What a solar ERP must do: a requirements checklist for Indian EPCs
A requirements checklist built from the lifecycle, grouped into must-have, should-have and later. Use it to write your own spec before you talk to any vendor.
- Five must-haves: project costing, milestone billing, approvals tracker, BOM and warranty, field app.
- Write requirements from your own lifecycle, not from a vendor's feature list.
- Rank each requirement must, should or later. Later is a legitimate answer.
- Two tests decide it: can you see live project margin, and will site teams use it?
- Ask whether the system exports your data in a usable format.
Quick answer
A solar ERP must do five things well before anything else: project-wise costing with a live forecast margin, milestone billing and receivables by milestone, an approvals and subsidy tracker per DISCOM, BOM-linked procurement with serial and warranty tracking, and a mobile field app that crews will actually use. Everything else, from CRM to O&M to analytics, can come second. Write your own requirements from your real process first, and test any vendor against two scenarios: project margin and site-team adoption.
We build custom software, so we have a bias toward spec-first thinking. This checklist is vendor-neutral. It is our model of what a solar EPC needs, not a product comparison.
How do you write requirements that mean something?
Start from the lifecycle, not from a feature list. For each stage, ask three questions: where is each fact entered, where does work wait, and where is money made or lost. A requirement exists when the answer is a pain you can name.
The lifecycle your requirements should cover
What is a must-have, a should-have and a later?
| Area | Must have | Should have | Later |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quote and CRM | Quote BOM becomes the project budget without retyping | Lead source and follow-up reminders | Proposal generator with payback charts |
| Project costing | Estimated, committed, actual per project; forecast margin | Overhead allocation rule; change-order log | Multi-project profitability analytics |
| Billing | Milestone schedule with trigger and evidence; receivables by milestone | Retention and bank-guarantee tracking with alerts | Customer payment portal |
| Approvals | Per-DISCOM workflow; days waiting; waiting on whom | Subsidy claim pipeline; document checklist | Portal integrations |
| Procurement | POs linked to BOM; variance flag; supplier lead times | Material-ready gate; multi-warehouse stock | Demand forecasting |
| Warranty | Serial capture at receipt and install; warranty term and expiry | Claim tracking by supplier | Barcode scanning hardware |
| Field | Offline-capable mobile app; survey form, install checklist, photos | Crew scheduling; attendance by site | Geo-fenced check-ins |
| O&M | AMC contracts with renewal alerts | Ticketing with SLA; monitoring alerts to tickets | Predictive maintenance |
| Compliance and finance | GST-ready invoicing (confirm structure with your CA); e-invoice as applicable | Tally or accounts export | Direct bank reconciliation |
| Data | Export of all your data in open formats | API access | Data warehouse feed |
Treat the “Must have” column as the minimum for a first release. A system that lacks one of those is a shortcut to double entry.
Which two tests matter most?
- The margin test. Show me, for a live project, estimated cost, committed cost, forecast margin and the change since last week. If a vendor cannot show it with your data, the costing is not real.
- The adoption test. Put the field app in front of a crew lead and ask them to do the five things they do daily. If it takes longer than the WhatsApp group, the data will not arrive. See getting site teams to use it.
What should a vendor tell you about data?
- Can you export everything, in formats you can read, without paying?
- Who owns the data, and what happens if you leave?
- Where is it hosted, and how often is it backed up?
- Is there an API, and what does it cost?
Get answers in writing. See how to evaluate a vendor.
Where does this checklist not apply?
If you run a handful of jobs a year, this is more than you need. Use sheets and a disciplined folder structure. Read ERP vs CRM plus accounts software to decide whether a system is justified yet.
What to do this week
- Copy the table into a sheet. Mark each row must, should, later for your business.
- Add the three pains that cost you the most last quarter, in your own words.
- Hand the sheet to your accounts head and your site lead. Ask what is missing.
Part of the guide Running a solar EPC business on connected systems.
The checklist is our own model, built from the other articles in this cluster. It is not a measured industry standard, and no vendor was assessed. For the GST point, see the caution in milestone billing.
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