FloQast vs. AuditBoard for Commercial Solar EPC Contractors

Say a contract bills 30 percent at mechanical completion and another 20 percent at interconnection approval, while the percentage of completion schedule recognizes revenue based on cost incurred against total estimated cost instead. Those two curves diverge constantly, especially when interconnection approval from the utility runs weeks or months behind the physical work. Reconcile billed versus earned revenue by project every month, and flag any project where the gap between the two has grown since the last close instead of narrowing as the work finishes.

Many EPC contracts hold back a percentage of the contract value against a guarantee that the system will hit a production target over its first six or twelve months of operation. That reserve has to stay on the books, tied to the specific project and its guarantee terms, well after the crew has moved to the next job. A reconciliation that ages the reserve against its release date, rather than letting it sit as a static balance, catches the ones that should have released and didn't.

A buyer purchasing a transferable investment tax credit wants documented evidence that the underlying project met the requirements the credit is based on, cost basis, placed-in-service date, prevailing wage compliance where it applies, before they'll close on the purchase. That's a different kind of evidence than a reconciled account: it's a file a third party will review directly. Confirm the specific documentation requirements with your tax advisor for each transaction, since credit transfer rules and buyer diligence standards vary by deal.

Percentage of completion tie-outs, milestone billing schedules, and performance guarantee reserves are recurring, project-based reconciliations, so look for a close tool that shows a named preparer, a reviewer, and a variance that stays visible until it's explained, and confirm in a demo that FloQast handles them the way you need. For a contractor whose real problem is that the WIP schedule takes days to assemble every month, this is the direct fix.

Once a credit buyer, a project lender, or an investor in the EPC company itself wants documented proof that someone independently reviewed the cost estimates, milestone certifications, and guarantee calculations, not just that they reconcile, AuditBoard is built for that ask. It holds who reviewed what, when, and against what evidence, as testable controls a diligence team can sample directly instead of requesting supporting documents by email.

• If your WIP schedule is the recurring bottleneck at close, start with FloQast.
• If a tax credit buyer, lender, or investor has started asking for documented review evidence, bring in AuditBoard well before the deal's diligence deadline.
• If performance guarantee reserves are the account nobody tracks after substantial completion, fix that reconciliation specifically, regardless of which platform you use for everything else. MeetMyCFO's AI CFO, Frank, can flag which project's guarantee reserve is past its expected review date before it becomes a year-end surprise.

A utility taking longer than planned to approve interconnection often triggers a change order for extended standby time, additional site security, or remobilization once approval finally comes through. That change order adds cost to the project before the client has formally agreed to the additional revenue, the same gap a general contractor sees with an unapproved change order, but tied here to a utility's timeline instead of a client's decision. Track the pending change order separately from the base contract value, require documented client sign-off before recognizing the related revenue, and reconcile the gap monthly so it stays a small, explainable balance instead of a year-end surprise nobody can fully trace back to its cause.

Some federal and state incentive programs condition credit eligibility on paying prevailing wages on the project, and the payroll documentation supporting that compliance is exactly the kind of record a tax credit buyer or an incentive program's own audit will want to sample. Check the specific prevailing wage requirements for each program and jurisdiction with your tax advisor or counsel, since they vary and change, and keep the certified payroll records organized by project from the start rather than reconstructing them once a buyer's diligence team asks.