Setting up a Loan payment option

Summary:

This Help Center article outlines the steps for creating and configuring a Loan Payment Option.

Table of Contents:

Creating a payment option

Basic Field of a payment option

Configuring fields for a Loan payment option

• Required Fields
• Optional Fields

Finalizing the Payment Option

Creating a payment option:

All payment options can be created from:

• Control > Pricing and Payment > Payment Options

To add a new payment option:

• Navigate to the Payment Options window.
• Click + Add Payment Option in the top-right corner.

Basic Field of a payment option:

From there, the following options will appear. These options stay consistent through all the payment types selected:

• Title: This title will appear in the payment tab for your project as well as the displayed title within the proposal for your customer to know the payment option presented to them
• Type: This field allows you to select the type of payment option you are creating and we will review each type and their fields below
• Auto-Apply: This toggle allows you to choose if you want this payment option to automatically apply to all your projects. It's important to have at least one payment option automatically added to all your projects to ensure calculations can fully completed.
• Description: An optional description of the payment option
• Payment milestones: This toggle enabled you to set up the milestones in which your customer can pay their total system price. When enabled, the following options will become available:
  • Milestone title: This is the title that will be displayed to your customer within the proposal. 
  • Milestone Description: An optional short description of what this milestone is for which will also be displayed in the proposal:
  • Milestone Amount %: The percentage of the total price this milestone will be for
  • Milestone min: The minimum this milestone can be for. This is often used in combination with milestone %. For example, let's say the percentage was 10% but you do not want this 10% to be less than 1,000 you would stay at the 1,000in the min section to ensure the 10% is nevel below the 1,000 threshold
  • Milestone max: Just like the min, you can also establish a maximum for the milestone. If we use the same 10% example, let's say you never want that 10% to be more than 1,500, you can use the max field to state this information
  • Add additional milestones: This button allows you to add more milestones to your setup. By default when toggling on the milestone option, two milestones will be added. 

• Advanced Settings: The advanced setting section has many functionalities to further customize your payment option. These options include:
  • Utility rate override: This override will change the selected tariff stated in the energy tab of the project and will use the tariff stated here instead.
  • Priority: The priority field will determine in the order the payment option will display.
  • Collect signature: By default, this is checked on. It means a signature will be collected at the time of proposal acceptance.
  • Make standard system price consistent: By default, in OpenSolar, all system options show one standard price. You can toggle this off, to show individual pricing for each payment option
  • Auto-discount excess dealer dee: As established above, by default OpenSolar shows one standard system price. Because not all pricing amounts to the same, we then show a discount line which is nothing more than the difference between the most expensive payment option and the one you are looking at. This discount function can be turned off by toggling off this field
  • Supplementary terms & conditions: any terms and conditions that you want to add only when using this payment option.
  • Archive (hide component): once a payment option has been associated with a project, the system will not allow for it to be deleted to ensure information from the projects is not deleted. Because of this, you have the option to toggle on the "Archive" functionality which will remove the payment option from the active list but still keep intact the information on the projects this was used on.

Configuring fields for a Loan payment option:

A Loan payment option becomes available when the Type field is set to Loan.

Loan Fields:

Required Fields:

• Annual Interest Rate (%): Enter the annual interest rate for the loan.
• Loan Term: Enter the loan term in periods. The default unit is months (e.g., a 10-year loan is 120 months, a 20-year loan is 240 months). You can adjust the period length in Advanced Settings.

Optional Fields:

All loans require an Annual Interest Rate and Loan Term. The following parameters are optional and should be configured based on the specific solar loan requirements.

• • Prepayment Toggle: Enable this if the financing includes a prepayment (e.g., a lump sum payment, often equal to the Investment Tax Credit (ITC), typically due by month 12 or 18). Choose between:

• • • • Solar-Style Loan: Starts with a lower monthly payment, which remains unchanged if the prepayment is made on time. If the prepayment is missed, payments increase for the remainder of the loan term.
      • Mortgage-Style Loan: Starts with a higher monthly payment, which decreases if the prepayment is made on time. If the prepayment is missed, payments remain high for the remainder of the loan term.

        • Prepayment Formula: Choose one of the following formulas:

          • Customer-Facing Incentives: Uses all customer-facing incentives (e.g., ITC) to calculate the prepayment amount.
          • Percentage of Loan Amount: Requires a fixed percentage of the loan amount to be prepaid. Enter the Prepayment % in the corresponding field.

        • Prepayment Month: Set the month in which the required prepayment is due (typically month 12 or 18).

Note: For an incentive to be included as a prepayment, the "Use for Loan Paydown" option must be enabled in the incentive settings.

• Promotional Period: Some loans include a promotional period with more favorable terms at the beginning of the loan. You can configure one or more of the following options:
  • No Payment Term: No payments are due, but interest accrues. This term starts from the first loan period and lasts for the specified duration.
  • Interest-Only Term: The borrower pays only the accrued interest, not the loan principal. This term starts either at the first loan period or after the No Payment Term ends.
  • No Interest Term: No interest accrues on the loan balance, though regular payments may still be required. This term always starts at the first loan period and runs for the specified duration. (Note: This term can overlap with a No Payment or Interest-Only Term.)

Note: If the loan requires a prepayment and includes a promotional period, the No Payment and Interest-Only terms must end before the prepayment is due.

• Dealer Fee: If a Dealer Fee is required by the financing company and should be factored into the system pricing, configure the following:
  • % of Loan Amount: Enter the dealer fee as a percentage of the loan amount.
  • Fixed Amount: Enter the dealer fee as a fixed amount per project.

• Down Payment: You can configure a required down payment when this payment option is used.
  • % of System Cost: Enter the percentage of the system cost that will be collected as a down payment (this amount will not be financed).
  • Minimum Amount: Specify a minimum required down payment, if applicable.
  • Maximum Amount: Specify a maximum down payment, if applicable. This can be useful where regulations limit upfront payments (e.g., no more than $1,000 before work is completed).

Finalizing the Payment Option

After configuring all relevant fields, click Save to complete the setup.