What to put in a solar equipment quotation so the installer can use it

A solar equipment quotation is useful to an installer when it can be forwarded as it stands. That means the exact model, the quantity, your rate with GST shown apart, the warranty as the manufacturer offers it, the delivery basis and a validity date. Anything an installer has to phone you to find out is a reason to ask another supplier. A quote that says only "inverter, 50 kW, rate as agreed" gets read once and filed.

What does the installer do with your quotation?

They do not read it for pleasure. They copy lines from it into their own quote for a factory, a school or a farm owner, and the end customer's engineer then checks those lines against a datasheet. So your quotation is half of someone else's document.

That changes how you write it. Put the model number exactly as it appears on the datasheet, because the engineer will compare the two. Keep one product per line. Do not bundle "inverter with accessories" when the accessories are three separate items that the installer may have to replace one by one.

The layout, line by line

Use the same order every time, so the installer learns where to look.

QUOTATION No. ___   Date ___   Valid until ___
To: installer's firm, GSTIN, site or delivery address

Line | Item | Make and model | Qty | Unit rate | GST | Line total
 1   | Inverter | (as on datasheet) | ... 
 2   | Mounting structure | (material, coating, per kW) | ...

Delivery: ex-works / delivered to site; freight by whom; unloading by whom
Dispatch: ready stock / ready after (date) from receipt of advance
Payment: advance, balance, mode
Warranty: as offered by the manufacturer, see attached document no. ___
Attached: datasheet(s), warranty terms, test or certificate copies you hold
Not included: cables, earthing, civil work, installation (list what you do not supply)

A worked line, with invented figures: 1 | String inverter 50 kW | Model as on datasheet D-12 | 2 nos | ₹2,95,000 | GST shown in the next column | ₹5,90,000 before tax. The installer can lift that into a school or factory quote without a call.

The "not included" line saves more arguments than any other. An installer can assume you supply what the last supplier supplied.

How should the warranty line read?

Write what the manufacturer offers and point to the paper. "Warranty as per manufacturer's warranty terms, attached" is a complete line. Do not add your own years to it, and do not let a salesperson say a longer number on the phone.

If your firm gives something of its own, such as handling the claim with the manufacturer for the installer, give it a separate line. Say in plain words what it covers and what it does not. Our note on writing warranty and service promises in electrical equipment goes deeper into the wording.

How do you handle revisions and validity?

Installers revise their own quotes several times, and each change reaches you as a phone call. Number your versions (Q-014 Rev 1, Rev 2) and print on each revision what changed from the last one. Never edit a quote the installer has already forwarded; issue a new revision and tell the installer the old one has lapsed. Set the validity to the shortest period you can honestly hold, because a long validity on a metal or electronic item is a free option handed to the buyer.

What should you leave to the documents?

Claims about approvals, efficiency ratings, test results and standards belong in the attached certificates, not in your sentences. Rules and approvals differ by state and body and change, so check with your own adviser or the regulator before you describe any approval in writing.

A good habit: if a claim could be checked against a document, attach the document and name its number. If you cannot attach it, do not make the claim.

For example: a structure supplier in Bhavnagar

Imagine, as an invented case, a firm in Bhavnagar that supplies mounting structures and inverters to installers across Saurashtra. A quote went out with "structure, hot-dip galvanised, 25 years". The installer passed it to a school trust, which read "25 years" as a guarantee on the whole roof system. When a bolt corroded early, the trust blamed the installer, the installer blamed the supplier, and the supplier pointed out it had only repeated what the coating maker states.

One number with no source and no scope had caused it. So the supplier rewrote the layout. The coating maker's own statement now sits in the attached document, and the quote line reads "coating as per attached data sheet". A separate line says what the firm itself will do if a fastener fails on delivery. The calls about the number stopped. Redoing every open quote took the supplier two weeks, though, and one installer had gone elsewhere by then.

When should you not quote in this format?

Skip the full layout for a price check where the installer says plainly that they are only comparing. Send a short rate list marked "indicative, not an offer" with the validity date. The full quotation is for the buyer who is about to order.

Also skip it when the specification is still open. If the installer has not fixed the inverter capacity, a ten-line quotation built on a guess will be wrong in three places. Ask the one question that fixes the capacity first, then quote. Keep the datasheet, warranty terms and certificate copies for each model in one folder, so attaching them takes a minute.

Follow up on the quotation itself

Once the quote is out, make the next call about one line. For instance: "The structure rate is valid until Thursday. Does your customer's engineer need anything more on the coating document?" That is easier to answer than "any update?". For a routine, see how to follow up on a quotation.

Fix your template this afternoon

Lay your last three quotations side by side and mark every line an installer would have had to phone you about. Rebuild the template so those answers are printed on it, then send the next quote in that form. It is an afternoon's work. Our quotation and proposal follow-up page is the related service, and the trade is on our solar and renewable energy equipment page. If you would like help with yours, tell us what you need.