Lease vs Purchase
The two ways your clients can get their lights and decorations — leasing them for the season or buying them outright — and when to use each.
This is a concept guide
It explains the two commercial models so you can choose the right one. For how to set lease or purchase on a quote, see the quote-building guide (coming soon).
When you price a job in BriteBase, every item is offered to your client in one of two ways: lease or purchase. The difference comes down to a single question — who owns the lights and decorations? — and it shapes both how the client pays and how your relationship with them continues.
Lease
With a lease, you own the lights and decorations. Your client pays one seasonal price to have them installed, looked after, taken down, and stored — and you bring the same décor back to use again next year. Leasing is the simplest option for the client: one price, with nothing to own, store, or maintain themselves.
Leasing is also the foundation of the renewal relationship. Because you keep and reuse the décor, a leased client is one you can re-sign season after season — which is why leasing is typically the default and the most common choice.
Purchase
With a purchase, your client buys the lights and decorations outright and owns them. The services — installing, maintaining, removing, storing, and refurbishing — are then priced separately, so the client pays only for the services they want in a given season.
Purchasing suits clients who want to own their display — often because it's custom or premium — and who would rather pay for services à la carte than as one bundled seasonal fee.
Choosing between them
You can mix both on a single quote — some items leased, others purchased — so you're never locked into one model for a whole job. As a rule of thumb:
- Lease when the client wants the easiest experience and you want a returning, renewable account. This is the common case.
- Purchase when the client specifically wants to own the décor and prefers to pay for services separately.
Either way, your client sees one clear price. The lease-versus-purchase choice simply decides what that price includes — and who keeps the décor at the end of the season.
Related
- How BriteBase models a job — where quoting fits in the bigger picture, and how leasing feeds renewals.
- A step-by-step guide to building a quote and setting lease or purchase on each item is on the way.
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