Residential solar has never been an industry where teams could afford to stand still.
Policy changes, incentive shifts, financing changes, permitting requirements, customer expectations, and installation complexity are constantly reshaping how installers operate. Today, one of the clearest examples of that shift is the growing importance of third-party ownership (TPO).
But TPO is not just another financing option.
Operationally, it changes the way work moves through the business. It adds more documentation, more submission requirements, more approval checkpoints, more coordination across teams, and more opportunities for small mistakes to create delays.
For installers already managing tighter margins, lower demand, and leaner teams, that added complexity can become a serious bottleneck.
That challenge was the focus of Scoop’s recent webinar, The Operational Playbook for Scaling TPO, featuring Paras Shah, VP of Service & Logistics at Cinnamon Energy Systems.
Cinnamon Energy Systems is a leading residential solar installer based in the San Francisco Bay Area with 25 years of experience. As TPO became a bigger part of the business, the team needed a way to manage the added complexity without creating more manual work, more confusion, or more operational risk.
The full webinar goes deep into how Cinnamon approached that transition.
For teams considering or already scaling TPO, here are some of the biggest takeaways.
Key Takeaways:
- Treat TPO as an operating model, not just a financing option.
- Fix information gaps before trying to automate the workflow.
- Build financial checkpoints into the process so growth does not create cash flow risk.
- Standardize roles, tasks, and handoffs before scaling volume.
- Use reporting to catch payment, inventory, and workflow issues earlier.
- Build workflows that can adapt as TPO products, partner requirements, and market conditions change.
Build TPO Into Your Operating Model
TPO cannot live only in the sales or financing conversation. It has to be built into the operating model.
For Cinnamon, that meant identifying TPO projects from the beginning and making sure the workflow could route them differently when needed. A TPO project may share some steps with a standard cash or loan project, but other parts of the process are different. Documentation, approvals, communications, accounting steps, inventory needs, and milestone requirements may all change depending on the project type.
Installers can think of this as creating different lanes for different types of work. Some projects can move through the same lane for certain steps, split when requirements change, and come back together later in the process.
“We had to identify what lane projects were in through different stages of the workflow.”
– Paras Shah, VP of Service & Logistics, Cinnamon Energy Systems
That flexibility matters because TPO requirements are not always stable. Financing partners may update their rules. New products may emerge. Submission standards may change. A process built around one provider or one product can quickly become outdated.
Instead of bolting TPO onto an existing process as an afterthought, installers should build a workflow that can adapt as requirements change.
Fix Information Gaps Before You Automate
When TPO workflows are not structured, teams often spend too much time chasing the same basic information.
Various documents, signatures, system details, part numbers, jurisdiction information, and other data points are required to complete submissions correctly. When those details are scattered across Salesforce, Scoop, Google Drive, email, folders, design files, and other systems, every submission becomes a manual hunt.
That creates a cycle many installers will recognize. A submission goes in. It comes back with issues. The team corrects it. It comes back again. People are working hard, but the process still feels unpredictable.
The problem is not usually the people. It is the operating system around them.
For Cinnamon, Scoop helped consolidate the right information around the project and connect inputs from other systems. That made it easier to generate the outputs needed for TPO submissions, reduce manual follow up, and create a more consistent process.
For installers starting to scale TPO, the first priority should not be advanced automation. It should be information readiness.
Can the team identify every data point required for submission? Does the person responsible know where each item lives? Is the information connected to the project record? Could another team member complete the same process the same way?
If the answer is no, volume will expose the gaps quickly.
Connect Workflow Design to Cash Flow
TPO should not be evaluated only by sales volume.
For Cinnamon, the question was not simply how to bring in more deals. The bigger question was how to grow without creating cash flow pressure or margin risk.
“Trying to increase demand to fund operations did not make sense.”
– Paras Shah, VP of Service & Logistics, Cinnamon Energy Systems
That distinction matters because TPO introduces timing considerations across milestones, approvals, documentation, payments, commissions, material ordering, and installation activity. If teams move work forward before the right financial checkpoints are complete, they may create avoidable exposure.
That is why operations, accounting, and finance need to be connected inside the workflow. Teams need checks and balances around what is being spent, what is being charged, what has been collected, and what is still outstanding.
In practice, that means using Scoop as more than a task management system. It becomes a way to create traceability across the project lifecycle.
Where is the project in the workflow? Which milestones are complete? What invoices have been issued? What payments have been received? Which projects are behind schedule or behind on payments?
For TPO to scale responsibly, leaders need that visibility before cash flow issues become painful.
Standardize the Work Before You Scale It
Automation only works when the underlying process is clear.
It’s important to understand the difference between an employee, a role, and a task. In growing solar companies, strong employees often wear many hats. They solve problems, jump between responsibilities, and carry important tribal knowledge.
That flexibility can be valuable, but it can also hide process gaps.
When roles are not clearly defined, people may bring the habits of one role into another. Tasks may be interpreted differently from person to person. Handoffs may depend on memory instead of structure.
“A tool is a tool. You have to make sure you have the right tool for the right job.”
– Paras Shah, VP of Service & Logistics, Cinnamon Energy Systems
Scoop helped Cinnamon define what needed to happen within each role and how those tasks fit into the broader workflow. That made it easier to train people, move strong employees into new responsibilities, and clarify what success looked like at each stage.
This is especially important for TPO because the process cuts across sales, operations, design, finance, inventory, field teams, and customer communications. Without standardization, errors multiply as volume grows.
Automation should make a good process faster. It should not move a broken process faster.
Improve Handoffs Across Sales, Ops, Finance, and Field Teams
Standardization also improves communication.
In many solar businesses, handoffs are full of hidden assumptions. One team sends information to another, but the receiving team may not know what is missing, what matters most, or what the previous team intended. Meanwhile, the sending team may not fully understand what the next team needs to do their work.
That is how small gaps create delays.
By creating clearer workflows inside Scoop, Cinnamon was able to create more consistent handoffs and a more shared language across teams. But Paras also warned against adding process for the sake of process.
Standardization should reduce friction, not formalize it. If a field, form, task, or document step is not creating value, teams should question whether it needs to exist. In a market where overhead matters, installers cannot afford to layer unnecessary internal complexity on top of already complex financing requirements.
Use Scoop as a Central Operations Hub
One of the strongest analogies from the webinar was Paras’s description of Scoop as Cinnamon’s central nervous system.
For Cinnamon, Scoop sits at the center of the workflow, connecting signals from different parts of the business and helping teams understand what needs to happen next. Projects, tasks, documents, inventory inputs, accounting details, scheduling activity, communications, and field updates all feed into a more connected operating layer.
That became especially valuable as the company onboarded TPO.
Cinnamon already had key workflows in Scoop, including presite, design, engineering, and installation. As TPO requirements expanded, Paras saw the importance of connecting other areas more deeply, including inventory and accounting.
That is the core value of a Central Operations Hub.
Solar companies don’t necessarily need another disconnected point solution. They need a central operating layer that connects the tools they already use, gives each team the right way to execute their work, and keeps project data moving without constant manual follow up.
For TPO, that hub becomes even more important because the margin for error is smaller. Missing documents can stall submissions. Unclear milestones can delay payments. Disconnected accounting can hide cash flow risk. A central hub helps teams catch issues earlier and adapt faster.
Use Reporting to Catch Problems Earlier
Cinnamon also uses Scoop’s LOOXY reporting feature to understand what is happening across projects, inventory, receivables, and workflow milestones.
The team can track sold equipment, upcoming project needs, distributor planning, accounts receivable, contract value, paid amounts, and outstanding balances. These reports help the team see where projects are on track and where attention is needed.
That kind of visibility is critical for TPO because project health is not always obvious from the outside. A project may look active while a payment milestone is delayed. A submission may look complete while a required document is missing. A strong backlog may still create risk if inventory, approvals, or payment timing are not aligned.
“People should not be running around spending time looking for information.”
– Paras Shah, VP of Service & Logistics, Cinnamon Energy Systems
Reporting helps leaders move from reactive problem solving to proactive management.
The point is not just to have dashboards. The point is to know what needs attention before delays become expensive.
Build for Adaptability
Throughout the session, the conversation returned to the importance of adaptability.
TPO requirements will continue to evolve. Financing partners may change their rules. Products may shift. Customer expectations may move. Market pressure will keep forcing installers to make decisions quickly.
The companies that succeed will be the ones that can adapt without rebuilding their entire operation every time something changes.
That is why Cinnamon’s approach matters. By creating flexible workflow lanes, standardizing roles, connecting departments, and centralizing data, the team has built a stronger operating foundation for TPO.
For installers offering or scaling TPO, that is the largest strategic takeaway.
The goal is not just to survive the added complexity of third party ownership. The goal is to use this moment to build a business that can scale with more control, more visibility, and less chaos.
TPO can create real growth opportunities for residential solar installers, but only if the operational foundation can support it.
To hear the full conversation with Paras Shah and see how Cinnamon Energy Systems is approaching TPO with Scoop, watch the full webinar: The Operational Playbook for Scaling TPO.
