Your Next Business Computer – To Buy or Lease?
In contemplating getting your next office computer, one decision to weigh is whether to buy or lease your office equipment, specifically your computers. Each route has its benefits.
- Leasing: The lease option on either a refurbished or new computer has the advantage of allowing a faster tax write-off. At the end of the lease it can be turned in and a more up-to-date computer can be leased.An added attraction for the leased computer may be to purchased the computer from the leasing company for a nominal amount and then auctioned it off in-house to employees. This both allows the company to recuperate a little of the computer expense and helps build morale since an employee will get a good computer for a good price.
- Purchasing. The benefit of getting a new computer is, aside from being assured you have the fastest one on the market, is that it can be purchased with a longer parts and labor warranty period, usually up to 3 years. If your office has little tolerance for computer downtime, having the warranty that guarantees a new computer or replacement hardware part delivered in 24 hours is very helpful.
A new computer also has less risk that new software will not run on its dated operating system. The rule of thumb is that if your operating system is three generations old you will run into more situations where software companies drop off supporting the software running on that platform or do not make their new software backwards compatible to run on the older operating system.
If companies do not have security or support concerns with the Linux platform and the Open Office software suite with its spreadsheet and word processor that runs on Linux, then the age of the computer and the version of the operating system are less of a concern, since they are always being upgraded for free.
An additional option for businesses is to get a business cash advance to pay for the computer and use their future VISA/MasterCard sales to repay the cash advance. US Business Finance Corp helps many small businesses acquire needed financing for office equipment and manufacturing tooling using cash advances.
Taking these two points into account – to buy or lease – companies can better determine how their new computer will affect their cash flow and how quickly they can see a return on their investment.
Related Images:
Filed under: Alternative Capital, Business Cash Advance, Money Matters - Business, Your New Business
