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Setting financial defaults

Financial defaults set here will be automatically applied to your projects so you do not have to input them each time. These defaults can be overridden on a per-project basis. 

For standard Easy PV users, you can set up financial defaults in My Account > Preferences > Financial. For Pro teams wishing to set team defaults, these can be found in Pro account settings > Financial. If you are a member of a Pro team, you may not be able to set these defaults as they will be configured by your team owner or admins.

Main settings

  • 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. 

  • 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.

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.

  • 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.
  • (For UK) MCS: this can only be used with flat tariffs and properties with annual consumption between 1500 - 6000 kWh, battery storage below 15.1 kWh and generation below 6000kWh. 
  • Easy PV: this can be used for a project of any size and can be used with variable tariffs. Information on setting up variable tariffs can be found in the consumption task guide. 
  • Custom percentage: this contains significantly less information than the above methods. 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. 

Tariffs 

Here you can set default tariffs for the Easy PV and (for UK) MCS consumption calculations. They can be indexed to inflation, above inflation, fixed or none. 

For more detail on how to create and edit these tariffs, have a look at our tariffs guide. 

Pricing calculation

Here you can select whether you want to use the automatic pricing calculation or, alternatively, what default pricing mark up you want to use. 

Automatic pricing calculator

This is where you can tailor the financial settings so you do not have to make significant adjustments on each project. You can set up rules based on look-up tables or a set markup and then set costs for the delivery and installation and optionally scaffolding, roofing, electrical, travel costs and any additional services you provide. 

A full guide on how to set this up can be found here in the automatic pricing guide. 

Manual pricing markup 

If you are not using the pricing calculator, you can set a default markup which is applied to the cost of goods.

Tax settings

Here you can set defaults for the tax rate for material and services and select whether the customer will be able to reclaim the tax. Business customers can usually reclaim tax paid on an installation, but domestic customers typically can't reclaim tax. Tax rates may be different for domestic and business customers. 

Running cost rules 

Add lines 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).

Saving rules 

Create savings rules which can be used in the financial task. You can set them to appear on every project or only be applied if a given accessory is present and can add savings based on a percentage of bills, percentage of annual generation, fixed monetary amount or a saving in kWh each year.

Payment options  

Here you can create finance options that will show on your projects – set up the reserve interest, payment options and payment providers. 

For more detail on how to set up finance options, have a look at our guide on setting up finance options. 

If you have any additional questions about setting up your financial defaults, please reach out at help@easy-pv.co.uk or help@easy-pv.ie.

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