Buy or Lease?

When is comes to POS (Point of Sale) and Credit Card Processing Services, what is the right decision – buy or lease?

If you are in the business for the long term, longer than 1 year, the true cost of leasing versus buying will depend on a few factors.

Type of equipment
Number of POS stations and terminals
Cloud or Local POS
Longevity of Equipment or Life of the Equipment
Accounting Depreciation

We always look at the true costs of systems and the equipment needed.

The cost of leasing the equipment and the necessity of leasing the equipment will vary by business. However, some of the guidelines we offer clients are as follows:

1.) Setup a payment plan on your credit card or purchase the stand alone credit card terminals. The investment and features you wish to have with the equipment should be discussed.

a. Internet Based or Dial
b. Auto Settle or Manual Settle
c. EMV Restaurant with Tip on the Receipt is now available with our software
d. NFC
e. Debit
f. Chip and PIN
g. Chip

2.) Cloud Based POS system – Setup a payment plan on your credit card or purchase the systems outright. The cloud based systems are more manageable and the biggest investment will be made in the Ipads.

a. Number of Workstations
b. Are software updates included
c. Discount on Software when purchased for a year rather than month to month
d. Conversion Costs from Existing POS to New POS
e. Network and IT setup Costs for Wireless vs. Hardwired

3.) POS System – larger equipment investments for larger establishments

a. Number of Workstations
b. License cost for Credit Card system or bank platform
c. Software and Support
d. Conversion Costs from Existing POS to New POS
e. Network and IT setup Costs for Wireless vs. Hardwired

As you can see, there are a lot of things to consider. If you have questions, we are here and we have helped many of our clients make this same choice. What works for you? It depends, but we will figure it out together!

~ Mary Ann