How Payroll Works

It is important to understand how Pay works. Setters are paid based on a M1 and a M2 schedule.

M1 is an upfront payment, or advancement on commissions. M1 is paid out the Friday after NTP has been completed. M1 payments are $500. To find out if you are eligible for M1 payments please consult with your sales leader or divisional manager.

M2 is the full commission minus any M1 Payments. M2 is paid out the Friday after funding has been completed which follows the completion of install. This is total earnings minus any M1 payments that have previously been paid out on the account.

M3 in some cases will be a payable milestone depending on the financing company. When M3 is available, M2 is a portion of the commissions owed for example 85% minus the M1 if it was paid out. M3 would be the remaining amount owed at PTO or final funding.

**It is Critical as a setter that you collect the Utility bill from the customer in order to help expedite your payments of M1 and M2. Finance companies will delay payment if Utility Bills are not collect, so to avoid delays, make this a PRIORITY to collect from the customer while you are on their doorstep. In the Foundation training, we will teach you the effective way to obtain the Utility bill during the set.

When calculating your commission there are 4 things you will need to know in order to properly calculate your earnings.

- Your Redline

- Your commission rate

- The size of the system that was sold

- The net Price Per Watt (PPW) it was sold at

GOOD NEWS All of your info on your accounts will show in our Payroll Software and our CRM. So don't get overwhelmed with the following information below! This is strictly to help educate setters so they better understand how solar works and how pay structure works.

 So don't get overwhelmed with the following information below! This is strictly to help educate setters so they better understand how solar works and how pay structure works.

Redline

A Redline is a defined amount (in the form of price per watt) that you will determine your profit. This is determined by calculating the difference from the net PPW the account was sold at down to your redline price. A easy way to understand this is to pretend we are going to build a deck for a customer and we run a cost analysis on the project which shows our cost to break even is $1000. That $1000 is our "redline" and whatever we charge above that is our "profit."

Commission Rate

The commission rate is the one given when you filled your Energy Consultant Agreement If you have questions or forgot your commission rate, please consult with you sales leader or Divisional Manager.

System Size

Solar systems sizes are determined by total kilowatts the system produces. You can determine this by knowing how many solar panels the house will need in order to offset their energy consumption they currently have. Each solar panel produces a certain amount of watts. Normally panels we provide are between 390 - 450 watts per panel. So the system size is calculated by multiplying the number of panels by the total watts. So if a system has 10 panels that produce 400 watts each, it means there will be 4000 watts total, you divide that by 1000 (there are 1000 watts in one kw) which gives you a 4.0 kw size system.

Price Per Watt (PPW)

The Price Per Watt refers to how much the Closer closed the sale at for the new solar system. These normally range from $3.00 to $5.00 per watt depending on the market you're in. The average across the nation in solar is around $3.60 per watt. Note: when calculating your commissions you'll need to convert watts to kilowatts.

Example:

Let's pretend your commission rate is 30% for this example and the system sold was a 7.50 kw size system. If the solar system was sold at $4.50 price per watt and your redline is $4.00, then there is $0.50 per watt profit. You need to convert this to kilowatts by multiplying that profit amount by 1000. (There are 1000 watts in one kilowatts) After that, you will multiply that number by your commission rate of 30%.

Calculation: $4.50 - $4.00 = $.50 x 1000 = $500 x 30% = $150

The last step is to multiply that number by the system size which is a 7.50 kw system in this scenario. $150 x 7.50 kw = $1,125 in commission!

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