Solar Business SOP: The Sales-to-Installation Handover Packet

A solar business SOP earns its keep at one moment: the handover from sales to installation. Picture it. It is 6:40 in the evening and a rep sends one line to the owner: "Sir, Patel ji ka 5 kW confirm ho gaya, advance mil gaya." The owner sends a thumbs-up and goes back to dinner.

Three days later the operations lead asks four questions. Which bill? Which roof? Which quote? Which date did you tell them? The rep answers from memory. The quote on his phone is not the version the customer signed, and the "installation in 15 days" line was a voice note only he has heard. The order is won, the advance is in the bank, and nothing is moving.

Two people each did their job. Sales got the signature. Operations was never handed what it needs to start. Nobody owns the space between "sold" and "scheduled", and that is where orders stall.

This guide is a written solar business SOP (standard operating procedure) for that space: the sales-to-installation handover. It gives you a six-slot handover packet, a gate that separates "Won" from "Ready for install", an owner table, a 15-minute meeting script and an escalation rule for orders that stall after signing. It stops when operations accepts the job. What follows is in the solar installation process and the solar customer onboarding flow. This post covers the gate in front of them.

Why signed solar orders stall: the gap a solar business SOP must close

Orders stall after signing for three plain reasons. Operations lacks information, nobody told operations what was promised, and nobody owns the gap between sold and scheduled. The scheme rules add to it, because a signed rooftop order carries duties most reps have never read.

Take the model agreement MNRE attached to its PM Surya Ghar guidelines. It is a sample, and the guidelines say the actual agreement "may vary on a case-to-case basis". But read what it puts on the vendor: the site survey, a feasibility check of the roof and its strength, the documentation pack, help with the project completion report, net meter and grid connection, being present when the DISCOM tests the plant, and five years of maintenance. A rep who closes a deal on this paper has signed your operations team up for all of it, usually without telling them.

The sources are the Ministry of Power release of 23 February 2024 and the MNRE guidelines for PM Surya Ghar CFA to residential consumers, which apply to applications from 13 February 2024 and run to 31 March 2027.

The seven-stage pipeline in our solar pipeline stages guide ends at "Closed". That works while one person remembers everything. Once you have two reps, a surveyor and a project lead, "Closed" hides two different events, so this SOP splits it in two.

The Ready-to-Build Gate: Won versus Ready for install

The Ready-to-Build Gate is a two-key rule. The sales key says "the packet is complete". The operations key says "accepted". A job moves from Won to Ready for install only when both have turned, and the person who sold the job never turns the second key.

Operations has three answers at the gate, spoken aloud in the handover meeting and written on the card.

• Accept. All six slots are complete and the dates can be met. The card moves to Ready for install.
• Accept with open items. One or two small gaps remain, each with a named owner and a date. Three or more open items means Return.
• Return to sales. Operations lists exactly which slots are missing or wrong. The card stays out of Ready for install until the rep fixes them.

Four rules keep the gate honest.

1. A job is Won only when the agreement or work order is signed and the advance is received, as your payment terms define.
2. Only operations moves a card to Ready for install.
3. Nothing is promised to the customer as a crew date, and no material is ordered, before Ready for install.
4. A Return is not a fight. It is a list. The rep fixes the list and resubmits.

The "max time" column holds illustrative defaults in working days. Set your own after the audit later in this guide.

Illustrative stage rules. The limits are defaults to edit, not benchmarks.

Why two stages? "Won" tells the owner how many sales the team made. "Ready for install" tells the owner how many operations can actually build. The days between the two are your handover time, a number most owners have never seen. Count Won for the sales target, as in how to set a solar sales target. Read the gap between Won and Ready in the weekly solar sales pipeline review.

The six-slot handover packet for your solar business SOP

The packet is six slots, and a slot is either complete or it is not. It is not a long form. If your card does not fit on one phone screen, reps will skip it.

Every row is a slot. A slot with no content is not complete. It must say "none" or "not applicable" in writing.

Copy this card into your notes app, a CRM note or a shared sheet. One card per job.

HANDOVER CARD (ONE PER JOB)

JOB: [customer name] | [kW] | [town] | [on-grid / hybrid] | rep: [name]
WON ON: [date] | advance: Rs [amount] on [date] by [mode], receipt [no.]

1 DEAL RECORD   agreement signed [Y/N] | quote [customer-kW-vN-date] | modules/inverter as quoted: [make]
                scope out: [what is not included] | discount given: Rs [x], log line [Y/N]
2 SITE DATA     surveyed [date, by whom] | roof [type] | shading [Y/N] | meter at [place] | load [kW], [phase]
3 SCHEME FILE   subsidy route [Y/N] | consumer no. [ ] | bill name = bank name [Y/N] | app ID [ ] | uploads by [ ]
4 PAYMENT       milestones: [ ]% on [event], [ ]% on [event], [ ]% on [event] | extra work billed separately [Y/N]
5 DATES         told to customer: [date] depends on: [ ] | customer constraints: [ ]
6 SAID, NOT WRITTEN   [promise] -> [Written / Ops can deliver / Rep walks back]

DECISION (ops lead): Accept / Accept with open items / Return   date: [ ]
OPEN ITEMS: [item] owner [ ] by [date]

Slot 1, the deal record. Name every quote the same way: customer name, kW, version number and date. If a quote is revised after a WhatsApp negotiation, re-issue it as a new version before signing, and put only the signed version in the packet. Record any discount with the Give-Get-Log line from the solar discount approval rules. The solar quote template lists what a complete quote holds.

Slot 2, site data. The checklist in the solar site survey checklist is the source for this slot. The exception is the sell-before-survey order, common in smaller towns. The job can be Won without a survey but cannot be Ready for install without one. Operations may accept it with one open item, "survey", if the visit has a date.

Slot 4, payment terms. Write the milestones in terms of events, such as "on material delivery at site", not "after some work is done". The MNRE model agreement says the consumer "may opt for milestone-based payment", and that extra work is estimated and invoiced separately including GST. If the customer is financing, note the loan status.

Slot 5, promised dates. Record the date and what it depends on. "Installation by the 20th if the survey is done by the 5th and the material arrives by the 12th" is something operations can test on the spot. "Installation by the 20th" is not.

Slot 6, verbal promises. Ask the rep three questions every time: what did you say that is not written, did you promise a date, did you promise extra work or service? Most reps do not lie. They forget what they said in a drawing room four days ago. Each promise gets a tag. "Written" means it is already in the agreement. "Ops can deliver" means it is added to the scope in writing. "Rep walks back" means the rep calls the customer before acceptance and corrects it. A promise with no tag blocks the gate.

Scheme and DISCOM items to put in the packet

The application steps live in the PM Surya Ghar application process and the DISCOM approval process. The packet only needs to prove that slot 3 is ready to start. What goes in depends on the job type. Households apply on the National Portal and pick a vendor, as PIB reported after the Cabinet approval of 29 February 2024. The table summarises the MNRE guidelines for PM Surya Ghar CFA to residential consumers, uploaded to the MNRE site in July 2025.

Summary of what the guidelines say. Always check your state's regulations for the DISCOM side.

Three points cause most stalls.

First, the bill and the bank must match the applicant. The guidelines require bank details and a cancelled cheque or passbook scan "certifying that the bank account number is held by the concerned consumer", and the CFA is released to the consumer's account, not to you. Tell the customer this at the start, so the balance is never "adjusted against the subsidy". The PM Surya Ghar rejection reasons show how small mismatches cost weeks. PIB's 12 February 2025 release puts average CFA processing at around 15 days after the consumer's redemption request, but only when credentials are entered correctly.

Second, feasibility is not always a wait. The MNRE guidelines note that applications up to 10 kW are deemed accepted without technical feasibility approval, but until the state regulator or DISCOM operationalises this, the consumer may still have to upload documents "wherever required as per extant state regulations". Ask which applies in your DISCOM. Above 10 kW, the Ministry of Power's amendment gives the DISCOM fifteen days for the study, after which approval is deemed given (PIB, 23 February 2024). See feasibility clearance.

Third, do not promise the net meter date. The same amendment cut the DISCOM's commissioning timeline for rooftop solar from thirty days to fifteen. That is a useful reference when you chase, but your state's process decides when the clock starts. Promise only what you control: your survey date, material date and install window.

The model vendor agreement is a second list worth handing to operations. These are its vendor-side items.

Source: Annexure 2 of the MNRE PM Surya Ghar guidelines (model draft agreement between consumer and vendor). The guidelines say the actual agreement may vary.

Compare this list with the agreement your reps actually use. If yours promises more, operations should know before the first survey.

Who owns what: a RACI table for the handover

RACI is a simple way to name owners. R means does the work. A means accountable, the one person who answers if it is not done. C means consulted before. I means informed after. The rule is one A per row. In a small company one person may wear two hats, but the person who sold the job never accepts it.

Blank means not involved. Each row has exactly one A.

The surveyor owns slot 2 because a survey form filled by the person who sold the job is a sales document, not a site fact. The sales head owns the stuck-order list because most customer-side stalls, such as a document that never arrives, need a sales conversation.

When reps work from other towns, the packet is the only thing that crosses the distance. The guide to managing a field sales team you cannot see covers what a rep must log from the field. Teach the packet in the first 30 days of a new solar sales rep, not after the first order stalls.

The 15-minute handover meeting script

Hold the handover meeting within one working day of Won, standing or on a short call. The rep fills the packet first, so nobody reads out what is already written. Attendees are the rep and the ops lead, plus the surveyor if slot 2 is open and accounts if slot 4 has a loan question.

1. 0 to 2 min

   One-line summary

   The rep reads a single line: "Patel ji, 5 kW on-grid, Vadodara, ₹3.2 lakh, advance ₹96,000 received on the 12th, quote version 2, subsidy route yes."

2. 2 to 6 min

   Slot check

   The ops lead goes through the six slots aloud and says only "complete" or "missing, and this is the item". No stories.

3. 6 to 9 min

   The three promise questions

   Ops asks: "Kya bola tha jo likha nahi hai? Kisi date ka vaada kiya? Koi extra kaam ya service bola?" Each answer gets a tag. Anything tagged "Rep walks back" gets an owner and a call time today.

4. 9 to 12 min

   Dates against reality

   Ops states the earliest dates it can commit to: survey, material, install window. If they clash with slot 5, the rep resets the customer today, not on the day.

5. 12 to 14 min

   The decision

   Ops says it out loud: "Accept." "Accept with open items, owner and date for each." "Return, and this is the list." The rep may ask questions but not argue the rule. A disagreement goes to the sales head, then the owner.

6. 14 to 15 min

   The customer message

   Agree who contacts the customer, and by when. Send it from the card, not from memory. Sample below.

SAMPLE CUSTOMER MESSAGE AFTER ACCEPT

Namaste Patel ji, aapka solar order ab hamare operations team ke paas hai.
Agla step: survey/installation ke liye [date window]. Aapse humein chahiye: [item].
Is project ke liye contact: [ops lead name, number]. Koi badlav ho to hum aapko pehle batayenge.
[Rep name], [company]

A worked example follows. It is illustrative, with invented figures.

The first meeting. A 5 kW home order, quoted at ₹3.2 lakh, advance ₹96,000 (30%, an assumption). The ops lead finds three problems in six minutes. The signed copy is version 2, but the rep agreed ₹10,000 off on a call, so the customer expects version 3. The electricity bill is in the father's name and the bank proof is in the son's, while the guidelines say the bank account must be held by the concerned consumer. And the customer was told "installation in 15 days", while ops can survey in three working days and cannot name an install date before that.

The result. Operations returns the job with a list of three. The rep calls the family that afternoon, re-issues a clean version 3 with the discount logged, settles whose name the application is in, and resets the date in writing. A five-minute second meeting the next day ends in Accept. One day was spent. The alternative was finding all three problems on day 10, with a crew booked and modules ordered.

The Stuck-Order Ladder: an escalation rule for orders after signing

A stuck order is any signed job that has sat in one stage longer than that stage's limit. The Stuck-Order Ladder has three rungs, each with a named person and an action. The limits below are illustrative defaults in working days, counted from the day the card entered the stage.

Illustrative limits. The first four rows are internal clocks. The last row follows your DISCOM's own process.

Four rules sit on the ladder.

1. Nobody extends a limit silently. An extension needs one written line with the reason and the new date.
2. The customer hears about a delay from you first. Send a short message at Rung 1.
3. Every rung leaves a line: who acted, what they did, what happens next. Without it the ladder is just pressure.
4. The Monday review reads the list. Stuck orders come ahead of new leads in the weekly pipeline review.

SAMPLE DELAY MESSAGE AT RUNG 1

Namaste [name] ji, aapke order mein [bijli bill ki copy / bank proof / survey slot] abhi pending hai.
Aaj [time] tak mil jaye to hum [next step] confirm kar denge. Aapko koi dikkat ho to mujhe seedha bata dein.
[Rep name]

The stuck deals guide covers deals that go quiet before signing. This ladder starts after the customer has paid. For orders waiting on the DISCOM, use the escalation steps in the DISCOM approval process.

Where this SOP breaks, and what to do about it

Any gate has a cost. The traps after the list are the ones that kill an SOP in its first month.

Trap 1: the packet grows. Someone adds a field after every bad job, and soon reps fill forty fields with guesses. Keep six slots. A new field must replace an old one.

Trap 2: Return becomes a weapon. Count returns by reason each month. If one slot causes most returns, fix the training for that slot instead of arguing over single jobs.

Trap 3: the exception. A repeat customer on a 3 kW job does not need the full ceremony. A short packet of slots 1, 4 and 6, plus a survey date, is fine, but only the owner may approve the short form, with the reason on the card.

Audit your last 10 signed orders in 30 minutes

Measure before you change anything. Take ten recent signed orders, your WhatsApp groups and files, and half an hour. For each order, fill one line: when it was Won, when the crew first arrived, which slot was missing or wrong when work started, and which promise was not in writing.

Blank audit sheet. Fill it from your own records.

Add up three numbers: the average days from Won to first crew day, the slot missing most often, and how many orders had a promise operations learned about late. The top slot is what your rep training fixes first, and the day count is your baseline. After a month with the gate, audit the next ten orders and compare. Your own two audits are the benchmark that matters.

How QuickEstimate fits

The SOP is a team rule, not a software setting. The agreement PDF, survey form and bills sit in your usual folder. Whatever CRM you use, the lead record should hold the link to that folder and the decision on it. Quickest Solar CRM does not enforce the gate for you. It gives you the place to run it.

• Pipeline Management: lead stages are customisable, so add "Won", "Returned to sales" and "Ready for install" as stages, and use labels such as "Subsidy file" or "Verbal promise open" on the lead.
• Activity log and reminders: log the packet summary, the folder link and the accept or return decision on the lead, and set a follow-up reminder to match each limit in the ladder.
• Team members with permissions: add your ops lead as a team member and choose what each person can do. The dashboard and team report give the owner a weekly view of what the team has logged.
• Book a demo if you want help setting up these stages for your team.

What to do this week

1. Day 1: add two stages to your pipeline, "Won" and "Ready for install", and write the one-line rule for each on a page the whole team can see.
2. Day 2: paste the handover card into your notes or your CRM and use it on the next signed order, even if it feels like too much for a small job.
3. Day 3: run the 10-order audit and note the slot that is missed most often.
4. Day 4: name the person who turns the operations key. It must not be the person who sold the job.
5. Day 5: agree the ladder limits with your ops lead, put "stuck orders" first on Monday's pipeline review, and book the first 15-minute handover meeting.

Frequently asked questions

What is an SOP in a solar business?

An SOP, or standard operating procedure, is a short written instruction saying who does what, in what order, with what inputs. In a solar business it works best as one or two pages per process, with a named owner for each step. This guide covers one: the handover from sales to installation.

What should a sales-to-installation handover include?

Six things: the signed agreement with the quote version, the site survey data, the documents for the scheme and DISCOM file, the payment terms, every date promised to the customer, and anything the rep promised verbally. Each is a slot on the handover card, and a slot is complete only when it holds content or says "none" in writing.

What is the difference between Won and Ready for install?

Won means the customer has signed and paid the advance. Ready for install means operations has checked the packet and accepted the job. The gap between them is your handover time. Separate stages show how many sales your team made and how many operations can actually build.

Who should accept the handover, sales or operations?

Operations. The person who sold the job should never accept it, because they are the one most likely to overlook a missing slot. Operations can accept, accept with open items, or return with a list. If sales disagrees, the sales head decides first and the owner last.

What documents does a PM Surya Ghar job need before installation starts?

At the packet stage you need the consumer account number, the latest electricity bill, the applicant's ID, bank proof in the consumer's name and the portal application ID if the subsidy route applies. The MNRE guidelines say the consumer applies on the National Portal and uploads geo-tagged photographs after installation. Check your DISCOM for state steps.

Can a sales rep promise an installation date?

A rep can promise only dates that the company controls, such as the survey date and the install window, and only after operations has agreed. A rep should never promise a DISCOM inspection, a net meter or a subsidy credit date. The Ministry of Power's Rules give DISCOMs fifteen days to commission rooftop solar, but your state decides how the days count.