Running the Close at a Commercial Solar EPC Firm

Before anything else closes, the cost-to-complete estimate on each active project needs to be current, not carried forward from two months ago. On a solar EPC job, the biggest swings usually come from equipment delivery delays and utility interconnection timing, both of which push completion percentage around independently of labor progress. Neither FloQast nor BlackLine estimates cost-to-complete; that comes from your project management or ERP system, and the close checklist should force a monthly confirmation that the estimate was actually updated, not just re-saved.

Projects qualifying for an investment tax credit carry a separate tracking requirement, since the credit is typically tied to when the project is placed in service, not when it's contracted or even substantially complete. A close process that doesn't flag which projects have crossed that placed-in-service threshold this month risks either recognizing the credit too early or missing the window to document it properly. This is a specific enough calculation that it usually sits with your tax advisor, but the close checklist should still carry a task confirming which projects hit that milestone each period.

Interconnection delays and utility requirements frequently generate change orders on solar projects, and an approved change order that hasn't been entered into the job-cost system yet understates both revenue and cost on that project's WIP schedule. A monthly check between the project team and accounting on which change orders are approved but not yet booked is the single most useful habit here, more valuable than either platform's own feature set.

Retainage withheld until final interconnection and commissioning behaves the same way it does on a general construction job: it's earned revenue that isn't yet collectible, and it needs its own aging schedule separate from regular accounts receivable. Engineering and construction firms nationally run around 36 days of payables outstanding relative to sales¹, a useful reference point for how EPC payment cycles compare to other sectors, though your own retainage terms with the owner are typically the bigger driver of collection timing.

A single-entity EPC firm running a handful of active projects at a time can build steps one through four into FloQast's checklist without a heavy lift. BlackLine earns its cost once you're running multiple entities, such as a separate development entity holding tax equity partnerships alongside the construction operating company, or once project count and change-order volume get high enough that manual tie-outs between project management and accounting start slipping every month instead of occasionally.

A project accountant who can own the WIP roll-up, change order tracking and retainage aging directly costs somewhere in the national range for accountants and auditors, with the median at $83,680 and the 75th percentile at $109,810². For an EPC firm running a small number of concurrent projects, one experienced hire running a disciplined manual process for a year or two is often the more practical step before either platform, buying time to see which specific gaps in the runbook above actually recur.

Utility interconnection approval is one of the few milestones on a solar project that's largely outside the contractor's control, and a delay there can push a project's completion percentage and its placed-in-service date by months without any change in the underlying construction work. A runbook that treats interconnection status as its own tracked item, separate from construction progress, keeps the WIP schedule honest about why a project's timeline moved, which matters when an owner or lender asks for an explanation of a schedule slip.

Whether you're running this close through a spreadsheet, FloQast or BlackLine, the habit that matters most is a standing monthly meeting between the project team and accounting where WIP inputs, change orders and interconnection status all get reviewed together, not separately. Firms that build this habit early tend to have a much smoother transition to either close platform later, because the underlying data discipline is already there; firms that skip it usually find that a new tool just makes the same disconnected process run on a nicer interface.

Put these items on the standing monthly agenda:

• Confirm the cost-to-complete estimate on each active project was actually updated, not just re-saved.
• List change orders that are approved but not yet booked in the job-cost system.
• Track utility interconnection status as its own item, separate from construction progress.
• Flag projects that crossed the placed-in-service threshold this month and review the retainage aging schedule.