How can MSPs offer hardware as a service without carrying the cost?
Hardware as a service gives your clients one monthly price for their laptops, servers and network gear, plus the work to keep it all running. Here’s how an MSP or IT reseller can offer it through Five West without buying the hardware, carrying it on the books or collecting the payments, and what a 20-seat bundle costs per month.
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What is hardware as a service?
Hardware as a service (HaaS) is a way for a business to pay a monthly fee for its IT hardware and the service that keeps it running, instead of buying the equipment up front. TechTarget defines it as “a procurement model that’s similar to leasing or licensing,” with the provider responsible for replacing hardware that breaks down or goes out of date.
For an MSP, a HaaS bundle usually means laptops or desktops, a firewall, switches and sometimes a server, plus the setup, licenses and support, sold as one price per month or per user. When it’s mostly laptops and desktops, you’ll also hear it called device as a service.
Clients like it for the same reasons they finance other equipment. In the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation’s 2024 Horizon Report, 82% of businesses that acquired equipment or software in 2023 used at least one form of financing. Cash flow was the top reason they gave (62%), and protection from equipment obsolescence came next (55%). That’s most of the HaaS pitch: no big check up front, and gear that gets replaced before it’s out of date.
Why do MSPs struggle to offer HaaS on their own?
Because funding it yourself makes you the lender. You pay your distributor for the hardware now and earn it back a little at a time over three years or more. On the 20-seat bundle below, that’s more than $43,000 out of your cash before the client’s first monthly bill goes out.
The equipment is yours, so it sits on your balance sheet while you wait. You’re also the one collecting. If a client pays late, stops paying or closes, the loss is yours, and so is the hardware in their office.
It gets harder the better it works. Every new HaaS client takes more cash, so the more you sell, the more you’re carrying. I’d rather see that money go to hiring and tools.
How does hardware as a service financing work?
Your client leases the bundle, you’re paid in full, and your client makes one monthly payment while you keep running the service. Here’s who does what:
- You quote it. Hardware from your distributor, your own labor, licenses, support and your monthly services can all be on one quote. A mixed invoice like that can go on one agreement, with licenses and support included on qualifying transactions.
- Your client applies. It starts with a soft credit inquiry. Most files get a first response within 1 to 2 business hours, and qualifying files up to $500,000 can be decided on the application alone.
- Your client signs. On a fair market value lease, the funder owns the equipment during the term. Your client’s obligation runs to the funder, not to you.
- You get paid. Once your client signs and the equipment is delivered and accepted, you’re paid 100% of the invoice. Standard deals can fund in as little as 24 to 48 hours after signing.
- Your client pays monthly. One payment for the whole term. You don’t carry a receivable or do any collecting.
Rolling out to several sites in phases? Progress and pre-funding arrangements are available on qualifying transactions.
Every submission also has two funding paths behind it: the sharpest pricing, or the Five West direct lending program when speed, certainty or structure matters more. A borderline file gets reviewed for a restructure before anyone calls it a decline: money down, a shorter term, a co-signer or corporate co-guarantor, or a different program. And if a file can’t be placed, we’ll say so plainly.
What can go into one HaaS payment?
Most of what’s on your proposal. Our IT equipment financing page has the full list, and here’s how it lines up with a HaaS bundle:
- Devices: laptop, desktop and workstation fleets.
- Network and security: switches, routers, wireless and firewalls. On qualifying transactions, a firewall’s security licenses can sit on the same agreement as the hardware.
- Servers and storage, plus phone and VoIP systems, racks and cabling.
- Installation and deployment: configuration, setup and your own labor, on the same invoice as the distributor hardware.
- Licenses and support: software licenses, multi-year license bundles and support agreements, on qualifying transactions.
- Your managed services: your monthly managed-services fees can go on the agreement, too.
- Security systems: cameras, access control, install labor and monitoring.
Cloud software that’s billed month to month works a little differently. Financing usually covers the project around it, like the migration, setup and training, plus a multi-year license bundle if the vendor sells one.
Itemize the quote. One with the hardware and services on separate lines is usually all a first response needs. Deals run from a usual minimum of about $15,000 to $5 million and up, and smaller rollouts can be bundled together to reach the minimum.
Selling GPU servers or a data center buildout? Once those deals reach $1 million, they run on different program rules, and our guide for GPU server resellers covers them.
What does a HaaS bundle cost per month?
A 20-seat bundle built from prices listed in October 2026 comes to $43,238, or about $1,375 a month over 36 months. That’s about $69 per user before your services. Here’s what’s in it:
| Item | Seller | Listed price | Qty | Line total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business laptop: Dell Pro 14 (Intel Core 5 120U, 16 GB memory, 512 GB SSD, Windows 11 Pro) | Dell | $1,550.00 | 20 | $31,000.00 |
| Firewall: Fortinet FortiGate 70G with 3 years of FortiCare Premium support and FortiGuard Unified Threat Protection | SHI | $2,817.00 | 1 | $2,817.00 |
| Switch: Fortinet FortiSwitch 148F-FPOE (48 PoE+ ports, four 10G SFP+ uplinks) | SHI | $1,822.00 | 2 | $3,644.00 |
| Server: Dell PowerEdge T360 tower, starting configuration (Intel Xeon E-2436, 32 GB memory, one 2 TB drive) | Dell | $5,199.01 | 1 | $5,199.01 |
| Server installation: Dell ProDeploy for PowerEdge T Series | Dell | $578.36 | 1 | $578.36 |
| Total | 20 laptops, a firewall, 2 switches, a server and its installation | $43,238.37 | ||
Prices listed on the sellers’ websites, checked October 20, 2026. These are listed prices, not appraisals or offers, and Five West has no affiliation with these sellers. Your distributor pricing will differ. The server is Dell’s starting configuration with no operating system, so a production build usually costs more.
Here’s what that comes to at three terms, plus what your own labor adds:
| What’s financed | Amount | 36 months | 48 months | 60 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The 20-seat bundle above | $43,238 | About $1,375 | About $1,076 | About $898 |
| Per user, with 20 users | About $2,162 each | About $69 | About $54 | About $45 |
| Each $5,000 of your own install labor | $5,000 | About $159 | About $124 | About $104 |
Payments are estimated examples for established businesses only (two or more years in business), with no money down and payments in arrears. They’re figured like an equipment finance agreement, and a fair market value lease usually comes in lower. Actual payments depend on credit approval, the equipment and the term. Illustrative, not a quote or an offer.
If you sell per user, add your own per-user fee to the hardware figure. Both can sit on the same agreement, so the client sees one number.
I’d keep laptops on 36 or 48 months. They’re typically replaced every three to five years, and nobody wants to still be paying for a laptop after it’s been swapped out.
What happens at the end of a HaaS term?
Your client turns the old gear in, and you refresh them onto new equipment. On a fair market value lease they can also buy the equipment at market value, extend the lease or upgrade. Leases run 24 to 60 months, and the term is usually set to end around the next refresh, since servers, laptops and network gear are typically replaced every three to five years.
You don’t have to wait for the end to add gear. Qualifying leases have add-on and upgrade paths mid-term, so there’s a way to add a new hire’s laptop or a switch for a second office.
Two things to settle before your client signs:
- The return terms. Check the notice window for returns, and spell out in your service agreement who wipes the drives on returned laptops and servers. TechTarget notes that decommissioning can include wiping data, destroying hard drives and certifying that old equipment was recycled.
- What they’ll keep. Racks, cabling and phone systems usually outlast the refresh, so they fit better on a $1 buyout lease or an equipment finance agreement, and the client owns them at the end.
Every refresh is also your next proposal.
Which partner tier fits an MSP?
It’s the one that matches the application volume you already do. All three tiers are free, with no setup fee, no monthly fee and no application fee for your clients, and each starts with a 90-day trial.
| Tier | Monthly applications | What you get | In HaaS terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd Party Financing | No minimum | A dedicated finance rep and nothing to sign. Send clients to support@fivewestfinancial.com or a named point of contact. | Start with your next proposal |
| Co-Branded | About $100,000, plus one funded deal a quarter | Your logo on a payment calculator and financing page, an apply-online link, the Partner Portal, 100% funding upfront on orders and ongoing training | Three 20-seat bundles like the one above |
| Private Label | About $500,000, under a partner program agreement | Everything in Co-Branded, plus a program built under your brand, CRM integration, annual sales meeting sponsorships, and in-person trade show and event support | About a dozen of those bundles |
The volume is application volume, meaning what your clients apply for. Moving up a tier doesn’t restart anything, and plenty of partners start on 3rd Party. Our partner tier comparison goes through all three. Still comparing finance partners? Here’s what an IT reseller should look for.
How do you put HaaS pricing on your proposals?
Put the monthly payment, the term and “estimated, subject to credit approval” next to the total on every proposal, and add a per-user figure if that’s how you sell. Lines like these work:
- Whole bundle: “The 20-seat refresh, with the firewall licenses and server install, is about $1,375 a month over 36 months, estimated and subject to credit approval.”
- Per user: “That works out to about $69 a month per user for the hardware, and our managed services go on the same payment.”
- Adding seats later: “Each extra $5,000 of hardware is about $159 a month over 36 months, estimated and subject to credit approval.”
Three tools help. The Quote Builder turns a price and term into a payment, with no credit pull. Our partner widgets put a payment estimate, an apply button or a full financing page on your site with one short snippet, and you don’t need to be a partner to use them. On Co-Branded and Private Label, Submit App in the Partner Portal takes about a minute, with no documents and no SSN, and the Partner Portal demo shows how you’d track each deal by stage from your phone.
One caution: don’t put a payment on proposals for clients under two years in business. Our guide to quoting a monthly payment has more lines your team can borrow, and our guide to offering financing online covers your website.
Can a startup client get hardware as a service?
Yes, through select startup programs, though a young business needs a stronger file. A client under a year in business is underwritten as a startup, which typically means 700+ personal credit, relevant industry experience, working capital left after the purchase and usually a down payment. Between one and two years the field narrows, but deals stay workable. Two or more years opens the broadest set of programs.
Leave the pricing on these deals to the application, and send the owner our startup equipment financing guide.
And if your MSP is the newer business? You can start on the 3rd Party Financing tier, which has no minimum and nothing to sign. Your client is the one who applies and signs, so it’s their file that gets underwritten.
Frequently asked questions
What is hardware as a service (HaaS)?
It’s a way for a business to pay one monthly fee for its IT hardware and the services that keep it running, instead of buying the equipment up front. An MSP usually bundles laptops, network gear and sometimes a server with installation, licenses, support and its managed services, then replaces the gear at the end of the term.
How can an MSP offer hardware as a service without buying the hardware?
Put the bundle on a fair market value lease that the client signs through a finance partner. With Five West, the hardware, installation, licenses and support can go on one agreement on qualifying transactions, and the MSP’s monthly managed-services fees can go on the same agreement. The MSP is paid 100% of the invoice when the deal funds and doesn’t carry a receivable or do any collecting.
Can managed services be included in a HaaS agreement?
Yes. An MSP’s monthly managed-services fees can go on the agreement with the hardware, installation, licenses and support, so the client makes one payment.
Who owns the equipment in a HaaS lease?
On a fair market value lease, the funder owns the equipment during the term. At the end, the client can return it and refresh onto new equipment, buy it at market value, extend or upgrade. Gear the client plans to keep, like racks, cabling and phone systems, usually goes on a $1 buyout lease or an equipment finance agreement instead.
When does the MSP get paid on a HaaS deal?
When the deal funds. Five West pays 100% of the invoice after the client signs and the equipment is delivered and accepted, and standard deals can fund in as little as 24 to 48 hours after signing. The client’s obligation runs to the funder, so the MSP carries no receivable.
How long is a HaaS lease term?
Leases run 24 to 60 months. On IT hardware the term usually follows the refresh cycle, since servers, laptops and network gear are typically replaced every three to five years, so 36 to 60 months is the usual range. Qualifying leases also have add-on and upgrade paths mid-term.
Does it cost an MSP anything to offer HaaS financing?
No. All three Five West partner tiers are free, with no setup fee, no monthly fee and no application fee for clients, and each starts with a 90-day trial. 3rd Party Financing has no minimum volume. Co-Branded asks for about $100,000 a month in applications and one funded deal a quarter, and Private Label about $500,000 a month.
Can a startup get hardware as a service?
Yes, through select startup programs. A business under a year old is underwritten as a startup, which typically means 700+ personal credit, relevant industry experience, working capital left after the purchase and usually a down payment. Two or more years in business opens the broadest set of programs.
Start a partner program.
Put a monthly price on every HaaS proposal, get answers within hours, and get paid 100% of the invoice when deals fund. The partner application takes about 10 minutes, and it’s not a credit application.
This article is general information about hardware as a service and IT equipment financing for MSPs and IT resellers, not tax, legal or accounting advice or a commitment to finance. Prices shown are sellers’ listed prices, not appraisals or offers. Tax and accounting treatment, including how a lease is reported, depends on the contract and the business; confirm with a CPA. All financing is subject to credit approval and underwriting.