Equipment Appraisal Blog | Understanding Machinery Appraisals

Know Your Equity: Office Equipment Appraisal

Posted by Equipment Appraisal Services on Tue, Jan 12, 2016 @ 10:30 AM

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When it comes to office equipment, most office workers will tell you that it has three phases: working, not working and kind of working. But the truth of the matter is that knowing the office equipment values can help you decide when it's time to retire older equipment in favor of newer models, because it's easier to tell how the equipment impacts your company's assets and equity. Here are some things to consider when looking at an office equipment appraisal:

Office Equipment Appraisal and Your Equity

  • One method many business owners use to determine if it's time to get new equipment is the point where the cost for repairs needed to keep the older machinery operational exceeds the cost to pay for new equipment. Unfortunately, by this point your business will have lost most of the equity in the equipment because if you're not willing to pay for additional repairs, people purchasing the equipment will not be willing to pay a pay the additional costs either.
  • The first area to consider when your business is considering keeping and repairing old equipment versus purchasing new equipment is what the equipment value is right now. Having a quality machinery and equipment appraisal performed helps you determine the starting point in your decision-making process and helps you support your decision with a standardized logical methodology.
  • Once your equipment appraiser provides you with a solid machinery valuation, the next thing to consider is how much longer you can expect the equipment to run reasonably and whether the loss of equity from depreciation over the remaining life is worth waiting to replace the equipment. An office equipment appraisal can also include an estimated remaining useful life calculation, which should help in this situation.
  • On the opposite side of that argument, consider whether you're replacing the equipment too quickly and are costing yourself working capital. As an example, if you purchase a new car and drive it off the lot, it immediately loses value. Purchasing a new piece of equipment just to sell it a few months down the road can quickly deplete your equity. You'll want to wait until you can get you money's worth out of selling the used equipment if at all possible.
  • Another option is to consider what you can get out of your existing office equipment. If the machine appraiser comes up with a value that makes it worth replacing the machine, that means part of your office upgrades are paid for from the sale of the older equipment. This can help make a great selling point for an upgrade when budgets are being strictly controlled and monitored.
  • An additional consideration to bear in mind is whether the new equipment will have features that are not available on the existing equipment that will make your business more productive or will help it keep up with the competition.

By knowing your office machine appraisal value, you're getting a much better idea of where you stand in terms of office performance, continuing costs and equity in assets. Because office machinery is so vital to your business' productivity and continued success, having quality equipment appraisals performed helps you make smart business decisions. If you need to have your office equipment appraised by one of our highly-trained, certified equipment appraisers, please contact us today. At Equipment Appraisal Services, we're always happy to help your business be everything it possibly can be.

Tags: equipment appraiser, office equipment appraisal