Skip to content
Printer Lease Agreement Terms, Explained
A printer lease agreement sets the term, the monthly payment, what the payment covers and how the lease ends.
Five clauses carry most of the cost risk, so start with those.
- Plans start from $160 a month (plus GST), and nothing we write renews on its own.
Showing all 77 terms
No term matches that search, so try a shorter word.
Or call 1300 873 460 and we will explain the clause in your agreement.
Terms in the agreement itself
Your payments go to the funder, but your service calls go to the dealer.
A printer lease is an agreement to use an office printer for a set term in return for monthly payments.
The provider or a finance company owns the machine.
A managed lease also bundles toner, parts and service into the payment.
An operating lease is a lease where you use the equipment and hand it back at the end.
You never own the machine.
Most office printer leases in Australia work this way.
Check: Ask your accountant how the payments are treated for your business.
A finance lease is a lease built to pay off most of the equipment’s value over the term.
It often ends with a residual payment that passes ownership to you.
It suits a business that wants to own the machine and is happy to service an ageing device.
A rental agreement lets you use a printer for a period, usually with no finance company in the middle.
Many providers use rental, hire and lease to mean the same thing.
Ignore the label.
Read the term and the exit clause.
The lease term is the length of time you agree to pay for the equipment.
In Australia it is usually 36, 48 or 60 months.
A longer term lowers the monthly payment but holds you in the agreement for longer.
Check: Match the term to how long the machine will suit your office.
With us: Terms run 36, 48 or 60 months, and none of them auto renew.
A master lease agreement is the main contract that sets the rules for every device you lease from one provider.
Each new machine is then added on its own schedule.
Read the master agreement closely, because it governs every schedule added under it.
A lease schedule is the page that lists one device, its serial number, term and monthly payment.
Each schedule can have its own start and end date.
That is how one office ends up with three machines finishing in three different years.
Check: Ask for every schedule to end on the same date, which is called co terminus.
The lessor is the party that owns the equipment and leases it out.
The lessee is the business that uses it and makes the payments.
On many printer leases the lessor is a finance company, not the dealer who sold you the machine.
A funder is the finance company that pays the dealer for the machine and then collects your lease payments.
Your service may come from the dealer while your contract sits with the funder.
That split can make an exit, a billing dispute or a simple service complaint much harder to sort out.
Check: Ask who you will owe money to, and who you call when something breaks.
A standard form contract is written by one party and offered on a take it or leave it basis.
Most printer leases are standard form contracts.
Australian law protects small businesses from unfair terms in these contracts.
A personal guarantee is a promise that a director will pay the lease from their own money if the business cannot.
Some funders ask for one from new or small companies.
Your house could end up standing behind the printer.
Check: Read any guarantee clause before you agree to it, and ask if it can be removed.
PPSR registration is a record on the Personal Property Securities Register showing the owner’s interest in leased equipment.
It protects the owner if your business is sold, refinanced or wound up.
Under the register’s rules, a lease of more than two years counts as a purchase money security interest.
A credit check is the funder’s review of your business credit history before it approves a lease.
It is a normal step for any equipment finance.
It usually happens after you accept a quote, not before.
With us: You get a written price with no financial documents and no credit check.
What sits inside the payment
- An all inclusive lease covers the first four.
- The excess page rate applies past your allowance.
- Paper is the usual extra you buy.
Illustration only, because the split depends on the machine and how much you print.
An all inclusive lease is a lease where one monthly payment covers the machine, toner, parts, service labour and call outs.
Paper is usually the only extra you buy.
It turns printing into one predictable cost instead of a string of separate bills.
With us: Plans start from $160 a month (plus GST), with $0 upfront.
Cost per copy is the price you pay for each page printed or copied, usually quoted in cents.
Black and white pages and colour pages carry separate rates.
The rate covers toner and wear on parts, which is why it is also called a click charge.
A page allowance is the number of pages included in your monthly payment.
Print within it and there is nothing extra to pay for pages.
Print beyond it and an excess page rate applies.
With us: Your allowance is set against your real print volume and written on the quote.
A minimum volume commitment is a page count you pay for every month, even if you print less.
Quiet months still cost full price.
It is often used to make the quoted page rate look lower.
Check: Make sure the minimum is based on what your office really prints.
An excess page rate is the per page charge for printing past your allowance.
Think excess data on a phone plan.
The colour rate is usually higher than the black rate.
Check: Get both rates in writing up front.
With us: Past the allowance you pay the published excess rate on the extra pages only.
A meter reading is the page count recorded by the printer’s internal counters.
Providers use it to bill pages and check your allowance.
Most modern machines send their readings automatically.
Check: Ask how readings are taken and where you can see them.
An escalation clause lets the provider raise charges each year, often by a set percentage or in line with CPI.
Small yearly rises add up over a five year term.
Some clauses lift page rates, some lift the lease payment, and some lift both.
Check: Find out exactly which charges can rise, and by how much.
A unilateral variation clause lets one party change prices or terms during the contract without the other’s agreement.
In 2022 the Federal Court declared clauses like this unfair in Fuji Xerox small business printer contracts.
Source: ACCC
Any price in your agreement that can move should say how much and with what notice.
An upfront cost is any amount due before or at installation.
It can be a deposit, one or two payments in advance, or an installation fee.
Add it to the monthly figure when you compare quotes.
With us: Nothing is paid up front.
A documentation fee is a one off charge to set up the lease paperwork with the funder.
Some agreements also add a yearly admin fee.
Small, so easy to miss.
Add them up across every device and schedule before you compare two quotes side by side.
A residual is a lump sum due at the end of a finance lease to take ownership of the equipment.
It lowers the monthly payment.
The bill still arrives.
An operating lease usually has no residual, because the machine goes back.
Plus GST means the quoted price leaves out the 10 per cent goods and services tax.
The GST is added to each invoice.
A business registered for GST can usually claim it back as a credit.
Bundled pricing puts the machine and the service into one payment.
Unbundled pricing splits them into a lease payment to a funder and a service bill from the dealer.
Two bills usually mean two contracts, with different end dates and exit rules.
Total cost of ownership is everything a printer costs you over its life, not just the monthly payment.
It adds lease payments, page charges, excess, fees, price rises and exit costs.
It is the only fair way to compare two quotes built in different ways.
Lease payments for equipment used in your business are generally claimed as a business expense.
Buying is different, because the machine is depreciated or written off instead.
Your accountant can confirm how it works for your business.
The instant asset write off lets eligible businesses deduct the full cost of an asset in one year.
From 1 July 2026 the $20,000 limit is permanent, for assets under $20,000 each and businesses with turnover under $10 million.
Source: Australian Taxation Office
It applies to assets you buy, so it belongs in a lease or buy decision.
How a lease ends or renews
Diarise the notice window on the day the lease starts.
An evergreen clause renews the lease automatically if you do not give written notice inside a set window.
The renewal can run for another year or another full term.
Automatic renewal terms were among those the Federal Court declared unfair in Fuji Xerox small business contracts in 2022.
Source: ACCC
With us: No agreement we write auto renews.
A notice period is the time before the lease ends when you must tell the provider in writing that you are leaving.
A window of 90 days before expiry is a common example.
Miss it, and the lease can renew by itself for another year or more.
Check: Put the notice date in your calendar the day the lease starts.
Month to month means the agreement keeps running one month at a time after the set term ends.
You can hand the device back on short notice.
That is the opposite of an evergreen clause, which quietly locks you into a brand new term if you forget the notice date.
With us: Every agreement moves to month to month at the end of its term, until you return or upgrade the device.
An early termination fee is what you pay to end a lease before its term finishes.
It is often most or all of the remaining payments, sometimes with extra charges.
Termination payments a provider could set by itself were among the Fuji Xerox terms declared unfair in 2022.
With us: Early exit terms are set out in writing on your quote.
A payout figure is the amount needed to settle a lease today.
It usually equals the remaining payments plus any fees, sometimes less a discount for paying early.
Get it in writing before you talk about an upgrade or a new provider.
A lease buyout is when a new provider pays out your current lease so you can switch.
The payout is often rolled into the new agreement.
Check the new monthly figure, because you may still be paying for the old machine.
A rollover replaces your lease with a new one before the term ends.
The remaining balance is folded into the new payments.
It can feel like a free upgrade.
It rarely is.
Check: Ask to see the old balance as its own line on the new agreement.
A fair market value option lets you buy the equipment at the end of the lease for its assessed market value.
Payments are lower than on a finance lease, because you are not paying it off.
The buy price is set later, so ask how the value will be worked out.
A $1 buyout lease lets you buy the equipment for one dollar at the end of the term.
It is really finance towards ownership.
Payments are higher, and you end up owning an older machine that you then service yourself.
End of term options are your choices when the lease finishes.
You can usually return the machine, keep using it, upgrade or buy it.
If the agreement only describes a renewal, read that clause again.
Return conditions set out how the equipment must be handed back, including packing, collection and condition.
Fair wear and tear is the normal ageing the owner accepts without a charge.
Some agreements charge a collection or freight fee at the end.
Check: Confirm who pays for collection before the end date.
A data wipe erases the documents stored on a printer’s hard drive or memory before it leaves your office.
Many copiers keep images of the pages they scan and print.
Ask for written confirmation that the drive was wiped or removed.
Co terminus means several leases are set to end on the same date.
It stops a fleet ending up with machines finishing in different years.
Ask for it whenever you add a device partway through a lease.
An unfair contract term is a clause in a standard form contract that creates a big imbalance between the two sides.
It goes further than the business using it needs, and would cause harm if relied on.
Since 9 November 2023 these terms are illegal in contracts with small businesses that have fewer than 100 staff or turnover under $10 million.
Source: ACCC
Companies face penalties of $50 million or more.
- Fastest path to an upgrade
- Higher monthly figure
- Mid point on price and term
- Popular with growing offices
- Toner and service included
- One predictable repayment
When the printer stops
A service level agreement is the part of the contract that sets the service you can expect.
It covers response times, what gets repaired, what is included and how faults are logged.
Without one, service promises are only sales talk.
Response time is how long a technician takes to attend after you log a fault.
It is often written as a number of business hours.
Check whether it means a visit to your office or just a phone call back.
With us: Technicians are based in every state, and attendance is usually next day.
Uptime is the share of time a device is working and available.
Some agreements commit to a target percentage each month.
No remedy for a miss?
Then the target is worth very little.
First time fix rate is the share of faults fixed on the first visit, with no second call out.
It depends on the technician carrying the right parts.
A low rate means more days with a broken printer, more time on hold and more staff walking to another floor to print.
A call out fee is a charge for a technician to attend your office.
Some service plans charge it on every visit, even when the parts are covered.
In an all inclusive lease call outs sit inside the monthly payment.
With us: Call outs are included in the monthly payment.
Parts and labour are the two costs in any repair, the components replaced and the technician’s time.
Some agreements cover parts but still charge for labour.
Check that both are named in your contract.
Consumables are the items a printer uses up, such as toner, drums, waste toner boxes and fuser units.
Paper is the usual exception.
A good agreement lists which consumables are included, so none arrive as a surprise invoice.
Genuine toner is toner made by the printer’s own manufacturer.
It matches the page yield and print quality the machine was built for.
Some agreements require it to keep service cover in place.
Automatic toner replenishment means the printer reports low toner and a new cartridge is sent before it runs out.
Nobody orders anything.
It needs the device connected to the provider’s monitoring.
Preventative maintenance is scheduled servicing that replaces worn parts before they fail.
It keeps print quality steady and cuts breakdowns.
Ask whether visits are booked ahead or only happen when you report a fault.
An account manager is the named person at the provider who looks after your agreement.
They handle billing questions, upgrades and contract dates.
It saves explaining your setup to someone new on every call.
With us: A dedicated account manager is named on every agreement.
Managed print and software
Managed print services is an arrangement where one provider runs your printers for a monthly fee.
It covers devices, toner, repairs, monitoring and reporting.
The aim is fewer machines, lower page costs and no time lost chasing toner or repairs.
A print audit is a review of every printer in an office, how many pages each prints and what it costs.
It shows which machines are underused and which are overloaded.
A provider uses it to recommend the right number and type of devices.
A print fleet is every printer, copier and multifunction device a business runs across its offices.
Managing them as one fleet allows one contract, one bill and shared end dates.
It also makes it easier to move machines to where they are needed.
Five offices or more?
Our managed print site lists the fleet and contract terms a group quote uses.
Device monitoring is software that watches your printers over the network.
It reports page counts, toner levels and error codes to the provider.
That lets toner and repairs be sorted before anyone in the office notices.
Print management software controls and tracks printing across an office.
It can set rules, record who printed what and charge pages to departments.
PaperCut is the name most offices know.
Follow me printing holds your job on a server until you log in at a printer to collect it.
Nothing sits in the output tray for others to read.
Jobs nobody collects are deleted, which cuts wasted pages.
User authentication is how a person proves who they are at the printer, with a staff card, PIN or phone.
It switches on secure release and tracks pages by user.
It is also how you stop unapproved colour printing.
Print rules are settings that steer how people print, such as double sided by default.
Quotas cap how many pages a person or team can print.
Both are simple ways to cut page costs without new hardware.
Cost centre reporting splits printing costs by department, project or client.
It shows where your pages go each month.
Professional firms often use it to recharge printing to client files.
Mobile printing lets staff print from phones, tablets and laptops without installing drivers.
Cloud printing sends jobs through an online service instead of an office server.
Both matter for hybrid teams and visitors.
Scan to email sends a scanned document straight to an inbox.
Scan to folder saves it to a shared network or cloud folder.
Both are set up during installation and are worth testing on day one.
OCR turns a scanned image into text you can search and edit.
It lets you find a contract by a word inside it.
Many multifunction devices can run OCR as they scan.
The machine on your quote
- Recommended monthly volume is where to aim.
- Heavier use wears parts faster.
- The duty cycle is the ceiling, not the target.
A multifunction device is one machine that prints, copies, scans and often faxes.
Most leased office printers today are multifunction devices.
One device in place of three saves space, power and service calls.
An A3 printer takes paper up to A3, which is twice the size of A4.
A3 machines are usually larger floor standing units built for heavier volumes.
Choose A3 if you print plans, posters, booklets or high page counts.
Pages per minute is how fast a printer produces standard A4 pages.
Speed matters most when many people print at the same time.
Black and colour speeds can differ, so ask for both.
Duty cycle is the most pages a printer can produce in a month without damage.
Treat it as a ceiling.
Running close to it every month wears parts out early and brings more breakdowns.
Plan around the recommended monthly volume instead.
Recommended monthly volume is the page range a manufacturer says a printer handles comfortably each month.
It is much lower than the duty cycle.
A machine sized to this figure lasts longer and breaks down less.
Page yield is the number of pages a toner cartridge is rated to print.
Manufacturers test it to ISO standards at about five per cent page coverage.
Pages heavy with images or colour use toner faster.
A drum unit is the part that transfers toner onto the paper.
It wears out over time and is replaced separately from toner on many printers.
In an all inclusive lease drums are covered.
A fuser unit uses heat and pressure to bond toner to the page.
It is one of the dearest wear parts in a printer.
If your agreement leaves fusers out, a replacement can be an unwelcome bill.
A finisher is an add on that staples, hole punches or folds documents as they print.
It suits offices that produce reports, proposals or booklets.
It adds to the monthly payment, so only add one you will use.
Duplex printing prints on both sides of the page automatically.
Half the paper.
It can be set as the default for every user.
DPI measures print resolution in dots per inch.
Higher numbers mean finer detail, which matters more for images than text.
Most office documents look sharp at standard office resolutions.
Check the lease you have now
Tick any that apply to see how your agreement stacks up.
Compare it with my written quote →Questions offices ask about leases
Q.01 What should I check in a printer lease agreement?+
Check the term, the page allowance, both excess rates, any yearly increase, the notice period and the early exit cost.
Ask who the funder is and whether the agreement renews by itself.
Get each one in writing on the quote.
Q.02 What is an evergreen clause in a copier lease?+
An evergreen clause renews your lease automatically if you miss a written notice window before it ends.
It can lock you into another year or another full term.
The Federal Court declared automatic renewal terms in Fuji Xerox small business contracts unfair in 2022.
Q.03 Can I get out of a photocopier lease early?+
Usually yes, but you pay an early termination fee, often most of the remaining payments.
Ask for a written payout figure first.
A new provider can sometimes pay out the old lease as part of a new agreement.
Q.04 What is the difference between a lease and managed print services?+
A lease covers the use of the machine for a set term.
Managed print adds toner, parts, service, monitoring and reporting under one monthly fee.
An all inclusive lease combines both in one payment.
Q.05 How long is a typical printer lease in Australia?+
Most office printer leases run 36, 48 or 60 months.
A longer term lowers the monthly payment but keeps you in the agreement for longer.
Match the term to how long the machine will suit your office.
Q.06 Are unfair terms in printer leases illegal?+
Since 9 November 2023 unfair terms in standard form contracts with small businesses are illegal.
The law covers businesses with fewer than 100 staff or turnover under $10 million.
Companies that use them face penalties of $50 million or more.
Tell us your page volume and we send one written monthly figure.
- From $160 a month (plus GST), sized to your real print volume.
- Allowance, excess rates and exit terms spelled out up front.
- Toner, parts, servicing and call outs inside the one payment.
Get my set monthly quote
Your figure depends on the machine, your page volume and the term you choose.
Your rights under Australian Consumer Law are not affected.
Sources checked for this glossary
- ACCC, Fuji small business contract terms declared unfair, August 2022
- ACCC, unfair contract terms law changes from 9 November 2023
- ATO, $20,000 instant asset write off made permanent from 1 July 2026
- PPSR, commercial lease of office equipment case study
Prepared by the Global Document Solutions leasing team, last updated 24 October 2026.
This glossary is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.