Creating a Solar Proposal in SCH

From the SCH home screen, click New Customer (top bar). Enter the customer's home Address and pick it from the Google dropdown so it geocodes. Fill in First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone. Set Job Type = Solar. Set Assign To = your own name. Click Create customer.

You'll land on the customer page with a new Solar proposal card. Click View Detail to open it.

On the Solar Design tab, under Consumption Profile, open the Utility dropdown and choose the customer's utility (for Houston that's CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, LLC). The design tool can't start until a utility is set.

The proposal opens on a tabbed page. Open the Utility tab, stay on the Utility Provider sub-tab, and click the card for the customer's utility. The card turns green when it is selected — there is no Save button on this step.

Enter the customer's monthly usage (kWh) from their utility bill — type each of the 12 months into the monthly row, then click Apply. Do not just enter an annual total: underwriting reviews the actual bill and needs the bill's usage to show up in the consumption profile.

If you can't get all 12 months, enter the months you do have — the Genability engine will estimate the missing months from the ones you fill in.

Same Utility tab, third sub-tab: Consumption. Choose the Monthly view, then type each of the 12 months from the bill into the month boxes. The values save as you type — there is no Apply button any more.

Click Start Design. The satellite design tool loads with a crosshair centered on the home.

Give the satellite image a second to load, then click the yellow Confirm button. The AI auto-places panels on the best roof faces.

Check the panel in Change Panel. AMPS 410 is the panel we use, and it's usually already selected. If you don't see it, or you hit a "designs field is required" error later, switch it to the Aptos DNA-108-MF10-410W-USAptos1a instead (that's what's shown here). Review System Size and Offset (aim for roughly 90–100%), then click Save.

The auto-layout is just a starting point, and tuning it is often the highest-value thing you can do on a deal. Click Edit on the design to open the full editor, then shape the system by hand:

• Adjust Panel Here slider — add or remove panels across the whole roof in one move.
• Drag a panel directly on the roof image to reposition it; turn on Edit mode to drop new panels onto bare roof or delete shaded / obstructed ones.
• Facet List — every roof face broken out with its own azimuth, production, panel count and pitch slider. Trim a low-producing north face, or push more panels onto the best-producing faces.
• Change Panel, the 3D and Irradiance views, and Mode (Default / NREL / Manual) all control how the layout gets built.
• Nothing is committed until you click Save.

Sometimes when you try to build a design, SCH throws this error instead of loading the roof:

That means the aerial/LIDAR data behind the standard Default mode isn't available (or is outdated) for that address, so the design has to be built in NREL (Assisted Design) mode instead. In the design editor, open the Mode dropdown at the top of the right-hand panel and pick NREL (Assisted Design) — it will warn you that it resets the map; click Yes.

Here's the catch: Default mode reads shading automatically from the imagery. NREL mode doesn't — it assumes a wide-open, shade-free roof until you tell it otherwise. If you leave shading untouched, production comes out overstated and the deal is very likely coming back for a redesign.

And the part everyone gets stuck on: there is no shading slider on the main panel. The shading control lives inside the Facet List. Click the Facet List button (right under Mode), and every roof face gets a card with its azimuth, production, panel count, pitch — and a Shading row: None / Low / Medium / High / Custom.

Set shading to Low on every facet with panels — never leave an NREL design on None. If the roof has real tree cover, match reality with Medium or High. Then click Done, and Save the design.

Open the Batteries tab. Turn on "Do you want to add a battery?". Set Battery Mode = Self-Consumption. In Battery Storage, select the sonnenHome Battery 11 card and set the quantity to 3 — SOLRITE requires three 20 kWh batteries on systems from 9–26 kW (it won't let you create the quote otherwise).

Click View Detail on the proposal card and the New Proposal wizard opens. It has two steps: Finance then Equipment. This is the biggest change from the old layout — battery and financing are no longer separate tabs you fill in yourself.

On Finance, set Type of Finance to Lease/PPA and pick SOLRITE as the Lease Provider, then click Next.

Scroll to the Financing → SOLRITE section. Confirm the SOLRITE Utility is filled, then click Create Account. Wait for the green "Account Created Successfully" message.

The second wizard step puts Panel, Inverter, Battery and Adders on four cards. Click any card to change it. Underneath, Battery Configuration holds Battery Mode (Energy Arbitrage / Self Consumption / Backup Mode) and a Backup Percentage.

Set Battery Mode = Self Consumption, check the panel is AMPS 410 (or the Aptos DNA-108-MF10-410W), then click Finish. That drops you on the proposal detail page.

Under Finance Options (SOLRITE Gold is the default), open the Pricing dropdown and select the rate option. Then click Create Quote.

This is the step everyone gets stuck on. On the Financing tab there is no Pricing dropdown sitting on the page. You have to open the big blue Compare Financing Options button first — the whole quote is built inside that window.

In the window, top to bottom:

• Select SOLRITE Utility — the billing utility (e.g. Oncor Electric Delivery Company, LLC).
• Finance Options — SOLRITE Gold or SOLRITE Silver.
• Escalator Rate — e.g. SOLRITE Gold PPA - 2.9%.
• Pricing — open it and pick the rate line (kWh / Pmt / PPW).

Then click Create Quote. The quote appears below as Option A; click OK to close the window and it carries back to the Financing tab as Selected Finance.

On the quote card that appears, click Finalize. The button flips to Unfinalize and the contract actions unlock — that's how you know it took.

There is no Finalize button on a quote card any more. The Financing tab has a Finance Workflow checklist on the left — Click a step to advance its status. Click Finalize Finance Option and it moves off Pending.

The two steps below it, Send Application To HomeOwner and Send Contract Docs, show as Blocked until the ones above them are done. That is the workflow doing its job, not an error.

Click View Proposal to open the customer's shareable proposal link. Send it to them with a clear next step (e.g. "Take a look this weekend, jot down questions, and let's connect Monday to move forward.").

There is no View Proposal button under the pricing any more. It moved to the top right of the proposal, next to three icons:

• View (purple button) — opens the customer's shareable proposal in a new tab.
• Copy icon — Copy Proposal URL. Copies the same link straight to your clipboard, fastest way to text it.
• Envelope icon — Send Proposal To Customer. Emails it from SubcontractorHub.
• Download icon — saves the proposal as a PDF.

Send it with a clear next step (e.g. "Take a look this weekend, jot down questions, and let's connect Monday to move forward.").

Sending the proposal is not the last step. Before any contract can go out, the customer has to clear the credit pre-screen. On the finalized quote card, click Qualify and run it. Until it comes back passed, Send Contract Docs stays greyed out. That is by design, not a bug.

Once they pass, click Send Contract Docs. Here is the part reps get wrong: the contract does not go straight to the homeowner. It comes to you, the sales rep, first. You sign it, and only then does it route on to the customer for their signature.

Everything now runs down the same Finance Workflow list, in order:

• Qualify — sends to SOLRITE for the credit pre-screen. There is also a Qualify Homeowner button higher up the tab; either one starts it.
• Send Application To HomeOwner — sends the credit application link.
• Send Contract Docs — unlocks once the pre-screen passes.

Once the contract comes back fully signed, the quote card changes. Unfinalize and Qualify flip to Finalized and Qualified, a Contract Signed label appears, and three new buttons drop in: Welcome Call, Billing Profile and Upload Docs. Those three are the rest of your job on this deal.

Open the proposal again (View Detail), scroll down to the SOLRITE quote box, and click Welcome Call (Call Pilot) to generate the customer's welcome-call link. Text it to them so they can knock out their welcome call.

In that same quote box, click Billing Profile to get the customer's secure payment-setup link. Send it so they can add their payment method (this is how the VPA gets billed).

Click Upload Docs in the quote box to get the customer's document-upload link. Send it so they can upload their most recent utility bill, or upload it yourself if you already have a copy. That clears the last item before site survey.