Email that holds a months-long thread with a utility and still finds it six years later.
A solar project generates more correspondence than almost any residential job: plan sets to a building department, interconnection applications to a utility, HOA submissions, engineering letters, lender stipulations, equipment orders, inspection scheduling and the permission-to-operate letter. Those threads span months and have to survive the rep, the project manager and the years until a warranty claim.
Solar email is project correspondence with agencies, and it has to be findable for the life of the system
A plan set that never reached the building department, or an interconnection application the utility says it did not receive, costs weeks on a project the customer is already anxious about. Large attachments from a free address are what filters hold, and messages from a domain without authentication records get the same treatment at agencies and lenders. A solar company's mail has to come from its own domain with the records that prove it, with attachment sizes that respect what each agency accepts.
The second problem is time. A warranty claim or a roof leak at a penetration can arrive years after permission to operate, and the answer is in a thread with the utility, the inspector or the subcontractor from the project. If that thread lived in a project manager's personal mailbox, or in a rep's free account, it is gone. Company mailboxes, shared addresses for permits, interconnection, lenders and service, and an archive the owner controls keep every project's paper trail with the company for as long as the system is on the roof.
What business email for a solar installer has to do
Delivery to agencies first, then shared threads, then retention that outlasts staff.
Come from your domain with authentication in place
Mail from your own domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC published and tested, so plan sets, applications and stipulation documents arrive at building departments, utilities and lenders instead of a quarantine folder.
Give permits, interconnection, lenders and service their own addresses
Shared mailboxes the project manager, the office and the owner can all read, where each agency's replies land and the CRM files them to the right project, so a question from the utility is never stuck in one person's inbox.
Keep financing paperwork out of email
Applications and identity documents go through the lender's own portal, never as attachments to a message. The email system carries status and stipulation requests only, which keeps customers' personal data out of mailboxes that could be breached.
Send contracts and milestone documents from the project
Proposals, contracts, change orders and the permission-to-operate letter go out from the CRM through your domain with view tracking, so the office knows the homeowner opened the change order before the install date.
Survive turnover and the years
Every consultant, project manager and technician gets a company mailbox that forwards to the office and is archived when they leave, with retention and search across all mailboxes set once so a project's threads can be found as long as the warranty runs.
How we set up email for a solar company
Hosted email in your company's own account, where our administrator seat is one you can shut off.
The account in your company's name
Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 set up under your business and your billing, with the admin login held by you. We keep a secondary administrator role for support and nothing beyond that.
Authentication that covers the CRM and the e-signature tool
SPF, DKIM and DMARC written to include the office mailboxes, the CRM, the proposal tool and the e-signature service you use, then tested, so no sender you rely on is the one that fails.
Shared addresses and filing rules
Permits, interconnection, lenders, service and office as shared mailboxes or groups, with rules that match an agency's reply to the project by address or permit number and file it there.
Signatures and daily templates
A signature carrying the license numbers your state issues for contracting and electrical work, if it issues them, and the credentials your installers hold as the issuing body phrases them, plus templates for plan set submitted, application filed, inspection requested, permission to operate received and ticket opened.
Migration from wherever the mail lives now
Old mail and contacts imported, old addresses forwarded for a year, and the website, profile, agency portals, lender accounts and distributor accounts updated to the new ones.
What you own on day one.
Every account is opened in your company's name with you as the owner. If you ever leave, you change a password, not your business.
- Domain, hosting and the site files
- Phone numbers and call recordings
- The CRM and its database
- Email and text lists, with consent records
- Google Business Profile and every listing
- Analytics and Search Console
Business Email for solar, answered.
Our plan sets keep bouncing from the building department. Why?
Usually the attachment exceeds the agency's size limit, the sending domain lacks SPF or DKIM, or the mail comes from a free address with a large PDF, which filters hold. We size the documents to each agency, set the records and send from your domain, and where the agency uses a portal, the CRM records the submission there instead.
Should lender documents ever go through our email?
No. Financing applications carry personal and financial identifiers, and they belong in the lender's portal. Your mailboxes should hold only the status and the request for a missing document.
Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 for a solar company?
Either works. Google tends to suit a small office that lives on phones; Microsoft fits companies already on Outlook and larger project teams. We decide with you based on what the office, your engineers and your lenders already use.
How long should we keep project email?
As long as the longest warranty you offer or the system's expected life, whichever your lawyer advises. Retention across all company mailboxes is set once and does not depend on anyone remembering.
Business Email for solar. Owned by you.
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