Revising a Sold Solution and Processing Change Orders

SolarNexus places proposed and sold solutions into a read only mode to ensure that SolarNexus doesn't get out of sync with the work that you've committed to provide to your customers. However, even with the best processes in place, changes to sold solutions are sometimes needed.

Solution Revisions and Change Orders

SolarNexus allows you to revise solutions after they are sold. Typical reasons for revising a sold solution include:

• Specified module make/model is unavailable (can't get from supplier)
• Quantity of PV modules must be changed to fit roof (more or fewer)
• Addition of main panel upgrade to the scope of work

Solutions may also be revised if more accurate data becomes available.  At many companies, solutions may be proposed and sold using remote data.  After the job if sold, the technical site visit may obtain more accurate solar access percentages, array orientation, or array azimuth data, all of which effect the estimated PV production.  Furthermore, the proposal may have been created using preliminary usage data, so you may wish to revise the sold solution once more complete usage data is obtained.  This guarantees that the solution of record contains the most accurate production estimate and economic analysis.  These types of revisions usually don't require a Change Order.

A Change Order is a formal addendum to an existing contract. It describes a modification to the scope of work and may or may not result in a change to the contract price. A revised solution can have one, and only one, change order.

An approved revision can be revised again at a later time.

Revising a Sold Solution

After completion of the Sold milestones for a given solution, SolarNexus adds a "Revise" link to the Solution header, next to the Status indicator.

Clicking the Revise link creates a copy of the same solution. If you create a revision of "Solution A", you get “Solution A-v2”.  If you create a revision of "Solution A-v2", you get “Solution A-v3”, and so forth.

Clicking the Revise link opens up the "Create New Revision..." form shown below. The description of the solution may remain the same, or be changed to reflect the nature of the change. There is also a Revision Changes section and a Reason for Revision field which allows you to capture why a revision is necessary. All three areas on this form must be completed before the form can be saved.

Upon saving the form, SolarNexus will automatically create a new milestone called "Approve Revision (Solution X-vx)".  This milestone can be used to manage the revision process. When you create a new revision, it is in a "draft" mode which is fully editable. The revision is not considered the solution of record until the Approve Revision milestone is completed. A revision without a change order may not need customer approval, but typically a revision is not considered approved until the customer signs the associated Change Order.

Services

You can make any required updates to any of the services included in the solution's scope of work. For example, you may need to change the PV module make and model due to availability. Or you may find after a site survey that the main service panel will need to be replaced, so you can add this new service to the revised solution. Solution revisions are just like any pre-sale draft solution. You can delete services from the solution, and add new services.

Price

A solution revision is priced as an entire independent solution. That is, you define the entire intended price for each of the services included. Pricing is done using the same methodology as the original solution's pricing method (gross price or cost item pricing). Any resulting difference in solution price from the current solution of record results in a change order amount.

Change Orders

The revision's Price is the resulting Price for the customer. The purpose of the Change Order is to adjust the defined scope of work, which may or may not also change the original price to the Price defined for the current approved revision.

The resulting change order amount is automatically calculated by SolarNexus as the total difference in price of the revision from the current solution of record (revision price minus solution of record price). See example below.

Note that until UNTIL the analysis is run, SolarNexus will show "TBD" for revision price and Change Order amount because of the potential for incentives or finance fees to be factored in. Then it will be automatically updated.

Note: SolarNexus provides document template variables for outputting the defined change order into a document on the Docs screen.

Note: For a revision with a change order, SolarNexus will automatically reflect the new $/Wstc price as the total of the original price plus all change orders.

Note: When using a cost item model that includes indirect costs (profit, overhead, and commission), SolarNexus will not update those indirect amounts - they will remain the same - based on the original sale price.

Analysis

You must always run an analysis to reflect the updates to systems and total contract price with change order.

Docs

You can generate new docs associated with the revised solution. Typically this will be a Change Order which can be used to get customer approval of the revision. SolarNexus publishes a simple Change Order document template which may be used, or you can create your own document template.  Change Order type documents can only be generated for revised solutions.

Approving a Revision

A revised solution must be “approved” for SolarNexus to consider it as the new Sold solution of record. This is done by either completing the Approve Revision milestone, or clicking "Approve" from the revision's services tab.   A change order only becomes part of the contract when approved. If your revision includes a Change Order, you should have the customer signed Change Order uploaded to SolarNexus before marking it as approved. This action makes this revision read-only, AND the services, price, and analysis associated with this version are now the Sold Solution of Record.

If you need to make another revision, simply click the Revise button to create a new revision draft. Once approved, the new revision will replace last revision as the Solution of Record.

For revisions, the Solution of Record displays an information icon to the right of the Solution letter.  Rolling over this icon allows you to quickly see the the reason for the revision and if the revision contains a change order.

SolarNexus uses the most recent “Approved” solution for all tracking (e.g. modules listed on Installs screen), for reporting (equipment, price, etc), document generation (variables), and new orders. Essentially the most recent approved revision is now treated as the Sold Solution of Record for the job.

NOTE- As of Nov 24, 2021 Changes to how Revisions and Change Orders Work: SolarNexus made a fundamental update to its Revision Pricing / Change Order features for revisions. It allows each revision to work as its own independent solution, with its own services, price, and analysis. Users may now delete services and add different services as replacements (for example, remove one ESS and add a different ESS). Change order amounts are no longer a simple dollar amount input. Instead, the same Pricing features used for the original solution are used to price the full solution represented by the revision. The resulting change order amount is now calculated by SolarNexus as the total difference in price of the revision from the current solution of record (revision price minus solution of record price). The change order description remains a simple description of the changes.

Revision Services behavior prior to 11/24/21 update): Prior to this update, a service could not be deleted from a revision; however, you could effectively remove it by unchecking the "active/inactive" checkbox in its header to make it inactive. The "active/inactive" service feature (checkbox) was removed.

Revision Pricing Behavior prior to 11/24/21: On a Solution Revision’s Price screen, the original sale Price is shown. The original price cannot be changed, nor can its cost items. This is considered to be the contracted amount. To change the Price, you may add a single “Change Order”. A change order is a single item with a date, a description of the change order scope, and a dollar amount (the amount can be positive, negative, or zero). All are required, and any sales tax amount should also be included within that amount. A change order is an addendum to the contract which must be signed by the customer and contractor. The total price for a revision is the original total plus the amount of a change order (if added). If you have more than one revision and change order, the resulting price is the sum of the original price plus each individual change order. SolarNexus considers Change Orders to be changes to the direct cost. When using a cost item model that includes indirect costs (profit, overhead, and commission), SolarNexus will not update those indirect amounts - they will remain the same - based on the original sale price.