How to set up Prepaid Lease and Prepaid PPA payment options

Overview

Prepaid Lease and Prepaid PPA are payment option types for prepaid third-party-owned (TPO) products. Instead of a recurring monthly lease or PPA payment, the customer pays an upfront Prepayment amount. The financier typically applies a credit (for example, related to tax credit value), so the customer’s prepayment is lower than the full system price.

Key differences from standard Lease / PPA:

• No monthly / recurring payment.
• The customer-facing figure is Prepayment, not monthly payment.
• Pricing is driven by prepayment percentage and/or a manual prepayment override.
• Checkout follows the cash-like flow (upfront amount + deposit), not the financed lease/PPA path.

Key differences from Cash:

• Payment type is correctly labeled as Prepaid Lease or Prepaid PPA (important for contracts and disclosures)
• Built-in prepayment credit calculation and quotation lines for term / ownership eligibility
• Dedicated contract auto-apply defaults for each prepaid type

Who can use this

Org admins (and users with permission to manage payment options) can create and configure Prepaid Lease / Prepaid PPA templates in Control. Sales users can then apply them on projects from the Payments tab.

How to create a Prepaid Lease or Prepaid PPA payment option

1. Open the Control Zone (top-left).
2. Go to Pricing & Payment → Payment Options.
3. Click + Add Payment Option.
4. Enter a Title (it is visible to your team and customers).
5. Set Type to Prepaid Lease or Prepaid PPA.
6. Complete the required and optional fields below.
7. Optionally enable Auto-apply and add a Description.
8. Click Save.

Configuration fields

Required

Prepayment Calculation (optional)

If all of these are left blank, you can still save the payment option and set the Prepayment amount manually on each project.

These credit inputs stack. OpenSolar combines:

1. Prepayment Percentage
2. Prepayment per Watt
3. Prepayment for Storage

Then:

Customer Prepayment = System price − total prepayment amount

Ownership

Deposit (optional)

Example: prepayment of $9,000 with a 10% deposit → $900 deposit.

What is not configured for prepaid types

Compared with standard Lease / PPA / Loan, prepaid options do not use:

• Payment frequency, interest rate, brokerage, or escalators (standard lease)
• PPA $/kWh, PPA escalator, PPA upfront payment, export rate settings (standard PPA)
• Loan-style Prepayment buydown (prepayment period for lower monthly payments)

Prepaid products are upfront only — recurring payment is always $0.

How prepayment is calculated on a project

When a prepaid option is applied to a system:

1. OpenSolar calculates the system price as usual.
2. It applies the configured prepayment (percentage / $/W / storage).
3. A hidden line item labeled Financier Prepayment Credit is applied (not shown to the customer).
4. The resulting payable amount is the customer Prepayment.
5. Any configured Deposit is calculated from that prepayment amount.
6. For US projects, customer incentives are set to $0 on prepaid pricing (the financing model assumes the financier captures those benefits).

Manual override on the project

On the project Payments tab, the payment option card shows an editable Prepayment field (not “System Price” or “Monthly Payment”).

• Edit Prepayment to override the formula-based amount.
• OpenSolar derives the financier credit needed to reach that target.
• The separate editable Upfront Payment / deposit field is hidden for prepaid types. Deposit is driven by the payment option’s deposit settings and payment milestones.

Warnings

You may see:

• “Prepayment cannot be higher than the system price.”
• “Financier prepayment credit exceeds the system price before prepayment.”

Fix the prepayment amount or credit settings before selling.

Using prepaid options on a project

1. Open a project and go to the Payments tab (or add the option while designing the system).
2. Click + Add Payment Option and select your Prepaid Lease or Prepaid PPA.
3. Confirm the Prepayment amount on the card (edit if needed).
4. Review deposit / milestone rows if CashFlow milestones are configured.
5. Open See Details to review the quotation breakdown.

Milestones for prepaid options behave like cash: they collect against the net prepayment amount (including deposit rows when configured).

What customers see on the proposal

For Prepaid Lease / Prepaid PPA:

• The primary figure is labeled Prepayment
• Monthly / recurring payment is not shown
• If deposit/down payment is greater than $0, it is also displayed
• Default quotation lines include:
  • System Details
  • Prepayment
  • Financing Term
  • Year Eligible for Full Ownership (when configured)

You can customize quotation rows under the payment option’s Advanced Settings → Quotation configuration. Prepaid-only lines (Prepayment, Financier Prepayment credit, Financing Term, Year Eligible for Full Ownership) are only available on prepaid payment types.

Contracts and documents

In Control → Contracts, you can set separate auto-apply defaults:

• Default for Prepaid Lease
• Default for Prepaid PPA

This lets you attach dedicated prepaid TPO contracts, which helps avoid incorrect language or disclosures.

Proposal template disclaimers are also available for:

• Financial Impact – Prepaid Lease
• Financial Impact – Prepaid PPA

Best practices

• Prefer native Prepaid Lease / Prepaid PPA over modeling prepaid TPO as Cash, so contracts and proposals use the correct payment type.
• Put your financier’s standard credit rules (percentage and/or $/W and storage) on the org payment option; use project-level Prepayment overrides for one-off exceptions.
• Configure dedicated prepaid contract templates and set the prepaid auto-apply defaults.
• Confirm Ownership Transfer Year with your financier before showing it to customers.
• For US projects, remember customer incentives are zeroed on prepaid pricing by design.