Overview
A Cost Scheme (also called a Costing Scheme in Studio) is your org’s template for what it costs you to deliver a system — beyond the per-SKU hardware costs in your component catalog.
Cost Schemes sit alongside component costs to build Total Costs (COGS). How those total costs are used depends on your Price Scheme:
| Price Scheme type | Role of the Cost Scheme |
|---|---|
Markup Percentage | Drives the sale price — Total Costs × markup % = base system price |
Price Per Watt, Price Per Watt By Size, Fixed Price, Enter Price Manually, etc. | Does not drive the sale price — sale price comes from the formula or manual entry; Cost Scheme feeds the Margin line in your pro-only price breakdown |
In short:
- Markup pricing → Cost Scheme is an input to pricing.
- $/W and other non-markup schemes → Cost Scheme is an input to profitability (margin), not to the customer-facing formula.
OpenSolar copy on Markup Percentage Price Schemes:
This markup pricing scheme will apply to the total costs set in your account.
That means component costs (Control → Design & Hardware) plus your Cost Scheme (Control → Pricing & Payment → Cost Schemes).
How Total Costs are built
Total Costs roll up from two layers:
Layer 1 — Component costs (Design & Hardware)
Each activated component can carry:
| Field | Feeds into |
|---|---|
Cost per unit | COGS for that hardware |
Labor per unit | Labor portion of COGS |
Where: Control → Design & Hardware → Modules / Inverters / Batteries / Other Components → cost fields.
These are not entered in the Cost Scheme editor — they scale automatically with quantities on each design.
Layer 2 — Cost Scheme (org template)
Where: Control → Pricing & Payment → Cost Schemes
Each Cost Scheme is organised into sections:
| Section | Typical line items |
|---|---|
COGS | Racking, BOS (+ up to 5 custom COGS types) |
Labour | Labour General |
Acquisition Cost | Lead gen allocation, salary allocation, presale software & design, commission (+ optional % of COGS & labour) |
Fulfillment | Supplier shipping, job-site shipping & warehousing, project management, design drawings, permit costs, other costs (+ up to 3 custom fulfillment types) |
Extra Costs | Job difficulty: storeys (2 / 3+), electrical phases (1 / 2 / 3), steep roof pitch, tilt racks, steep rack slopes, roof type adders |
Every line item can be set across five unit types (they add together for that line):
| Column | Applied as |
|---|---|
Per System | Flat amount once per system |
Per Panel | × panel count on the design |
Per Watt | × system kW × 1,000 |
Per Battery | × battery unit count |
Per kWh | × battery storage kWh |
All Cost Scheme amounts are excluding tax.
Total Costs formula
OpenSolar sums costs into categories, then totals:
- COGS = hardware costs + racking/BOS + custom COGS
- Labour = labour general + per-component labour adjustments
- Acquisition = lead gen, salary, presale, commission, custom acquisition
- Fulfillment = shipping, PM, permits, etc. + custom fulfillment
- Extras = roof type, storeys, phases, pitch/rack adders (from design + scheme)
Margin (pro view, after full pricing run):
- Margin = System Price (ex tax) − Total Costs
- Margin % = Margin ÷ System Price (ex tax, ex dealer fee)
Margin appears in Design → Pricing → Price Breakdown when you have permission to view cost and margin. It is not shown to customers on the proposal.
Cost Scheme + Markup Percentage pricing
When the system’s Pricing Scheme is Markup Percentage:
- OpenSolar calculates Total Costs (component costs + Cost Scheme + applicable cost adders).
- It applies your markup % from the Price Scheme:
Base Price (ex tax) ≈ Total Costs × (1 + markup % ÷ 100) - Tax, customer-visible adders/discounts, incentives, and payment options layer on top (see the companion pricing article).
Markup option: incentives before markup
Some Markup Percentage schemes support “Apply markup after applying incentives to installer”. When enabled, installer-side incentives reduce the cost base before markup is calculated. Check your Price Scheme settings if STCs or similar installer incentives seem to affect markup differently than expected.
Important: dealer fees and markup
When a dealer fee applies (financed payment options), the dealer fee is not included in the cost base used to calculate markup. It is added into costs later so margin reflects the fee as a cost — your profit line stays honest on loan options.
Cost Scheme + Price Per Watt (and other non-markup schemes)
When the system uses Price Per Watt, Price Per Watt By Size, Fixed Price, or manual pricing:
| What sets customer price | What Cost Scheme does |
|---|---|
Price Scheme formula (e.g. kW × $/W + battery kWh × $/kWh) or your manual override | Calculates Total Costs only |
Component price adjustments (not costs) | Added to sale price, not to COGS |
The Cost Scheme does not change the quoted system price in these modes. Instead it powers your internal profitability view:
This is why you can run a $/W Price Scheme for customer-facing pricing while still tracking whether each job is profitable — provided component costs and your Cost Scheme are kept up to date.
Same logic applies to: Price Per Watt By Size, Fixed Price, Enter Price Manually, Enter Price Manually $/W.
Where Cost Schemes are assigned
Org default — Auto-apply
On each Cost Scheme record, Auto-apply assigns that scheme to new projects/systems automatically (same pattern as Price Schemes and Payment Options).
Where: Control → Cost Schemes → edit scheme → enable Auto-apply.
Only one scheme should typically be auto-applied at a time per org workflow.
Per-system override (Studio)
Where: Project → Design → select system → Pricing tab → Costing Scheme
| Setting | Behaviour |
|---|---|
Auto-apply (empty / flash icon) | Uses org auto-applied Cost Scheme |
Specific scheme | costing_override for that system only |
Manage Costing Schemes (pencil) | Opens Control → Cost Schemes |
Changing the Costing Scheme manually turns off auto-sync for that field (flash icon disappears until reset).
Requires permission: design costing override (role-dependent).
Best practices
- Keep two layers current — component Cost per unit in Design & Hardware and general lines in Cost Schemes.
- Match scheme to pricing model — if you use Markup Percentage, treat Cost Scheme accuracy as pricing accuracy; if you use $/W, treat it as margin accuracy.
- Use Auto-apply for your default install profile; create additional schemes (e.g. commercial, battery-heavy) and assign per system when needed.
- Use Extra Costs for job difficulty you can detect from design (storeys, phase, pitch, tilt racks) instead of one-off manual adders.
- Commission — if you use variable commission rules, margin may show a footnote; commission can flow into costs after calculation.
- Review Price Breakdown on every quote before send — especially margin on $/W jobs.
- Customise Hardware Cost when distributor pricing differs from catalog defaults on a specific job.
Troubleshooting
| Issue | What to check |
|---|---|
Markup price is $0 or very low | Component costs missing? Cost Scheme empty? System has modules? |
Markup price seems too high | Duplicate costs — same labour in both component Labor per unit and Cost Scheme Labour |
Margin looks wrong on $/W jobs | Cost Scheme doesn’t affect sale price — update costs, not $/W |
Margin negative on $/W job | $/W rate too low vs true Total Costs, or costs not entered |
Cost Scheme not applying | Auto-apply enabled? System override set? Archived scheme? |
Costs don’t update after Control edit | Re-save design / wait for recalc; check per-system Costing Scheme override |
Extra Costs not adding | Storeys / phase / pitch settings on scheme; design has pitch/rack data |
COGS missing a component | Cost per unit on activation; use Customise Hardware Cost |
Can’t change Costing Scheme | design costing override permission; pricing locked after Design stage |
Markup differs when STCs enabled | Apply markup after incentives to installer on Price Scheme |
Cost Schemes vs Price Schemes — quick reference
| Cost Scheme | Price Scheme | |
|---|---|---|
Purpose | What the job costs you | What the customer pays (formula) |
Control path | Pricing & Payment → Cost Schemes | Pricing & Payment → Price Schemes |
Markup % pricing | Required — feeds base price | Sets markup % |
$/W pricing | Optional but recommended — feeds margin | Sets $/W and battery $/kWh |
Customer sees | No (pro breakdown only) | Yes (quoted system price) |
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