Milestones let you mark a design at a key moment in a solar project and save a permanent, view-only record of exactly how it looked at that point. Use them to track a project’s progress at a glance, decide which design to open and edit, and keep a reliable source of truth as a design changes over its lifecycle.
For example, when a contract is signed, you can mark the agreed-upon design as Sold. Even if you change that design later — for a change order, or to prepare it for plan set and install — you can always see exactly which design was sold and what it included.
In this article
- Assigning and viewing milestones
- Milestone types
- Change order milestone
- Assign and track milestones via API
- FAQs
Assigning and viewing milestones
When you assign a milestone to a design, Aurora saves a view-only copy of the design exactly as it stands at that moment. You can keep editing the active design afterward — the snapshot stays unchanged. The milestone also appears in the Milestones timeline on the right side of the project, where you can review the sequence of events and open any past snapshot.
To assign a milestone to a design:
- On the project overview page, click + Assign under the “Milestone” column for the design, or open the “...”.
- In the Assign milestone modal, select the milestone for your design.
- Optionally add notes — these appear in the timeline view and are a good place to record helpful context.
- Click Assign milestone.
After you save, the Milestone column on the project and design pages updates, and the Milestones timeline appears on the right. You can show or hide the timeline as needed.
To see what a design looked like at a given milestone, click that milestone in the timeline view. The current selection highlights on hover.
An interactive 3D view of the design opens, with pages for pricing and storage available from the dropdown menu in the header. This page is view-only, so it stays a permanent source of truth for that milestone.
You can explore high-fidelity design details, including site and component details and performance simulation results, and open downloads such as the Shade Report and Bill of Materials.
Click on Go to active design to be taken to the most recently updated version of the design in Design Mode.
Milestone types
The following milestones can be assigned to a design:
- Offer — the design presented to the homeowner.
- Sold — the design the homeowner agreed to. A project can have only one Sold design at a time.
- Change order — indicates a change made to a design after it was sold, with one or more reasons for what changed. Appears as a red chip in the timeline. See Change order milestone.
- Revised — indicates that the design was updated and is ready to move forward. Appears as a purple chip in the timeline.
- Installed — the design as it was installed.
- Permission to operate — the utility has authorized the system to be switched on (also known as PTO).
- Canceled — a previously offered, sold, or installed design as canceled. Shows in the timeline as Canceled offer, Canceled sale, or Canceled install to indicate the previous milestone.
Rules for assigning milestones
There are only two restrictions on setting milestones:
- You can’t assign Canceled if the current milestone is already Canceled, or if the design doesn’t have a milestone yet.
- A project can have only one Sold design. If you assign Sold to a project that already has a Sold design, the previous one is automatically marked Canceled.
Change order milestone
Use a change order milestone to capture a change made to a design after it was sold — for example, swapping out equipment that’s no longer available or adding a battery. Change order milestones appear as a red chip in the timeline, so your post-sales team can see at a glance that a sold design has changed.
Change order: a milestone that records a post-sale change to a design, tagged with one or more reasons describing what changed.
To assign a change order milestone:
- On the project overview page, click + Assign under the “Milestone” column for the design, or open the “...”.
- Select Change order.
- Under What changed?, select one or more reasons that apply:
- Homeowner request
- Equipment availability/change
- Financier requirement
- Battery added
- Design layout update
- Other
- Optionally add a note describing the change (for example, “Panel no longer available”).
- Click Assign milestone. The milestone, its reasons, and any note appear in the timeline.
Automatic change order milestones: If you use one of Aurora’s financier integrations, a change order milestone will be created automatically when you send changes to the financier after the financing has already been approved — no manual step required. This keeps your design record and the financier in sync. If an automated change can’t be matched to a specific reason, it’s recorded as Other.
After you’ve made the change — for example, swapping the unavailable panels and rerunning the performance simulation — assign a Revised milestone to mark the updated design as ready to move forward. Revised milestones appear as a purple chip in the timeline and don’t require a reason.
Assign and track milestones via API
You can assign and update milestones programmatically using the design endpoints in the Sync API. Anything you can do with milestones in Aurora, you can also do via the API — assign a milestone, update it, and receive updates when it changes in Aurora.
Change order milestones are also available through the API and as webhook events. You can subscribe to change order events to capture them in your own systems — for example, to keep a CRM in sync with the latest design. The change event payload includes both when the change occurred and what was changed.
FAQs
Can I keep editing a design after I assign a milestone?
Yes. Assigning a milestone saves a view-only snapshot, but the active design stays fully editable. The snapshot won’t change when you edit the design later.
What’s the difference between a change order and a revised milestone?
A change order marks that a sold design needs to change and records why. A revised milestone marks the finished, updated design once you’ve made those changes. A typical sequence is Sold → Change order → Revised.
Can I have more than one sold design in a project?
No. A project can have only one Sold design at a time. Assigning Sold to a new design automatically marks the previous Sold design as Canceled.