Account Preferences Setup

Last Updated: 08^th August 2025

Applies to:

Solar Installer users
Enterprise users

How to access preferences

Click the gear icon in the top-right corner of the home screen.
- From the dropdown, select Preferences.

Once you're in the Preferences section, you'll see a navigation menu on the left side of the screen. We'll go through each of these sections to make sure your account is set up for success.

General

Margin
These settings, only editable by account administrators, give you control over the financial aspects of your quotes and are especially useful for managing a sales team.

Max margin (%): The maximum profit margin a sales team member is able to apply to any proposal.
Min margin (%): The minimum acceptable profit margin for any proposal.
Product margin (%): The default profit margin that will be applied to all products within your proposals.
Cost component margin (%): The default margin applied to cost components like labor, freight, or other miscellaneous expenses.
When you've finished, click 'Save' to ensure your changes are applied.

Proposal
The Proposal section lets you set default terms for your quotes.

Workmanship warranty (years): Set the default number of years for the workmanship warranty you offer on your installations.
Proposal validity (days): This is the default number of days that a proposal remains valid before it expires.
When you've finished, click 'Save' to ensure your changes are applied.

Solar technology design
This section deals with specific financial details related to solar projects.

Residential solar export rate: Set the export rate (also known as a feed-in tariff) for residential projects.
Business solar export rate: Set the export rate for commercial or business projects.
When you've finished, click 'Save' to ensure your changes are applied.

Project Lead Time
Here you can define the estimated timelines for different types of projects.

Residential Project Lead Time: This is the default number of days from proposal acceptance to project completion for residential jobs.
Business Project Lead Time: This is the default number of days from proposal acceptance to project completion for commercial jobs.
When you've finished, click 'Save' to ensure your changes are applied.

Suppliers

Products
This is where you authorize suppliers for the physical products in your proposals (e.g., solar panels, batteries).

To authorize a product supplier, select a supplier from the Available column and click the single right arrow > to move it to the Authorized column.
To authorize all product suppliers, click the double right arrow >>.
To de-authorize a supplier, select it from the Authorized column and click the single left arrow <.
To de-authorize all product suppliers, click the double left arrow <<.
When you've finished, click 'Save' to ensure your changes are applied.

Finance
This is where you authorize finance providers for your proposals.

Move finance providers between the Available and Authorized columns using the arrow buttons.
The magnifying glass icon 🔍 allows you to add a finance supplier's API key. This is an optional step that may be required for certain integrations.
When you've finished, click 'Save' to ensure your changes are applied.

Incentive
This is where you authorize the providers of incentives and rebates.

Move incentive providers between the Available and Authorized columns using the arrow buttons.
You can authorize a specific supplier or use a generic "Pending Rebates Supplier" option if the provider isn't yet confirmed.
When you've finished, click 'Save' to ensure your changes are applied.

Incentives

Incentives (NEW)
This is where you manage the incentives that can be applied to your proposals. SpendWatt can automatically calculate these incentives, so it's important to keep this list accurate and up-to-date.

Add Option: Click this button to add a new incentive to your list. This is useful for adding new government rebates, STCs, or other programs as they become available.

The table displays all of the incentives you have configured.

Name: The name of the incentive (e.g., "Solar Power STC's").
Type: The type of incentive, such as Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs), Victorian Energy Efficiency Certificates (VEECs), or Large-scale Generation Certificates (LGCs).
Technology: The type of technology the incentive applies to (e.g., SOLAR, ELECTRIFICATION, BATTERY).
Supplier: The supplier or provider of the incentive.
Retailer margin: This automatically reduces the certificate value factored in your proposal giving you some buffer / protection / margin for if the market price reduces after you’ve quoted your customer. Note for this input to be used, the ‘Certificate price override’ input must be empty.
Unit price: Any price input below will override the rebate supplier's price and any margin entered. Therefore, even if your suppliers price changes, your price in your budgets and proposals will not. Leave this input blank if you want your certificate price to automatically use your supplier's price. Note: This input does not impact solar LGC’s or Solar VEEC’s
Note: Only one incentive supplier can be selected per rebate type.
Not seeing the rebate supplier you want here? - make sure they are added first in the "Suppliers" section. And if they are not there ask them to get in touch and we'll get them connected .
When you've finished, click 'Save' to ensure your changes are applied.

To manage an existing incentive:

Click the pencil icon to edit the details of an incentive.
Click the trash can icon to delete an incentive.

Simulation

About Solar Power Losses & Simulation
The Simulation section is where you define the energy production losses used in your proposals. These percentages account for real-world factors that can reduce the output of a solar energy system.

It's important to note that any changes made to these parameters will not affect existing opportunities unless you click the Generate button within that specific opportunity. Additionally, some inputs may have minimum values set by Spendwatt for quality control purposes. Therefore, you cannot reduce these values below the set minimums.

Note: The following losses and gains are calculated automatically by Spendwatt and are not editable in this section:

Panel negative temperature coefficient
Panel degradation
Inverter efficiency
Inverter clipping
Furthermore, performance gains from bifacial solar panels are also estimated automatically to optimize system performance.

General
These are system-wide losses that are applied regardless of the inverter technology used.

Solar Power Losses: This is a descriptive label for the settings in this section.
AC wiring: Accounts for energy lost as electricity travels from the inverter to the main switchboard.
AC system availability: Accounts for energy lost due to system shutdowns, maintenance, or other unexpected downtime.

String Inverters
These settings apply specifically to projects that use traditional string inverters.

DC wiring: Accounts for energy lost as electricity travels from the solar panels to the inverter.
DC system availability: Accounts for downtime specific to the DC side of the system.
Soiling: Accounts for the reduction in energy production due to dust, dirt, or other debris on the solar panels.
Nameplate: Accounts for potential discrepancies between a module's nameplate rating and its actual performance.
Diodes & connections: Accounts for energy lost in the electrical components and connections within the solar panels and array.
Module mismatch: Accounts for energy lost due to slight variations in the electrical characteristics of individual solar panels in an array.
Total performance adjustment: This is an overall adjustment factor to fine-tune the final performance simulation.

Microinverters
These settings apply specifically to projects that use microinverters.

DC wiring: Accounts for energy lost as electricity travels from the solar panels to the inverter.
DC system availability: Accounts for downtime specific to the DC side of the system.
Soiling: Accounts for the reduction in energy production due to dust, dirt, or other debris on the solar panels.
Nameplate: Accounts for potential discrepancies between a module's nameplate rating and its actual performance.
Diodes & connections: Accounts for energy lost in the electrical components and connections within the solar panels and array.
Module mismatch: Accounts for energy lost due to slight variations in the electrical characteristics of individual solar panels in an array.
Total performance adjustment: This is an overall adjustment factor to fine-tune the final performance simulation.

Inverters with DC Optimisers
These settings apply specifically to projects that use inverters with DC optimisers.

DC wiring: Accounts for energy lost as electricity travels from the solar panels to the inverter.
DC system availability: Accounts for downtime specific to the DC side of the system.
Soiling: Accounts for the reduction in energy production due to dust, dirt, or other debris on the solar panels.
Nameplate: Accounts for potential discrepancies between a module's nameplate rating and its actual performance.
Diodes & connections: Accounts for energy lost in the electrical components and connections within the solar panels and array.
Module mismatch: Accounts for energy lost due to slight variations in the electrical characteristics of individual solar panels in an array.
Total performance adjustment: This is an overall adjustment factor to fine-tune the final performance simulation.

Congratulations! You’re now ready to create your first proposal.
Recommended article to help you create your first home or business proposal: Creating a Proposal - Start to Finish

Pro Tip: Completing the Automation settings above can reduce proposal creation time—for example, full home or business solar, battery & electrificaiton proposals can be ready in under 3 minutes!