Solar pros search for things like "HR software for solar companies," "onboarding software for solar installers," "solar company payroll and commission tracking," and "HR platform for solar installer teams." This post answers all of those directly.
Solar companies have a unique workforce challenge: you're managing multiple distinct employee types under one roof, and they operate very differently. You've got door-to-door sales reps who are often 1099 contractors, work on commission, and turn over faster than you'd like. You've got installation crews who are W-2, work in the field, and need site-specific information delivered to them before every job. You've got office and operations staff who need access to schedules, designs, and customer records. And you've got managers trying to track performance across all of them.
Generic HR software — BambooHR, Rippling, Gusto — handles the basics fine: payroll, benefits, time off. But they weren't designed for commission-heavy sales teams, field crews that change job-to-job, or the specific onboarding requirements of someone who will be knocking on doors and representing your brand on day one.
Onboarding — When you hire a new rep or installer, you need to get them through documentation, training materials, compliance requirements, and licensing paperwork fast. Solar hiring happens in waves, and slow onboarding means lost selling days.
Document storage — Employment contracts, W-9s, installer certifications, OSHA training records, vehicle insurance for field reps — all of this needs to live somewhere organized and accessible. Not in a Google Drive folder that nobody can find.
Commission tracking — Solar sales teams are almost always commission-based. Your HR and payroll systems need to track what each rep sold, at what margin, and calculate the payout accurately. This is where most generic HR tools fall short — they don't connect to your CRM to pull actual sales data.
Hourly tracking for installers — Installation crews are often paid hourly, sometimes with job-based bonuses. You need accurate time tracking tied to specific projects.
Team management — Who's on which install crew this week? Which reps are assigned to which territory? Who's out on PTO when that big install is scheduled?
Performance visibility — Which reps are closing? Which installers are completing jobs on schedule? Your HR data and your operational data need to be connected for this to be useful.
Gusto — Popular for payroll. Good for W-2 and 1099 payments. Doesn't handle commission calculations tied to sales data. Requires manual input of commission amounts.
BambooHR — Solid HR platform for mid-size companies. Strong on document management and onboarding. Doesn't connect to your operational tools.
Rippling — Comprehensive HR + IT platform. Powerful but expensive and complex. Still doesn't bridge the gap between HR data and solar operations data.
Spreadsheets and DocuSign — The most common HR "system" at solar companies under $5M revenue. Onboarding docs sent via email, commission calculations in Excel, team management in someone's head.
The universal problem: every one of these tools is disconnected from where your sales and operations actually happen. Commission tracking requires someone to manually pull data from the CRM and enter it into the HR system.
SolarDesk.
SolarDesk's HR module is built specifically for the solar workforce — and more importantly, it's part of the same platform where your reps are selling, your designers are building proposals, and your install crews are executing jobs. That means:
Commission tracking that actually works — Because SolarDesk's HR module is connected to the CRM and sales pipeline, it knows what each rep sold. Commission structures can be configured in the platform, and payouts are calculated automatically based on real deal data — not a spreadsheet someone is maintaining in parallel.
Hourly tracking tied to projects — When an installer is clocked in on a job in SolarDesk, that time is tied to the specific project record. No separate time tracking app. No manual reconciliation.
Onboarding that gets new hires productive fast — New reps and installers are onboarded into the same platform they'll use every day. Documents, training, and credentials are stored in the same system. From day one, they have access to everything they need.
Team visibility across sales and ops — Managers can see who's on what project, how the pipeline looks for each rep, and what the install schedule looks like — all in one view. Not three separate logins.
Yes. Sales reps operating as independent contractors can be tracked for commission purposes without the same payroll workflow as your W-2 install crews. Document storage handles 1099 agreements and contractor onboarding separately.
Dedicated HR platforms run $20–$60/employee/month. For a team of 20, that's around $1,000/month — plus whatever you're spending on commission tracking tools, document management, and payroll software separately. SolarDesk includes HR as part of the full platform. One price. No integration required.
Solar companies have a workforce that generic HR software doesn't understand. You need onboarding, document management, commission tracking, and team visibility — all connected to the same platform where your sales and operations happen. SolarDesk is the only platform that delivers all of it, built for how solar companies actually work.
See SolarDesk HR →