Guides
Sample solar installer quotes and the template behind them, explained
A solar installer quote template, clause by clause, with what each clause prevents and a worked example whose figures are left as named variables.
What to take away
- A quote is a risk document that happens to carry a price. Most of its value is in the clauses that say what happens when the roof, the panel, or the utility turns out differently than assumed.
- Eleven sections follow. Each one exists because of a specific argument that happens without it.
- The worked example uses named variables rather than dollar figures. A number invented here would be worse than useless, because a reader would compare it to their own market and draw a false conclusion.
- The one clause most small contractors are missing is the one covering the period between installation and permission to operate.
Section 1: the parties and the property
Legal name of the company, license number where the state requires it displayed, the customer's name, and the property address. Sounds trivial. It prevents the argument in which a quote issued to one household member is disputed by another, and the one in which the work was done at a different structure on the same lot.
Section 2: the scope, stated as a system
Describe what is being installed in terms a homeowner and an inspector would both recognize: the number of modules, the array location by roof plane, the equipment types, the location of inverters and disconnects, and the point of connection to the existing service equipment.
Naming the connection point matters. It is what distinguishes a job that ties into an existing panel from one that includes a new panel.
Section 3: what is not included
Written before section 2, even though it is printed after it. The standing list for residential solar: roof repair or replacement beyond any stated allowance, service equipment upgrades unless separately quoted, tree removal or trimming, work on structures other than the one named, anything discovered inside a wall or under decking, and any outcome dependent on an incentive program.
The Federal Trade Commission's advertising guidance for small businesses makes the standard plain: claims have to be truthful and substantiated when they are made, and a qualification has to be clear enough that a reader takes it in. An exclusion list on page five in smaller type does not meet that.
Section 4: allowances and the change order mechanism
For anything that could not be settled at survey, state an included quantity and the method for pricing beyond it. Penetrations, replacement decking, conduit run length.
Then state the mechanism: who determines that the limit has been reached, what evidence is recorded, how the customer is notified, and what happens if they decline. A photograph and a same-day written notice is the practical standard.
Section 5: the price, and what it is built from
Show the price on whatever basis the customer expects, and keep the internal build-up in your records. The eight-step method behind it is set out in the pricing procedure for solar work, and the reasoning about which basis to use is in the pricing and profit guide for solar contractors.
State what the price does not depend on: any tax credit, rebate, or utility program. Those are the customer's to claim and the customer's to lose.
Section 6: the worked example, in variables
Here is the structure of a quote build-up. The letters stay letters because your figures are yours.
| Line | Symbol | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Crew days on site | N | From the survey, including commissioning and inspection attendance |
| Loaded crew day rate | R | Annual crew cost divided by genuinely productive days |
| Labor | N times R | The first real number |
| Per-job fixed cost | F | Design, permit, interconnection, documentation, mobilization |
| Material | M | Delivered cost, including freight |
| Contingency | K | Applied where the survey left something open, not as a flat percentage |
| Overhead recovery | H | By whichever single method you have chosen |
| Margin | G | A decision about risk, not a benchmark |
| Quoted price | (N times R) plus F plus M plus K plus H plus G | What the customer sees |
R is the line most often wrong. Build it from your own payroll rather than from a wage figure, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational employment and wage tables as one reference point for pay in your area and adding payroll taxes, insurance, vehicles, tools, and paid training on top of it.
Fill in your own values and the arithmetic is the quote. Divide the result by system size afterwards if you want to know what per-watt figure falls out, but never start there.
Section 7: the schedule, with the parts you do not control marked
List the stages: survey, design, permit submission, permit approval, interconnection application, material delivery, installation, inspection, utility review, permission to operate.
Mark which stages belong to other parties. Permit approval belongs to the building department, and permission to operate belongs to the utility, under its own interconnection standard. Give the customer your recent actual experience for each stage rather than a promise, and say plainly which stages you cannot speed up.
Section 8: payment terms tied to events you control
Tie payments to things that happen inside your company where possible: contract signing, material delivery, installation complete. Tying the final payment to permission to operate is common and it hands your cash flow to the utility.
If the final payment must wait for energization, say so plainly and price the wait, because you are financing it. What that costs is worked through in the break-even and cash timing arithmetic.
Section 9: risk of loss between installation and energization
The clause most contractors do not have. The array is on the customer's roof, it is not yet energized, and something happens to it. Who bears that loss?
Decide it, write it, and tell your insurance broker what you wrote. Silence here means the question gets answered after the event by whoever has the better lawyer.
Section 10: production estimates and warranties
State that any production figure is a modeled estimate, list the assumptions it rests on, and say what it is not. If you offer a production guarantee, it belongs in a separate document with its own remedy and its own price.
Then set out the warranty stack honestly: which promises come from the module manufacturer, which from the inverter manufacturer, which from the racking manufacturer, and which are yours. Say who pays for labor on a manufacturer warranty replacement, because customers assume it is covered and it frequently is not.
Section 11: records, signatures, and what survives
Signature blocks, date, expiry of the quote, and a statement of which documents form the agreement. Attach the layout, the exclusions, and the schedule as named documents rather than referring to them loosely.
Keep the whole package. The Internal Revenue Service's guidance on records a small business should keep describes a system that clearly shows income and expenses with the documents behind purchases and sales, and a quote with its build-up is the document behind the sale. It is also what you will need if a dispute arrives two years later.
Before you use any of this
This is a structure, not legal drafting. Have a construction attorney in your state write or review the actual language, particularly sections 4, 9, and 10. The cost of that review is small next to one dispute.
The equipment and material detail feeding sections 2 and 6 comes from your own standard, described in the equipment checklist for new solar owners and the equipment and setup guide for solar crews.
Common questions
Why are there no dollar figures in the example?
Because any figure printed here would be from a different market with a different cost base, and a reader would anchor on it. The variables are the transferable part.
How long should a quote be valid?
Long enough for the customer to decide and short enough that your material costs have not moved. State the date rather than leaving it open.
Should the quote show a line-by-line breakdown?
Show enough that the customer can compare scope against another quote. You do not owe anyone your cost structure, but a single number with no scope detail invites the comparison to be made on price alone.
What if the customer wants the incentive shown as a deduction?
Show the price, and separately note that federal residential credits are administered by the Internal Revenue Service and depend on their own tax position, with state and utility programs coming from the state energy office and the utility. A net price presented as the price is a claim about an outcome you do not control.
