Another year. Another deadline. If your company is privately-owned and uses leased equipment, this might be important to you.
Last year, public and private companies holding public debt had to move their leased property to their balance sheets by Dec. 15, 2018, thanks to a new lease accounting standard adopted by the Financial Accounting Standards Board nearly four years ago.
Now, privately-owned companies of all other types and holding leased property must do the same next month, the deadline being Dec. 15, 2019.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in 2015 voted to accept the new accounting standard requiring companies bearing leased property with lease terms of more than 12 months to recognize assets and liabilities arising from all their leases.
What does this mean for your business?
If You’re Leasing, It May Matter for Your Organization
Well, no matter how small your company, if you are leasing any property whatsoever — be that office technology like copiers and printers, real estate or even vehicles belonging to your fleet — you may be required to reclassify your leased property.
With the holidays approaching and all the many cares of running a business, especially for small businesses, compliance with this change may very well be challenging. More daunting than that though can be the actual identification of affected properties. That just takes time and effort, resources many organizations would rather put toward increasing revenue.
Don’t Worry: There’s an … er … cloud-based tool for that!
The good news is some technology companies such as RK Black and its technology partner Ricoh have software tools to help organizations through the process of discovery and identification of affected properties, saving you trouble.
Built into the cloud-based, SaaS platform Ricoh Lease Administration Services is a service that addresses the nuances of the new regulations while centralizing and automating lease information management.
The tool performs workflow analysis, lease compilation, data identification, systems integration, planning and report management and ongoing FASB compliance support, basically taking what would be an arduous operation and turning it into a walk in the park — so to speak.
We’re Here to Help
If meeting the FASB deadline seems a daunting task to you and you would like to relieve yourself or your company of that pressure, contact us!
If you are shopping for a new multifunction printer, you may have come across some devices labeled as A4 and others as A3. If you are new to the game, maybe these alphanumeric designations have you wondering, “What’s that?”
A3 and A4 are classes of paper sizes. These designations describe what class of paper sizes those particular printers can handle.
So here’s the break-down of A3 printers and A4 printers, their differences and what each have to offer:
A3 printers and A4 printers: The differences explained
Of the two, A3 printers can print on the larger and greatest variety of paper sizes, being able to handle papers up to 11.69 in. x 16.53 in. (close to 11 in. x 17 in. or ledger paper in the U.S.) in size and can print the smaller A4 sizes. The A4 can only print up to 8.27 in. x 11.69 in.-sized papers (similar to 8.5 in. x 11 in.or letter paper in the U.S.), but not the A3 sizes.
An A3 copier, printer or multifunction printer can handle A3, A4, letter, legal and some smaller paper dimensions, such as postcards and envelopes. In the U.S., these are more commonly known as “ledger” copiers, printers or MFPs, though device dealers and manufacturers may use the international “A3” vernacular.
An A4 copier, printer or MFP can produce A4, letter, legal and perhaps postcards and envelopes, but cannot handle A3 sizes. In the U.S., these devices are known more commonly as “letter” copiers, printers or MFPs, but internationally and to dealers and manufacturers they are A3 devices.
These size differences have four ramifications.
Device size
A3 devices being able to print on larger media require them to be larger and thence consume more space than A4s. If space is limited in your workspace, you might consider the smaller A4.
Versatility
A3s being larger and able to print on more sizes of media generally makes them more versatile than A4s. As such A3s are more likely to be able to print legal-sized documents and materials for making booklets, pamphlets and such. The A4s though will be sufficient though to meet your basic, regularly-sized document printing needs. If you see yourself wanting to do more than just print documents, you might consider leasing an A3.
Expense
Speaking of leasing, ss you might imagine, if it’s bigger and it does more, it will cost more too. This is true with the A3 and A4 printers as well. Due to their versatility and size, A3s do cost more than A4s. If funds are limited, maybe you should think more budget-friendly A4 — but there is a caveat. Keep reading.
Volume
No, we are not talking about noise … though there may be a difference there too. Here when we are talking volume, we’re talking about how much you print on that device. As A4 printers are smaller, they hold less toner — so if you are printing a lot, you’ll be going through lots of toner bottles. Over the long run, this could result in more overall expense with an A4 than an A3 multifunction printer. If you expect to do lots of printing, you might then consider choosing an A3 as ultimately it may be cheaper.
Summary
Now that we’ve reviewed the differences between the A3 and A4 printers, hopefully you have a better idea of what each are, what each have to offer and, hopefully, which will work best for your organization.
If all you are needing is a small printer for regular document sizes, to handle small volumes and no special projects, an A4 printer is probably what you’ll need. If you are looking at doing a wide-range of projects with multiple page sizes and large printing projects, you’ll probably be needing an A3 device.
If you have any questions or need further explanation, feel free to reach out to us.
Decisions are difficult. Dilemmas are worse. When it comes to purchasing a printer for your business and whether to go with an inkjet or a laser/toner-based printer, the decision can easily become a dilemma. Each choice offers good points and, well, not-so-go points.
We get it and that’s why we are here to help you select the best printer for your situation.
Your decision on which type of printer you should buy depends on your answers to the following three questions:
What do you print?
How often do you print?
What is your printing budget?
Ink jet and Laser Printers: In a nutshell
Inkjet printers are cheap, small and versatile. These you can pick up at your local retail or office supply center for little cost, but with greater use they quickly become expensive. They are able to print on multiple types of papers, can print text, graphics and photos and can handle small, infrequent jobs. As they are small in size, they are great for the space constraints of home or small offices.
Though laser printers are more expensive (initially), larger and less versatile, they are better for more regular business use, large print jobs. With their higher speed and volume capability, toner printers may end up costing less with a lower cost per page and less time as they print more and much faster than the ink-jet variety.
Question 1: Quality: What do you print?
Quality
Printer technology has come a long way, especially when it comes to laser printers. While it once was thought laser printers were best for producing black and white documents, and ink jets for color, this is no longer necessarily the case. Toner-based printers now print black and white and color documents equally well. That said, while laser-printers can produce high-quality, near photo quality prints, ink jets still are the choice for producing exhibit quality prints.
If you are not a photographer and not needing ultra-high quality prints, you might consider leaving laser printers among your options, especially considering their reliability, speed, and overall lower cost of use.
Question 2: Speed & Volume: How often do you print?
Speed
Laser printers are designed to be workplace machines and, as such, will printer faster (between 15 to 100 pages per minute, or ppm) than your typical inkjet which prints around 16 ppm. So if you are working from a home office or a small business and only seldomly need to print and do relatively small jobs, you’ll probably be fine with an ink jet. But if you are printing often and doing large jobs, for the sake of time and money you might want to consider a toner/laser-based printer.
Volume
Though it may seem print volume may refer to the loudness of the whirring, buzzing and swooshing sounds some printers make (in which case ink jets are clearly the noisier), print volume here refers to how much your printer can print at a given time.
As ink jets are more intended for home use, they tend to have a substantially smaller print volume than laser printers which are built for business use. What does that mean? Whereas a inkjet will print roughly seven pages per minute, and roughly maybe a few hundred pages per month, a laser printer will print around 35 pages per minute and anywhere from ofseveral hundred to several thousand pages per month.
Now recommended monthly print volume is different from maximum monthly duty cycle in that the former speaks of the amount you should print monthly for best results and efficiency. The latter speaks of the how much you can printer before causing excessive wear and tear on your device. If you run your printer at maximum duty rather than recommended print volume, you’ll soon be finding yourself a new printer.
Question 3: Cost: What is your budget?
Cost
At the outset, toner-based printers are more expensive, both the technology and the toner being expensive, but if you find yourself with large print jobs and printing often, over the long run, your toner-based option will be cheaper.
Ink-jets initially for the most part have a lower cost as you are able to pick one up at the local big box or office supply store easily for under $50. That said, you’ll find the ink cartridges in many cases will run out quickly. You will find yourself back at the store either buying more cartridges or purchasing a new printer as you may find a new printer to be cheaper than a new set of cartridges.
So when performing a cost analysis of whether to go toner or ink-jet, compare the initial cost and the cost over the long run.
Hopefully, this has helped you in resolving your dilemma if you had one, and making the right decision.
If you are a business running multiple copiers and printers, you might look into managed print services which could implement printing best practices to bring efficiencies and printing cost reductions to your business, especially if you are having trouble with print cost tracking, waste and maintenance.
If you have any questions about managed print services or any of the above or any office technology matter, let us know!
If you’re like a lot of people these days, you’re getting all kinds of annoying marketing calls or worse, robo-calls, offering things like a “hassle-free assessment” for health insurance, or perhaps a new home security system — the message citing some FBI statistic.
You probably don’t bother with these calls because it’s obvious they’re marketing calls, possibly scams and they’re Skynet (for you non-Terminator movie fans, that’s robots).
At this point, these calls are just very annoying. But some calls targeting business offices are more than annoying. Once acted upon, they’re expensive, sometimes to the tune of thousands of dollars.
We’re talking about phone-based toner scams.
Toner Pirates: What they “ARRRRrrr”
Let’s say you’re in you’re office one day and from your desk phone you take a call from someone claiming to be from your copier manufacturer (Ricoh, Canon, Sharp, Kyocera, or the like) or from an office supply or technology company. The caller starts asking about your equipment or toner. Maybe he tells you about some impending toner price increase and then encourages you to buy this toner now while it’s still cheap.
It seems legit, right? And you want to save your company money, right?
Actually, no — at least to the caller’s legitimacy. The caller may very well be a toner pirate.
While he may not have a peg leg (Who can tell over the phone?) and he may not have you walking the plank, he will try to steal from you, ‘cause that’s what pirates do. He’ll do so by trying to sell you inferior toner at an exorbitantly high price.
How toner pirates work
Before making their calls, these scammers do a bit of research online or place some calls to find the names and contact details of key staff members of your company and follow-up by calling and offering a supposedly discounted rate on ink and toner products — often masquerading as the company’s usual toner provider.
One of our clients some time ago received a call like this and became suspicious when the caller referred to our technician as a man when she knew our technician for her company was a woman. She knew then something was amiss.
If you are a client of ours, just know, as a practice, RK Black company does not and will not call you to sell you toner as most of our service contracts include toner as part of the “cost per click” charge. As such, our technicians will install the toner as it is needed making it completely unnecessary to call you.
So if someone calls you and tries to sell you toner, you should see a red flag — or in this case the “Jolly Roger” (the black-skull-and-crossbones flag associated with piracy).
What you can do about toner pirates
Help defend yourself and your company from toner scammers by taking the following three actions:
Educate your office about these scams so that your co-workers will recognize them when they see them.
If you get such a toner scam call, ask the caller for a phone number by which to call them back. This typically results in rudeness or the quick click of the phone other end being hung up (also rude).
If you receive toner to your office and you aren’t familiar with it or the company sending it, don’t pay for it. Instead, call the company and tell them to pick it up. Don’t be afraid to reach out to the Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission for further help.
Thank you for your time and for your help in preventing toner fraud.
Remember back when the International Astronomical Union downgraded Pluto from being a planet to a “dwarf planet?” As much as that shook up the scientific and astronomical world, new FASB and IFRS lease regulations have sent tremors through the business community.
In Nov. 2015, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) voted to accept a new lease accounting standard, the idea being that companies holding leased property are to recognize assets and liabilities arising from all their leases — but only if the lease terms are more than 12 months.
What “lease-pocalypse” means to you
So while you may be a small company, and you may think the changes may not affect you, if you are leasing any property — be that business technology such as copiers and printers, real estate or even vehicles belonging to your fleet — you may very well be touched by this decision.
In fact, under the new rules, public companies and private companies with public debt must move leased property to their balance sheets by Dec. 15, 2018, and private companies, the same, by Dec. 15, 2019.
Business accounting-related image
Fear not: There’s help from the cloud
With those deadlines quickly approaching, the challenge for businesses large and small alike will be not necessarily the re-categorization of their leased property, but rather the identification of affected properties in order to make that re-categorization and move it to the balance sheet.
As you can imagine, many organizations will find the process demanding of time and effort as they work to determine and locate the affected property in order to make the reclassification in time to beat the deadline.
For that reason, some technology companies such as R.K. Black and Ricoh are offering businesses software tools to help companies reach accurate compliance quickly and efficiently.
Built into the cloud-based, SaaS platform Ricoh Lease Administration Services is a service that addresses the nuances of the new regulations while centralizing and automating lease information management.
The tool performs workflow analysis, lease compilation, data identification, systems integration, planning and report management and ongoing FASB compliance support, basically taking what would be an arduous operation and turning it into a walk in the park — so to speak.
Contact us
If meeting the FASB deadline seems a daunting task to you and you would like to relieve yourself or your company of that pressure, contact us by calling us at 405-943-9800.
When people say to “read between the lines,” they’re not talking about the lines on copies from a copier. Well, at least we hope not. If you find yourself “reading between the lines” on your copies, don’t worry. Those lines can be quickly and easily removed with just a little bit of knowledge, time and some tools.
The problem
When it comes to Ricoh and Sharp copiers, the culprit producing those lines is most likely dirt on your ADF — that’s the long, narrow glass strip to the left of the main glass — also called a scan slot. With use, as paper moves past the ADF, any scum on the paper, whether that is paper dust, sticky-note glue, grease from your French fries, or (if your copier is in an auto shop motor) motor oil, all of that can get transferred to the ADF, blocking the light from reaching your document and thence making lines.
The solution
Ricoh: Look for a small cleaning cloth typically in a small cubby positioned on the left side toward the top of the copier, and wipe that up and down the ADF. If the residue is particularly stubborn, carefully scrape at it with your fingernail until it busts free and then wipe it again with the cloth.
Sharp: Lift the copier lid and fastened to the bottom-side to the right you should find a small, typically green-colored brush-type tool. Pull it out and pass the brush over the ADF until the dirt is free.
With either copier manufacturer, if the cleaning cloth or tool seems to have grown legs and walked off, any lens cleaning cloth — such as you would use for cleaning glasses — will do the job just as well.
After you have finished cleaning, run a blank sheet through the copier to see if you have any lines. If yes, there is still dirt on the ADF. Take the new copy with the line and line it up with the ADF glass. Where you see the line is where you will find the dirt. Wipe or scrub the area again.
If the line is gone, problem solved! Congratulations!
NOTE: Do not try to clean the glass with any abrasive or with acetone, benzene, ammonia, ethyl alcohol or carbon tetrachloride as these will ruin the glass. Also, directly applying liquid to the glass risks damaging the copier should any liquid slip down into the machine via seams and cracks.
If you take the above measures and are still not able to make those lines on your copies disappear, contact us so we can do our magic or contact your servicing dealer.
If you have any questions about copiers or business technology, give us a call at 405-943-9800.
