Running a UAE solar EPC company on a CRM: leads to handover

A rooftop solar job passes through many hands before a customer's system is switched on: sales, a surveyor, a designer, an approvals person, a crew, and then the person who answers the phone a year later. Jobs are easiest to lose in the gaps between those hands, not in any single step.

This post lays out one way to run those gaps on a CRM, from the first enquiry to handover. It uses what Raymitra does today. It also marks what Raymitra does not do yet for the UAE, because that matters before you commit.

What Raymitra does not do for the UAE yet

Raymitra runs in rupees today, with India's GST and PM Surya Ghar subsidy flows built in. UAE VAT invoices, dirham billing and a UAE approval tracker are not built. That is why the UAE is early access: you leave your details, and we write to you when a UAE trial opens.

Everything below uses features that exist today: leads and WhatsApp, a site survey on the phone, quotes with a roof page, projects with milestones and tasks, roles for owner, sales and operations, service tickets, and technician logins that are free. Where a step needs a UAE-specific record, we suggest a task or a note you write yourself, and we say so.

Stage 1: the enquiry

Every enquiry gets a record the moment it arrives, whatever the channel: a call, a form, a WhatsApp message, a walk-in at an exhibition. Record four things at once: who they are, where the property is, what they want, and who owns the follow-up.

The rule that matters most is an owner and a next date on every lead. A lead with no next date is a lead nobody is chasing. Review the list each morning and sort by the date that is overdue.

Stage 2: the site survey

A survey is where a quote becomes real. The surveyor fills it in on the phone at the roof, photos included, so the designer does not rely on a voice note. What to capture:

• The roof type, the usable area and the shading, with photos of each.
• Where the existing electrical panel and meter sit.
• The access to the roof, and anything that will slow the crew.
• Who owns the property, and whether the person you are talking to can approve work on it.

The last point matters in the UAE for a reason the authorities state themselves. Under the Northern Emirates process, the system is tied to one account at the premises it serves, and when a property is rented or sold, moving the system to the new tenant or owner needs a joint request (EtihadWE, connection conditions, version 1, September 2024, section 6, read 4 Oct 2026). Know whose name the account is in before you design.

Stage 3: the quote

A quote with a roof page lets the customer open it on their phone and see their own roof. Keep the quote and the survey on the same record, so a change in one is visible in the other.

Raymitra's quote builder today is built around India's subsidy and GST rules. For a UAE job, use it for the system, the lines and the roof page, and keep your own VAT invoice outside it.

Stage 4: approvals, as dates and tasks

The approval process is where UAE jobs wait longest, and where a CRM earns its place. We have read two authorities' documents. For the Northern Emirates, the process has dates that deserve a task each (EtihadWE, standards and guidelines, section 7, read 4 Oct 2026):

• Pre-application approval. It stays valid for 6 months from the day it is issued. Put the expiry on the project as a task with a reminder.
• Complete application. If EtihadWE finds it incomplete, it lists the deficiencies, and the application is deemed withdrawn if the contractor does not answer by the cure window. Put the window on a task the day the deficiency notice arrives.
• Queue position. A complete application gets a place in a single queue, and a material modification sends it to the back. Note the position and be careful with late design changes.
• Municipality. The structural design goes to the municipality, and the municipality inspects once installation is complete. Two separate approvals, two separate tasks.
• Annual limit. If the authority's annual limit is reached, approved requests connect only the next calendar year (EtihadWE, connection conditions, section 9). Tell the customer early if that can happen.

Raymitra has no UAE approval tracker, so you create these as tasks and milestones on the project. The value is that someone owns each date and the owner sees it before it passes.

For Abu Dhabi, the Department of Energy's February 2026 policy said the detailed connection and approval steps would follow in guidelines (Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, self-supply policy, sections 2.1 and 5, read 4 Oct 2026). We did not find those guidelines, and we have not verified whether they are out. Until you have the Department's own procedure, track an Abu Dhabi job as a project with open questions, not a fixed checklist. Our full reading of both is in How rooftop solar gets approved and connected in the UAE.

Stage 5: installation

Once the approvals allow work to begin, the project becomes a crew job. Give the crew lead a task list: materials on site, installation, the mechanical inspection request, and the checklist for testing before interconnection. Technician logins are free and unlimited, so every installer can see their own jobs, upload photos and close their tasks from the phone.

Name one person who is responsible for each handover between roles: sales to survey, survey to design, design to approvals, approvals to crew. Handovers are where a job is most likely to wait.

Stage 6: inspection, meters and permit to operate

For the Northern Emirates, after installation the contractor files the connection application and the checklist for inspection and testing before interconnection. An EtihadWE inspector checks the work. After both approvals, the contractor can request the smart meters, once the connection fees are paid. After testing the connected system, EtihadWE issues a Permit to Operate, and only then can the system start operation (standards and guidelines, section 7.1).

Put each of these as a milestone: inspection requested, inspection passed, fees paid, meters installed, Permit to Operate received. A customer who asks "when will it switch on?" should get an answer from the project page, not from a phone tree.

Stage 7: handover and the year after

At handover, record what the customer received: the documents, the system details, the warranty papers and who to call. Then plan the years after.

EtihadWE states that routine maintenance is the customer's duty at least once a year, such as panel cleaning, and that repairs and equipment replacements go to an Approved Contractor only (connection conditions, section 7). That is a service relationship you can offer. On Growth, Raymitra holds AMC records and service tickets, so a yearly visit becomes a dated task and a fault becomes a ticket with an owner.

The weekly review

Once a week, owner and operations sit together for twenty minutes:

1. Open every project by stage and look at the oldest.
2. Anything waiting on an authority gets its reference and the date of the last follow-up written down.
3. Anything with a date coming up in the next two weeks gets an owner confirmed.
4. Count enquiries received against surveys done against quotes sent. The drop between two of them is where to look.

Where early access fits

If you run a UAE solar EPC company and this is the shape of work you want to put on one system, ask for early access. The UAE price is on its own page, per user per month, billed yearly. Technician logins are free. We write to you when a UAE trial opens.