Your current contract
Leave anything you don't have set to zero. Estimates are fine — the shape of the answer won't change much.
What that comes to
Updates as you type.
What to do with this number
Whatever it says, it's your figure, from your own invoice. Here's how to use it.
- Compare it to what you were quoted. Dealers sell on the click rate, because it's the small number. The all-in figure is the one that leaves your account.
- Look at the remaining commitment. That's what it costs to stay put until the end of the term, at today's volume. It's usually larger than people expect.
- Ask how your color is metered. If most of your color pages are letterhead, a colored header or a logo rather than photographs, and you're billed one flat color rate, you're paying a photograph price for them. Ask any dealer — including me — whether they meter color by coverage or charge one rate for everything.
- Check for an evergreen clause. Many agreements renew automatically unless you give written notice in a specific window, often 60 to 120 days before the end. Find that clause and diary the date now.
- Then get two quotes. Nothing moves an incumbent's pricing like a real competing number on the desk. Use mine, use somebody else's, use both.
How this is calculated. Fixed charges plus billable clicks, divided by total pages. Billable clicks are your monthly volume less any included allowance, at your stated rates. It assumes your volume stays roughly steady, and it doesn't model paper, staples, interest inside the lease, property tax pass-throughs, or end-of-term buyout — all of which push the real figure higher rather than lower. Everything here comes from numbers you entered. I haven't assumed anything about your contract or inserted my own pricing.