An equipment-inclusive solar fee must cover purchased installation crews, hardware, internal technical work and the wait for customer payment. This fictional contractor reserves two external three-person crews but sells one aggregate crew-hour pool. It does not multiply each crew hour into three separately billed person-hours or add an employee installation team for the same work.
Confirm the hardware order, external crew reservation and customer acceptance schedule together. A positive project contribution can still require cash before the installation fee is collected.
What does a solar crew-hour represent here?
The case is a customer-funded solar installation and maintenance contractor in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, forecast from January 2027 through December 2029. It excludes owned generation assets, electricity sales, system leases and customer incentive receipts. The contractor earns its agreed installation and service fees.
Two reserved external three-person crews provide 280 aggregate crew-hours monthly before sold utilization. A crew-hour is the time of the crew as a unit, not three additional billable person-hours. The selected 60% sold share produces 168 crew-hours after ramp. Purchased installation labor sits inside direct costs once.
How is the sold crew pool allocated?
Residential PV, commercial PV, batteries, inverter work and maintenance allocate the same 168 sold crew-hours. These quantities are crew-hour equivalents, not counts of complete solar systems.
Each realized fee includes the selected equipment and installed scope. An inverter or commissioning task already included in a project cannot also be counted as another standalone service within that project. The table is a fictional fee allocation, not a hardware quotation, system-size estimate or market price per panel.
| Service scope | Crew-hours | Fee/crew-hour | Earned fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home PV | 84 | $900.00 | $75,600.00 |
| Business PV | 42 | $1,000.00 | $42,000.00 |
| Battery work | 25.2 | $1,000.00 | $25,200.00 |
| Inverter work | 8.4 | $600.00 | $5,040.00 |
| PV upkeep | 8.4 | $300.00 | $2,520.00 |
Which people are paid internally and which are purchased?
The internal roster covers an electrician, half-time PV design, the compensated owner project lead and half-time office support. Those roles support assessment, design, coordination and acceptance without creating a second installation pool. Fractional budgets are prorated pay; external crews remain a separate purchase.
The 65% direct-cost allowance includes hardware and external installation labor, along with the scoped direct inputs. Outside engineering/permits and delivery/lifting responsibilities must be specified in the real contract. The financial allowance does not establish a site permission, technical approval or guaranteed system outcome.
What remains after equipment and operating costs?
March earned fees of $150,360.00 less $97,734.00 of direct costs and $37,107.87 of operating expenses produce EBITDA of $15,518.13. That measure precedes depreciation, interest and tax. The first operating year’s net income is $94,597.19 under the saved assumptions.
Yet March operating cash flow is -$2,163.13. Hardware uses 14 inventory days, supplier payment is modeled at ten days and customer collection at nine days; the ramp and stock changes still matter. Proposed uncommitted equity of $536,753.20 funds $123,575.60 of startup uses plus liquidity. No debt is modeled, and minimum forecast cash is $401,871.20.
Which commitment should be matched before purchase?
For a real scoped job, identify the hardware specification, supplier payment dates, reserved crew availability, internal technical responsibilities and customer acceptance/payment event. Keep customer incentives and electricity savings outside the contractor’s fee cash unless an actual separate agreement establishes otherwise.
Run the job through completion and collection before treating the reserved pool as proven throughput. If delivery shifts or a crew reservation cannot be used, identify the paid exposure and effect on other work. Do not convert unused individual staff hours into replacement crew-hours without changing the operating arrangement.
Make the next decision with your own evidence
Match a scoped hardware quotation and crew reservation to the customer’s acceptance and payment dates, then reconcile the actual job through collection without multiplying crew-hours into person-hour revenue.
Explore published business plan examples ↗SunMotive Projects is a fictional prelaunch scenario prepared with AI assistance. Inputs are illustrative; forecast results come from the matching saved financial model. Funding is proposed. The diagrams explain the case and do not depict actual premises, established demand or promised earnings. Replace the assumptions with evidence before committing.
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