Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Getting The Equipment Lease Flexibility Your Company Deserves

How would you like to have fewer hassles with your next business lease while significantly trimming costs? You can. In fact, getting better lease flexibility can easily trump getting the lowest lease rate. Here is how you can get superior lease flexibility while slashing overall leasing expense:

Lease Amount

First, make sure the lease allows you to include most of the equipment you intend to acquire. You will avoid negotiating another financing arrangement on the excluded equipment. Check that you can easily add more equipment to the lease as your needs change. The better lease arrangements provide for multiple lease schedules under a master lease or the ability to amend existing leases to make additions.

Payment Schedule

Getting a lease payment schedule that matches your company’s cash flow cycle is a big benefit in a lease arrangement. Many lessors are able to accommodate reasonable requests, subject to their own administrative constraints and their view of your company’s credit standing. Monthly and quarterly payments schedules are typical arrangements. Schedules that vary payments to accommodate cash flow seasonality are less typical, but you can negotiate such an arrangement in many cases.

Interim Rent

You can slash lease costs significantly by limiting interim rent. Interim rent is the rent you pay for daily use of equipment between the equipment acceptance and lease start dates. Interim rent can balloon lease pricing by arbitrarily extending the term of the lease (albeit by only days). The best approach is to schedule equipment delivery and acceptance toward the end of the month, to reduce the interim period. Another strategy is to negotiate a truncated period at the end of the lease such that the interim period and truncated period, together, total one monthly payment.

Upgrades

A flexible lease arrangement anticipates equipment upgrades. Usually, at the time of upgrade, the present value of rents associated with the upgrade can be combined with the present value of the remaining equipment rents to create a revised schedule.
How would you like to have fewer hassles with your next business lease while significantly trimming costs? You can. In fact, getting better lease flexibility can easily trump getting the lowest lease rate. Here is how you can get superior lease flexibility while slashing overall leasing expense:

Lease Amount

First, make sure the lease allows you to include most of the equipment you intend to acquire. You will avoid negotiating another financing arrangement on the excluded equipment. Check that you can easily add more equipment to the lease as your needs change. The better lease arrangements provide for multiple lease schedules under a master lease or the ability to amend existing leases to make additions.

Payment Schedule

Getting a lease payment schedule that matches your company’s cash flow cycle is a big benefit in a lease arrangement. Many lessors are able to accommodate reasonable requests, subject to their own administrative constraints and their view of your company’s credit standing. Monthly and quarterly payments schedules are typical arrangements. Schedules that vary payments to accommodate cash flow seasonality are less typical, but you can negotiate such an arrangement in many cases.

Interim Rent

You can slash lease costs significantly by limiting interim rent. Interim rent is the rent you pay for daily use of equipment between the equipment acceptance and lease start dates. Interim rent can balloon lease pricing by arbitrarily extending the term of the lease (albeit by only days). The best approach is to schedule equipment delivery and acceptance toward the end of the month, to reduce the interim period. Another strategy is to negotiate a truncated period at the end of the lease such that the interim period and truncated period, together, total one monthly payment.

Upgrades

A flexible lease arrangement anticipates equipment upgrades. Usually, at the time of upgrade, the present value of rents associated with the upgrade can be combined with the present value of the remaining equipment rents to create a revised schedule.