Solar install scheduling is less about one appointment and more about a sequence: material on site, a crew for two or three days, the right equipment on the right days, then the permit inspection before the system can be turned on. If any step slips, the ones after it slip too.
Break the install into days
Plan an install as one visit per day, each with its own crew and hours, instead of one long block. Day one might be racking with three people, day two panels and wiring, day three the battery and cleanup with two. Smaller days are easier to move when weather or a late delivery gets in the way, and each day’s crew knows exactly what they’re there for.
Treat equipment as a booking
A lift, a trailer or a material hoist can only be in one place at a time. Book it to the crew’s day the same way you book the people, and check for double bookings before the week starts.
Tell the homeowner the plan
Homeowners worry about the days the crew isn’t there. Send them the plan before the install starts: which days the crew comes, roughly when each day starts, what they need to do (move a car, keep pets in, leave the side gate open) and when the inspection is expected. When a day moves, tell them right away. A clear plan prevents most of the “is anyone coming today?” calls an install generates.
Keep room for service calls
Installed customers call: an inverter alarm, a leak around a penetration, a panel cleaning. These are short and often urgent to the customer. Keep a technician or a few hours a week free for them, so a service call doesn’t pull an install crew off a roof.
Weather, deliveries and the domino effect
Rain, wind and late deliveries move installs more than anything else. When day two can’t happen, decide quickly whether the whole install shifts or only that day, and tell the homeowner the new dates in writing. Solar install scheduling works best when the office can see every crew’s next two weeks at once, so a rained-out roof can be swapped with a ground-mount or a service day instead of leaving a crew idle.
Keep the material schedule tied to the install schedule too. A crew on site without panels is an expensive way to wait, so confirm delivery the day before every install starts, and keep a short list of smaller jobs a crew can switch to when a delivery is late.
In Sentra Scheduler, a rain day can move a day’s or a crew’s visits to another date with a preview first, and an optional email to the affected customers.
The permit inspection
In California, AB 1738 makes cities and counties offer remote inspections for common home energy work, including rooftop solar with batteries and residential reroofs, among others. Instead of waiting for an inspector to drive out, the contractor or homeowner captures photos and video to the building department’s protocol, and the inspector reviews them. Each jurisdiction sets its own protocol and timeline, so check yours. This isn’t legal advice.
How Sentra Scheduler handles installs
Each install day is a visit on the schedule, dropped on the crew that does it. On crew days, each crew gets its people, a vehicle, a start time and its equipment, and the schedule warns when a lift is booked twice, someone is off, or a day runs past hours. Drive time to the site is planned in.
Service calls come in from the request button on your website, the phone or email, each with a response time in business hours, and go on the day of whoever is free. Yearly panel cleanings or roof checks can be recurring jobs that come due in their month.
At the end of each visit the crew closes out in the crew app with after photos and the job type’s questions, and the homeowner can sign on the phone.
The remote inspection, captured
With remote inspections, your technician or the homeowner follows guided photo and video steps from a template you match to your building department’s protocol. The homeowner’s written consent is collected first. Your office reviews every file, then sends the inspector one expiring link with a signed package, and the inspector records the result on that page. If the department inspects over a call instead, schedule a live video inspection. Either way, Sentra Scheduler doesn’t file the permit for you.
Getting started
- Plan installs as one visit per day, each with its crew.
- Book lifts and trailers with the crew day.
- Leave room every week for service calls.
- Find your building department’s remote inspection protocol before the first job.
For the full picture, see solar and roofing contractors. For the law itself, read AB 1738 for contractors.