Hire purchase (HP) and finance leasing agreements share some of the same benefits, but there are some important differences too, which is why we offer both options as an FCA Appointed Representative.

Ownership. With HP, the business becomes the owner of the asset once all the payments are completed. In a finance lease, the ownership of the asset remains with the lessor (finance company) throughout the lease term.

Payment structure. A finance lease is typically spread over a shorter term than hire purchase, with the business making regular lease payments over a fixed term, covering the use of the asset. With HP, a downpayment is often made followed by regular payments. The total cost of the asset, including interest, is divided into these instalments.

Maintenance and repair. With HP IT finance, the responsibility for maintenance and repair usually sits with the business, as they are considered the eventual owners. With finance leasing, it’s possible to have maintenance and support services built into the lease agreement.

Flexibility. Finance leasing gives businesses the option to upgrade or replace the asset at the end of the lease term, making it easier to adapt to technology changes.

Accounting treatment. The asset is not recorded as a capital purchase with a finance lease. However, with HP, it is and is recorded as such on the company balance sheet.

A Business Continuity Strategy must consider all possible eventualities that pose a risk to your business. Nobody saw the COVID-19 pandemic happening, but those who already had a business continuity strategy found the pivot to remote working easier.

Large global incidents aside, though, you need to ask yourself a series of questions when preparing a business continuity strategy. The list of scenarios could be anything from a flood through to your reliance on third-party suppliers and cyber-attacks.

It’s important to create a plan that is bespoke to your business. Here are some common things every business continuity strategy should plan for:
- Temporary change of premises
- Remote working for home (and now hybrid working)
- Data backups
- Reallocation of roles to staff
- Use of third-party contractors or suppliers as a fallback
- Ability to safeguard and restore personal data (to meet GDPR)

A business hire purchase agreement is a finance arrangement commonly used for purchasing capital equipment such as IT, company cars, Vans, Trucks, Plant & Machinery etc. It enables businesses to acquire an asset immediately while making payments over an agreed period.

In a hire purchase agreement, the lender retains ownership of the asset until the borrower completes all the instalment payments. The borrower (the business) effectively hires the asset for the duration of the agreement but has the option to purchase it outright once all payments are made.

Here's how a typical HP agreement works – although every agreement is based on the individual needs of the business and financial advice should always be sought from an approved financial advisor.

Down Payment. The borrower usually pays an initial deposit, often referred to as a down payment, at the beginning of the agreement. This amount is deducted from the total cost of the asset.

Agreed regular payments. The remaining cost of the asset, including interest charges and any additional fees, is divided into agreed instalments. The borrower pays these instalments over a fixed term, usually ranging from one to five years.

Ownership Transfer. Once the borrower completes all the payments, including any applicable interest and fees, ownership of the asset is transferred from the lender to the borrower. The borrower then becomes the outright owner of the asset.

Default and Repossession. If the borrower fails to make the required payments, the lender has the right to repossess the asset. However, repossession is typically a last resort after other efforts to resolve the payment issues have been exhausted.

The purpose of an IT Disaster Recovery Strategy is to resolve the disruption. At a simple level, it involves identifying the cause of the business-critical problem and finding a way to return business operations to normal. It can, however, involve very complex technical solutions against a tight deadline. After all, every minute of downtime is a cost to a business.

A Disaster Recovery Plan will often include Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) – these are time estimates to restore a product, service, or function to normal working order following an incident.

Take a fire, for example. A business should prepare for its servers being damaged (possibly beyond repair) and that its systems will need to be restored from a recent backup. The RTO details how long it would take to restore everything to enable people to work.

To restore a business to normal after an incident, many companies are now turning to DRaaS. This stands for Disaster Recovery as a Service. Essentially, it’s a category of Cloud computing that protects applications and data from a disaster or service disruption at one location by enabling a full recovery in the cloud. This means that your business can operate virtually, in a secure cloud location while your primary systems are restored.

At Agile Technical Solutions, we have our own DRaaS replication service. This involves replicating either your physical or virtual servers into our local data centre in Colchester, Essex. It’s a fraction of the cost of traditional IT disaster recovery solutions and DR systems.

A finance lease agreement is a leasing arrangement in which the lessee (the business acquiring the asset) obtains the right to use an asset for most of its life in exchange for regular lease payments.

Finance leases are often used by businesses that require the use of an asset for an extended period but do not want to bear the full cost of ownership. It allows them to use the asset while spreading the cost over time.

Unlike a hire purchase agreement where ownership is transferred, in finance leasing, the lessor (the owner of the asset) retains ownership throughout the lease term. Here's an overview of what's involved in an IT finance lease agreement:

Asset Selection. The business, with the help of its IT company or internal IT manager, selects the IT equipment they wish to lease from the lessor.

Lease Term. The business (lessee) and lessor agree upon the lease term, which is usually longer than an operating lease, and it can range from several months to several years.

Lease Payments. The business makes regular lease payments to the lessor over an agreed period. These payments cover the use of the asset and are often structured to include interest charges and other fees.

Purchase Option. At the end of the lease term, a finance lease agreement may offer the business the option to purchase the asset from the lessor. The purchase price is typically determined by the residual value of the asset at the end of the lease term.