Simplified cost control for solar EPC projects

Effective project cost control processes can be an important differentiator in the success of solar EPC businesses. Considering how competitive the solar EPC industry has become, even minor improvements in financial management and project cost control will give you a big competitive advantage.

Simplifying your solar project cost control processes makes it more likely that your team will follow them. Let's look at how exactly you can do that.

Usual challenges

Disconnected processes

In the case of a solar installation project, there are different kinds of costs involved - material costs, labor expenses and other miscellaneous expenses.

Depending on the size, complexity of the project, and IT infrastructure of the solar EPC contractor, material costs are tracked either in spreadsheets or in ERP software.

Labor and other expenses are often tracked in ad hoc spreadsheets or don't get tracked at all. Sometimes site engineers just maintain their own record of expenses in absence of a central expense management system.

Because project costs can come from many different sources, the first challenge is to combine the data from all these sources.

Disconnected stakeholders

Project-related costs also come from different stakeholders -

• The procurement manager is responsible for most of the material costs
• The project manager (or site engineer, depending on org. structure) would be responsible for labor spend
• The project manager may look after the subcontractors and their costs
• The store manager needs to keep a record of project-wise material consumption, resulting in project-wise cost

All these stakeholders must connect on a central platform with their inputs, so that we can get a consolidated view of all the project expenses.

Habits

Most people working in a solar project team are completely used to managing their work with spreadsheets. They prefer to use Excel sheets or Google spreadsheets to manage project SOW, BOQ, expense sheets, and other important info.

But the problem with these spreadsheets is that they are disconnected. They don't allow the processes, the stakeholders, and the related cost data to be easily centralized.

Getting a solar project team to move away from spreadsheets may be the biggest challenge in implementing project cost control processes.

Simplified Cost Control Mechanism with Fuzen

Fuzen’s Solar CRM enables project managers to effortlessly track project milestones, progress, costs, and payments — all from a single centralized dashboard.

The cost control system automatically monitors actual material costs, labor utilization, and miscellaneous expenses against your planned project budget. You can easily compare budgeted vs. actual costs to ensure profitability across all ongoing projects.

After all, you can only improve what you can measure — and Fuzen gives you complete visibility into the financial health of your solar business.

Project BOQ and Material Costs

With Fuzen, you can create and manage your BOQ, budget, and cost estimates directly within the CRM. No spreadsheets, no manual data entry.

Your purchase and project teams can input material costs, track supplier payments, and log actual expenses through simple, intuitive forms built into the Fuzen dashboard.

As soon as costs are recorded, Fuzen automatically updates your project budget and generates real-time insights on cost overruns, material usage, and pending payments.

Labor & Miscellaneous Expenses

Fuzen makes it equally easy to track other operational costs like labor, transportation, net metering, or commissions.

Each category can be customized with its own fields and approval workflows. Your finance or site managers can log their daily or weekly expenses directly into Fuzen, ensuring that all cost data stays up-to-date without chasing teams for updates.

To-Do Lists and Daily Reminders

Cost control only works when everyone inputs their data on time — and Fuzen ensures that happens.

Each team member receives a daily “To-Do List” email summarizing their pending inputs, such as updating purchase details or submitting expense claims.

They can open these tasks directly from the email or mobile dashboard and complete them in seconds. Fuzen also sends WhatsApp reminders to make sure updates never slip through the cracks.

All submitted data is then automatically consolidated into your project cost control report, saving hours of manual reconciliation.

Automated Reconciliation

Fuzen uses AI-powered workflows to reconcile data across projects and departments. Whether inputs come from different teams or cost categories, the CRM automatically standardizes and compiles them into accurate budget vs. actual reports, ensuring precise and up-to-date financial tracking.

Fully Customizable Workflows

When you install the Fuzen Solar CRM Template, it comes preloaded with default workflows for project cost control and financial management.

But you can easily customize every part of it — add new fields, modify approval steps, or automate custom alerts. Just tell the built-in AI assistant what you need (e.g., “Add an approval step for expenses above $500”), and it’ll update your workflow instantly — no coding or developer required.

Fuzen is 100% flexible and scalable, designed to adapt perfectly to your business.

You can also check out our detailed documentation if you’d like to explore customization options yourself.