The CRM for Solar Companies That Closes More Installs

Why solar companies need a CRM

A CRM for solar companies keeps an installation business on track. The solar sales cycle is long and complex: a homeowner sends an inquiry today, a rep runs a site assessment next week, an engineer designs the system, a proposal goes out, financing options are discussed, permits are filed, equipment is ordered, a crew is booked, the install happens, and then inspection, commissioning, and warranty begin. That is months of touchpoints per deal, and many solar companies are juggling dozens of these projects simultaneously.

Without a solar CRM to manage this pipeline, revenue leaks at every stage:

• Leads go cold: Solar leads are expensive, whether from paid ads, canvassing, or referrals. Without timely follow-up, prospects go with the competitor who responded within the hour instead of within the week.
• Site assessments create bottlenecks: Roof measurements, shading analysis, electrical panel inspections, and energy usage data are collected in the field but never make it into a central system. The office team wastes time chasing reps for missing details.
• Proposals sit unanswered: A solar proposal takes serious engineering and design effort. When proposals go out and nobody follows up at the right moment, that effort is wasted.
• Permit tracking falls through the cracks: Every solar install requires permits from the local AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction) and often interconnection approval from the utility. Lose track of a submission and the project stalls for weeks.
• Financing conversations get lost: Many homeowners choose solar loans, leases, or PPAs. Tracking which financing option each customer is considering, and whether they have been approved, is critical but hard to manage in spreadsheets.
• Installation handoffs are disconnected: The crew arrives at a site without the right equipment because the sales notes never made it to operations.
• Post-install follow-up is forgotten: Warranty registrations, monitoring setup, and referral requests fall through the cracks after the install is done.

The right solar sales CRM connects every stage of this pipeline so nothing gets lost, no lead goes cold, and no project stalls because of a missed handoff.

How Customermates works as your solar CRM

Customermates gives solar installers and EPC companies a central system for managing the entire lead-to-install pipeline, with no per-lead fees and monthly billing. It is a CRM, not a design, scheduling or invoicing tool: keep your design software and accounting next to it.

Lead capture and qualification

Every lead gets a complete profile: contact details, property address, roof type, energy usage, inquiry source, and communication history. Customermates has no built-in web forms, so leads from your website, a canvassing app, or a referral partner arrive through the REST API, or through a separately operated n8n workflow using the Customermates community node. Qualify leads with custom fields for roof suitability, homeownership status, electricity spend, and financing profile before sending a rep to the site.

Site assessment tracking

When your rep visits the property, they can update structured deal fields from a phone browser: roof measurements, shading observations, electrical-panel condition, and structural concerns. Keep site photos in your existing file system and record a link in a custom field; Customermates does not upload files to deal records.

Proposal and design management

Track every proposal as a deal stage with its value. Custom fields hold the system design: panel count, inverter model, battery storage option, estimated annual production (kWh), and projected savings. Customermates does not create proposal documents; link the proposal from your design tool in a link field, and note revisions such as a different panel brand or a battery add-on on the deal. A dashboard shows how many deals sit in each stage and what they are worth.

Financing options tracking

Solar financing is often the make-or-break factor. Track which financing path each customer is exploring (cash purchase, solar loan, lease, or PPA) and at what stage of approval they are. Custom fields for lender name, loan amount, interest rate, monthly payment, and approval status keep the financial picture clear.

Permit management

Solar permits are a known bottleneck. Track permit applications, submission dates, approval status, and inspector notes in custom fields on each deal. A saved view that filters deals in the Permit submitted stage and sorts them by your submission date field shows which permits have been pending longest. On Customermates Cloud, a routine can run that check every morning and list the permits that have waited more than 20 days. Track interconnection applications with their own status field when the utility requires its own approval process.

Installation handoff and crew coordination

Once permits are approved, the project moves to your installation stages. Custom fields hold the assigned crew, planned install date, and equipment delivery status. The same deal record that started as a lead now contains every detail the installation crew needs: system design, permit approvals, customer preferences, and site-specific notes from the assessment. Customermates does not plan crews or book appointments; keep that in your scheduling tool and record the result on the deal.

Post-install warranty and monitoring

The relationship does not end at commissioning. Track warranty registrations, monitoring system setup, and maintenance dates in custom fields. A saved view sorted by commissioning date shows which customers are due a 30, 90 or 365 day check-in, and that is a good moment to ask for referrals. Happy customers are a natural source of new leads, so a consistent post-install process also feeds your pipeline.

Key features of a solar CRM

Lead-to-install pipeline with Kanban view

See every project at a glance: New Inquiry, Qualified, Site Assessment Booked, Site Assessment Complete, Proposal Sent, Financing Review, Contract Signed, Permit Submitted, Permit Approved, Installation Planned, Installation Complete, Inspection, Commissioned. Drag deals between columns as they progress. Filter by rep, region, system size, or project value. The deal stage is one configurable column, and each stage can carry a probability for weighted pipeline totals.

Follow-ups across the solar sales cycle

Solar decisions take weeks or months. Customermates has no built-in rules engine or reminders, but it gives you three ways to keep follow-ups from slipping:

• Saved views: proposals in Proposal Sent sorted by last update, or financing applications sorted by submission date, show what needs a call today.
• Routines on Customermates Cloud: the Mate assistant runs a saved prompt on a schedule or on a CRM event, for example listing proposals without response after five days and drafting a follow-up for each one for your review. Starter includes 1 routine per user and Pro includes 5.
• External automation: webhooks and the REST API feed a separately operated n8n or another scheduler that creates tasks or sends messages from your own accounts.

An AI client connected over MCP can also summarize notes and help you decide which leads to call first, based on the project value and history you give it.

Custom fields built for solar

Add the fields your solar business actually needs:

• System specs: kWp capacity, panel count, panel brand, inverter model, battery storage and capacity, microinverters vs. string inverter
• Site details: Roof pitch, azimuth, available area (sq ft / sq m), shading factor, electrical panel capacity
• Financials: System cost, financing type, lender, loan amount, monthly payment, federal/state incentives applied, net cost to customer
• Project status: Permit application date, permit approval date, interconnection status, inspection date, PTO (Permission to Operate) date
• Post-install: Warranty registration date, monitoring platform, first-year production (kWh), customer satisfaction score

Source tracking

Know which channels deliver your best solar leads. A single-select field for lead source (paid search, social ads, canvassing teams, referral partners, home shows, real estate partnerships) lets you group deals by source and compare how many reach Contract Signed and what they are worth. Stop spending on channels that generate tire-kickers and double down on what produces signed contracts.

Team dashboards

Dashboards show deal counts, values, and weighted pipeline totals by stage and by rep, calculated from your live records. Group deals by owner to see who has too many open proposals and who needs more leads.

Mobile access for field teams

Site assessors, sales reps, and installation crews need CRM access from the roof, not the office. Update deal fields, record links to externally stored site photos, check permit status, and view notes from a phone or tablet browser. There is no native app; Customermates runs in the browser.

Data protection and self-hosting

In the managed cloud, the application database runs in the AWS Frankfurt region; hosting and other subprocessors, including US providers, are listed on the subprocessors page, and a DPA is available. This matters for solar companies handling sensitive homeowner data such as energy usage, financial details, and property information. If you need full control over where data lives, self-host the open-source core. Learn more in CRM best practices.

Why solar companies choose Customermates over alternatives

Most CRM options for solar companies fall into two camps: generic CRMs that require customization (Salesforce, HubSpot) or specialized solar platforms that bundle design, proposals and project delivery.

Customermates offers a different path:

No per-lead fees

Solar leads are expensive to acquire. The last thing you need is a CRM that charges you again when those leads enter your system. Customermates charges a flat per-user fee, whether you have 100 leads or 10,000.

Open-source and self-hostable

Inspect the code on GitHub. Run the open-source core on your own servers if you want complete control over customer data, site assessment records, and financial details. Self-hosted installations get the Starter feature set with REST, webhooks and MCP; the inbox and Mate are cloud-only.

n8n automation and AI agents that operate the CRM

Connect Customermates to your proposal tools, email marketing platform, accounting software, design tools (Aurora Solar, Helioscope), and more through a separately operated n8n with the Customermates community node, or directly through the REST API and webhooks. Connect Claude, ChatGPT, or another AI client through the MCP server (50 tools) to draft follow-up emails, summarize site assessment notes, move deals between stages, or help you qualify leads. You choose and pay for the AI client.

Pricing for solar companies

Solar companies should not pay per-lead fees that eat into already-tight margins. Customermates keeps it simple, billed monthly per user:

• Starter (€12 per user per month): custom fields, dashboards, REST API, webhooks, MCP, and the Mate assistant with monthly AI credits
• Pro (€29 per user per month): adds the unified inbox, with email, WhatsApp, and Instagram conversations linked to your contacts
• No per-lead charges: same price whether you have 100 or 10,000 leads
• Open-source and self-hostable: no licence cost for the open-source core; the inbox and Mate are cloud-only

Since solar leads expect a fast WhatsApp or email reply, Pro makes sense for many teams. A small solar installer with 3 staff pays €87/month. A growing company with 15 sales reps, project managers, and installation coordinators pays €435/month.

Integrations for solar companies

Customermates connects to the tools solar companies already use through the REST API, webhooks, and a separately operated n8n:

• Email and calendar: On Pro, connect Gmail, Outlook, or IMAP mailboxes to the unified inbox and see your calendar read-only. Customermates does not create or book calendar events; site visits and install dates stay in your calendar or scheduling tool.
• Proposal and design tools: Connect Aurora Solar, Helioscope, OpenSolar, or your preferred design platform through n8n or the API to link system designs to deals
• Accounting and invoicing: Customermates does not create invoices. Let a webhook on a stage change tell QuickBooks, Xero, or your invoicing tool that a milestone was reached
• Lead sources: Pull leads from website forms, Facebook Lead Ads, Google Ads, Angi, EnergySage, and canvassing apps into your pipeline through n8n or the API
• Communication platforms: Reply to email, WhatsApp, and Instagram in the Pro inbox. Automated SMS or WhatsApp follow-ups require a messaging provider and scheduler you operate, for example in n8n; Customermates does not send scheduled messages itself.
• AI clients: Draft proposal emails, summarize assessment notes, and build permit checklists with an AI client over MCP or with Mate on Customermates Cloud

Getting started

1. Create an account: free, no credit card needed, 7 days to try everything.
2. Import your records: upload an Excel workbook (XLSX) for contacts, organizations, or deals, one record type at a time, or use the REST API or an AI client over MCP.
3. Set up your stages: configure one stage column that runs from sales (Inquiry, Qualification, Site Assessment, Proposal, Financing, Contract) through installation (Permit, Equipment, Install, Inspection, Commissioning), or add a single-select field for the project phase and use saved views per phase.
4. Add custom fields: system size, panel type, inverter model, roof details, financing type, permit status, warranty dates.
5. Set up follow-ups: create saved views for open proposals and pending permits, and on Customermates Cloud a routine that checks them for you.
6. Connect your tools: link email on Pro, and connect proposal software, accounting, and lead sources through the API, webhooks, or n8n.

Stop losing solar leads to slow follow-ups, missed permits, and disconnected handoffs. Customermates keeps your solar business organized from the first inquiry to the final commissioning, and every referral that follows.

Frequently asked questions