Capital Equipment Leasing

In a Finance/Capital Lease, the payments are structured like a regular loan (with interest) under which the school or department owns the leased item at the end of the lease term for a nominal cost (generally a value of $1.00).

After contacting Central Purchasing to obtain a lease for a product, a Procurement Initiator must submit a Goods and Services Request Form to create a requisition for approval, leading to a purchase order. Select leases must be obtained from UwPA Suppliers, such as Pitney Bowes. Ensure that the appropriate information is filled out in the request form.

Due to postal regulations, postal meters can only be leased from regulated vendors. Columbia's preferred postage meter vendor is Pitney Bowes, a UwPA Supplier.

View the Pitney Bowes supplier page in the Columbia Blue Pages for more information about obtaining a quote/proposal.

Postage meter leases include maintenance and software upgrades. All postage meter leases are based on NY State OGS contract pricing. Each department or school must manage and pay for its own postage meter lease. There is no minimum dollar threshold for postage machine leases. 

Copiers that print, scan, and fax are considered a multi-functioning device (MFD). All MFD leases are managed by the Copier Program from Columbia Print Services through the University’s approved lessor for office equipment.

Acquiring an MFD through Columbia Print Services is necessary to adhere to CUIT data security requirements, ensure proper removal/disposal of equipment at end of term or use, and to continue to reduce costs via reductions in purchase orders, change orders, and invoices. This brings significant savings to Columbia in process time, approvals, and document management. The department or school also minimizes its maintenance expenditures by eliminating the need to have multiple maintenance contracts for each piece of equipment.

Departments and schools are billed by Columbia Print Services on a monthly basis through IDI, eliminating the need for requisitions when acquiring leased or purchased MFDs. There are minimum order values and maximum term requirements for leasing an MFD.

All leased motor vehicles must be approved by and registered with Insurance and Risk Management. Visit the Insurance and Risk Management section of the Finance site for more information about motor vehicle acquisition, operations, and disposal. 

Review the Vehicle Acquisition, Operation, and Disposal Policy for more information.

Leased equipment cannot be relocated, replaced, exchanged, swapped-out, returned, or sold while there is an active lease. 

Central Purchasing must communicate any such request to the Lessor, and the Lessor’s permission must be granted prior to any of the above action being taken.