Overview
OpenSolar pricing is layered. Nothing is a single number typed once — hardware, formulas, adders, incentives, and payment options each contribute until you reach the price the customer sees on the proposal and at checkout.
At a high level:
Most of the setup live in Control. Most of the project-specific changes live in Design → System menu→ Pricing.
Where pricing is configured
Control (org-wide defaults)
| Area | Path | What it sets |
|---|---|---|
Price Schemes | Control → Pricing & Payment → Price Schemes | How base system price is calculated ($/W, markup, fixed, tiered) |
Cost Schemes | Control → Pricing & Payment → Cost Schemes | General COGS (labor, acquisition, fulfillment, etc.) |
Adders Library | Control → Pricing & Payment → Adders Library | Reusable adders/discounts you can apply to systems |
Payment Options | Control → Pricing & Payment → Payment Options | Cash, loan, lease, PPA, regular payments, integrated lenders |
Commissions | Control → Pricing & Payment → Commissions or the Adders Library | Variable commission rules |
Component catalog | Control → Design & Hardware → Modules / Inverters / Batteries / Other | Cost and price adjustments per SKU |
Incentives | Control → Other → Incentives | STCs, rebates, price-based incentives |
Help text on Price Schemes:
Pricing Schemes will be used to calculate the total system cost based on the selected components and quantities.
Step 1 — Component pricing (hardware)
Every module, inverter, battery, and other component in your catalog can carry:
| Field | Role |
|---|---|
Cost | Your COGS (ex tax) — used by Markup Percentage pricing schemes |
Price Adjustment per unit | Fixed $ added per unit on the sale price |
Price Adjustment per watt | $/W added (modules; inverters when strung) |
Price Adjustment per panel | $/panel added |
Where: Control → Design & Hardware → open the component activation for that SKU.
When you design a system, OpenSolar totals:
- Component costs → feeds margin/markup calculations
- Component price adjustments → added on top of the pricing scheme result
Pro tip: On the system Pricing tab, Customise Hardware Cost (with permission) lets you review or override distributor vs manual COGS for that project.
Note: If you use Enter Price Manually or Enter Price Manually $/W on a system, component price adjustments are not applied — the manual price replaces the formula path.
Step 2 — Pricing schemes (base system price)
A Price Scheme is the formula that turns design + costs into a starting sale price.
Where: Control → Price Schemes · selected per system on Design → Pricing → Pricing Scheme
| Scheme type | Typical use |
|---|---|
Price Per Watt | kW × $/W + battery kWh × $/kWh (+ tax settings) |
Markup Percentage | Total COGS × markup % |
Price Per Watt By Size | Tiered $/W bands by system size |
Fixed Price | Flat system price |
Per-system overrides (via Edit System Pricing or scheme overrides):
- Override $/W or battery $/kWh
- Override tax % or tax mode
Manual pricing (no scheme)
On Design → Pricing, you can instead choose:
| Option | What happens |
|---|---|
Enter Price Manually | You set a fixed system price |
Enter Price Manually $/W | You set $/W (battery $/kWh = 0) |
Set Customer Purchase Price | OpenSolar back-calculates the base price from your target purchase price (not available when percentage adders or dealer fees would make the math circular) |
Step 3 — Adders and discounts (system level)
After the scheme (or manual price) runs, adders and discounts adjust the total.
Adders Library (Control)
Reusable items with formulas such as:
| Formula | Applied to |
|---|---|
Fixed | Flat amount (optionally × quantity) |
Per Watt | System kW |
Per Panel | Panel count |
Price Including Tax (%) | % of system price |
Price Excluding Tax (%) | % ex tax |
Price Payable Including / Excluding Tax (%) | % of purchase price |
Each adder can affect Price, Cost, or Both, and can be visible to the customer or pro-only.
On the system (Design → Pricing)
- Adders & Discounts / + Adder/Discount — line items with label, formula, amount, tax, visibility
- Discount — customer-visible discount (inc tax); may auto-adjust when a payment option overrides price
Calculation order (simplified):
- Pricing scheme → base system price
- Fixed / per-watt / per-panel adders
- Percentage adders on system price
- Non-price incentives → reduce toward Purchase Price
- Purchase-price-based adders and incentives
- Rounding and overrides → final totals
Pro-only breakdown may show: Base Price, COGS, Margin, Standard System Price, Total System Price.
Step 4 — Incentives
Where: Control → Incentives · applied per system on Design → Incentives
| Paid to | Effect |
|---|---|
Installer | Reduces Purchase Price ( system_price_payable) — what you effectively receive after installer-side incentives |
Customer | Reduces net cost to the customer after purchase price is set |
Incentive types include STCs, size-based amounts, price-based (% of system or purchase price), and performance-based incentives.
Summary tab labels: Incentives to Installer, Incentives to Customer
Best practices
- Set up Price Schemes and Cost Schemes in Control before pricing live projects.
- Put repeatable charges in the Adders Library instead of retyping them every project.
- Use Pricing Scheme for solar; use manual price only when you intentionally bypass formulas.
- Match payment option dealer fee settings to your lender’s actual fee.
- Review Summary and Price Breakdown on each system before sending the proposal.
- Configure incentives in Control, then confirm selection on Design → Incentives.
- After the project advances past Design, use Payments milestone tools instead of editing base pricing unless you unlock/override.
Troubleshooting
| Issue | What to check |
|---|---|
Price is $0 or missing | Pricing scheme selected? System has modules? Calcs finished? |
Price didn’t change after design edit | Wait for recalc; refresh; check pricing lock |
Manual price ignores component adjustments | Expected — manual modes bypass price adjustments |
Cash and loan show same total | Dealer fee 0% or “consistent standard price” org setting |
Loan price seems too high | Dealer fee iteration — see dealer fee articles |
Adder not on proposal | Show customer toggle; PPA/Regular Payments disclaimer |
Purchase Price ≠ Total System Price | Installer incentives applied |
Can’t edit pricing | Project not in Design stage — pricing locked |
Set Customer Purchase Price greyed out | Percentage adders or dealer fees create circular dependency |
Wrong tax | Scheme tax settings; hardware vs non-hardware tax overrides |
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