In solar, time isn’t just money — it’s margin, morale, and momentum. And when time gets wasted, the costs don’t always show up on a P&L. They hide in missed deadlines, lost deals, and team burnout.
According to NREL, contract cancellations can account for up to 25% of pre-install soft costs, with median cancellation rates closer to 33%. Change orders? Often $750–$1,250 each. Across hundreds of projects, those “small” inefficiencies can quietly cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The biggest culprit? Everyday workflow bottlenecks. Rework. Redesigns. Back-and-forth between sales and design. Micro-delays that seem minor on their own but compound across projects, stalling revenue and adding hidden costs at every step.
Want all the info? Download the free ROI Playbook now.
Time Adds Up — And So Do The Costs
Every extra hour spent waiting on design revisions, redoing plan sets, or chasing down missing information is time not spent selling or installing — and those hours add up. At scale, they become structural costs:
- Proposal delays give competitors an opening and can tank conversion rates.
- Design revisions add days or weeks, draining engineering resources.
- Bad handoffs trigger change orders, repeat site visits, or even cancellations.
These delays aren’t just frustrating — they erode your margins, frustrate customers, and slow growth.
Real companies are reclaiming time — and margin
Here’s what it looks like when companies stop accepting wasted time as a cost of doing business — and start reclaiming margin:
🕒 Kasselman Solar saves 30 minutes per proposal and over 2 hours per project by streamlining handoffs, triggering designs via API, and reducing rework loops. They also cut change orders by 25% — a direct result of better alignment between teams.
🕒 Michigan Solar Solutions (MSS) slashed design time by 70%, saving hours every week across proposals and contract workflows. With 98% proposal-to-production accuracy, they avoid delays that used to come from redesigns and manual corrections.
🕒 NY State Solar saves over 45 minutes per site survey and avoids $150 in repeat survey costs by using more accurate remote modeling and improving first-pass success rates.
🕒 Orizon Energy cut 80% off the time it used to take to audit designs and adjust pricing, freeing up resources to focus on higher-value work and faster installs.
🕒 Cape Fear Solar Systems saves more than 180 hours per year on proposal creation — time that’s now spent selling, not formatting.
These aren’t one-off wins. They’re compounding advantages that give teams the time, space, and confidence to grow.
How to spot (and fix) your time traps
Want to know where time is costing you? Start by asking:
- How long does it take from lead to proposal—and how much of that is manual?
- How many design revisions are needed?
- How often does your sales team go back to design with missing or incorrect inputs?
- How long does it take to generate and revise plan sets?
If you’re not measuring it, you might be underestimating it.
Automation is the unlock
The companies reclaiming their time aren’t working harder (they’re already working really hard, after all) — they’re working smarter. They’re using platforms that automate manual steps, surface the right data at the right time, and keep projects moving from lead to install.
Time savings is just one lever in the ROI equation. In our latest ROI playbook we break down all four:
- Time savings & workflow efficiency
- Revenue growth
- Cost avoidance
- Empowered teams & cross-functional alignment
Ready to work it out for your specific needs? Download the (free) playbook for your worksheet.
Featured image by Florian Siedl
