From Proposal to Payment: PowerTown Solar’s End-to-End Success with OpenSolar
About PowerTown Solar
PowerTown Solar is a solar and battery installer based in Southern California. With a lean team of two managing billing and installations, the company relies on tools that deliver both efficiency and simplicity. Irma Madrigal, who oversees billing and operations, has used OpenSolar’s proposal and design tools for years and was an early adopter of the platform. “We started using OpenSolar because it was free,” she shared. “Then we actually liked it.” The platform’s clean interface and customer-facing clarity helped PowerTown close more deals. When OpenSolar launched its CashFlow feature, Irma was quick to sign up. The result has been a streamlined invoicing and payments process that saves time, improves transparency, and keeps everything in one place.
Life before CashFlow: Manual processes and lost time
Before using CashFlow, Irma handled all payments through QuickBooks. While it got the job done, it was not designed for solar projects or milestone billing. Irma had to manually calculate credit card surcharges, send individual receipts, and constantly jump between QuickBooks and OpenSolar to track customer payments. The process was time-consuming and fragmented. “Each project probably cost me 30 minutes just to create and send the deposit invoice,” she said. Invoices had to be generated manually, and tracking outstanding balances often required searching through multiple systems.
The impact of CashFlow: Time saved, workflow simplified
CashFlow brought significant improvements to PowerTown’s operations. Irma estimates saving 30 minutes per project simply by using CashFlow to generate and send deposit invoices. For a small team handling multiple projects at once, that time adds up quickly. One of the most impactful features has been the automatic credit card surcharge. “Before, I had to ask the customer if they were planning to pay with a credit card, and then go in and add the 3 percent manually. Now, it’s automatic. That’s been golden.” The platform’s milestone-based invoicing also stood out. Customers can clearly see when and how much they will be paying at each stage of the project, and Irma can track payment status in real time without leaving the platform. “The customer can see what their payments will look like even before they sign. And I can immediately see what’s been paid and what’s outstanding. It’s all right there.”
Irma also noted how much easier the process has become for customers. “It’s made everything a thousand percent easier,” she said. “Customers don’t have to wait. The proposal and the payment link are ready to go. Everything’s in one place.” Previously, she had to pause to send the deposit invoice after a customer signed. Now, that step is already built into the proposal flow. This change has helped speed up project kickoffs and reduce delays.
Final takeaways
Since adopting CashFlow, PowerTown Solar has dramatically reduced the time spent managing payments and invoices while improving the experience for both staff and customers. For Irma, the most important benefit is simplicity. “CashFlow has made the process of invoicing and collecting payments easy,” she said. “It’s saved us time and keeps everything in one place.” Even as the business continues to grow, OpenSolar remains the foundation for managing customer relationships from proposal to final payment.
