Industry · Solar Installation

Custom solar installation software — CRM, project management, permit workflow, crew dispatch.

Xenara builds custom solar installation software for solar installers across the United States and Canada. Custom CRM, project management for 60–120 day install cycles, permit + interconnection workflow, AI receptionist for lead qualification, install crew mobile app — designed around the regulatory complexity and long project cycles solar installers actually face.

Last updated 2026-06-11 · Serving solar installers across US + Canada

Why solar installation software is different

Solar installation has the longest project cycle of any residential trade: 60–120 days from signed contract to interconnected system, with 6–8 stakeholder handoffs (sales, design, permit office, financing, install crew, utility, AHJ inspection, monitoring activation). Generic project management tools handle the steps but lose the dependency graph. Solar-specific SaaS handles design but not operations end-to-end.

Solar installation software we build

Solar CRM — lead pipeline from canvass to closed contract, financing pre-qual, system design link, deposit tracking.
Project management — 60–120 day project tracking with permit, financing, interconnection, install, inspection, monitoring milestones.
Permit + interconnection workflow — AHJ-specific permit packages, utility interconnection applications, ESS requirements, net metering paperwork.
AI receptionist — 24/7 lead capture, qualification (roof age, electric bill, financing readiness), instant inspection booking.
Install crew mobile app — site arrival, panel-by-panel install logging, MPPT testing, photos for utility commissioning, electronic permit signoff.
Financing integration — Mosaic, GoodLeap, Sunlight Financial, dealer-fee tracking, lender commission reconciliation.
Post-install monitoring integration — Enphase Enlighten, SolarEdge, Tesla connectors for production data flowing back into customer record.
Multi-trade extension — for solar installers also doing roofing, EV chargers, batteries, or HVAC heat pumps.

Solar software in the US + Canada

US solar installation engagements include state-specific incentive tracking (CA NEM 3.0, NY-Sun, MA SMART, IL Solar for All), utility interconnection APIs where available, and bilingual English/Spanish customer handling. Canadian solar engagements include provincial incentive tracking (Ontario Greener Homes loan, Alberta Solar Rebate, BC Hydro), CSA panel certification tracking, and provincial electrical safety authority (ESA Ontario, Technical Safety BC) workflows.

The solar project dependency graph problem

A residential solar project is not a checklist — it is a dependency graph. Between a signed contract and an operating system sit 6–8 stakeholder handoffs that must complete in order, each owned by a different party: a site survey measures roof, electrical panel, and shading; design and engineering turn that into a stamped plan set; the AHJ permit (the authority having jurisdiction — the local building/electrical department) approves the plans; the install crew mounts the array; a jurisdictional inspection passes the work; the utility interconnection review approves the grid tie; and finally Permission To Operate (PTO)lets the system legally export power. The defining property of this graph is that the permit track and the interconnection track run in parallel, but the system cannot energize until both converge — so a project blocked on one utility queue looks "done" on every other axis while earning nothing.

This is why no off-the-shelf SaaS manages the full cycle. Design tools own the proposal. Generic project management owns the tasks. Accounting owns the invoice. But none of them model the cross-stakeholder dependency graph where an AHJ correction notice silently invalidates a utility application filed against the old plan set, or where a placed-in-service date for the ITC depends on an inspection that depends on a permit that depends on an engineering revision. The handoffs are where solar projects die, and the handoffs are exactly what no single vendor owns.

Permitting, interconnection, and the design stack

Permitting variance is the first source of schedule risk. The AHJ is the local building or electrical department, and approval timelines range from same-day online submission in jurisdictions that have adopted instant-permitting tooling to multi-week plan review elsewhere — for the same physical system. A platform built for solar tracks each project against its specific jurisdiction's requirements rather than a generic permit step.

Interconnection is the second, and it is governed by the utility rather than the municipality. The installer files an interconnection application, the utility reviews it (sometimes requiring a system study for larger arrays), and the process ends with PTO. Net metering (NEM) rules — how exported energy is credited — are set at the state and utility level and directly shape system sizing and the customer's payback, so the tariff in force at application time matters and changes. On the design side, installers commonly model production and generate stamped plan sets in tools such as Aurora Solar or OpenSolar; custom software integrates with or links to those outputs rather than re-implementing them, keeping the design of record attached to the permit and interconnection filings it was used for.

Financing paths and incentive documentation

Solar deals close on four financing paths, and they are not interchangeable operationally. Cashis simplest. A loan keeps the homeowner as system owner. A lease or a power purchase agreement (PPA)put a third party in the ownership seat — which moves who claims the federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) from the homeowner to that third-party owner, changing the documentation flow. Each loan path also carries a dealer fee that lenders net out of funding, so the contract price and the cash the installer actually receives differ; tracking that dealer-fee spread per deal is something generic CRMs do not model. Across all paths the ITC documentation package — signed contract, eligible cost basis, placed-in-service date tied to inspection and PTO, equipment specs — has to be assembled as the project runs, not reconstructed afterward. And because the electrical tie-in is frequently performed by a licensed electrical subcontractor rather than the install crew, the platform has to coordinate that subcontractor's scheduling, licensing, and sign-off as a first-class handoff in the same dependency graph.

FAQ

How long does a residential solar project take from signed contract to Permission To Operate (PTO)?

Typically 60–120 days. The bottlenecks are rarely the install itself (often one day): they are the AHJ building/electrical permit, which varies by jurisdiction from same-week online approval to multi-week plan review, and the utility interconnection process, which ends with PTO — the utility's sign-off that the system may legally export to the grid. A system can be fully installed and inspected but cannot turn on until PTO is granted. Custom software tracks each project against both the permit clock and the interconnection clock separately, because they run in parallel and either can stall the whole job.

What documentation does a solar installer need to track for the federal ITC tax credit?

The federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) is claimed by the system owner, so the installer's job is to hand over a clean documentation package: the signed contract and itemized invoice showing eligible costs, the placed-in-service date (generally when the system passes final inspection and receives PTO), equipment specifications, and proof of payment. For PPA and lease structures the third-party owner claims the credit instead, which changes what the installer files and to whom. Custom software attaches these artifacts to the project record as milestones complete, so the placed-in-service date and cost basis are not reconstructed by hand months later.

Custom solar software cost?

AI receptionist + lead pipeline overlay $8k–$15k. Starter solar platform $30k–$60k. Full custom solar installation platform $80k–$200k depending on permit / utility integration scope.

Talk to us about your solar installation operation

Free 30-minute discovery call. Email hello@xenara.ai or call +1 (249) 202-7690.

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