Trades and field services
The production estimate is a number. The homeowner is buying the explanation.
Solar is sold on a twenty-five year promise, and the proposal is the only part of that promise the customer can hold. Design tools give you the array layout and the annual kilowatt-hours; what they do not give you is the paragraph about what happens if the utility takes four months to approve interconnection, or how the tax credit depends on the customer's own liability. The Proposal Maker drafts those sections from the systems you have already sold.
Where this fits
You already run Aurora Solar, OpenSolar or Solargraf. This is not that.
The gap
Design platforms are indispensable for the array layout, the shade analysis and the production model, and nothing here competes with that. Their proposal output, though, is generated from the design — a chart, an equipment list and a savings figure. The narrative that separates a careful installer from a door-knocker, and the exclusions that protect you when the roof turns out to need replacing first, are not in it.
What this does not do
This does not model production, lay out arrays, run shade analysis, or price financing. Aurora, OpenSolar or Solargraf keep doing that. This writes the proposal document around the numbers those tools produced.
Scope
What a solar installer's proposal actually has to itemise
- System size in kW DC and kW AC, module and inverter make and model, and quantity
- Array layout by roof plane, with tilt, azimuth and any shading losses identified
- Year-one production estimate and the assumptions behind it, including degradation over the term
- Mounting and attachment method, flashing detail, and the roof warranty implication
- Electrical scope: point of interconnection, main panel work or derate, rapid shutdown, conduit routing
- Battery storage where included: capacity, backed-up loads, and what the system does in an outage
- Monitoring, commissioning, and the handover walkthrough
Pricing
How solar installers price the work
Cash purchase, price per watt
Gross system price with the per-watt figure shown, and incentives presented separately so the customer sees both the invoice and the net.
Financed with a lender
Monthly payment alongside the cash price, with the dealer fee and the rate disclosed rather than folded silently into the system price.
Lease or power purchase agreement
Term, escalator, and the transfer conditions on sale of the home, which is the clause that causes disputes years later.
Commercial with incentive stacking
Federal credit, depreciation and any state or utility programme laid out as separate lines with their own eligibility conditions.
The document
What comes out the other end
- 01Site assessment findings: roof condition, age, orientation, shading and structural notes
- 02System design summary with the array layout and equipment schedule
- 03Production estimate and the modelling assumptions, stated as an estimate rather than a guarantee
- 04Incentives and their conditions, including that the federal credit depends on the customer's own tax liability
- 05Interconnection and permitting sequence, with realistic timelines and who is responsible for each step
- 06Exclusions: roof replacement, electrical service upgrades, tree removal, structural reinforcement, HOA approval
- 07Warranty stack: module, inverter, workmanship, and roof penetration, each with its own term
- 08Payment or financing schedule tied to milestones such as permit approval and permission to operate
Compliance
The details that belong on the document, not in a follow-up email
- Contractor licence and any state-specific solar registration required on the face of a written proposal
- NEC requirements that drive visible cost, particularly rapid shutdown and conductor sizing, cited where a competing bid may have omitted them
- Utility interconnection application and permission to operate identified as a dependency you do not control
- Production estimates described as modelled estimates with the software and weather dataset named, since several states regulate how solar production claims are presented
- Tax credit language framed as conditional on the customer's circumstances, with a recommendation to confirm with their own tax adviser
- Roof warranty interaction stated where penetrations are being made in an existing manufacturer warranty period
General guidance, not legal advice. Requirements vary by state and jurisdiction — confirm yours with counsel or your licensing board.
Straight answers
The three things you are probably thinking
“Aurora and OpenSolar already generate a proposal for me.”
They generate a design and a production model, and their proposal output is built around those. What they do not write is your interconnection explanation, your exclusions, or your account of what the twenty-five year warranty actually covers.
“Our lender requires their own documents.”
Those still apply. This produces the proposal that sits in front of the financing paperwork — the part the customer reads to decide, rather than the part they sign.
“Production claims are regulated. I cannot have AI writing those.”
It drafts from your own past proposals, so the framing it uses is the framing your compliance team already approved. Every section is reviewed before sending, and the estimate language stays yours.
FAQ
Solar proposals: common questions
Does it calculate production or design the array?
No. Design and production modelling stay in your design platform. This takes the outputs and writes the customer-facing document around them.
Can it pull my Aurora design in automatically?
Not today — there is no integration. You upload or paste the design summary and it drafts from there.
How does it handle tax credit claims?
It frames them as conditional on the customer's own tax position and reproduces the wording from your past proposals. It is not a source of tax advice and the pages say so.
We sell both residential and commercial. Will it tell them apart?
Yes, if your library contains both. It matches a new inquiry against the closest past proposals, so a commercial rooftop bid drafts from your commercial work.
Can I keep our standard warranty and exclusions on every proposal?
Those live in your firm profile after setup and carry onto every proposal automatically, along with your letterhead and licence details.
Related
Other trades we have written this up for
See what it writes from your last solar proposal.
Upload three or four you were happy to send. The next one drafts in the same voice.