itself is explained on one managed print agreement for every office. ### Lease questions groups ask before the call #### Can you get out of a copier lease early? Usually by paying out the remaining payments, at a figure the funder quotes. Waiting for the end date avoids a payout, as long as notice arrives in time. Each office can join one managed agreement as its own lease ends. #### What happens at the end of a copier lease? The copier goes back, rolls on, or is bought, as the lease sets out. Missing the notice window can roll it on for another period. A fair market value or one dollar buyout sets the price to keep it. #### Is a photocopier lease tax deductible? The ATO's own example treats photocopier lease payments as an operating expense. Ownership stays with the lessor, which keeps it out of capital spending. Your accountant can confirm how it applies to your group. ### One agreement in place of every lease Count the offices first. Lease clauses come up on the call. ### Which leases you hold, and which words in them Name the offices and who holds each lease. Add any clause you want read through with you. Operated by Global Document Solutions, an authorised Kyocera partner. Keep reading - Leasing printers company wide - Moving the group to a new provider