The Real Problem
You run a solar installation business in Auckland. Monday morning, you quote a homeowner in Mt Albert a 6.6kW system: 16 Jinko Tiger Neo panels, a Fronius Primo inverter, Clenergy mounting rails. Total: $13,200 installed. You checked the supplier price list last week. You're confident.
Thursday, the customer says yes. You call to order. "Oh, those panels went up $38 each on Wednesday. Silver prices."
16 panels x $38 = $608 gone from your margin. On a job where your profit was $2,400, that's a 25% hit you didn't see coming.
This isn't a one-off. In 2025-26, solar component pricing has been wild:
- Silver prices surged past $84/oz, directly increasing panel costs (silver makes up 16-17% of module production cost)
- China removed export tax rebates (April 2026), pushing module prices up 10-15%
- Exchange rate swings (NZD/USD, NZD/AUD) add another layer of unpredictability
- Aluminium and EVA material costs shift month to month
Every quote you send has an invisible expiry date. Your spreadsheet was accurate on the day you updated it. By the time the customer replies, the numbers could be wrong.
And managing pricing alone is a weekly grind:
- Check emails for updated price lists from 3 suppliers (PDF attachments)
- Log into 2 supplier portals to check current pricing and stock
- Manually update your quoting spreadsheet
- Realise one supplier's list is from last month
- Call the supplier to confirm
- Quote the customer... and hope nothing changes before they reply
Hours per week, just keeping prices current. And you still get caught out.
Why Existing Tools Don't Solve This
| Tool | What It Does | What It Doesn't Do |
|---|---|---|
| Open Solar | Designs system layouts, generates customer proposals | Doesn't track real-time supplier pricing or stock |
| Fergus / Tradify | Job management and invoicing | No supply chain or pricing intelligence |
| Supplier portals | Show their own current pricing | No aggregation across suppliers, no alerts, no quote impact analysis |
| Spreadsheets | Store prices you manually enter | Static the moment you save. Nobody tells you when prices change. |
The gap: nobody connects your supplier pricing to your active quotes. When panel prices rise $38, nobody tells you that three outstanding quotes are now under-margin. You find out when you place the order.
How AI Solves This
BestAI builds a smart pricing and quoting hub that sits at the centre of your supply chain.
Prices Come In Automatically
Your suppliers send PDF price lists by email? Forward them to the system. AI reads the document, extracts every product and price, and updates your database. No manual data entry.
Supplier has a web portal? We set up automated monitoring that detects price changes and flags them.
Got a price update over the phone? Open your phone, tap record, say "Jinko Tiger Neo 415W went up to $218 per panel from Solar Matrix, effective today." The system processes your voice and updates the record.
Every Quote Uses Today's Prices
When you build a quote, the system pulls current pricing from your database. Every line item shows:
- The current price and which supplier it's from
- When that price was last confirmed
- Whether a cheaper alternative exists from another supplier
No more cross-checking three spreadsheets and two websites.
The System Watches Your Back
This is where it gets powerful. The system doesn't just store prices. It actively monitors and sends you alerts via WhatsApp or SMS:
- Price change: "Jinko Tiger Neo 415W increased 5.2% at Solar Matrix. You have 2 outstanding quotes using this panel."
- Margin protection: "Quote #247 for the Mt Albert job now has a margin of $1,792 instead of $2,400. Consider contacting the customer."
- Trend warnings: "Silver has risen 8% this month. Panel prices typically follow within 2-3 weeks. Consider shortening quote validity."
- Stock alerts: "You quoted 3 systems this week using Fronius Primo 5.0. Supplier stock: 4 units. Consider ordering soon."
You see these on site between installs. No need to log into anything.
Your Customers Stay in the Loop
When a quote is ready, the system sends it directly to the customer via WhatsApp or email. When you need to follow up, one tap. When prices drop and an old lead becomes viable again, the system tells you who to call.
How We Set This Up
Behind the scenes, making all of this work requires a custom integration program that connects the AI pricing engine to your real business systems. This is what BestAI builds for you.
- We map your supply chain -- Which suppliers do you use? How do they send pricing? What products do you commonly quote? We document everything.
- We build the data layer -- Email parsing for PDF price lists, web monitoring for supplier portals, voice input for phone updates. Each source feeds one central price database.
- We develop your CRM and quoting dashboard -- A simple interface where you see all customers, all quotes, all pricing. Quotes auto-populate with current prices.
- We connect the notification engine -- Price changes and margin alerts go to your WhatsApp or SMS. Outstanding quotes that are affected get flagged immediately.
- We test and iterate -- We run real scenarios with your actual supplier price lists before going live. Then we refine based on how you use it day to day.
You don't need to be technical. We handle all the development. You tell us which suppliers you use and how you want to be notified. We build the system around your workflow.
The Result
- No more quoting with outdated prices -- every quote reflects confirmed, current supplier costs
- Margin protection -- you know immediately when a price change affects an outstanding quote
- Hours saved per week -- no more manually updating spreadsheets from PDF price lists
- Smarter purchasing -- compare pricing across suppliers, spot the best time to order
- Faster quotes -- system pre-populates pricing, you focus on system design
- Proactive customer management -- costs drop? You know which past leads to re-engage
What AI Can't Do Here
- AI won't negotiate pricing with your suppliers -- relationships and volume discounts are yours to manage
- AI won't predict exact future prices -- trend alerts are based on commodity data, not guarantees
- AI won't replace your judgment on margins -- it flags risks, you decide how to respond
- AI won't manage physical inventory -- it tracks pricing and availability as reported by suppliers
Who This Is For
- Solar installers quoting 5+ systems per month who lose margin to price fluctuations
- Installation businesses juggling 2-4 suppliers with constantly changing price lists
- Any solar company where the owner spends hours per week manually checking and updating pricing
- Growing teams where multiple people need access to current, consistent pricing data
- Installers who've been caught out by price changes between quoting and ordering