The solar sale that keeps going
In Peshawar, a solar dealer installs a 5 kW system on a family's roof: panels, an inverter, wiring, and fitting, all in one day. The family pays a down payment and promises the rest in monthly qists over two years. The panels are on the roof, the dealer is paid in part — and the real work has only just started.
For the next 24 months, that one sale needs a reminder every month, a receipt for every payment, and an answer every time the customer calls about a bill, a battery, or a fault. Multiply that by 50 customers, and the dealer is not running a solar shop any more — he is running a small bank, with a paper register as its only ledger.
The sums are large. A 5 kW hybrid system without batteries is commonly quoted around Rs 500,000, with a typical bank installment example asking 25% — Rs 125,000 — as down payment and the rest spread over three years (Pak Observer). When a dealer sells on his own qist instead of through a bank, he carries that whole amount himself. One forgotten month on ten customers is not a small slip — it is a month's wages for his fitting team.
the rough price of a 5 kW system in published installment examples — the amount a dealer carries when he sells on his own qist.
of reminders, receipts and follow-ups for a single two-year solar sale — per customer, every month, without fail.
This is why solar dealers search for a better way to run installments. The sale is won on the roof. The money is won — or lost — in the 24 months after it.
Why solar qist is harder than a TV on qist
Selling a television on installments is simple: one item, one price, one customer. A solar sale has five moving parts, and each one can break the record if it is not written down properly.
The system is many parts, not one item
A solar system is panels plus an inverter plus wiring plus fitting — and sometimes a battery. If the record only says "solar system, Rs 500,000", nobody can answer the customer who calls a year later asking which inverter they bought, or whether their battery was included. Each part needs its own line.
Payments often come in stages
Many solar sales are not a clean down payment plus equal months. A customer may pay a booking amount, then a payment on delivery, then a payment after installation, and only then start monthly qists. A register page built for equal monthly rows struggles to hold that shape — and the dealer ends up doing the math in his head.
The customer relationship lasts years
A TV buyer may never come back. A solar customer will call — about a fault, a cleaning visit, a warranty claim, or a panel that stopped working after a storm. Each call needs the customer's payment standing and system details in one place, not spread across a register, a warranty card, and a phone's chat history.
The amounts make mistakes expensive
Miss one Rs 7,500 TV installment and the loss is small. Miss three months on a solar system and the amount overdue can be larger than the dealer's monthly profit on new sales. With big tickets, late follow-up is not a delay — it is a loss.
Paper register vs Excel vs solar installment management software in Pakistan
Moving from paper to Excel is a half-step — better than nothing, but it still depends on one person remembering to update it, and one wrong sort can scramble every row. Here is how the three options compare on the jobs a solar dealer actually faces.
| What you need to do | Paper register | Excel sheet | Rahnivo system |
|---|---|---|---|
| System parts per customer | One line: "solar system" — parts not listed | A row, if anyone fills in every part | Panels, inverter, battery and fitting listed per customer |
| Staged payments | Notes in the margin, easy to misread | Extra columns that break the totals | Booking, delivery, installation and monthly qists on one schedule |
| Monthly reminders | Nothing reminds you — you remember, or you don't | Only if you check the dates yourself | Automatic WhatsApp reminders before every due date |
| Defaulter list | Buried across pages — there is no single list | Possible, if someone maintains it by hand | One list, sorted by amount overdue |
| Warranty and service calls | Warranty card in a drawer, payments in the register | Two files that never match | System parts and payment standing on the same record |
| Monthly collection report | Counted by hand — takes hours | Formulas that break when rows move | Ready in one click |
| Backup if records are lost | Gone forever | Only if you saved copies somewhere else | Cloud backup — nothing is ever lost |
Running a shop like this? See the system free on WhatsApp →
What to check in solar installment management software in Pakistan
Organized tracking is not complicated. It means the same six things happen every time, without depending on anyone's memory.
1. One customer record, with the site and the system
Every customer gets one profile: name, phone, address, CNIC copy, the roof site, and the full parts list — panels, inverter, battery, fitting. When a dispute comes up a year later, the proof is one search away.
2. A schedule that fits staged solar payments
The schedule must hold booking, delivery, installation and monthly qists in order, with fixed due dates. Both sides know exactly what is due and when, so arguments about "what we agreed" disappear.
3. A worked example before the sale is signed
Take a Rs 500,000 system with a Rs 125,000 down payment. The balance is Rs 375,000. Over 24 months, that is Rs 15,625 a month before any dealer charges. Showing this math plainly — in the same record the customer will later pay against — prevents most arguments before they start. For a plain-words walkthrough of the math itself, see our qist markup guide.
4. A daily recovery sheet
Every morning, the dealer — or the recovery man — opens a single page: who owes money today, how much, and their phone number. No flipping through a register, no guessing.
5. WhatsApp payment reminders
A day before each due date, the customer gets a polite WhatsApp reminder with the amount due. Most late payments are not refusal; people simply forget. A reminder fixes most of it before it becomes a problem.
6. A live defaulter list and a monthly report
Anyone who misses payments appears on one list, ordered by how much they owe and how long they have been late. At month's end you see the totals: how much was collected, how much is still due, and which salesman recovered the most.
You can watch the same installment screens running in the live demo — on real screens, with sample shop data.
See it in action
Watch a one-minute walkthrough of the Rahnivo retail system — an installment sale from customer profile to printed receipt. Solar dealers use the same screens, with the system parts and staged schedule added to the customer's record.
Want the full tour? Explore the retail system.
Why the time is now
Three shifts are making solar installment tracking too important to leave in a paper register.
First, bank solar financing is now a normal product, not a rarity. Bank Alfalah's published home solar finance offers up to Rs 5 million over 3 to 10 years (Bank Alfalah). Customers who have seen a bank schedule now expect the same clarity — a written schedule, a fixed monthly amount, a receipt — from their local dealer too.
Second, the big installment players already treat solar as its own category. UR QistPro's own FAQ page lists a dedicated Solar Edition alongside its mobile and auto editions. No dealer guide owns this topic yet — the search results are bank pages and quotation tools — so the dealer who documents the workflow first is the one customers will find.
Third, solar demand keeps pulling in buyers who cannot pay cash. Every family that chooses qist over waiting another year becomes a two-year customer relationship. Dealers who track those relationships properly will be ready for bigger tickets and repeat work. Dealers still running on paper registers will be starting from zero — with 50 customers' worth of payments to untangle.
The direction is clear. The panels go up in a day. The business is built in the months after — one collected qist at a time.
Frequently asked questions
Can a solar dealer track panels, inverters and batteries separately for one customer?+
Yes. Each customer's record lists the full system: how many panels, which inverter, whether a battery is included, and the price agreed for each part. When a customer calls about one item, you open their record and see the whole system — no guessing which panel or battery they bought.
What happens if a solar customer pays only part of a monthly qist?+
The partial payment is recorded against that month, and the remaining balance stays visible on the customer's account. The next reminder shows the true amount still due, so neither side has to argue about what was already paid.
How do dealers handle warranty visits while installments are still running?+
The customer's record keeps the installation date and the system parts together with the payment schedule. When a warranty call comes in, you can see at once whether the customer is up to date on payments and which parts are covered, before you send a technician.
What if a solar customer moves house before the installments finish?+
The customer's new address and phone number are updated in the same record, and the payment schedule does not change. The recovery sheet and reminders follow the updated contact details automatically, so the move does not break the collection routine.
Does the system work when the shop's internet is down?+
You need the internet to sync records to the secure cloud backup. If the connection drops during the day, you can keep recording payments — everything syncs automatically once you are back online.
How long does it take to set up for a solar shop?+
Most shops are up and running within a day. You add your customers, their systems, their outstanding balances, and their installment plans — we help you move your register data across — and your staff learns the daily routine in a single sitting.