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Renting is an expense. Owning is an investment.
A per-seat subscription grows with you and leaves nothing behind. A machine goes on the balance sheet, depreciates and keeps a value. The chart below shows where the two curves cross — and also the cases where they never do.
Adjustable assumptions. Rent: per-person subscription, all in. Own: machine, installation, annual service — models, support, warranty. Residual value: 25% of hardware at horizon. Risk: annual probability × full incident cost, applied to the rented scenario. Hours returned: 6 h per person per month at CHF 95.
01 — PURCHASE OR LEASE
The lease carries the machine. Never the service.
Over 36 months, at the 5 % nominal rate used as a quotation assumption. The annual service is signed directly with us: it has no collateral value and therefore has no place in a lessor's contract.
02 — THE ASSUMPTIONS
All shown. None hidden.
A return-on-investment calculation whose assumptions cannot be changed is a sales argument, not a calculation.
| Price per user per month | 200 CHF, starting assumption, adjustable above |
| Horizon | 60 months by default |
| Machine price | Computed from the bill of materials, not typed in |
| Annual service | 22 % of the machine price, floor of 10,000 CHF |
| Depreciation | Straight line; the residual value is shown at the horizon |
| Legal risk | Optional toggle: flat cost of a confidentiality incident |
What the spreadsheet does not say
Two items escape the calculation and often weigh more than it does. The first is risk: the cost of a confidentiality incident appears on no invoice, but it appears in a judgment. The second is actual usage: an internal tool that answers on your documents gets used, where a subscription bought for everyone gets used by a third of the seats.
The configurator applies these figures to your headcount and type of work, then passes them to the contact form.