Installing a solar system is the part that rarely goes wrong. What goes wrong is everything around it: the approval nobody filed, the receipt nobody logged, the material nobody knew was missing. Power Plus used ZEP360 to put all three in view.
- Client: Power Plus Solutions
- Business: Solar installation for homes and businesses in Kerala, from approvals to energizing
- Biggest problem: Hidden delays, money leakage and manual material tracking
- Problems solved: Unclear project status, missed approvals, site expenses, materials
- ZEP360 modules: ZEP Projects, ZEP Inventory, ZEP Support/Ticketing
Results at a glance
- 3.5x faster billing cycle
- 99.4% budget accuracy
About Power Plus
Power Plus Solutions designs and delivers solar solutions for homes and businesses across Kerala, including on-grid, off-grid and hybrid systems and inverter batteries. It works from Ernakulam, Thrissur and Palakkad, and lists sustainability, quality, transparency and a customer-first approach as its values.
Each project runs from first paperwork to the day the system is energized. Site teams spend money and use materials in the field, installation partners do part of the work, and every system needs approvals from the authorities before it can go live. Many people touch each project, and much of what they do is small and easy to forget.
The challenge: the small tasks around the install
Power Plus knows how to install. A job that big is hard to miss. The risks sit in the small tasks around it, and four of them kept costing time and money. Each one needed a different ZEP360 feature.
Clients asked why a project was not energized
Clients kept asking why a project was delayed and when it would be delivered. Giving a real answer meant calling people on the team, piecing the story together and calling the client back. So clients got vague answers.
Approval paperwork got missed
Behind many delays was paperwork. Projects need approvals from the authorities, and the DISCOM's answer depends on things like transformer capacity. If an approval is missed or a document is filed incorrectly, the authority will not let the system be energized. If feasibility comes back as no after installation, the only option is to take the system down.
Site expenses reached finance late
The expense process was manual. Someone spent money on site and collected the receipts. They came back to the office and filed expense vouchers. That took time, and some expenses were never accounted for. Overspending was caught slowly, if at all. The finance manager approved requests without knowing whether the project was on budget.
Materials lived in a notebook
Material management was notebook-based. For any project, the team had to know whether materials were bought, in stock, ordered from vendors, and when they would arrive. Answering took more than one source, and some answers were guesses.
How ZEP360 solved each problem
Power Plus did not need one big fix. Each problem had its own feature, spread across ZEP Projects and ZEP Inventory, shown below.
Delays now have a visible cause
The oversight module tracks cash flow, project delay and status, and profitability in real time. The team sees what is causing a delay and can fix it faster. Customer portal and SMS updates keep clients informed, so they get real answers.
Where it lives: ZEP Projects, oversight module, with the customer portal and SMS.
Approvals get prepared on time
Project documentation keeps approval documents, including feasibility certificates, in one place per project, next to technical documents such as single line diagrams, data sheets and engineering drawings, and the installation photographs. The team prepares the right paperwork and gets approvals on time.
Where it lives: ZEP Projects, project documentation.
Every expense is logged on site
The field app records expenses in real time. The team opens the app, records the expense and uploads the invoice, and everyone who needs to know sees it straight away. Finance gets a live project budget report, set up through the project review tools with budgets and payment terms, so each decision comes with the project's position.
Where it lives: ZEP Projects, the field app expense logging, oversight budget reporting and the project review tools.
Materials are planned per project
Each project has its own integrated BOQ material list. ZEP360 shows what is already in the warehouse and what needs to be purchased from outside, so the team uses stock first and orders only the rest. Material management tracks vendor purchases, stock in and out, and stock status.
Where it lives: ZEP Inventory (material management), and BOQ material lists in ZEP Projects.
The wider toolkit
Power Plus also uses quality checklists for installation and material checks, serial number scanning to link each panel to its project and warranty, external installer quality forms for installation partners, and ZEP Support/Ticketing for client complaints and escalations.
The results
With status, approvals, expenses and materials in view, Power Plus now runs on a live picture of every project. The billing and budget numbers follow from having payment terms and budgets set up in the system from the start.
"For us, the biggest benefit of ZEP360 is being able to keep track of our projects more easily. We can see how things are progressing, organize the work that needs to be done, and keep our clients updated. It helps us stay on top of things as projects move forward."Shaju Basheer, Director, Power Plus Solutions
The benefits:
- Real answers for clients. Delays have a visible cause, and the team can say what it is.
- Approvals arrive on time. The right paperwork gets prepared early, so energizing is not held up.
- Every site expense is accounted for. Nothing waits for a trip back to the office.
- Confident budget decisions. Finance sees the project budget live before approving an expense.
- Materials with no guesswork. The team knows what is bought, what is in stock and what is still to order.
What this means for your projects
If your delays, expenses and materials all depend on someone remembering to write something down, the system is working against you. Move the record to where the work happens: the field app, the project dashboard and one material list per project.
See how ZEP Projects can give you the full picture. Book a demo.
