What is Cost buildup?
Cost buildup is a feature that allows sales representatives and managers to create quotes by assigning costs to specific components of the designed system. For instructions on how to construct a quote using cost buildup, see How do I create a quote using cost buildup?
Cost buildup line items can include equipment and other project costs. They range from solar equipment to custom line items, and from general base costs to labor. A margin can be applied directly to individual costs or on the total project.
Account administrators have the ability to set default project-level costs (base costs, labor, and margin) as well as solar equipment costs. On the quote page, you will see all costs represented by a single $/W value that will appear in the Install Cost input field by default (highlighted below).
Equipment costs & defaults
Upon account creation, your organization is set with default costs on modules, inverters, and project base costs of $1.00/W, $0.20/W, and $2.00/W, respectively. These can be changed at any time by any account administrator. Solar equipment costs can be updated by clicking the gear icon in the upper left corner of the page, then selecting Project Phase.
Under the Solar Modules, Inverters, Storage and Energy Efficiency tabs, you can set the default costs. Setting a default cost for a piece of equipment sets that default cost for all in that category. This is done by editing the input field in the top left (highlighted below).
While the default module cost sets the default cost for all modules, you can override the cost of a specific module by clicking the edit button (pencil icon) in that module's row (highlighted below).
If you click to edit an individual module cost, the Edit Information window will appear. This will allow you to set a different default cost ($/W or $) and margin for that module. Click Submit to save any changes.
Project costs
The account administrator can also set Project Costs to both create custom line items and set project cost controls. Under the Adders tab, there is an New Adder button that allows users to create and store common line items to be used for all quotes (highlighted below).
Clicking the New Adder button opens the New Adder window, allowing you to create a specific line item. The cost amount can be left blank; a sales representative or manager will then input a cost for the line item when ultimately generating a quote.
Adders and costs can be adjusted using the Edit option to change the name, amount, or category of a cost, or removed using the Remove option (highlighted below).
Project cost controls
While in the Project Phase window, there is also a Details tab (to the right of Adders). Clicking this tab reveals a variety of defaults and constraints that can be set and applied to all jobs. Account administrators can set the project level margin, base costs, and project labor while also applying a constraint of a minimum margin (displayed below).
These defaults can also be set on a market basis if you operate in multiple markets with implications on project costs. In order to set these defaults, select Edit on the Project Cost Controls section and select Add Project Costs for Market button (highlighted below).
If you have existing Market Templates in your workflow settings, you can apply the Project Cost Controls based on an existing template. If you don't have any templates created yet, you can create one in this module.
Once you name your Template, you can select Continue and define your market by state, utility, or zip code and select save.
Once you've created a Market Template it will show as an option on your Project Cost Controls edit window. If you have multiple markets, you can use the dropdown to select the market you'd like to apply these new costs to. (highlighted below)
Finally, insert the Cost Controls you'd like to apply for this market and hit Save on the top right. If you want to remove your Market, specific Project Cost Controls, just enter the Edit mode and hit the remove (trashcan) icon next to the controls you'd like to delete in question and hit Save.
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