Analysis vs Proposal Projects

Every project is either Analysis or Proposal, and the label at the start of the stage bar tells you which. The short version: Analysis answers what size system does this site need, and is the job worth chasing. Proposal is where you commit to a specific system, price it, and produce something you can put in front of the customer.

Proposal is the continuation of an Analysis, not a separate track. Most projects start in Analysis, pick a size on Recommendation, then continue into Proposal once the customer is serious.

What both modes share

The first three stages are identical in both modes: Details, Bill Data and Consumption. Same fields, same uploads, same AI bill extraction. This is the part that takes real effort, and none of it is wasted if you picked the “wrong” mode to begin with, because switching keeps all of it.

Analysis: size the job

After the shared stages, an Analysis project has two more:

• Solar & Battery: set the usable roof area, the solar price and install date, whether storage is on the table (and at what $/kWh and dispatch), any battery options to compare, and the incentives that apply. From these Amperage builds the sizing matrix: every solar size crossed with every battery size, each modelled hour by hour against the site's actual load and local weather data.
• Recommendation: where you pick the size. The page holds:
  • the Your pick bar at the top, with Re-Run and Settings (scenario settings and financial assumptions);
  • the Options panel, when you set up battery options to compare;
  • the Sizing Matrix, with Design Your Own for a size of your choosing;
  • the scenario cards, with ROI, payback and the incentives the site qualifies for;
  • the trade-off table comparing them;
  • the Network Tariff Review: where the site sits on its network tariff after install, and what else it could be on;
  • the energy schedule: a typical day, hour by hour, for the pick.

What you walk away with is a defensible answer on system size and financials. What you don't have yet is a layout, a specific product list, or a price.

Proposal: commit and quote

A Proposal project replaces those two stages with four. The shared first three stay exactly as they were.

Solar Design

Map out the roof as faces. There are three ways in: Detect (Pro) traces the faces on the satellite view, Manual is a table you fill in by hand, and Import reads a Helioscope design report (PDF) and production export (CSV). Each face carries its own orientation, pitch and usable area. You lay out faces, not individual panels. The system size then splits across those faces by area, so production is modelled per face instead of as one averaged array. A north-facing face and a west-facing one contribute different shapes of generation, and that difference flows through to the financials.

Battery Design

Move from “how many kWh” to specific hardware: battery and inverter stacks, sized and configured as you would actually install them.

Pricing

Your costs and your margins, on a build sheet that shows how the final number is assembled (how to read the pricing build sheet).

Proposal

The customer-facing proposal, pulling the design, the modelling and the price into one document (how to read the Proposal page).

Which one should I start in?

Start in Analysis. Roof faces, hardware selection and pricing are the slowest parts of the process, and most enquiries never get that far. Analysis gets the customer to a payback figure first; Proposal is what you build once they want a real quote.

The natural sequence is: qualify in Analysis, show the customer the recommendation, pick the size, then press Build the Proposal on the Recommendation step.

Continuing into a Proposal

Build the Proposal on the Recommendation step (or Build Proposal at the end of the stage bar) converts the project in place: the same project gains the four Proposal stages. Details, Bill Data and Consumption carry over untouched, Solar Design offers the size you picked so the roof can be sized to it in one click, and the Analysis deck stays downloadable from the Proposal step.

If you would rather keep the Analysis exactly as it is, choose Make a copy in the same dialog. The Proposal work then happens on a sibling project named after the original.

To switch back, open the Analysis chip at the start of a Proposal's stage bar and choose Step back to Analysis. That hides the Proposal-only stages rather than deleting what you did in them. Build the Proposal again from the same pick, without changing the Analysis in between, and your Solar Design, Battery Design and Pricing work comes straight back. If you change the pick or the Analysis first, the Proposal is rebuilt from the new pick: roof faces and the price lines you added yourself stay, the system price lines are re-priced, and Battery Design stacks carry over only when the battery is unchanged. The dialog tells you which before you continue. A project created directly as a Proposal has no Analysis to step back to.

Availability

The Free plan covers 1 project, and it is an Analysis project. Pro unlocks unlimited Analysis and Proposal projects, so you can design the roof, pick the hardware, price the job and see the full Proposal page, plus the branded A4 PowerPoint proposal export and the customer share link.