General questions

Q. Why does open solar display the records as "commercial" and "installed" in the kanban view even though the record is set to "residential"
A. Even if a project is set to Residential, the stage it’s in may still fall under a workflow labeled “Commercial.”
You may need to check the following:

• Open the project → Manage tab → Project Details.
• Confirm that Project Type = Residential.
• Then, ensure the Stage is appropriate (e.g., “Residential – Installed” instead of “Commercial – Installed”).

Q. Warranty extension
A. You can change the warranty by going to Control > Design and Hardware > Module/Inverter/Battery/Other Components > edit > Customize Specification.

Q: I am a manufacturer and would like to feature my components in OpenSolar.

A: Please contact partners@opensolar.com 

Q: How to add products into OpenSolar.

A: Please message the specifications to support and they will assist you in adding this information. 

Q: Customer support phone number

A: Unfortunately at the moment we do not have a phone number to provide. For all questions and inquiries please reach out to support here.

Q: Can I backup the data?

A: If you want to backup the data of your projects the best way is to download the PDF proposal.

Q: How do I download the software?

A: You can download out app by going to your smartphone and locating the app store. Use the search and search for the name "OpenSolar"

Q: How do I download all of the data from our lead list?

A: You can download this by going to the project section and selecting download at the end of the page. If you have more than 50 leads, please use the filter option to filter out your options and download them in batches. The filter "created on/before" in combination with "created on/after" is great to filter the data by dates created.

Q: Is there a countersign procedure?

A: Yes, for this to work you first want to go into control > purchase experience > contract template and edit your contract. From there, add the counter signer signature placeholder into the areas you want the counter signer to sign. Once these are placed, make sure to select DocuSign as the integration at the top where the name of the document is found. When this is done, a DocuSign drop-down will appear. Make sure to expand this and toggle on the counter signer toggle. From there, enter who the counter signer will be. Once this is done, after the customer signs the contract this will be sent to the counter signer to sign. 

Q: How to add an organization?

A: You can create an organization by going to https://app.opensolar.com/#/register

Q: Where is your head office?

A: Our headquarters is located at Sydney, NSW

Q: Can I call customers?
A: Unfortunately, we do not have a way or an integration where you can call your customers.

Q: Where do I find my organization id?

A: You can go to Control > Company > Business Info > You can copy the numbers in the URL.

Q: Can I download production data?

A: At the moment production data can not be downloaded.

Q: How do you export a project from the platform?

A: This can be done by going to the project section and selecting the download at the end of the page. Please note that if you have over 50 records of project we advise to use the filter functionality to narrow down the result as anything above 50 will cause the download to remove project information to allow the download to happen.

Q: Can I bulk-upload new users?

A: Unfortunately we currently do not have the functionality to bulk upload new users into OpenSolar. 

Q: How do I get design permission?

A: To obtain design permission please reach out to your admins so they can adjust your current role to allow access to this area of the platform. 

Q: How can I show more than 3 case studies on the proposal?

A: Adding more than 3 case studies can be done by adding this information inside the proposal template. This can be done by going to

Control 

purchase experience

Proposal template

Expand the proposal content

You can use one of our content blocks to add this information. 

Q: New construction

A: When designing a new construction you can follow these steps to achieve a proposal

If the home does not have an address registered in Google, you can click on "enter address later" on the home screen

This will take you to the "Info" tab of the project and you want to expand the address section.

In the address section add the coordinates, country, and state

From there go into the design tab

In the design tab, expand the design mode and select manual mode and for the provider, you can select "no ground imagery" if you want to import your own image.

Drag and drop your own image file into the white design canvas.

Click on the "Select" button once the custom imagery upload comes up.

Use either the arrows next to the image or the menu on the left hand side to scale the image. 

This process can also be found in this article: How to design in Manual mode

Q: How do I archive lost deals?

A: Lost deals can not be archived. What we advise is to go into the manage tab of the project and set the stage for these projects to "other". 

Q: What is MCS + Sam (Auto)

A: This new calculator is a combination of both MCS and Sam. It was created to be used for projects where the MCS calculator could not compute correct calculations. Sam will cover the section MCS can not compute.

Q: Payment Factors

A: Payment factors is a feature only our staff has access to. Please submit a ticket requesting our team to add this information and they will be able to provide more information. 

Q: Default tariff?

A: You can set a tariff as default by going to

Control

Other 

Utility rates

Locate the tariff you want to set as the default

If it's a manually created tariff edit it or if it's a tariff from our system select import. 

From the edit window change the popularity to 100

Q: Can I assign people to certain pricing schemes?

A: At the moment there is no option to add certain people or team members to pricing schemes.

Q: Increase project savings from 20 to 25 years

A: To increase the project saving years you can go to:

Control

Design and Hardware

Setbacks and design settings

Edit the template you will be using

Expand simulation settings

If the "automatically set years to simulate" is toggled on turn it off

Enter years in the "years to simulate" field.

Q: Upload energy tariff

A: To add your tariff we advise you to submit a ticket with the tariff information so our team can create this for you. On the contrary, if you want to add this on your end please follow these steps:

go to the Control section of the app, and then go to Other > Utility Tariffs on the left-side bar.

go to the top right-hand corner and click on "Add Utility Tariff".

You can find more information about this process here: How to create a tariff in OpenSolar

Q: Integrate with my outlook calendar

A: At the moment OpenSolar does not have an integration with Outlook calendar.

Q: Can I assign a different payment option to a different proposal template?

A: At the moment we do not have the option to auto-apply payment options based on the template used. What you can do is create several payment options and in the title name it something that lets you know what template to use it with. These names will appear when selecting the payment option in the project and the correct selection can me manually made. 

Q: How do I stop the sales reps from seeing cost breakdowns in the design.

A: To stop a sales rep from seeing cost breakdown, you want to create a custom role. This can be done from the control > company > custom role. Make sure to remove all access to the line "Design - Cost Breakdown".

You can find more information about the custom role here:How to create custom roles and add team members

Q: Default panels

A: You can set panels as default by going to control > design and hardware > module. From there, edit the panel you want to set as default and toggle on the auto apply.

Q: Who are the promoted brands in Expo?
A: All OpenSolar partners are created Expo stands and can be found in our full list of partners in the Expo Home. Premium Expo that includes the full suite of Stand components such as Featured Products, Resources, Chat, and more, is currently available only to Marketing Services partners in the Gold and Platinum tiers.

Q: How much does Premium Expo cost?
A: Platinum Tier: Included (no additional cost), Gold and Silver Tier: Available for an additional fee.Q: I’m a Silver partner. How can I upgrade to Premium Expo?
A: Silver partners can contact their Business Development (BD) manager to inquire about access or upgrade options.Q: I’m not yet a partner. How do I get started with Expo?
A: Submit the Marketing Services intake form here: opensolar.com/marketing-services.Q: I’m a Gold/Platinum partner but don’t see my brand in Expo. What should I do?
A: Reach out to your BD manager to confirm your tier and set up your Expo stand.

Q: Where to find sales machine

A: Sales Machine is currently in closed beta. If you’d like to get early access to our next-generation proposal tool, please fill out this form.

Q: How to add PDF data sheets of panels

A: To add a PDF file to a project, navigate to Manage > Documents, then click the plus (+) button to upload a document. Drag and drop the PDF file into the upload window and select the corresponding extra file category.

For proposal-related files, choose “Sales Proposal – Extra File” tag

Note: The uploaded PDF will only be accessible within the specific project where it was added. Ensure the file size does not exceed 1MB, as this is the system’s maximum file size limit.

Q: How to mark a payment as paid offline?

A: To get this updated in CashFlow, you just need to:

 • Jump into the Cashflow interface

 • Find the project by name or Project ID

 • Hit the three dots on the right-hand side

 • From the new dropdown, choose “Mark Payment as Accepted Offline”

 You’ll get a little prompt titled “Confirm Payment Received” where you can leave a note explaining how the payment was taken.