The importance of using the right financial settings in Easy PV
The default financial settings you configure in your Easy PV account provide the baseline assumptions for every project. They save time by pre‑populating proposals with consistent values, but more importantly, they ensure that you can present customers with credible, compliant, and transparent projections. This article explains the importance of configuring settings appropriately.
Best practice checklist
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Review defaults regularly to ensure they reflect current market conditions.
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Separate general inflation from energy inflation (import/export tariffs).
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Use realistic degradation rates for panels.
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Configure tariffs to reflect current supplier offers.
- Document assumptions clearly in proposals, framing them as estimates, not guarantees.
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Use defaults to create a consistent baseline, then adjust project‑specific values where needed.
Important information about inflation rates
There are two ways to set inflation rates in Easy PV. Understanding the difference is important and will affect the accuracy of the financial projections and the calculated benefits.
General inflation
This is the base inflation rate that will be applied to all project projections by default. This should be a sensible economic inflation rate that is realistic to apply across the full project term.
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You can set the default value in your account preferences (this can be overwritten in the financial task settings on a per-project basis)
- You should refer to relevant government guidance for setting this value, for example data published by the ONS in the UK or by CSE in Ireland.
Energy inflation
Energy inflation can be configured separately for your default tariffs or on a per project basis in the financial task and is specific to import and export tariffs. This distinction is crucial: energy prices often rise faster than general inflation. By setting the indexing on tariffs you can model scenarios where electricity costs increase more steeply than other household expenses, or where export payments might not grow as quickly due to wider market influences.
Choose how energy inflation should be indexed by selecting from the following options:
- Indexed to inflation - this means it will increase in line with the general inflation rate applied to the project.
- Indexed above inflation - this means the energy price will increase by a percentage amount on top of the general inflation rate. For example, if your general inflation rate is 3% and you set 2% above inflation, the inflation applied to the tariff rates will be 5%.
- Fixed indexing - this will let you choose a different fixed inflation rate to apply.
- None - this will keep the rate the same for the full projection term.
Why financial defaults matter
Defaults underpin calculations of payback, savings, and environmental benefits. If they’re set too optimistically, customers may lose trust; if they’re too conservative, you risk underselling the benefits of solar PV. The goal is to strike a balance: accurate, realistic, and easy to understand.
Build trust with customers
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Customers rely on your proposals to make significant investment decisions.
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Clear, consistent defaults show that your calculations are grounded in industry‑standard assumptions rather than guesswork.
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Transparency about inflation, tariffs, and degradation rates builds confidence and reduces the risk of disputes later.
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Read more about why customer proposals matter in solar PV
Ensure compliance
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Setting realistic defaults help align your proposals with MCS requirements and other industry standards.
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Using recognised assumptions (e.g. panel degradation rates, tariff structures) ensures your documents stand up to scrutiny.
Save time and reduce errors
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Defaults pre‑populate key values, so you don’t have to re‑enter them for every project.
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This reduces the chance of mistakes, especially when working across a team.
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Consistency also makes proposals easier to compare and benchmark.
Reflect real‑world conditions
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Energy prices often rise faster than general inflation. Easy PV allows you to set energy inflation separately from general inflation, so your projections reflect this reality.
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Defaults ensure that lifetime savings are modelled realistically, avoiding overly optimistic payback claims.
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By indexing tariffs and costs to inflation, you can show customers how their system might perform under changing market conditions.
Communicate potential ROI
Every homeowner investing in solar PV and battery storage is seeking a positive return on investment (ROI) alongside environmental benefits.
- Easy PV goes beyond simple design and quoting and allows you to proactively model system benefits based on the customer’s consumption profile and the impact of TOU tariffs and energy management options.
- By modelling tariff scenarios, Easy PV helps installers configure the right financial settings at the design stage and explain to customers why reviewing tariffs regularly is essential.
- This transparency builds confidence, validates ROI, and strengthens the reputation of these technologies and the industry.
- Read more about maximising ROI.
Practical guidance is available in the following user guides: