Using the Financial task

The proportion of electricity generated from a solar array that is used in a property can significantly affect financial returns. Easy PV has multiple methods you can use to calculate self-consumption and grid independence which you can select from. 

In this section, you are selecting the self-consumption method for the project and choosing the tariffs. Each self-consumption methods has associated tariffs. Beside where the tariff is selected, you can also set the tariff inflation indexing. 

These are the available methods to choose from: 

• ​easy-pv.co.ukMCS: This can only be used with flat tariffs, can be used for projects with consumption between 1500-6000kWh, generation below 6000kWh and usable batter capacity below 15.1kWh
• Easy PV: This can be used for a project of any size and can be used with variable tariffs. This is calculated in the Consumption task
• Custom percentage: Input a self-consumption fraction directly. This will not model the impacts of a battery and is just calculated based on the total estimated annual generation

  Warning: When using a custom percentage the Battery Storage section in the Customer Proposal will not generate. If you would like this to generate, select the MCS or Easy PV self-consumption.

​Learn more:

• Differences between the MCS and Easy PV methods
• Tariffs in Easy PV

Here you can select which pricing calculation to use, with the option of selecting between the following:

• Manual pricing: set a default markup on goods and input service costs on each project
• Automatic pricing: set a default markup on goods and automatically configure service costs for each project. Service costs will be calculated according to rules that you set

​Learn more: How to set up your automatic pricing calculator

See how these settings impact the financial projection. You can set default values for this section in your account or pro financial settings or adjust them on a project by project basis. 

• Projection term: the number of years you wish to make financial projections. This should be approximately the expected lifespan of the equipment

• Inflation rate: this is the inflation rate for your financial projection
  

  Note: This base inflation rate will be applied to all costs and savings, you can set a different inflation rate for tariffs in the Self-consumption tab.

• Panel degradation rate: panels gradually reduce in output as they degrade over time. Set the rate at which the output of the panels decreases each year

• Discount rate: a discount rate is a means of determining the current value of something (like income or savings from a PV system) that you'll receive in the future. Set this to 0 if you would like no mention of discount rate in the proposal

​Learn more: Understanding the Financial projection.

Configure the following:

• VAT rate for materials: this will apply to all costs included in the goods section.
• VAT rate for services: this will apply to all costs included in the services section.
• Whether the customer can reclaim VAT: selecting that the tax can be reclaimed will mean VAT is excluded from the loan total (if applicable) and the cost on the front of the proposal, but not the cost used in the financial projection. 

​Learn more: Set up default values for this section in financial settings.

In this section you can configure how the customer will pay for the system, with the option to either pay in full or with finance. Any discounts or grants are configured in later sections but will be automatically factored in. 

• Select from your preset payment options for this project or create new ones. You can set default values for this section in your financial settings.
• If you'd like to amend an existing one for this project, you can just duplicate to project and edit any details or navigate to your financial settings by click Edit option at the top to edit the default option.

​Learn more: Setting up payment options.

Note: A pay in full option is required on all projects, even if the customer intends to pay with finance. 

Add rows for costs you expect to be incurred in the future. You can choose whether costs are applied on an annual basis (for example a maintenance contract) or as one-off costs (for example an inverter replacement).

​Learn more: Default running costs can be set up in your financial preferences.

Add rows for additional savings, such as from immersion diversion systems or from night charging from batteries.

Set the name for the saving, what the saving is (this can be in terms of £, kWh per year or a % of annual generation) and how it should scale with inflation. 

​Learn more: Default savings can be set up in your financial preferences.

If the project is eligible for a grant that will pay for some or all of the cost of the system, you can add it here.

Set the description, the value and whether this is claimed before or after the installation. 

If you want to apply a discount to your quote to reduce the cost for your customer, you can do so here. Input a description and choose the type of discount you want to apply. This can be a fixed discount or a percentage of the total cost.