A workable repair versus replace rule for small businesses is straightforward: if a repair quote comes in above roughly 40 to 50 percent of what a comparable new device costs, or the machine is already past 4 to 5 years old, replacement usually makes more financial sense than repair. Below that threshold, repair extends useful life at a fraction of the replacement cost, which is where most IT budgets should default.
What a Repair vs Replace Policy Should Actually Say
A one-page policy should specify an age threshold that triggers an automatic replace-first evaluation, a cost ratio rule comparing repair quote to replacement price, and who has authority to approve exceptions, a well-specced machine someone relies on daily, for instance, even past the normal threshold. Without these three things written down, every broken laptop becomes its own fresh argument.
Calculating the Real Cost of Downtime, Not Just Repair Price
Repair always looks cheaper on the invoice alone, but the real comparison needs to include days without a working device, the cost of a loaner if one's provided, and lost productivity during that gap. A device with a one-day doorstep turnaround changes this math considerably compared to one that has to be shipped off and waits a week in a queue.
Age Is a Better Signal Than It Looks
Batteries and storage degrade on a fairly predictable curve, so a laptop past 4 years commonly needs a battery replacement regardless of whatever else brought it in for repair. Factor that likely second cost into any repair quote on an older device rather than treating the current fault as a one-off, since it rarely is.
Building a Simple Asset Register
A spreadsheet with purchase date, warranty expiry, assigned user, and last repair date and cost per device turns repair-vs-replace into a lookup instead of a fresh negotiation every time something breaks. This takes an afternoon to set up for a business with under 30 devices and pays for itself the first time a repair decision needs to happen quickly.
When Repair Is Clearly the Right Call
A device under 2 years old with a single component failure, RAM, an SSD, a fan, or a battery, almost always falls well under the cost ratio threshold and is worth fixing without much deliberation. Common fixes like storage upgrades, malware cleanup, or an all-in-one PC repair for a newer machine almost always beat replacement on cost alone.
We give a written estimate before any work starts, so this repair-vs-replace math can be done against a real number rather than a guess. The ₹350 inspection fee is refunded against the repair if you proceed, and every repair carries a 90-day warranty either way.
