The Ultimate Guide to Managed Print

Some suppliers require you to commit to a minimum number of prints per quarter. Fall short and you still pay for the prints you didn't make. Exceed the limit and you're charged at a higher rate. Volume commitments only ever benefit the supplier.

The agreed cost per page may only cover a certain percentage of an A4 page in toner - sometimes as low as 5%. Any toner used beyond that threshold is charged at an inflated rate. This is rarely explained upfront and can add thousands to your annual costs.

Some contracts charge per colour, not per colour print. Since a colour printer uses four toner colours (cyan, magenta, yellow, black), each colour page costs you four clicks instead of one. A '5p per colour click' contract actually means 20p per colour page.

Exit penalties are deliberately designed to make leaving more expensive than staying, even when you're overpaying. If you realise mid-contract that you're getting a bad deal, the termination fee ensures you can't walk away without paying through the nose.

Most lease agreements auto-renew if you don't give written notice within a narrow window - typically 3 to 6 months before the end date. Miss it by a week and you're locked in for another year. These clauses exist for one reason: to catch you out.

Network support charges, consumable delivery fees, parts warranty surcharges after year one - we've seen all of these buried in the small print. Individually they look small. Collectively they can add 20-30% to your expected costs.

Buried in the terms will be a clause allowing the supplier to increase costs each year, often by RPI or a fixed percentage. Over a 5-year contract, compound increases can push your costs significantly above what you originally agreed to.

It depends entirely on your print volumes, which is why we start with a free print audit. The hardware cost is a one-off purchase (typically spread over 10 interest-free monthly payments). The ongoing service is a simple cost-per-page covering all toner, parts, and engineer callouts. Most businesses find the total cost is significantly lower than what they were spending on ad-hoc toner purchases.

Then we'll tell you. Honestly. If your print volumes are low and your current setup is working fine, managed print may not make sense. That's exactly what the print audit is designed to establish - we'll only recommend it if the numbers genuinely stack up.

Yes. We can review your existing contract, identify the notice period and renewal date, and advise on the most cost-effective exit strategy. Even if the end date is years away, getting it in the diary now means you won't miss the cancellation window and get auto-renewed.

We're not tied to any single manufacturer. Our print partner assesses your requirements and recommends the best device for the job regardless of brand. A small office with light printing gets a different recommendation to a busy accounts department churning through thousands of pages a month.

Everything except paper. Toner, parts, consumables, labour, callouts, and support are all included in the cost-per-page charge. It's a 12-month rolling agreement - no 5-year lock-ins, no automatic renewals, and you can leave with reasonable notice.

Yes. We deploy monitoring software that runs in the background for around a month and collects the data. We then analyse it and present the findings. If improvements can be made, we'll show you the numbers. If everything is already in good shape, that's the end of it. No obligation, no pressure.

Yes. Our print partner provides national coverage with direct manufacturer warranty and service. Whether you have one office or multiple sites across the country, you're covered.

Business-grade managed printers include features that consumer devices don't: secure print release (documents only print when you authenticate at the device), encrypted storage, access controls, and managed firmware updates. We ensure print devices are properly secured as part of the setup.