Table of Contents
Merge Fields - Options & Definitions
Add CC'd Recipient Roles to a New Contract Template
Introduction - What is Contract Manager?
Contract Manager is a premium feature that allows solar sales reps to easily generate deal documents, with project details automatically populated from Sales Mode. They can then send out documents to homeowners for their e-signature. This enables sales teams to speed up their sales cycle, reduce errors, and boost their win rate by closing deals on the first meeting - all within Sales Mode.
Who Is Eligible to Use Aurora's Contract Manager
Contract Manager is available to residential solar companies in the US. For customers on Foundation, Build, and Grow plans, Contract Manager is charged at 50 credits per project where it is utilized. For customers on Scale plan, Contract Manager is included at no additional credit cost.
Contract Manager is not available on Basic or Premium individual plans.
Configuring Contract Manager in your Aurora Account:
The following steps can only be taken once you've purchased Contract Manager and it is enabled for your account by your Onboarding or Customer Success Manager.
Please note that only account Administrators can make these changes.
What you'll need:
- PDF(s) of your Sales Agreement(s)
- Template Name(s)
- Email Name (From)
- Email Subject Text
- Email Body Text
- Established Signature Order
- Additional cc'd Recipient Roles
Please note that these items cannot be changed after you save your template without creating a new template from scratch!
Create a New Template
Log into your Aurora account and navigate to Settings > Sales Agreements. Click on “Create” to begin configuring a new Sales Agreement template.
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Step 1: Name your template - Give your template a name that will be easily distinguishable. Then, click “Next."
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Step 2: Template Settings. Select if the state if the contract visibility should be restricted by State. Also decide if you would like to attach specific documents, like the PDF proposal, equipment spec sheets, and/or an image of the system design, by default. Then click “Next”.
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Step 3: Upload Agreements - Drag and Drop your PDF agreement or use the file browser to upload your contract. Then, click “Next”.
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Step 4: Add signer roles or “actors” who are touching the document in some way. These roles would include titles like Homeowner, Sales Rep, etc. Then, click “Next”.
- If you wish to set a signer order, check the box for "Set Signer Order" then drag your Roles so the first signer is at the top, second signer is second, etc.
- If you wish to set a signer order, check the box for "Set Signer Order" then drag your Roles so the first signer is at the top, second signer is second, etc.
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Step 5: Set up Merge Fields - Drag and drop merge fields from the left side of the screen onto the contract. Read Merge Fields section below carefully for more details.
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Step 6: Add CC Recipient & Set up Email Message - Add CC Recipients & determine the generic email name, subject, and body of this template that will go out with each contract envelope. Read about CC'd Recipient Roles below for more information. Click “Save” when ready.
Merge Fields - Options and Definitions
Drag and drop the appropriate fields onto the template until all necessary fields have a merge field.
All Merge Fields
Sender merge field options that pull from the Aurora design are shown below. For other commonly requested fields that are not an option from Sender, please see configuration suggestions below or use an open text field.
**denotes non-Sender fields
PROJECT
- Customer Address: Address of the project in Aurora
- Customer Phone Number: Phone number entered in the customer details in the Aurora Project
- **Customer Email: Use Homeowner role fields and this will auto-fill when you designate the individuals who will receive the agreement
- **Customer Name: User Homeowner role fields and this will auto-fill when you designate the individuals who will receive the agreement
CONSUMPTION
- Utility Name: The name of the utility provider entered in the “Dashboard” under “Energy
consumption” - Utility Rate Name: The name of the utility rate that is entered in the “Dashboard” under “Energy consumption” under “Rate”
DESIGN (SYSTEM SIZE)
- System Size STC: Number of panels multiplied by the STC wattage of panels. (This is likely what you’ll want to put on your contracts and is what is be displayed in Aurora for system size)
- System Size AC: Size of the system based on the inverter rating
- System Size PTC: Number of panels multiplied by the PTC wattage of panels
- System Cost w/Storage: The total system cost and best to use for the template since it will pull in total system cost whether or not the project has storage
DESIGN (ARRAYS)
- Optimizer Manufacturer Name: The DC Optimizer manufacturer name
- Optimizer Name: The model name of the DC optimizer included in the design
- Optimizer Count: The number of DC Optimizers included in the design
- Inverter Manufacturer Name: The inverter (micro or string) manufacturer name
- Inverter Name: The model name of the inverter(s) included in the design
- Inverter Count: The number of inverter(s) included in the design
- Module Manufacturer: The solar module manufacturer name
- Module Name: The model name of the module included in the design
- Module Count: The number of modules placed in a project
- Ground Mount Manufacturer: The name of the company who made a ground mount
- Ground Mount Name: The name of the ground mount
- Ground Mount Count: How many ground mounts that are placed in a project
DESIGN (SHADING)
- SAP: Stands for Solar Access Percentage. This refers to the percent of irradiance that is hitting the roof
- TSRF: Stands for Total Solar Resource Fraction. It’s an efficiency rating that takes into account solar access as well as the tilt and orientation factor (TOF) for a specific geographic location. This is reported as a percentage.
DESIGN (ENERGY PRODUCTION)
- Annual Production: The production of a PV system calculated on a yearly basis in kWh
- Annual Offset: A measurement of the yearly difference between the amount of electricity generated by solar panels, and the amount of electricity a project uses
DESIGN (PRICING)
- Price per Watt: A measurement calculated by taking the total cost of the system and dividing it by the number of STC watts in the system
- Incentives: Financial or non-financial rewards or benefits provided by governments, organizations, or utilities to encourage the adoption and installation of PV systems
- Estimated value of ITC: Commonly known as the solar investment tax credit, this is an estimated value of the federal policy on what homeowners will be able to deduct.
- Adders: An additional fee that you will charge your customers. For example this could be a trenching fee in addition to the solar project
- Adder Totals: When an adder is configured to “percentage (of system cost),” it will display as the actual dollar amount of that percentage, instead of the percentage itself. (ex. 5% of a $10,000 system would display as $500.00)
- System Cost Less Storage: This is the cost of the system without the addition of storage
- System Cost With Storage: This is the cost of the system with the addition of storage
- Net System Cost: The cost of the system less incentives
- Net cost * 10%: 10% of net system cost
- Net cost * 40%: 40% of net system cost
- Net cost * 50%: 50% of net system cost
- Cumulative Value of year-zero Incentives: The total value of all immediately realized incentives added to a project
FINANCING
- Financing Name: The name of the loan provider
- Financing Option: The type of financing product such as cash purchase, solar loan, solar lease
- Discount Rate: Refers to that a dollar tomorrow is worth more than a dollar today. This is the rate of inflation
- Useful Project Life: The expected life of the project in years. This determines the length of the financial analysis
- Degradation Factor: The year-over-year module degradation
- Lifetime Savings: How much a homeowner will save by going solar
- Total amount paid: The amount of the total system cost including interest.
FINANCING (LOAN)
- Loan Principal: The original amount of money borrowed or the initial outstanding balance of a loan
- Down Payment: The initial upfront payment made by a buyer towards the purchase of a solar system
- Monthly Payment First Month: Monthly payment merge field works best for a mortgage style loan with no buy-down, otherwise use an open text field.
- Principal Percentage: Refers to the portion of the loan amount that is borrowed (excluding interest) and displays as a percentage
- Interest Rate: The percentage charged by a lender or creditor to a borrower for the use of borrowed money
- Duration (Months): Loan duration in months (will only display the number value)
- Scheduled Monthly Payment: The payment the customer can expect to make after the first month
STORAGE
- Battery Manufacturer: The battery manufacturer name
- Battery Name: The battery model name
- Battery Count: The total number of batteries added to a project
- Storage inverter name: Manufacturer name
- Storage price: Price of all storage in project
MISC
- **Date of translation: Apply the Homeowner as the actor and input the “Signed Date” field.
Other Merge Fields
Add CC'd Recipient Roles to a New Contract Template
As the last step before completing a new document template under the Review and save section, you now have the option to add CC recipient role(s). Here you can write the role for who needs to receive a copy (ie. “Sales Manager” or “Second Homeowner”), or create a general recipient (ie. “CC Recipient 1”). You will only enter in the email when creating the document in Contract Manager.
*NOTE: You can only add CC recipients during the creation of a new document template.
*NOTE: You can add a max of 5 CC recipients to a single document template.
*NOTE: You are not able to add more CC recipients than you have allotted while creating the document template – so add at least 1 more recipient than you think you’ll need, just in case.
When you are done adding in CC recipients, click Save template to make it available to the rest of the organization.
Using CC in Contract Manager
Once your document template has been properly configured with CC recipients, select the appropriate template in Contract Manager.You will now see the fields to enter a CC recipient’s email under the signer fields. Enter the emails for whoever needs to be included, then click Continue.
*NOTE: You do not need to fill out every CC recipient field! Only the signers’ names and emails are required to create a contract. CC recipient fields left blank will simply not be included when the contract is sent – this is why it’s better to have more CC fields available than not having enough.
Tips, Tricks, & Best Practices
- Required checkbox fields (one or the other) - Use the Radio buttons option
- Sent contracts can only be downloaded and viewed once all parties have signed.
Testing
It’s a good idea to test out the document templates on a few training projects before going live. To do this, you can add yourself as the recipient and send out a completed agreement to ensure all of the fields will populate correctly for the homeowner.
Sending Agreements
To send Agreement to send for signature, use the dropdown menu and select from a preconfigured document template. These templates are configured ahead of time by your account admin.
Click Select and then confirm the contact information for those who should receive the agreement and the locale for the agreement.
Confirm documents to include in the agreement, such as equipment spec sheets or the PDF proposal.
On the following page, preview your agreement. If everything looks correct, click the Send for Signature button in the bottom right corner. If there are any mistakes, return to sales mode to update the system details, price, financing, or anything that seems out of place.