Sell Company MacBooks for Cash - From 2 Macs, With a VAT Invoice

Cash or Apple business trade-in credit: which suits your company?

Apple runs a trade-in route for business customers, and it is designed around one outcome: credit towards new Apple equipment. If you are about to order a batch of replacement Macs anyway and want the value taken off that order with the least effort, it is a reasonable choice, and we would not pretend otherwise.

We pay cash instead, by bank transfer to the company account. That matters whenever the money is needed for something other than Apple hardware: payroll, runway, a Windows or Chromebook rollout, or the final accounts of a business that is closing. Cash also separates the two decisions. You can sell the old Macs this month and choose their replacements later, from any supplier.

Trade-in terms and valuations change, so compare a live figure from each route on the day you decide. The general case for credit against cash, with worked examples, is in our Apple Trade In vs cash guide.

Before we can buy: release MDM and Activation Lock

Most company Macs are enrolled in a mobile device management (MDM) service through Apple Business Manager. That enrolment follows the serial number rather than the user, so the management profile reinstalls itself on every fresh setup until the organisation lets go of the device. We can only buy a company Mac after that has happened, and we check every serial on arrival. For each machine:

1. In Apple Business Manager, find each Mac by serial number and release it from your organisation. This is the step that stops the management profile coming back.
2. In your MDM console (Jamf, Kandji, Intune, Mosyle or whichever you use), delete the device record so it is no longer managed or reported.
3. Sign the Mac out of the user's Apple ID, which turns off Find My and Activation Lock. If a leaver's personal Apple ID is still on it, they can remove it remotely from their account at icloud.com without the Mac in front of them.
4. Erase the Mac with Erase All Content and Settings, so company data stays with the company until the box is sealed.

A Mac that arrives still enrolled or locked is returned to you free and insured rather than bought. The case of a leaver who walked out without signing out, and every other kind of lock, is covered on our locked MacBook page, and the wipe-before-selling guide has the full pre-sale checklist with screenshots.

How a company Mac sale works, start to finish

1. Complete the quote form for one Mac, then list the rest in the message box: model and year for each, and serial numbers if you have them to hand. Add the company's registered name so the paperwork is right first time.
2. We email a quote with one line per Mac, fixed for 14 days - long enough to forward to a director or the finance team for sign-off.
3. Accept, adding the PO number if you use one. Laptops travel on free, fully insured prepaid labels from any Post Office; iMacs, Mac minis and Mac Studios are collected free by courier from the office.
4. On arrival we check each serial number, its Activation Lock and MDM status, and its condition against the quote. If a line needs revising you see which Mac and why, and you can decline that line - a declined Mac comes back free and insured.
5. Payment goes by bank transfer to the company account within 24 hours of passing inspection, and the sale is covered by a VAT invoice.

Every Mac we buy is erased to NIST 800-88 standards before it is resold, whether or not your team wiped it first.