Most businesses can settle on the right machine by answering seven questions honestly. They are set out below in the order we would ask them on a first phone call, or the finder will do the asking in five taps.
Think about plans, rosters, posters and wide spreadsheets. If even one person needs A3 now and then, or you would like more than one paper tray, an A3 copier is the safer choice. Where nobody uses A3 and fewer than about ten people print, an A4 machine generally does the job. See the A4 office printers and MFPs.
Start with the pages you print each month; the rest follows.
Copiers are rated in pages a minute. Five or fewer people sit comfortably at 20 to 25. Somewhere between five and fifteen, look at 25 to 35. From fifteen up to around thirty, 35 to 45 keeps the queue short. Past thirty people, step up again or share the load between two machines.
Your current supplier can give you meter readings, and a year of toner orders gives a rough guide too. That monthly number decides how big the machine should be, and it has more say over the running cost than anything else. How copier costs add up over a term.
Colour pages are dearer to print than black ones. A real estate office printing brochures and window cards will use colour daily; a trades office printing job sheets may barely touch it. If colour is occasional, a mono machine keeps the bills lower. If you do go colour, make black the default on every computer.
A finisher staples, hole punches or folds booklets as the pages come out. Schools sending home newsletters and offices assembling reports or tender documents every week get good use from one. Most other businesses can happily leave it off.
For plenty of Coast businesses the scanner works harder than the printer: property managers scanning signed leases, clinics scanning referrals, builders sending plans to clients. Look for a feeder that reads both sides in a single pass, scanning to email and to shared folders, plus PIN or card release, which holds private pages until their owner is standing at the machine.
New suits heavy use and the longest working life. Renewed machines look and run close to new for less. Refurbished is where most businesses land, because it balances outlay and reliability well. Used keeps the outlay as low as it goes. Browse the copiers for sale.
Five taps: team size, paper size, colour, grade and payment. The finder suggests a speed and a grade to suit, and we can follow up with real machines and their figures if you leave your details.
Similar models we see regularly:
You can rent from $15 a week plus GST. Leave your details and we will put two or three real machines in front of you, each with its figures.
How many pages your team prints, when A3 earns its place, colour against mono, speed, the four grades and the running cost, with a worksheet to complete before the first quote arrives.
Get this guideDescribe the work the machine has to do, or name the model you want. We will come back with two or three that suit, each priced in writing, and the decision stays with you.
Easier by phone? Ring (07) 5631 9266, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm.
Rather talk it through?
Tell us how your business prints and we will come back with a shortlist to compare, each machine with its figures. Every Gold Coast enquiry gets an answer the same business day it arrives.
The one sized to the pages you actually print, with a fair cost per page and somebody close by to service it. For a typical small office on the Coast, that is often a refurbished A3 colour copier rated somewhere around 25 to 35 pages a minute. If nobody ever prints A3, an A4 MFP may be all you need.
A3, if any of your work comes in that size or you would like extra paper trays. A4, if it never does and only a handful of people print.
Line up the same facts for each one: pages a minute, paper sizes, colour or mono, what a black page and a colour page will cost, what those rates include, and who turns up to service it. The copier brands side by side shows how the makers differ.
Questions about a machine, a quote or the agreement you are on now, answered by someone with decades in the trade. Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. Every Gold Coast enquiry gets an answer the same business day it arrives.