SolarCleaningBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

Story and Steep-Pitch Add-Ons: Billing the Hard Roofs Fairly on a Solar Cleaning Invoice

Two houses on the same street can have the same 20 panels and be completely different jobs. One is a single-story ranch with a low-pitch roof you can reach from a short ladder. The other is a three-story house with a steep roof over a back yard that drops away. Charging both the same is unfair to one of them. Add-ons fix that.

Building on the Basics

The minimum charge, covered in The Minimum Charge on a Solar Cleaning Invoice: Showing It Without an Argument, protects you on small systems. Story and pitch add-ons protect you on hard roofs. Together with a per-panel price, they let one simple service list price almost any residential job.

Why Hard Roofs Cost More

Height and pitch change everything about a cleaning:

• Setup takes longer. Taller ladders, ladder stabilizers, roof anchors and fall protection all take time to rig and take down.
• Moving is slower. On a steep roof, every step is deliberate. Crews should never walk on the panels themselves, so working around a steep array takes more care.
• Hoses and poles are harder. Getting water and a brush to a third-story array takes more line and more effort.
• Risk is higher. Height work deserves extra attention, and your price should support doing it properly rather than rushing.

None of that shows up in the panel count. A per-panel price alone treats a ground mount and a steep third-story roof as the same job.

The Add-Ons to Set Up

Most operators keep it to a short list on the service list:

• 2-story add-on, a flat amount for second-story roofs.
• 3+ story add-on, a larger flat amount for taller buildings.
• Steep-pitch add-on, for roofs where footing and setup take extra time.

Flat roofs on commercial buildings are usually a different conversation, since access is often by roof hatch or a fixed ladder and the array is easy to walk around. Price those by the panel and by the site rather than with residential add-ons. Ground mounts and carports usually need no height add-on at all.

Let the Panel Details Decide

In SolarCleaningBossPro, every job carries its panel details: number of panels, mount (roof, ground mount or carport), roof stories (1-story, 2-story or 3+ story) and pitch (low, steep or flat roof). They show under the address on the lists and on the tech's phone, like “24 panels · Roof · 2-story · Low pitch.”

That means the right add-on is never a guess. When the office builds the estimate from your service list, the roof stories and pitch are right there. When the invoice is built after the cleaning, the same add-on appears again. A customer on a twice-a-year plan sees the same 2-story line every visit.

When the Roof Is Not What Was Quoted

Quotes made over the phone or from a satellite photo sometimes get the roof wrong. The customer said two stories, but the back of the house drops to three. The tech arrives and the job is harder than the card says.

The fix is to note it on the job and let the office handle the price, not to argue on the driveway. The tech writes a note (“Back elevation is 3-story over the walkout, steep”) and takes a photo. The office updates the panel details, texts the customer before the next visit, and adjusts the add-on going forward. For a first cleaning where the quote was clearly wrong, many operators honor the quote once and fix it next time. Either way, the change should be explained before the customer sees a different total. The guide Handling Invoice Questions and Disputes on a Solar Cleaning Job covers how to handle that conversation.

Showing Add-Ons on the Invoice

On the invoice, keep the add-on on its own line, right under the panel cleaning: “Panel cleaning, 24 panels” then “2-story roof add-on.” Customers rarely question it when it is labeled. They question it when it is folded into a mysterious higher total.

It also helps to put add-ons on your website price list. “Add-on for 2-story roofs” next to your per-panel price tells customers what to expect before they ask for a quote.

Fair Prices, Safer Crews

Add-ons are not just about money. A price that pays for the time hard roofs take lets your crew slow down, rig fall protection properly and work safely instead of rushing to make a flat-rate job pay. That is good for the crew, good for the customer's roof and good for the business. For more on invoicing every kind of job, visit the solar cleaning billing software page.